The Mena weekly star., 1913-09-25
Dry Fail in 1912, Followed by Wet Spring, Made Soil Preparation
 Difficult.
FOR FUTURE
DiversiiicatiOn the Essential That Cannot Be Escaped Where Sue cess Is 10 Be WOn-Ten Com
 mandments of Agriculture.

A. E. Wear, demonstration agent
 for Polk county, by his very posi-
 ton and the study that enables him
 10 hold it, is doubtless the best fitted
 of any man in Polk county to make
 a true estimate of crop conditions,
 together with the reasons for them
 being as they are, and the lessons to
 be learned from them.
 With this idea in view, this paper requested him for a review of crop conditions in this county, a request which he very kindly granted. His
 letter follows:
 Having been in close touch with the agricultural interests of Polk county during this year and for some years before, and having studied the crop conditions in other sections of the country carefully, I
 wish to make something of a sum-
 mary of what we have suffered
 from unfavorable weather condi-
 tions and what we have accomp- lished in the face of these unfavor- able conditions.
 To begin with, the fall of 1912 was
 so dry that very little fall blowing
 was done. Only the farmers who
 had disc blows were able to do the fall breaking as it should be done to make the necessary storage for moisture. Then the heavy spring rains came, delaying planting and
 putting the land in very bad con- dition. These heavy rains were fol-
 lowed by continued dry weather
 through the month of June, which gave opportunity for clean cultiVa-
 tiOn, but many farmers failed to
 realize the importance of deep blowing at this time, which was made necessary by the heavy rains of April and May. The country had good rains from July 1 to 10; then came the whitening heat and drOuth that brought injury to the crops. Most parts of the country had no rain to speak of from July 10 to September l2 This, of course, was very trying on all growing crops, but while we have fallen far short of our expectations of a full crop, we have, nevertheless, a more bOuntiful return than our sister counties around us as we'll as in the other states nearby.
 The corn crop is about as good as that of last year Much of our better lands are producing full corn crops. The cotton crop is about half that of an average. We pro duced one of the best oat crops we ever made, and the first cutting of hay from the meadows was never better. The peanut crop is fairly good and the Irish potato crop is fine. The farmer who is hurt worst is the one that put his whole crop in cotton, or principally cotton, and a little corn, as so many did.
 The lesson that is most forcibly impressed at this time is the impor- tance of diversiflcatiOn, and nothing will bring out this point more clear ly than an example of one farmer who believes in diversification. This farmer owns an ordinary hill farm. That we may get an idea of the character of his land, will state that when he bought the farm a few years ago the neighbors. by way of ridicule, asked him is he was in- vesting in slate, and intimated that he would never get any returns for the price he paid for the farm un- less he could open up a slate quarry. He went to farming, using brains as well as muscle. This year he has put up more than 1000 bales of fine hay. had l30 bushels of seed oats threshed, also 10 bushels of wheat; has t5 acres in corn that will make 500 bushels of good, heavy corn; enough peanuts growing among this orn to fatten hogs to make his meat and peavines enough to fill his soil with humus to grow another crop next year. This same farmer has a small herd of grade Jersey cows and heifers, headed by pure bred Jer- sey bull. He has ample pasture to keep his stock and all of them are fat and sleek. He has three acres n cotton that will make half bale ,o the acre. He has for sale at this lime hay, corn, hogs, cattle, seed pats, seed wheat and some cotton to sell when the price suits him. Many other examples of this kind could 1e cited of farmers who can laugh at -he hard times and profit by the nigh prices caused by short crops, put they are those who did not trust heir "eggs all in one basket"
 The next lesson that is most prominent to the careful observer is the importance of rotation of