94 Missouri Agricullural Report. 



iu this great com belt lias never ])een tested l)y the jixcrage farmer. 

 Someone has said that we liave no soil that is really hari-cn or worthless 

 to the man who knows how to bring the soil and the right plant together. 

 I have made many travels in this country in all directions, and have 

 been back to my native land three times, taking different routes through 

 Germany and France. They have no barren acres. Every foot is pro- 

 ducing something. The average farmer of the corn belt is working 

 hard and depriving himself of needed rest. "Why? He wishes to raise 

 more corn to buy more land. In this circle he moves on until the 

 Almighty stops his hoggish proceedings. It looks more like speculation 

 than farming. The last census is an eye opener to the people in this 

 ' rich corn belt land. Where is this kind of farming or speculation lead- 

 ing to? It operates today against keeping the boys in the country. 

 They have not got money enough to buy large farms. The boy wants 

 to start in where "the old man" leaves off. Absorbing farms into still 

 larger farms causes the loss of population in rural districts. ]\Iany are 

 learning that the small farm near the town is the money maker, but in 

 some towns it may be overdone unless there are some factories. To make 

 small farms pay the producer and consumer must not be too far apart, 

 or the transportation rates will eat up the profit. Many have to take up 

 renting, moving one year after another under one^year leases, and specu- 

 lating ideas. ]Many are driven to the large cities. They lack the 

 faculty to gral) and save. I do believe this country is long and broad 

 enough that no man, if educated in the right direction, need to be driven 

 to the city. I admit the country has to furnish some new blood to the 

 town or the town would rot and die. The greatest good that can be done 

 today is to teach the average boy the greatest possible profit on the 

 least number of acres in which a family could be supported in comfort. 

 I believe the size of the farm where that can be done depends altogether 

 upon conditions and personality. I have often been asked why others 

 cannot make a living on 20 acres the same as I. Again, I have often 

 been asked how much money I make. They say tell that to the people 

 and it will have the greatest influence to bring them out to the land. 

 I ask that they pardon me, but I don't wish to raise a crop of 20-acre 

 fools. I am telling what has been done and what can be done again, but 

 it does not follow that every man can or feels like doing it. The com- 

 mon view that too many people have is that the farm of smaller size is 

 rather a hard place to make a living, and should be gotten rid of as 

 soon as anything easier comes along. 



My experience has been that if a man can take up a worthless tract 

 of land, unfit for anything in the eye of the average man, and turn it 



