Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1919-09-12
rARmEa3 FROM Thirty coun'
rlGs'c GO TO AmEs FOR STUDY
OF SOILS AND cRoPo.
MILLS COUNTY MEu
DRIVE 1870 MILES
Outstanding Loosen Was Study OF
Fertilizers and Affect on Soi,s-Dsaa
curtiss Says farmers With High
Priced Land Faoo Serious Problem
Must Work on Narrower Margin.
,eclal to Times Republican.

Special to Times Republican.
Ames, sept lg.--Farmers from some
thirty counties in central Iowa come
/ To visit the Iowa Agricultural Ex-
pertinent Station for its first annual
| farm crops and soils field day. The
blue ribbon FOR attendance belongs to
the Mills county men, twenty in num-
/ Der, who drove $50 miles to spend
day in studying the work of the sta
ton. They were healed by Fred Far
quhar, county agent. and W. p. Wort
man. editor of the Malvern Leader
real country newspap per with n record
FOR promoting Agricultural interests.
One of tho outstanding lessons Of
the field day was the value of fertiliz-
ers on Iowa soils. while they are
naturally rich--the richest in the
world, as Iowans always pat it-yet
when farm manures, lime and phos-
pilates are properly applied. they MAJ
be made to give double the wheat
yields ordinarily obtained. The visit
ors saw a series of test fields AZ Ames
where these applications increased the
wheat yield from less than Is bushels
to more than SO bushels per acre Sim
liar treatments increased alfalfa yields
from 1900 pounds TO $500 pounds of
hay per acre. out thru the state, SIM
liar tests gave more than 100 per cent
increase in clover field.
In a talk to the farmers Prof. w. II.
Stevenson, head of the farm crops and
..,, n
about 1000 test plots on its 10 acres
of experiment fields at Ames and that
it has demonstration work at 81 diff
arent points thru the state and CO.
operative experimental work on 1,64i
different farms. The results from these
extensive investigations will enable the
station to answer every possible kind
of crop and soil question that may
arise in Iowa. lie predicted that the
number of inquiries would be in
creased by the necessity of improved
farming ON Iowa's high priced land.
Director C. F. Curtiss of the station
set the farmers to thinking when he
declared that men who operate high
priced farm land are coming face to
face with very serious problem. 4
am not a pessmist," he said, but do
urge you 20 consider the problems that
lie ahead as very difficult ones. Some
how or other, the farmer seems to be-
the only man who is hit by the So
called high cost of living investiga-
tons. and he ought to be the last man
hit. The price of farm products is
quite certain to go down before the
cost of production goes down. the
farmer will get less for what he sells
much sooner than he will pay less for
what he buys. During the period of re-
adjustment that is ahead, he will have
to run his business on a narrower mar
gin of profit than in the past two or
three years. To the man who has
good farm would say this by way of
warning Don't be afraid Of the good
land you have, but hold fast to II.
Keep your heads in the time of re-
adjustment; be conservative and care
full. Improve the farm you now have
instead of reaching out for more land
decrease your Indebtedness as much as
possible and thus be prepared for
whatever may come. At the same time,
improve your farm methods by making
use of available experiment station re-
suits"
Vice president E. w. Stanton arous-
ed applause and laughter with his
thrusts' at the alleged attacks on high
prices and his statements that the In
vestigators were overlooking a good
many real culprits in their assault on
farm products prices. He urged the
farmers to co operate in the protection
Of their Just right to fair return for
their labor and on their business in
vestment.