EIGHTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X. 559 



A SUCCESSFUL HOG AND SEED-CORN FARM. 



TJ. S. Department of Agriculture, Farmers' Bulletin No. 212, By W. J. 



Spillman. 



Nearly all highly successful farms are unique in their management. 

 In the absence of a science of farm management they represent systems 

 wrought out by men of unusual energy and intelligence, who have gone 

 resolutely about discovering and utilizing the full possibilities of their 

 farms. These men have been governed largely by chance in the locations 

 chosen, and to some extent in the type of farming followed. Hence it Is 

 they are distributed here and there over nearly' the entire country and 

 represent every type of farming that can be made highly profitable. 

 From such men, who utilize the full possibilities of their land with a 

 given system of farming, we are learning the facts which, when properly 

 classified, will constitute the science of farm management. 



Although such farms are widely distributed they are seldom plenti- 

 ful in any section. Few men have comprehended a system of farming 

 fully and developed it to its full possibilities. Cropping systems are 

 seldom planned with a view to keeping the land busy and to meeting 

 the exact requirements for highest success in the system followed. 

 But when problems of this kind have been successfully met on a given 

 farm, that farm becomes an object lesson of inestimable value to every 

 farmer in the country. The lesson taught is not so much how to work 

 to a given system as it is how to meet the problems that present them- 

 selves. Such farms demonstrate the great value of intelligent man- 

 agement as compared with hard work applied unintelligently. Their 

 success, when the cause of it is understood, lends encouragement to other 

 intelligent men. 



THE SYSTEM OF MANAGEMENT. 



The farm here described is that of Mr. W. H. Rowe. It is located in 

 west-central Illinois, on dark prairie loam, and is devoted to hog raising 

 and the production of fine seed corn. For roughage the hogs are pro- 

 vided with clover pasture in summer and soy bean or clover hay in 

 winter. They are fed grain every day in the year. Before the business 

 of growing seed corn was undertaken the amount of corn raised was 

 nearly sufficient for the needs of the farm. At present a considerable 

 quantity of grain and mill feed is bought to replace the seed corn sold 

 and to supply the demands made by the increased number of stock kept. 



The cropping system followed for several years past is as follows: 

 (1) Corn (four-fifths) and soy beans (one-fifth); (2) corn; (3) oats; 

 (4) clover. 



Eighty acres of land in 4 equal fields are devoted to this rotation. 

 The soy beans are cut for hay, which is fed to the hogs in winter. The 

 clover is used for hog pasture. The oats are used as feed for the work 

 stock and hogs. What hay is needed is bought. Not much is needed, 



