The Halcotts Have The S|fstem 



By LARRY POTTER, Assistant Editor 



CHARLES W. HALCOTT 

 Eighty-one years on the same farm. 



tC^\^00 bad that boy had to 



^*^^ move, " Old Ben, the vil- 



^^_y Ligc sage, told the group 



in the elevator office one day in March, 



1932. 



"His father just finished paying for 

 the farm before he passed on. Then 

 young Tommy had to mortgage the 

 place to buy his brothers' and sisters' 

 shares. And now the bank has fore- 

 closed. 



"I've .seen that happen time and 

 again. There'd ought to be a system 



Yes, there should be a system. Some 

 families have worked out their own sys- 

 tem to prevent a disaster of this kind. 

 The Halcott family in LaSalle county 

 have one that works. 



Guy and Bill Halcott are the fourth 

 generation of a pioneer family to oper- 

 ate their l-i8-acre farm. Their great- 

 grandfather, Thomas Halcott, came to 

 Illinois from Greene county. New 

 York, in 1844 and bought the land 

 from a speculator. The next summer 

 his family came to Chicago by boat. 

 Thomas met them with an ox team and 

 wagon. 



There was a log house on the farm 

 and a hard maple tree. Nearly 70 

 acres was too rolling to plow and the 

 remainder of the farm was rich prairie 

 soil that was often too wet to plow. 



Thomas Halcott broke the tough sod 

 and planted corn and wheat by hand. 



20 



During the first years his only market 

 was Chicago, 80 miles across country. 

 Later a market developed at Lacon on 

 the Illinois river. 



Guy's father, Charles, was born in 

 1856. He recalls hauling grain to 

 Ottawa and LaSalle to be shipped to 

 consuming centers via the Illinois and 

 Michigan Canal. Charles was a young 

 man before railroads began to play an 

 important part in the movmg goods 

 to and from farms. 



When building materials could be 

 handled inexpensively by rail, the Hal- 

 cotts began to improve their farm 

 buildings. They erected a two-family 

 house to accommoilate Charles' parents 

 and his own growing family. In 1924 

 it was replaced by an eight-room mod- 

 ern, brick house. 



Nearly fifty years ago a few strings 

 of experimental tile were laid in an 

 effort to make the land more produc- 

 tive. The experiment worked and 

 more tile were laid. Since then there 

 has not been a crop failure on the land. 

 There are more than three miles of tile 

 on the 1 18 acres and the 80 acres that 

 Charles purchased in 1908. 



Hundreds of other Illinois farms 

 have similar histories. The Halcott 



place is an outstanding example of the 

 way soil can be improved through con- 

 tinual family ownership and operation 

 Guy and Bill formed a partnership in 

 1913, shortly after their mother's death, 

 and have operated the 228 acres evei 

 since. 



"When I was a boy I used to pick 

 corn all day in that field over there to 

 get twenty bushels," Guy explained 

 pointing to a small knoll across the 

 road from his house. "A year or so 

 ago we harvested ninety bushels an 

 acre from it." 



The corn yield on the farm was well 

 over 100 bushels per acre last year. 

 Guy pointed out that many of their 

 neighbors corn yielded as well and 

 maintained that he and Bill were doing 

 just an average job of farming. 



Halcott brothers' high yields can be 

 traced to their feed lot. They have fed 

 cattle each year since they finished 

 eighth grade at the nearby school. 

 They always fed all the grain they and 

 their father raised and bought an equal 

 amount on which to finish their cattle. 



About 25 years ago the Halcotts 

 laid a concrete floor in the feed lot to 

 "save the manure and make feeding 

 easier." Materials didn't cost much and 



Four Generatifins on the Same Farm 



Show the Benefits of Long Tenure 



COMFORTABLE. MODERN, PERMANENT 

 The Halcott home reilects the stability of the business. 



I. A. A. RECORD 



II 



