46 IOWA DEPARTMEMT OF AGRICULTURE. 



good position as foreman of a ranch on which there were 1,200 cattle. 

 You know my heart went down; if it hadn't been for the old gray -haired 

 father, who was infirm, I wouldn't have stayed. But he said, you 

 take hold and let me be the boy. So I started in. If it hadn't been 

 for these blessed lambs, I don't know whether I would have stayed 

 or not. But the lambs and alfalfa finally brought that farm out. 

 When I came home my father had a little lame old darkey he gave 

 $12 a month and board. On that farm we now employ three married 

 men the year around. I tell you, one of them is a darkey, a young 

 man with a fine family they have got boys; they are boys that go to 

 school along beside my own; they have the same books and the same 

 grub in their dinner. I am glad to see that old farm feed all these 

 people. Most all the year we have three single men work too. and the 

 farm keeps them all. Do you know, that is really remarkable. What 

 has done it? Well, the tile drains were laid, and then the alfalfa went 

 away down in the ground, absorbed the elements and made the ground 

 rich; and then the lambs ate the alfalfa and gave us back the manure; 

 so that every year that old farm gets better and bettei- — really astonish- 

 ing. So, sometimes, friends, when I go out over the place, maybe 

 some Sunday, all alone, in the fall, go through the alfalfa, through 

 the corn — this year we got almost 400 tons of hay, and husked 3,000 

 bushels of corn — I Just feel so grateful for the goodness of God; not 

 puffed up at all with pride; and then I think, we just sort of put 

 ourselves in harmony with His laws; He knows how to enrich the 

 land;, we do the feeding and_ put the manure back on the land. The 

 other day, my brother says: "Joe, come back here; don't you think 

 a barn running from this end here, and shutting off the wind, don't you 

 think that would be a good thing? Now, if we had more lambs, I 

 wouldn't have to ship hay away and I could give more employment to 

 these single men." I says, "where will it stop?" He says, "I don't 

 know." 



The President : The paper is open for discussion. 



Mr. Smith : Would the gentleman allow me to ask him how- 

 he cured that 400 tons oi alfalfa, when it rained ;^t^ days a month ? 



Mr. Wing : Well, we had to give some of it the water cure. 

 If the gentleman really wants tO' know our system of curing alfal- 

 fa, I will give him the benefit of our experience. As soon as that 

 hay gets wilted enough, so that it is tough, some of tlic nioistttre 

 has gone out, and while it is still tough, so it looks ihy. we rake 

 it into small wind-rows. Now, we go into the field with pitch 

 fork — I go myself, and my brothers do; wc show tlic other fel- 

 lows. We make these hay-cocks small at the bottom ; don't 

 spread them all out; lay one fork full on top of the other so the 

 stems will droop down and throw the water ofi"; a great big 



