832 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



purely accidental. The man, who studies his business down to the minut- 

 est detail and is thus enabled to adopt a plan and system of execution that 

 covers all the ground, wastes less energy and succeeds easier. He is also 

 the man who generally has his work done in season and in the best man- 

 ner, because there is no wasted energy and all effort is lined up in a 

 steady push toward the end sought. His machinery is ready to use when 

 needed because it has been cleaned up, carefully examined and repaired 

 in advance and kept under cover where it has not deteriorated. Such 

 machinery will not only last longer but will do better execution when in 

 use and the work done by it be a pride, instead of an eyesore. 



Attention to detail will provide good seed — clean and true to the best 

 type. Some men that will pay hundreds of dollars for thoroughbred stock, 

 but will plant any old kind of seed. Now that is all wrong; they should 

 extend that attention to detail to the farm seeds and then see to it that the 

 seed bed is properly prepared before the seed is planted; then there will 

 be no need to worry about "What shall the harvest be." Good seed on 

 good ground has always resulted in satisfaction at harvest time. Put 

 more thought on the work, it will save lots of wasted energy. Don't 

 plant a piece of ground to corn until you have it in shape for corn, for it 

 is just as easy to raise fifty bushel per acre as fifteen if you attend to de- 

 tail with thoroughness and intelligence. The same is true with every 

 one of the farm products. Study to adapt ji-our crops to your soil as well 

 as to fit the soil for the crop. Don't put barley or corn in the slough until 

 it has been drained and warmed up; nor oats after corn where the land 

 is too rich and mellow, not even as a nurse crop to seed down after, be- 

 cause there is a way to seed down to timothy and clover in the corn field 

 if you have plowed your corn so as to leave the ground fairly level. You 

 may sow such seed with an endgate seeder and without injury to the corn, 

 and on heavy land it does not need covering. On lighter soil it is better 

 to cover with harrow made of proper width to go between the rows and 

 one man can drive two harrows just as well as one. This will cut the 

 lodged oats out of the rotation and save all that dread and waste that 

 comes width tangled oats and a crop lost. 



I am in hope the manure spreader is going to be a great help also in 

 regard to lodged grain; by spreading the manure more evenly and in 

 lesser quantity we may get a less luxuriant straw growth that will stand 

 up until the grain is ripe. Detail again will take an hour and a magnify- 

 ing glass and see that the grass seed is a good strong quality and free 

 from the terrible weed pests with which some of it infested in the shape 

 of Canada thistles, horse sorrel, etc., for it is possible at one inadvertence 

 to sow sorrow, eye sore and bachache enough for a life time. Plant good 

 seeds are all along the line for "figs won't grow from thistles," and there 

 is no other harvest but sorrow from bad seed and waste places. 



As with the machinery and plants, so with the live stock, only more 

 so, because in addition to looking bad they can feel bad, and neglected 

 detail in the care not only cuts out the profit but makes much unnecessary 

 suffering. Shiftless neglect of the comfort of our animals reduces the 

 profit as it hardens our hearts. A little attention to the ailing ones and to 

 those that have met with accident often saves a useful life and pays in a 



