98 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



ready for our children's children, and we ought not to sell our homes 

 because we are offered .$100 or $150. Those homes, if they are really 

 prepared for our children, are of more value than money. Any farm 

 can be made profitable so that tlie average boy can see the profit, and 

 when they get a direct answer from the growing crops many more will 

 stay on the farm because they can see their way out and their future 

 before them. I know by practical work and experience that this is yet 

 the poor man's country if he will take advantage of the resources which 

 are so abundant. Go where you will, the small farmer has given char- 

 acter to agriculture everywhere and at all times. He cultivates a smaller 

 number of acres, raises all kinds of crops, improves his home, plants 

 trees, and loves to work, and that is what brings the results. I wish I 

 could impress upon every young man what opportunities are before 

 him on the farm in this rich com belt land of the mighty Middle West, 

 the bread basket of the nation. The spot where every national question 

 should be solved is on the broad and small farms of the Middle West. 



CO-OPERATION. 



(E. N. Plank, Decatur, Arkansas, at Missouri Farmers' Week.) 



I have lived for the past fourteen years on a 

 farm. I took a tract of upland timber containing 

 but 25 acres of cleared land and have practically 

 made my farm out of timber land. I have raised cat- 

 tle, horses, sheep, hogs, poultry, and have grown 

 wheat, oats, corn, rye and other crops, starting with a 

 small acreage of apples, strawberries and peaches, 

 and I have grown all these, so that I have been able 

 to ship them in car lots. I mention this to show 

 you that I have passed through the experience of 



E N PldHlc 



every farmer who has started at the bottom floor. 

 I have known the time when a silver dollar looked larger than a wagon 

 wheel. I have known the time when the distance between them was 

 months and months. I have seen the time when I did not know where I 

 was going to get the money to buy seed and trees or to pay my help. 

 So I have passed through all the experiences of those who started with 

 a small beginning and have worked up. 



Mucli of my success in later years has been brought about by co- 

 operation. I want to say to you farmers that our calling is one of the 

 greatest callings on earth, because we clothe and feed the world, and we, 



