Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1920-10-12
MANY VALUABLE HOMES AND
SURROUNDINGS uNTENANT.
Ed AND uNcARED FOR,
ALLOWED TO DECAY
DESPITE LUMBER VALUE
Ono Owner Says Labor 10 So High
Il Would Not Pay to SALVAGE
Buildings - improved Machinery
and Labor Shortage Two Reasons
For Conditions.
IBy C. E. wilson.l

ASAiey, ocI- la business man
of northern Iowa town rode, one
day.with friend thru the country Of
that section. Farm land in that To-
cality is fully up to standard as
compared with other parts of the
state and all crops in general, corn.
In particular, are bountiful this year.
But the driver OF the car stranger
In that section. repeatedly remarked,
Must have been bad case Of flu
here" as they passed from time to
time untenanted and unused sets of
farm buildings. When the trip had
been completed the business man
computed the number OF these un-
occupied places and was astonished
at the result.He sees in this abandon
anted. Improved farming machinery
great aggregate magnitude, for de-
terioration in such cases is rapid and
building in these days is expensive.
The observer readily perceiyes the
reason why these homes are unten-
anted. Imhprived farming machinery
enabling one man to do the work
that two or three formerly did, to-
sether with the well known farm la
Dor conditions, have reduced the
number Of farm homes in every old
settled rural section. but why these
valuable improvements are allowed
to go to decay was what the business
man did not understand. He asked
one man who owned property Of this
kind and the farmer replied that the
loss of time to himself and tremen-
dous cost of labor involved prevented
him from attempting salvage OF his
extra buildings; in other words he
didn't try to save them because to
do SO wouldn't pay" One Of the.
heavy landowners Of this part of the
country "a few years ago built
splendid residence containing every
modern Improvement. He was an ex-
tensiye cattle feeder, 30 he put up
the largest silo in his section OF the.
state; it Is said to have capacity fog.
100 acres of average Iowa corn. That
was only q very few years. agDs but
since then that farmer has changed
his mind. He still lives In a magnifi
cent house but It is. q county seat
town residence. The big farm isfnot
80 big as it used to be. for several
high9prtced farms havesAsen carved
from 1t. a small portion sof the xreatt
house is occupied by the manager OF
the place and the giant silo has been
empty two or three years and prob
ably will remain in that condition,
and while the contemplation OF all
this might seem to indicate a lack Of
prosperity such certainly is not the
case, for it is one Of the most pros
porous communities in this state.
80
mick" Rhutasel, Of Chaplin, plant
ed on his farm at the outskirts OF the
little town, some 430 walnut trees on
a half acre plot of ground. That was
twenty one years ago and Rhutasel
was even then not a young man;
more than fifty years of his life had
been spent but he had sent friend
"back to Delaware county" some fine
seed corn and the friend had replied
in terms of walnuts. More than one
Of his neighbors intimated that fifty
year old men might be more profit
ABLY engaged IMAM III Walnut plant
ing, but that didn't stop the planting
in this case. The little grove was cul-
tivated during the first half dozen
years and then blue grass took pos
session for a time. Calves were
turned in on the grass and the trees
kept on growing until at the present
time they are from thirty to forty
feet high, and some of them foot in
diameter. This year about fifty
bushels of nuts were gathered from
the little grove and the now old man
who planted them in all probability
will enjoy his share. So far as this
newspaper Is concerned Mr. Rhutasel
has earned the title "old subscriber"
for he has been on its mailing list
for forty-five years. There is anoth-
err chapter in this walnut, story. In
the town of Ackley in adjoining
homes live the F. H. Rule and S. Y.
Eggert families. About fifteen years
ago division fence was removed
and little walnut tree was found to
be growing exactly on the line di-
viding the respective lots. An agree
ment was arrived at whereby the
tree was allowed to remain and grow,