Dewey County advocate. [volume] (Timber Lake, S.D.) 1910-1913, 1913-06-27
THE GREAT GAMBLE.


" by several OF our exchanges tC
she great anxiety that is felt by
everyone about this time of year
on account of crop conditions, and
agriculture has been referred to by
some of the papers as the great
gamble. The manner of farming
adopted by many can well be
termed a gamble. The thirty
years record OF small grain raising
in South Dakota shows a
few big crops. number OF aver
age ones and several failures.
AVeather conditions during the past
thirty years can we'll be relied upon
as fair index to what we may eX-
pect in the future. The man who
relies almost entirely upon the
raising of small grain makes a
gamble of the business. In the
past he has drawn few big stakes,
a number of average ones and on
several occasions lost his ante
and according to the law OF aver
ages this is all he can expect in the
future by sticking to the same game.
There is a way however of MAX
ing the income from the farm al
most sure and comparatively stea-
dy. This is by the diversified
method. The plan is not new.
Every farmer knows what it is,
yet, comparatively few adopt it. A
farmer persuing the diversified
method is one who does not risk
his all upon the caprice of the ele-
ments. Recognizing that the
amount. of rainfall, the time of
frosts. the total of snow and the
market value of things raised one
year can not be relied upon as to-
what they will be the season fol-
lowing, this man devotes his at
tention to the things that are the
surest and at the same time varied
enough SO that he is bound to be
successful with a few OF them il
Others fail.
But let lis be specific and point
to a concrete example. Living
within few miles of Timber Lake
is a man who occupies farm
which the appraisers placed val
uation on of $3.50 all acre. He
has about half of it under cultiva-
ton. Forty acres of fine corn; a
field of millet and few acres of
potatoes. He milks ten COWS, has
a nice drove of hogs and big
flock of chickens. Last month his
COWS and chickens brought him in
between eighty and ninety dollars.
On Monday the hot winds blew.
People swho were gambling with.
the elements began to get nervous.
They anxiously watched the effects
upon their fields of small grains.
They we'll knew that if their unseen
but willy opponent kept blowing
his hot breath upon them a couple
of days longer he would have their.
rolf, ante" and all. But the
snan who we point to as an exam
pie was not personally greatly
concerned. He knew that his WELL
cared for corn was simply reveling
i'll the heat and stretching upward
every hour: that while the hens
hunted the shady side of the build
ings and gasped little for breath,
they would still find time to lay an
egg; that although his hogs painted
perceptibly. rooted off the hot sir
face dirt and sprawled languidly in1
the cooler soil beneath, yet they
had visited the pasture in the
morning and would go forth again
at shutdown and incidently put on
another eight cents worth of fat.
The South Dakota farmer can
make it gamble if he wants to but
if he does he must take the gamb-
ler's chances, or he can take the /
steadier. surer. safer method and
thereby keep the crook out OF his
neck watching for rains in June if
he SO desires.