The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1914-01-22
DOCTORING A pROFITLESS FARM

state farmers how to maintain prac-
tical and business-like 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. II Is really ques-
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 In
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 mortgage.
In a word, the department is devot-
ing just as much attention and study
to replanting an Improbable ten-acre
truck or fruit farm as 1t 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 a 140-acre farm which, the
I FIRST year it was worked, yielded ter
c,shels of corn, Is bushels of potatoes.
esczt one-fourth of a ton of hay to the
aS-@.
The managerial experts recommend
ed the use of better seed, the fall dis
tribution of 10 tons of manure to the
acre, and modern methods OF culture;
! this farmer followed these directions
and the second year afterwards he
harvested 40 bushels of corn, one and
three-quarter tons of nay, and 100 bush
els of potatoes to the aero 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 a tiny sum stored away
IN the bank.
| Another notable illustration of man
agerial efficiency resulted where hog
raiser on a 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 to yield much of an an
nual profit another farmer cleared $500
in one year from his work animals sub
sequent to consulting with the depart
mental experts who advised him TO
decrease the number of work animals
which he kept and to 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
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 materially gained In
fertility, it has increased in annual
crop production, and this year it paid
off its back Indebtedness and begins q
new season with clean slate