722 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Begin the month right by giving your wife a little allowance, we will 
say $5.00 or even less, if your habits correspond. 
Give her about what you spend each month for incidentals, as the item 
goes in your farm book-keeping. She will know what to do with it, and 
if she doesn't, she isn't fit to be your wife and you shouldn't have mar- 
ried her. 
Your wife cannot help but feel the enjoyment you get out of a good 
cigar on a gloomy Sunday, when the magazines have all been read, but 
she would be even happier if she had in her purse the equivalent of those 
smokes in money. 
If I were running a farm I would begin the year by making some good 
resolutions and being sure to stick to this one, come to you meals on 
time. This is one of the farmer's wife's greatest sorrows. 
Don't think you must take just one more look at the stock or plow, 
one more row of corn. Provide a dinner bell and come when you hear it. 
During the winter the next year's work should be talked over and 
planned, so the very day that ground is in condition to work you know 
just how to begin. Select your seed corn sometime in October and this 
can be tested in the winter. See to it that there is a year's wood up and 
the summer's meat cured and put away. 
There is one item I forgot to mention, and that is at the beginning of 
winter be sure to go shopping with your wife and, make great prepara- 
tions for Christmas. Spend as much as your financial condition permits 
and don't forget that "It is more blessed to give than to receive." 
About this time the year's reading matter should be selected. 
In the latter part of the winter I would see to repairing the farm ma- 
chinery, get the plows and disc sharpened and save the precious time 
that is wasted by some farmers waiting at blacksmith shops when every- 
body wants their work done the same day. 
See that the yards and sheds are all cleaned up and right here let me 
say that the easiest and by far the best way is to keep the spreader near 
the barn and haul out the manure as it is made. This will save much 
time and is more beneficial. By this I mean much of it is hauled at idle 
times. A wagon box spreader can be bought for $60 and is all right, and 
the stock and the wife would both be happier for having these fly in- 
cubators removed. 
I would prepare my fields for corn in the very best way possible, as 
much of the cultivation of corn can be done before and soon after planting. 
I would not be opposed too much to new methods. I believe the surface 
cultivator could be more generally used to advantage. In planting corn 
aon't forget to plant pumpkins as they are a very healthful and ecofiom- 
ical feed. 
Don't be afraid of straining your land, take good care of the fertility 
and the strain will never be noticed. 
I would practice diversified farming in this locality and aim at the 
improvement of domestic animals. 
Strive to grow better beef, pork, mutton and horses by improved 
methods and at a greater profit. 
I would not envy a more prosperous neighbor, but try to imitate his 
methods. 
