Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1922-09-22
FARMER MUST HELP
HIMSELF SAYS HENRY
Speaker at Morris Meeting Says
Farmer Must Learn New Ways
Speaks from Experience

Legislation will not help the farm
er, the improvement must come from
Within" said Forrest Henry, himself
q farmer, at the dairy meeting held
in the Strand theatre Saturday after
noon. "The majority of people wish
to do something easy, something
that does not require much thought,
no brain work. Let me tell you that
you must work hard to produce
things, you must exercise constant
care and protection"
Mr.. Henry's talk was easily the
outstanding one at the dairy meeting.
Close attention was paid to him be-
cause the speaker had proved all that
he said on his farm on the outskirts
of the village of Dover, 16 miles east
of Rochester. Besides making money
and educating his children, his two
boys, James and John, have elected
to run farms of their own and are
making good in diversified farming.
The crowd Saturday was not as
large as had been expected but
enough came to put away over 700
sandwiches, some so gallons of coffee
and over 1000 doughnuts. Besides
this, there were ten gallons of ice
cream, donated by the Morris Cream
cry Co., used up in supplying the
people before the meeting and movies
in the theater. The crisp, bracine
weather seemed to put everyone in
good spirits and a feeling of good
fellowship prevailed.
Atlantic avenue, between Sixth
street and Seventh street, presented
a spotless appearance. The avenue
had been roped off, cleaned and
swept off with brooms before the
crowd began coming and was an in
viting place to welcome the farmers
AS no autos or other vehicles were
allowed inside the ropes, there were
no accidents and no nervous tension
of any kind.
At two o'clock, the Morris band
began playing outside the Strand
theater and later went inside. Supt
p. E. Miller, of the West Central
Agricultural School, introduced N. ]
Hedlund, field man for the Minnesota
Cooperative Creameries, who tool
charge of the meeting and intro
duced Forrest Henry as the frs
speaker.
The time when farmer coult
skin the ground and get his living
is past" declared Mr. Henry, "Th'
farmer must do as the manufacture
does in this age of sharp competi
tion,-junk the old machinery. TIL
farmer must junk the old method
of farming. To progress, he mus
understand plant growth. Fort,
years ago, a great deal of plant foo
was available, for Nature had store
it up for thousands of years
Now that stored up food is gone, bu
the five per cent of food necessar,
to the plant from the soil is still
there but it must be unlocked, mus
be put in the form of thin soup,
you please, so that. the plants ma
be able to use it. In order to hav
good crops, there are several thing
a farmer must do. First of all, b
must till the ground well. Th1
rubs off new particles of soil, and tn
water can put this into solution
You can never till the soil too much.
Mr.. Henry told of acquiring 2
acre piece of ground which at tina
time raised only seven bushels c
barley to the acre. This was bough
in May, too late for crop. By disc
ing and rediscing, and giving it tw
or three times the tillage it had eve
received, Mr.. Henry succeeded
surprising every one by raising IL
bushels of corn and 400 bushels c
potatoes to the acre. Further tina
that, in the dry years, the Henry
had good crops, and Mr.. Henry tol
the old story of how capillary tube
formed to the surface of the soil an
through them the valuable water es
capped. The remedy was to cultivat
it whenever the ground becam
packed.
"Grain farming is not profitable
Mr.. Henry said, "There is no plac
for the surplus You will get frol
100 to $50 per cent more for you
grain by feeding it. Furthermor'
you must haul out the manure
soon as formed. My boys haul OF
six loads a day the year roun'
And we scatter it right on top OF tn
ground It's been long time sine
1 have been guilty of plowing unde
manure. We find the best place
put it, is on top of new clover.
keeps the clover from killing out
the winter by not allowing it
thaw and then freeze, and it wash'
down into the soil, the top fe
inches of soil, where you want
Of course we rotate crops and v