Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1914-01-22

state farmers how to maintain pFae-
teal and business-ike system Of rec
ords and accounts
One Missouri farmer last winter lost
$500 on work stock alone, due TO the
fact that he had more animals than he
could keep busy 1t is really a aues
ton of each farmer studying out how
many head Of animals he can profit
ably maintain. and then not exceeding
this number. The same thing is true
of the scrub COWS which eat up the
profits OF the other farm departments.
The work of the Missouri farm man
agement department is statewide II
scope and is efficient in solving the
problems Of the five-acre farm, the
500-acre farm, or the farm whose own-
er merely desires to keep the wolf
from the door. or to save his place
from being burdened with a mortgage.
In a word, the department is deyot-
ing just as much attention and study
to replanting an improbable ten-acre
truck or fruit farm as it is to remodel
| ing an S,000-acre stock farm.
The Concrete Examples.
Among the practical results which
| the department has obtained in it's
! first aid work to the farmers is the
case OF 140-acre farm which. the
first year it was worked, yielded ten
bushels of corn. Is bushels Of potatoes,
and one-fourth OF a ton Of hay TO the
acre
The managerial experts recommend
ed the use Of better seed. the fall dis
tTibu+ion of Is tons of manure to the
acre. and modern methods Of culture;
this farmer followed these directions
and the second year afterwards he
harvested 10 bushels of corn, one and
thrGe-quarter tons of hay, and 100 bush
! els Of potatoes to the acre on the fields
on which these crops were grown.
He was man of very limited capital
and the season he requested depart
mental assistance his assets amounted
to $4,000. while his liabilities totaled
$1,000 At the end of the second year
following, he was out of all danger Of
debt and had d tiny sum stored away
i'll the bank.
Another notable illustration of man
agerial efficiency resulted where a hog
raiser on rough, 100-acre farm shift
ed his troubles to the shoulders of the
expert managers who set him right on
! his feeding system and got him to
study market conditions and require
ments, so that he last year realized ST.
200 from the sale of his swine, where
as previously his high mark for hogs
| for a single year was $500.
! Although ordinary work stock are
not supposed 10 yield much Of an an
! nual profit another farmer cleared $500
| in one year from his work animals sub
/ sequent 20 consulting with the depart
mental experts who advised him to
decrease the number OF work animals
! which he kept and 70 work the horses
! and mules more during the winter.
| A city man, inexperienced in farm
! ing. struggled along for five years just
about making ends meet and then he
! employed the assistance of the farm
| experts who diagnosed his troubles as
! q poor rotation, the use of scrub seed
and the under-feeding OF his market
animals.
| He followed their directions, improv-
ing his methods, and now is gaining a
profitable return from his made-to-or-
| der farm.
/ The farm has mater ally gained III
| fertility, it has increased in annual
crop production, and this year it paid
off it's back indebtedness and begins a
: new season with a clean slate.