Yerington times. [volume] (Yerington, Nev.) 1907-1932, 1913-08-16
SOME STRAIGHT TALK.
Noted Novelist Gives His Experience
on Farming.

Jack London is better known as a
writer than as farmer. but he has
ideas on the latter profession that he
carries out himself and that will do the
world more good than all the stories
he ever could write. Read what he
SAID III recent interview:
When | bought $50 acres near Glen
Ellen nine years ago ! knew nothing
of farming. bought the place mostly
| for its beauty. as a place to live and
write
About forty acres of the ranch was
cleared and | tried to raise hay for my
horses. but soon | found could
scarcely get the seed back They soil
had been worn out: it had been farm
ed for years by oldfashioned methods
of taking everything off and putting
nothing back
The region was a back-water dis
trict. The ranchers were poor and
hopeless: no one could make any
money ranching there, they all told
me They had worked the land out
and their only hope was TO move on
somewhere else and start to work new
land out and destroy its value.
began to study the problem, Won
dering why the fertility OF this land
had been destroyed in forty or fifty
years while land in China has been
titled for thousands of years. and is
still fertile.
My neighbors were typifed by the
man who said: You can't teach me
anything about farming: I've worked
three farms out Which is as wise as
Il. 4 Al.
she knew all about bringing up chill
dren. for she had five to die.
adopted the policy of taking moth
ing off the ranch raised stuff and
fed it to the stock. | got the first
manure spreader ever seen up there,
and so put the fertilizer back on the
land before its strength was leached
out | began to get registered stock.
and now | sell blooded sow at nine
months for $40 and an old-fashioned
rancher comes along and wonders
why he has to feed scrub COW for
two wears and sell her for less than
$40
An old-fashioned farmer has thirty
mich cows and works eighteen hours
a day taking care of them and milking
them and can make no money. An
up-to-date man comes along. buys the
place, paws $40 for a Babcock tester
and buys milk scales Right away he
gets rid OF ten OF the cows as non
productive. and he makes more with
o-thirds of the work Later he
weeds out five more and still gets
larger returns for the feed he gives
them. with half the work. The experts
of the University of Nebraska est
mate that there are 100000 cows in
Nebraska that are a dead loss to the
State; that the wealth OF the State
would be increased ii they were shot
Here is the desperate situation in
this country which makes correct
farming certain of good returns. In
ten years the mouths to feed in the
United States has increased by TO-,
100000 In that ten years the number
of hogs. sheep, dairy cows and beef
cattle have actually decreased. on ac
count OF the breaking up OF large
ranches into small farms, and that
breaking up has increased the
demand for and the number
of horses and mules This is the fun
damental cause of the increase in the
cost of living The situation is so
desperate that in the Middle West the
feeders. the men who raise corn and
buy cattle to fatten, can no longer get
the cattle: they cannot compete with
the butchers. who need the young.
partially fattened cattle so badly that
thew outbid the feeders The rancher
who gets good stock and who con
serves and builds up his soil is assured
of success
This is talk that is worth while and
il comes from man whose profes-
sion is not farming but writing Those
whose profession is not writing, but
farming. will do well to heed the adj
vice OF an outsider-Orchard and
Farm