THE DIVERSIFIED FARM. 



In diversified farming- by irrigation lies 1ne salvation, of agriculture. 





THE AGE wants to brighten the pages of its Diversified Farm department and with 

 this object in view it requests its readers everywhere to send in photographs and pic- 

 tures of fields, orchards and farm homes; prize-taking horses, cattle, sheep or hogs. 

 Also sketches or plans of convenient and commodious barns, hen houses, corn cribs. 

 etc. Sketches of labor-saving devices, such as ditch cleaners and watering troughs- 

 A good illustration of awindmill irrigation plant is always interesting. Will you help 

 us improve the appearance of THE AGE? 



THE FARMER. 



Years ago the son who had, apparently, 

 no talent in any direction, was at once 

 destined by his fond parents for the min- 

 istry, "John doesn't seem to be good for 

 anything," they reasoned, "therefore let 

 us make a preacher of him." Which they 

 did, if we are to judge from the number 

 of second-rate ministers. A great many 

 people have this same mistaken idea in 

 regard to farm life. It is a popular su- 

 perstition for it really has so little 

 foundation that it may be designated as 

 such that any man can become a farmer. 

 A man fails year after year in every kind 

 of business venture that he undertakes; 

 he has devoted several years to learning a 

 trade, yet either through incompetence, 

 indolence or bad management, he has 

 failed to make anything but a very bare 

 existence. At this stage he decides to 

 become a farmer. He has made a failure 

 of everything else, therefore he is quite 

 competent to run a farm. 



An easy-going man, who for years had 

 lived a hand to mouth existence in the city, 

 who through his own idleness and folly 

 had failed to grasp the opportunities 

 fortune had placed in his reach, decided 

 that, after all, the only life was that of the 

 farmer. "What an independent existence 

 it is," he would say. But the chief charm 

 in farm life to him was the fact that as he 

 expressed it, "Your crops grow while you 

 sleep." His idea was that in the spring 



you did your work in planting the crop 

 and after that you rested from your labor, 

 trusting to Providence to do the rest, until 

 harvest time, when a slight effort on your 

 part was again necessary. 



This is a very erroneous idea. To make 

 a successful farmer one must have not 

 only energy and the willingness to work, 

 biit must also possess a practical knowl- 

 edge of agriculture. While farming is 

 not a "trade" in the common acceptance 

 of the term, it is an occupation that re- 

 qiiires experience and study to attain 

 success. 



The successful farmer is posted on the 

 up-to-date methods; he knows the value 

 of fertilizing and irrigation ; he reads the 

 literature that deals with the care of the 

 live stock ; he keeps up with the times in 

 regard to farm implements and machin- 

 ery, and in short, knows as much in regard 

 to farming as the mechanic does about his 

 trade. In addition to this he must be a 

 hustler. He cannot plant his crops in the 

 spring and then go into a trance, leaving 

 the crops and the Aveeds to fight it out 

 alone, with any certainty of the crop com- 

 ing out ahead. No, a farmer has to work 

 as hard for his livelihood as any city 

 laborer, and an idle, shiftless, ne'er-do- 

 well is as useless in the country as he is 

 in the city. 



HOGS. 



There are 40,600,276 hogs in this coun- 



