BUSINESS ASPECTS OF FARMING 



CHARLES A. EWING, Decatur 



S A THEME for this occasion I have chosen farming, a 

 retrospect and prospect. And I will attempt a resume of 

 some of the problems arising in the leasing and operating of 

 a number of typical corn-belt farms, and the conclusions 

 arrived at concerning them; and then, tho not blest with 

 the gift of prophecy, I will mention some things that 

 seem to me not far ahead for all of us engaged in farming, 

 whether as grain farmers or as stockmen. As the convictions or con- 

 clusions of others are the more readily evaluated by knowing on what 

 experience they are based, and how they were arrived at, I will ask 

 your indulgence for beginning at the beginning, and your pardon for 

 being so much in the story. 



A record yield on a small tract of from one to ten acres, or a 

 single prize steer, produced under artificial conditions which do not, 

 or cannot, and ofttimes should not, prevail in general farm practise, 

 to my mind are illustrative of nothing in particular. If this tale be 

 worth the telling, it is because the farms of which I shall speak have 

 been operated not as a hobby but as a business. The endeavor has 

 been to conserve and build up the fertility of the soil, provide a rea- 

 sonably comfortable home for the tenant and his family, leave him a 

 fair opportunity, and make a reasonable income on the investment. 



In the operation of these farms the practises of husbandry as 

 taught and promulgated by this College have in the main been ad- 

 hered to. For more than half the time, a record of yields from each 

 field has been kept, to determine the value of each crop to the enter- 

 prise. For several years on one of the larger farms, a labor record 

 showing the man, horse, and machine hours expended on the various 

 crops and in carrying on the work incident to the general operation 

 of the farm, was kept. Some large yields have been attained on con- 

 siderable acreages, but the thing sought after was to better the gen- 

 eral average and to strengthen the weaker links in the chain, realizing 

 that it is only the net return per acre made by a system of cropping 

 that does not deplete the soil, which in the end tells the story of suc- 

 cess or failure. 



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