A ^ Book Farmer'' Succeeds 



Farm Management Tour Uncovers Inter- 

 esting Facts About Making the Farm Pay 



CHNI"^' years ago tolks in 

 allium township. LaSaiit- 



V_y county, winkc-il knowint'ly when 

 John A. (.osgrovc whom they tailed a 

 "hook farmer" spread limestone on some 

 of his fields. But John s reason for 

 building soil came from practical think- 

 ing, not from books. 



John was thinking of his three sons 

 and four daughters and of the generations 

 that will follow them. To C^osgrove it is 

 incidental that better farming gives lum 

 a greater income, places him in a posi- 

 tion to retire right on his own farm and 

 enjoy city conveniences while living in 

 the country. 



Let John's daughter. Mrs. ( onway. 

 tell the story: 



"I was eight years old when Dad 

 sold his business and bought this larm. 

 He wanted to provide his family with the 

 same clean, hearty living he had known 

 as a boy on the farm. 



"Dad worked hard and he sat up late 

 nights studying new ways to farm better. 

 He read every "Prairie larmer and 

 "Wallace's Farmer" that came out. It 

 was through these papers that he first 

 learned about limestone, clover and crop 

 rotation. That was more than 20 years 

 ago. 



"Our neighbors liked Dad but they 

 looked at him as a business man Thev 



ilidn t take to his ideas about growing 

 clover to increase corn yieKls. ' 



And Cosgrovc is a business man. The 

 I "iO folks from Bureau, DcKalb, Kendall. 

 LaSalle and Lee counties who came to 

 his farm. September 1 "i, at the end of 

 Farm Bureau-Farm Management tours in 

 their own counties, saw the records. 



Prof. M. L. Mosher, extension special- 

 ist in farm management. University of 

 Illinois, showed seven reasons why C^os- 

 grove IS a better than average farm busi 

 nessman. 



First, his rotation, corn, oats and sweet 

 clover, gives him a large percentage of 

 his acres in high profit crops. 



Second, he is an efficient feeder. His 

 ^0 acres of sweet clover pasture carried 

 67 head of beef cows and calves this 

 summer and provided a high income per 

 acre based on the amount of feed fed. 



Third, Cosgrove's ability as a stCKkman 

 resulted in a high income from livestock. 



Fourth, his crop yields arc far above 

 average. During the last six years. Cos- 

 grove's corn has averaged 51 bushels per 

 acre. The average for higher income 

 farms in northern Illinois in the same 

 period was ?>6 bushels. 



Fifth, Cosgrove received better than 

 average prices for his prodiicts showing 

 that good salesmanship is an aid to higlier 

 farm income. 



A. C. HENSEL 

 Uses horses, hires little help, farms a 

 quarter-section. 



Sixth, labor costs were low Since 

 ( osgrove rents most of his land, he gives 

 Lester Harmon, his tenant, ircdit for 

 effic icncy. 



•Seventh, horse and machinery costs 

 were kept down This. too. is ircdited 

 to Harmon 



But for all his efficiency, John (,os 

 grove has always looked on his farm 

 as a source of income for better living 

 His dreams were of Ix-tter living, not of 

 great tracts of lanil under C^osgrove own- 

 ership. 



In line with good farming. Cosgrove 

 was one of the first in La.Sallc county 

 to practice erosion control. The original 

 160 acres is rolling, and sheet washing 

 occurs when the land is not protected bv 

 a crop. Cosgrove is careful to provide a 

 cover for this land during most of the 

 year. 



The additional HO acres that he bought 

 in the war period is more rolling than 

 the remainder of the farm. It slopes 

 in such a way as to provide natural 

 drainage for part of the J lO acres. This 

 waterwav has not been plowed since 



MINNESOTA TYPE TURKEY BROODER HOUSE — 

 used by Gilbert Moloch last spring, easily moved, 

 easy to heat, has ample window space lor sunlight 

 and ventilation, durable and cost less than SIOO. 



BETTER UVING THROUGH BETTER FARMING 

 J. A. Cosgrove. left, owner; E. G. Fruin. center, farm 

 management service; L. C. Harmon, right, tenant. Work- 

 ing together, these men have made possible a better than 

 average living for two families. 



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