Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1918-01-08
WRIGHT COUNTY COMMUNITY &c
HAVE CITY coNvENiENcEs
BROUGHT 70 Doors,
ONE FARMER WHO COULD
HAVE MADE $4,000 DIDN'T
An Instance Where hindsisht Wa
Better Than Forssisht-ssvsr In
terestins Seed Corn Experiences in
Wright county--Littls Farming Has
It's Advantages in Times Of Scarcity.

l LoCiauoiAus LSSSs 800 80
life is to disappear in measure from
one Wright county community. Four
/ teen farmers have arranged for cleo
trio light and power service. and a
four and one half mile line Is being
| constructed in neighborhood north
and west from Belmond. 1t Is said
| that orders for four five-horsepower
motors already have been given BY
farmers to be served and these men
propose to have their corn shelled.
separators turned, water pumped and
wood sawed. not by hand, mind or
horse power but in a more modern way.
Inside the house, too, the work will be
lightened thru the installation Of cleo
trio washers, churns, ETC. Comes
rather high but suppose it's ali
right" commented one old settler who
is participating in the improvement.
A well-known Wright county farmer
who for years has followed the prac-
tice of planting small field of special
ly prepared land to corn for seed gath
ering purposes in the fall, succeeding
In the undertaking until he has estab-
lished an enviable reputation as a
scotsman. realizes the force Of the
homely but perfectly truthful saying
that "a mans foresight Is not so good
as his hindsight'' This realization
has been brought to him thru medi-
tation oves a past and gone oppor-
tunity to clean up at least $4,000 thru
the work Of three short days OF time.
This /. the story he tells Of how the
JOB might have been done but wasn't
II had fifteen-acre field Of pure bred
corn that gave every promise Of a per-
feet crop: good stand. fully cared, suf-
ficientiy metured and all. / employed
force OF men to harvest a crop Of
potatoes. Just as they finished the
work the freeze came and that splendid
field Of corn was reduced from a IS
per cent seed corn supply to one in
which infinite pains and patience were
required to find a comparatively in
significant amount OF seed. Those po-
tatoes might just as well have re-
manned in the ground one more week
while those men picked seed corn. but
mortal ron could not foresee that
destru freeze was to come 20 soon,
one til 9uld so seriously affect the
terminating possibilities of corn that
under ordinary circumstances might
Just as we'll have been selected in the
old fashioned manner at husking
time"
John Tesdahl, OF Clarion, has had
different kind of seed corn experience
When the freeze came he realized what
had happened And immediately hunted
So b,,e1 al p,iu "a an
per bushel for the seed. Three days
later the man from whom he bought
had raised his price to nearly double
that noted. He Is said to have received
a visit In the meantime from a county
agent looking. for men who had seed
corn to sell and doubtless became
aware thru other channels of informa-
ton that a scramble for seed impended.
Frank Berry, Of Belmond, had some
seed corn tested that he picked out OK
the snow as he husked in his field and
was surprised when his county agent
informed him that one-fourth was
strong and that another considerable
percentage sprouted. A low test, OF
course. but even at. that the fact was
established that the average farmer by
exercising the proper care and patience
may yet md seed IN his own field at
home.
One local farmer has adopted what
looks like good sorting idea He
filed his crib space with sorted corn,
piled the rest on the ground. intends
to shell and sell that now in the cribs
and then sort and crib that now piled
UP In his yard.
Now that, all farm products are COM
manding unusually high prices while
at the same time farm help is so scarce
the small farmer doing his own work
and doing it with greater care and
thoroughness than his large farmer
neighbors finds 1t possible to do on his
greater acreage does appear to have
the better Of the argument In the mat
ter Of big and little farming. For years
Mr.. O. J. Pardun, living in the out
skirts OF the town Of Clarion, has been
demonstrating what northern iowa
land will do under the most favorable
conditions. This year he took 200
bushels Of potatoes per acre from one
Of his little fields Another held Of =
few acres yielded oats at tho rate OF
100 bushels per acre. One field Of corn
made eighty 1--we bushels m acre Of
corn fairly hard and sound. Object
lessons like this ought to and will re-
suit in more farming OF the kind and
most Of II Is done in this way II such
time ever comes the crop statistics OF
Wright county will make the present
ones look like ridiculously small. how