EIGHTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK-PART III. 77 



descendants, or sold to settle estate affairs, or, as in many instances, the 

 farmer has found in his old age that his sons have chosen some other call- 

 ing in life and he is left on the old farm alone, with no alternative except 

 to sell a portion of his land from time to time and keep only that which 

 it is possible for him to personally supervise. 



On the other hand, it seems a part of human nature for a young man 

 to be eager to own a farm. This is evidenced by business men of every 

 vocation, — lawyers, doctors, bankers, and men of all professions are all 

 striving for the ownership of a piece of land, whether large or small. 



If Iowa farm land is their desire, they find that to attain a farm does 

 not mean a few hundred dollars as it did to their fathers, but to own a 

 large farm in Iowa today is to have a fortune. 



As a result of the great desire for farms on the part of so many, and 

 the high price per acre, large farms are divided up and the divisions pur- 

 chased by young men who in most cases are forced to go in debt for a 

 large portion of the cost price. These are the men who are striving to 

 solve the problem and who are asking the question, "What is the earning 

 capacity of an 80-acre Iowa farm," and "To what purpose can it be 

 devoted that will not only increase its earning capacity, but also its 

 yielding value?" 



Supposing an 80-acre Iowa farm be devoted to raising grain for the 

 market. This will pay well for a few years, especially if the years are 

 favorable ones for plant growth and the proper methods of cultivation 

 and crop rotation are resorted to. Unless commercial fertilizing is prac- 

 ticed in this case, however, the farm gradually becomes poorer and the 

 farmer's capital gradually decreases until finally in the interest which 

 it returns him annually is not sufficiently large to pay expenses and yield 

 for himself and family a living. Then it is that the farm becomes as 

 many farms in the eastern and southern states, viz. — abandoned and sell- 

 ing for less than the buildings upon them cost. 



It is impractical, too, under ordinary conditions to raise and graze 

 feeding cattle on so small a farm, because the owner at once places him- 

 self in competition with ranchmen and owners of large tracts of less 

 valuable lands who can with less expense raise a vastly larger number of 

 animals of the same character. 



Eliminating these two methods of managing the small farm and those 

 which remain tend more nearly toward intensive and diversified farming. 

 "Without doubt if a man is to devote his best efforts to conducting opera- 

 ations on an 80-acre farm he must practice the most intensive methods 

 possible and put in use the lessons which science and practice have taught. 

 He must grow large crops of animal foods on every foot of available 

 ground, feed every pound of it to farm animals of one kind or another 

 and return the barnyard manure thus produced back to the fields, — thus 

 making them richer, more valuable and more productive each year. 



Feeding for meat production and feeding for milk production both come 

 under this head, and both may as a rule be made extremely profitable; 

 yet there are a few factors which enter in and warn the proprietor of a 

 limited acreage of high-priced land against borrowing money or spending 

 that which he has on hand for purchasing feeding animals to which to 

 feed the crops he has raised: First, If he chooses to feed hogs and 

 cattle there are opportunities for making large profits unless the hogs 



