Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1914-01-22

size; 1900 of these small farms went
out OF business. and in most cases
We're added to some neighboring farm.
These figures would seem 10 indicate
that ordinarily it does not pay to farm
less than 100 acres in the corn belt,
ii there is a chance Of getting more.
l was go much Interested in this
matter Of large and small farms that
compared one Of the sarge farm
counties of Iowa with one OF the small
farm counties. Lyon COMFY. in north
western Iowa. has e1o acres in its
average farm. while Henry county. in
southeastern Iowa, has on'y 123 acres.
According to the 1910 census. tine av-
erage farm in LION county sold s2297
worth of grain and stock a. compared
With 1882 worth fer Henry COUNTY.
On the average Henry county farm,
they spent $500 fer such items as IA
Dor, feed, taxes. machinery and build
ing repairs as compared with $3.50 for
the average J.cn county farm. Not
counting rem. nor interest on the in
Testment. the average LION county
farmer had a profit Ct 1885, as COM
Jared with 81 .e62 for the Henry coun-
" farmer. The average Lyon county
farm IS worth a little over 200. and
the average Henry county farm lit
tie eyer $4,000. II interest at per
cent is charged. s1.173 must be taken
from the profit Of the Lyon county
farm. and 1854 from thu luoht OF the
Henry county farm. This leaves sos
labor income for the Henry county
farmer, and s3S4 labor income for the
Lyon county farmer.
Why IS IL that the 200-acIe farm
pays better than the 120-acre farm?
In the first place, the small farm
wastes labor. Most farmers have
boy big enough to help around the
place. and the l20-acre farm is not big
enough 10 keep both the farmer and
his boy busy during The entire year.
II the farmer does not have a boy. he
Is rather up gainst il Oh the 120acre
farm if ~ works By himself. There
are 50 many farm jobs which take two
men il they are to be done quickly and
easily. The average Lyon county farm
or viii? $50 worth Of help takes carr.
Of $50 9cres ct crops in "A Year, where
as, the average Henry county farmer.
with SO worth CT help. takes care Of
only seventy acres of crops in a year.
Any one who stops to think can see
that crops are grown with much less
waste Of labor on s. 200 to 40O-acre
farm than on a farm less than 10
acres in size. on the iars- farm there
i also the saving of time in the doing
Of chores. There may be two or three
times as much stock on the large farm,
but it does not take two or three times
as long to care for it.
Horse labor is used to much better
advantage OH a 200-acre farm than or
a i20-acre farm. The 800 farm
Of Henry county carries six horses,
which makes an average for each
horse of about eleven acres of crops.
The 2l0-acre farm CT Lyon county car
ries about seven horses. which makes
twenty two acres OF crops per horse.
On a large farm it is possible to get
just about twice as much out Of the
average horse as on the small farm.
A 200-acre farm uses machinery to
so much better advantage than the
120-acre farm. In Lyon county they
spend an average per acre on machin-
cry each year of about 60 cents, where
as in Henry county they spend an aV-
erage of about so cents per acre. 1t
IS easy to see why the machinery ex-
pense per acre should be half again
as high in Henry county. The aver
age Henry county farm raises thirty
eight acres Of corn. as compared with
sixty acres for Lyon county. and for
this reason the corn planting and Guilt
waiting machinery Is much more effici-
emily used on the 200-acre farm. The
average farm in Henry county raises
fifteen acres of oats as compared with
fifty acres in Lyons county. This
means that the expense of binding and
| threshing is just about half as much
per acre in Lyon county as in Henry
county. 1t takes just as much trouble
to set up threshing outfit for ff-
teen acre field as for fifty-acre field.
1t Is really just as necessary to own
drill for seeding fifteen acres OF oats
as for seeding fifty acres. The average
hay field in Henry county is fifteen
| acres in size as compared with TWEEN
ty-three acres in Lyon county. But
so far as machinery expense is con-
cerned, it costs just about the same
to Put UP twenty three acres as TO put
up fifteen acres
When it comes 10 buildings, the 200