

SQUIRE HERMAN L. DOWNEN 

 "We get lonesome for the kids." 



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THE DOWNEN DOMICILE 

 "This year another coat of Soyoit.' 



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MARTHA (REEVES) DOWNEN 

 Rememben Herman's yellow-wheeled bugqy. 



vaccination, marketing, the various 

 commercial services have all saved me 

 money and given me more than I ex- 

 pected. It's funny_ though, how some 

 people don't get the idea. I guess they're 

 just prejudiced." 



For recreation, the Downens like to go 

 to the movies. Herman also likes base- 

 ball games, fishing and riding around in 

 the family car or in the saddle going 

 for a good gallop across the field on his 

 horse. Mrs. Downen has her garden and 

 quilting. She says the older daughters 

 would start out all right on a quilt but 

 they'd lose interest quickly. The young- 

 est daughter pieced a quilt and finished 

 it last summer. Mrs. Downen also does 

 quite a bit of canning. Last summer she 

 canned 100 quarts of peaches, four doz- 

 en cans of beans besides a lot of pre- 

 serves and pickles. 



What Mrs. Downen thinks would be 

 fine is for a highline to come through. 

 They have an electric "plant but just 

 use it for the radio and lighting. "A 



highline," she .said, "would cut down 

 the work of housekeeping. Our home has 

 five rooms but electricity would make 

 things much pleasanter. Of course it's 

 pleasant as it is," and she shot a smile 

 toward Herman nearby, "but having an 

 electric refrigerator, a washer, and 

 electric iron and all that would be fine. 

 Of course, it all depends on how much 

 it would cost to get the line in here." 



Herman is a charter member of the 

 Gallatin County Farm Bureau. The rea- 

 son he joined he says, was to "make 

 two blades of grass grow where only 

 one grew before." The limestone pro- 

 gram was the big magnet, he says. 

 Then, the idea of getting together and 

 getting the advantages of co-operative 

 marketing and buying. "I thought it 

 was necessary for farmers to get to- 

 gether and set up co-operative enter- 

 prises. If farmers don't help themselves 

 no one else will." 



The new Soil Cinservation P'an is 

 okeh, Herman thinks. He likes the pro- 



duction control idea plus the fact that 

 land is being built up. A lot of fellows 

 couldn't get in on the AAA, he says, but 

 all farmers can get in on the new plan. 

 It also makes for increased co-operation 

 among farmers. Downen is going to put 

 in soy beans or sweet clover. He wants 

 to save the clover and may clip the oats. 

 There will be no increase in his corn 

 acreage, though. He wants to get some 

 more limestone on his land. He says you 

 can go around and pick out the farms 

 that have built up their soil. "They got 

 along better the last few years when 

 the going was bad." 



We were sorry not to have seen the 

 younger Downens. We know Herman 

 and Mrs. Downen would have liked us 

 to. But, with school out now. a couple 

 holidays in sight and lots to do around 

 fhe farm, we've got an idea that things 

 are pretty much like old times around 

 the Downen place — the kids are home! 

 Herman and Martha Downen ask noth- 

 ing more for complete happiness. 





HOW SCULLY SPADED UP A 

 SMALL EMPIRE 



About 1848 or '49, young William 

 Scully sold his lands in Ireland, took 

 what other money he had and came 

 to America. He rode as far as he could 



on the railroad, — Altoona, Pa., — then 

 started west on horseback. Where he .saw 

 land he might like, he'd turn up a few 

 spadefuls with a 4-inch wide spade. 



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(Left) The late William Scully. He accumulated 

 en estate comprising 225.000 acres in five states. 

 (Above) The little empire building spade in its 

 glass case at the offices of the Scully Estate in 

 Uncein, Logan County, Illinois. 



What he liked, be bought. In Illinois 

 alone, he bought up 46,000 acres which 

 called for considerable spading, as Scully 

 wouldn't buy land he didn't know about. 

 Later, he went into Missouri, Nebraska, 

 Kansas and then into Louisiana and did 

 the same thing. Today, his two sons look 

 after an estate of some 22.5,000 acres in 

 five states. All lands are tenanted. One- 

 fourth of the tillable land each year in 

 Illinois must be in legumes. The estate 

 as well as many Scully tenants are mem- 

 bers of the Farm Bureau. 



Back to The Farm 



Nearly two million persons on farms 



January 1, 1935 lived in cities, towns, 

 villages, or other non-farm residences 

 five years earlier, according to the 19.?.5 

 Federal Census released recently. So 

 extensive was the movement to farms 

 that one out of every 16 persons living 

 on farms at this time had lived in non- 

 farm residences five years earlier. Most 

 of this migration of families has been 

 to small farms. 



JULY, 1936 



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