Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1913-02-04
,pecial to rimes Republ,can.

Belinond, Feb. "A farmer living on
a mail route from this town sold his
farm and bought another one closer
to school and market. When asked II
he had bought small farm and in
tended 10 take life easier he answered
in the nc gative and added the follow
ing, in substance: 1.-The man who
buys a small farm expecting to Guilt
vate it and thereby escape the ha: 4
work attending the operation of a
larger one is making the mistake Of his
life. OF course If he seeds it to grass
and. cultivates only a. few acres it s a
different proposition, but ii he settles
down on an eighty acres, for. instance,
and farms it he will be the busiest
kind of man all thru the farming
season. He will not use so many horses
as he did on the quarter section farm,
consequently he will hitch them to
small machinery and that means
more times across the field to cover al
acre of ground. When the haying sea-
son comes he will change with some
body who has more meadow land than
himself and when 1t comes to helping
til the Job is finished. Same thing In
harvest and stacking. When threshing
time comes he will have three hours
of job which will count for half
day, for there's nothing less than half
days in threshing and at the end OF the
first day at the neighbours with whom
he changes work the neighbor doesn't
even ask if he is coming back In the
morning. 1t is understood that he Will
be on hand and remain until the Job Is
finished. And then when he has PAID
back all his help two or three toid,
somebody with whom he did not
change is short of help and 1t would
never do to refuse to go and help MIN
out. Corn harvesting and corn husk-
ing times come with a repetition OF
midsummer experience and when 1t IS
all over the small farmer has worked
just as hard and as many days as the
bigger one. 1t may be better to farm
fewer acres with the object of obtain
ing greater yields or to avoid the hired
help problem, but as method OF TAX
ing life easy there are other schemes
that discount the small farm idea q
hundred per cent"
Here Is the method employed by one
of the most successful hos raisers In
Wright county to keep his porkers
healthy during the critical period OF
hog life, that, is while they are eating
green or soft corn. After his corn -
two or three inches above ground he
goes thru portion Of the field and
plants pumpkin seeds in every second
hill of every second row. When the
first feed Of the corn is given the hogs
the first load Of pumpkins Is put where
they can get at them. The double ser
vice rendered by the supplemental feed
consists in balancing the ration and
providing q god worm medicine, there
being nothing better in this line than
pumpkin seeds. BY the time the
pumpkin season is over the corn has
matured sufficiently to become q per-
fectly safe feed. The man who fol-
lows this plan has raised good many
hundred hogs in the past fifteen years
and in all that time has never lost one
of the animals from swine plague or
cholera.
A modern harness shop located in
private residence on farm. is probably
an institution to be found in only one
place in the state of Iowa and that
is at the home Of George Vance, near
Goodell. The business began with the
idea of making set Of harness for a
relative near and at the present time
is running at lively pace.
Asa
There is an interesting half acre OF
ground along one of the branches Of the
Iowa river a few miles northwest OF
Belmond It is a rather steep hillside.
so. completely invested with great
"niggerheads" that one might travel
over every square yard OF the tract
without putting foot en- the soil.
Some of them are partly buried in the
ground and others lie wholly above the
surface. The geological student would
probably tell us that here in some far
remote period greAt glacier made
sharp turn and melting at last could
carry no farther tremendous load Of
boulders carried to this point from
some region hundreds If miles away.
The bed Of the stream Is also covered
with huge rocks Of the same formation
a little way from the place first men.
toned.
The most noticeable feature Of build