124 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



On a little farm in the Ozarks that produced, tlie year we started 

 the work, less than 10 bushels of corn, less than one-fourth of a ton of 

 hay and about 15 bushels of potatoes per acre, yielded the next year 

 over 40 bushels of corn, nearly 100 bushels of potatoes and about two 

 tons of hay per acre. The farmer in question was a worker and fol- 

 lowed our directions very carefully. He was not rich, in fact the year 

 previous to the one just mentioned it was necessary to lose a hay crop 

 on account of not being able to buy a mower or to borrow one at tlie 

 particular time it was needed. 



You may ask how we got these rather remarkable results — for 

 example, the corn crop. First, we put our corn on a field that had had 

 cowpeas on it the year before, the first ever grown on the farm. We lap- 

 disked the corn ground before we plowed. We prepared a seed bed that 

 would have done for a garden. We paid $3.00 a bushel for the best 

 seed we could buy, tested it carefully, and knew that 98 per cent of it 

 would grow. Cultivation did not stop when we had to leave the field 

 with the team, but continued with one horse. Cowpeas were planted in 

 the corn with a hand planter, when the corn was about four to six 

 inches high ; in fact, everything that we knew of, that would contribute 

 to a successful yield of corn, was done for this crop. We applied some 

 fertilizer, but in a way that we could get a check on the results from its 

 use. Results on this little farm show conclusively that successful farm- 

 ing does not consist of the doing of one thing Avell — for instance, the 

 purchase of pure bred seed — but the doing of every farm operation in the 

 best possible way known. Successful farming is everyday farming. 

 The successful farmer is the one who spares no pains to get the best and 

 do the best. He does not have "his wish-bone where his backbone ought 

 to be." Business farming means head as well as back farming. We 

 can tell to a penny what it cost us to produce every crop on this farm, 

 and we know whicli ones paid us best, and from these figures we have 

 a positive basis for our future operations. I am often asked how we ob- 

 tained such results in one year, but if I answered, telling the real secret, 

 it would be a story so long that few would read or care to listen, for 

 the success of the crops in 1910 began with the work in the fall of 1909 

 and continued until the spring of 1911. It was the work done every day, 

 it was the planning done every night, it was the result of tlie reading put 

 into practice, it was business farming. 



We are sometimes asked, "How do you start the work on the farms 

 of those who desire to receive your assistance ? " I can answer this ques- 

 tion best by telling of our Missouri Farm Management Association. This 

 organization was formed during Farmers' Week, 1910, at Columbia, Mo. 



