The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1914-06-18
G. L. ARGENBRIGHT, M. F.

W. IL <AkSuII1NDAtAUAAA AVE
A Close Range Study Of a Missouri
''Master Farmer"
Everybody is always looking fol
something better. That's why keer
only pure bred stock on my place,
When you've got first class stuff
somebody'll always be hunting you
up and making you take first class
price for it. Whom you've got sec.
ond class stuff you've always got tc
go to the trouble to hunt up somebody
and coax them to pay you even 9
second class price for it..
The foregoing is one of the funda.
mental doctrines of Elk Fork Stock
Farm, three miles northeast of Altoona,
Mo-, as promulgated by George L.
Argenbright, master farmer and pro.
prietor of eek Fork" It is one Of
the several reasons why they say in
Bates County that George Argen-
bright is sure one farmer and stock
man. It likewise has bearing on
the fact that 500 we'll equipped and
stocked acres Of good farm land be-
long to man who has had to pull
out of the soil every cent he ever had.
It would be an educational feature
for most any man to drive over Elk
Fork Farm with it's owner and just
listen to him answer questions. That's
why this article is written.
A Farm that Doesn't Leak
Nothing gets away from this farm
except the noise the stock makes, "
said Mr.. Argenbright in reply to a
question of a staff correspondent of
The Weekly Star last week. give
got ten miles of woven wire, a hog
proof fence around and dividing up
the place. The whole farm is moth
ing but a group Of pastures. Of
course, I.use this and that pasture,
off and on, to grow corn, alfalfa,
clover and other crops, but there's
very little time those fields aren't be-
ing pastured. What we don't get in
harvesting the cattle get, and what
they miss the hogs get.
II believe in having lots of storage
room. Every barn has its granaries
and its storage room for straw. When
we feed we don't have to 90 from one
barn to another carrying feed over
our shoulders. We bed down the
stock every night it is kept in the
barn, and every morning, no matter
what the rush is, the stalls are cleaned
and the manure taken to the fields.
''The manure spreader is the best
piece OF machinery on the place.
When it's too wet to get on the fields
with the spreader the manure is load
ed into wagon and driven up the
road and dumped over the fence in
to the field, to be spread later. We
haven't any manure pens on this
place. 49,
Everything in White
''You notice you don't see the hair
worn off any Of these hogs. We run
pretty strong to cement floors, too.
The straw bedding protects them.
No, my hogs have never been
troubled with rheumatism. Straw,
again. Yes, they had little touch of
the cholera once, but it didn't amount
to much. You notice, this barn lot
has very little waste matter. Itnever
gets muddy and by having it on a
slope all the waste and manure wash
down into the fields"
Mr.. Argenbright has five barns and
two tenant houses, one at each end of
the farm. His home stands near the
center of the place. There is the
number Of machinery
houses, COW houses and other out
buildings. Every structure on the
place is painted white. So are fences
and gates near the houses. White
lead and oil cost more, but they last
longer, Mr.. ArQenbrieht says. Be-
sides, they make the place look much
better and help keep it clean. With
the farm as attractive as possible, Mr..
ArQenbrieht figures, the farmer nat
urally becomes more careful. He
thinks better and farms better and.the
big part Of farming is thinking.
The Elk Fork farmhouse is a neat
one story cottage, painted white, UNI
pretentions but thoroughly comfort
lble and convenient II is surround
ID bv large trees on q tightly fenced