850 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



"Vou should have a wife who takes an interest and delight in handling 

 poultry and who will either coax or force you to build commodious and 

 comfortable poultry houses. Most farmers have such wives already but 

 those who have not should secure one at the first opportunity. I have 

 been watching my sister-in-law's poultry business for the last four years 

 and I know of nothing on the farm which brings in as large returns on 

 the investment in dollars and cents to say nothing of the luxury of 

 unlimited fresh eggs and fried chicken. On a farm a large per cent of 

 the hens' living would be wasted without them. 



An important factor is up-to-date farming is the hauling and spread- 

 ing of our stable and barn yard manure as soon as possible. A very 

 large per cent of the fertilizing elements in stable and barn yard manure 

 is either burned out or washed out before it is spread upon the land. 

 Another mistake made in spreading manure is putting all we have on a 

 very limited area and permitting the larger portion of the land to go with 

 none. Much more value can be realized from a given quantity of manure 

 by thin spreading over a larger area. 



I have endeavored in this paper to mention a few of the many faults, 

 wastes and losses in our present system of farming. I have tried to 

 suggest a few of the many most important factors in building up and 

 developing an up-to-date Iowa farm, and a system of up-to-date and 

 diversified farming which shall produce the greatest possible wealth on 

 a given number of acres, but the facts are that the farmer will never 

 approach the greatest and best possibilities in agriculture until he studies 

 and applies to his business as far as possible the economy and business 

 principles practiced in other lines of business. Take the great packing 

 industries for which we furnish the raw materials. Not a bone or a 

 hoof, not a horn or a hair of all the millions of animals they slaughter 

 goes to waste. Not a pound of meat though it comes from a part of the 

 carcass that we would throw away, but is put in shape to sell at fancy 

 prices. When a cow gets so poor and old that she cannot chew or digest 

 her food, and our local butchers will not slaughter her, they buy her for 

 a song and send her back to us in cans and we pay as much per pound 

 for her as they do for their fine roasts and steaks. There is nothing 

 too small to save with them. The tradesman is as careful to sell you 

 a spool of thread or a nickle's worth of gum as he is a bigger bill. He 

 collects the twenty-five cent account as carefully as the twenty-five dollar 

 one. The secret of success in business is looking after the small leaks 

 and small profits. This is one of the respects in which the average 

 farmer is not up-to-date. I have, so far, discussed up-to-date farming 

 in its relation only to the production of wealth. I should consider it a 

 misfortune if my instruction should result in making us all millionaires, 

 for in that case we would probably all get to running for congress or 

 looking for a state or federal snap, or forming an agricultural trust and 

 might neglect our farms and families. But, seriously, there are other 

 lines beside the producing of wealth in which the farmers must be 

 up-to-date in order that the wealth he produces may be a blessing and 



