The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-01-24
NEA Service Writer

NEA ScfVlCC "FltcT Washington.-Ther was a report that three farmers were in Washing ton who had made money raising wheat and your correspondent rusn- ed to the scene.
 One found the three brothers
 Kopac-Emil, John and Ed. Big, giantish fellows with massive jaws. They ranged in age from A to 5G. Their parents emigrated to Nebraska from Bohemia.
 The Kopac boys wore thick, brown suits of what is called California flannel and the shirts were of the same material as the coat and pants. They were we'll informed as to pub | lie affairs and full of heavy rural wit.
 Not Always Successful. They had driven from Me- braska to Florida, then to Washing ton and were about to leave for New York. And they were having swell time.
 It turned out that there could be successful and unsuccessful wheat farmers, all in the same family. Emil and John operated about 140O acres of wheat together around Oshkosh, Neb, last year and ndue SOOu PIoHe oSopiSo "" prices. Ed leased and operated 6OO0 acres near Hardin, Mont, and didn't make money. Emil and John had a yield of
 more than 31 bushels an acre. Ed got only about six bushels an acre. The success of Emil and John and the non-success of Ed has been a regular thing since Ed left his brothers for Montana five years ago except that Ed had one good year.
 Emil and John say Ed is trying to raise wheat in the wrong place. Some Good Advice The first thing to do to raise | wheat profitably is to get enough land at good price," Emil ex- plained. You cant raise wheat sue
 cessfully on land that's too high priced. I think our Nebraska pam handle is the best wheat territory In the United States and we paid $60 an acre for it.
 Then get power machinery and ! use tractors for all the field work. We haven't an animal on our place except the cat. Then you have to
 give your machinery good care. Most farmers don't, and it costs them a lot of money.
 ! "You cant get by without stick
 ing right on the job and seeing
 that your help does the work,
 either. Lots of wheat farmers, farm
 on street corners. Of course you've
 got to have good crop weather, too."
 Ed said he had had all the re
 quisites named by Emil - except
 weather. The drought hit Ed pretty
 bad last year. One thing they all Iagreed was that "the government
 hadn't done anything for the farmers and that the McNary-
 Haugh bill should have been passed.
 Emil said he would make bet
 with anybody that only 10 per cent
 of all farmers had made any money
 last year and that although in many cases 1t was the farmers own
 fault something ought to be done to
 make farming profitable for the
 mass.
 Ed said wheat farming became | Iunprofitable when wheat fell below |75 cents a bushel and the reason Emil and John could make things go when 1t hit 60 cents was be-
 cause of their remarkably good yield.
 The Kopac boys understood the al- legged bad effects of higher tarin.'
 on the farmer and were interested In the power issue, which gets so much attention from the four Nebraska land Mantana senators. Farmers, they
 said want more and cheaper elec-
 tricity for their farms. l "I could have had 1000 bushels out of that 6.0OO acres if there
 hadn't been any drought" Ed said.
 "But I only got 28,000.