The midland journal., 1916-01-28
A uWoRN OUTv FARM.
New York Farm In Poor Condition
Was Made To Pay Large Profit
Rv Good Management.

place surveyed in Boone County,
N. Y, which was bought for 1852
per acre. and in two years was made
to pay over 32 per cent on the in
Eestment.
This place was bought by a farm
er who was alrea0y farming at
profit in the valley below. 1t con-
sisted of 95 acres of gently rolling
land. The land had been cropped
with hay and buckwheat for years,
and little or no manure or other
fertilizing material had been ap-
piled. Consequently the soil was
in very poor physical condition.
There was good frame house on
the farm, and rather poor barn.
A tenant was engaged 70 i've 4
the house and do the work on the
farm under the owners direction.
Under the terms of the agreement
the owner furnished all the lime ana
clover seed and half of the other
seeds and of the fertilizer. He also
supplied potato planter and digger.
ne tenant furnished the rest OF the
machinery, his own teams, and all
the labor. In return he was to re-
ceive one-half of the oats, buck
wheat, and potatoes faised, and the
income from four cows which he
was permitted to keep. 1t was pro-
vided, however, that he was to feed
all the hay and roughage on the
e. % vsc
straw, etc., to the land. He was also
20 do all the improvement work for
which he had time, such as picking
up stones and cutting hedgerows.
The new owner took possession on
April /. The cropping system
adopted for the first season was
necessarily makesnift, owing to the
lack of time for putting definite
plan for improvement into execution.
Four acres of potaotes were plant
ed. The seed happened to be poor,
and only 400 pounds of commercial
fertilizer being used, the yield was
only 80 bushels per acre. Five
acres of buckwheat yielded 116
bushels. Lime and acid phosphate
were applied to one 8-acre tract, and
from this field 800 bushels of oats
were harvested At the same time
an excellent stand of clover was OBJ
tanned in the same field. Ten head
of young cattle were pastured on a
not available for tI1lage. An old
meadow was moved, yielding about
a ton of rather poor hay per acre.
During the summer permanent re-
pairs were made at cost of about
$400. At the end of the year the
owners gross receipts amounted to
$240.30, of which $157.50 represent
ed his income from his investment.
The next year about acres of
sod land were plowed and put into
potatoes. The tenant left some OF
the seed potatoes exposed for several
days, and as result, very uneven
stand was secured. Three paintings
were made. The first, from freshly
cut seed, gave an even stand and
yielded $50 bushels to the acre.
The next and largest planting made
a very poor stand, yielding only so
bushels to the acre, while the last
was good and yielded $50 bushels to
the acre. From the whole field SIG
bushels were dug, an average of
about 80 bushels per acre. These
were worth dollar bushel at the
farm, however, which in part made
up for the low yield.
The clover sown the previous year
made a good showing. Over 4 tons
of hay were taken from a 2-acre
piece, while the rema1nder of the
new seeding cut about ton per acre.
Eight acres of oats, in which the
usual seeding of timothy was made,
yielded 1856 bushels of grain. Lime
and acid phosphate had been put on
this field. Buckwheat yielded 100
bushels of grain on 5h acres.
Thirteen head of young stock were
summered on this pasture. An or
chard of about 2 acres, which the
owner had reserved, was. renovated
and sprayed at cost of $50.
At the end of the second year, al
though number of fairly expensive
improvements had been made, in.
cluding the repairs of the barn at
cost Of 500, the owners share of
the gross receipts of the enterprise
amounted to $9O6. This included
$3.50 received for apples from the
orchard which he had reserved for
his own use. His net income was
$694.6O, or 1926 per cent on his in
vestment.
In this case the owners labor as
superintendent is negligible, since
he was running his home farm and
devoting only spare time to the hill
farm In question. However, even if
the owner were allowed $500 for his
superintendence and $40 for the use