308 LABETTE COUNTY, KANSAS. 



begins to decline. At present the soil is so fertile and inexhaua- 

 tive that wheat crops do better to follow each other. 



WHEAT, 



which is three-fourths of my crop, requires that the ground be 

 plowed early and become well packed before seeding time. 

 I sow early, and have the ground well drained ; also harvest 

 and get into stack and granary in due time. I never sell until 

 the prices will justify me in so doing, even if the wheat should 

 have to be held over till the next Spring. The same process 

 and plans I adopt in the raising of any other grain. I never 

 speculate upon other men's money, never buy unless I have 

 the money to pay with. I shun debts as much as one would 

 the leprosy. What I have not the cash to buy with, I do with- 

 out. When I have the means, I do not spare the cost in hav- 

 ing good tools, machinery, seed and stock. As there is much 

 money invested in farm tools and machinery, I find that there 

 is much money saved by storing them away in the dry as soon 

 as done using them. I appreciate the saying as a very truthful 

 one, that " a penny saved is two pennies earned." 



CONCLUSION. 



The reasons why I am disposed to call this farm a model 

 one, are, 



First: Situation. It lies midway between two rival towns 

 on the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railway, four miles from each. 

 These towns contain over 2,000 inhabitants each, and are in 

 the heart of Neosho Valley. 



Second : What I have, I have made myself, and that on 

 the farm, by hard labor, perseverance and economy. 



Third : What I have is paid for ; paid from the products 

 raised on the farm, and those products raised by my own labor 

 and the labor of my family. 



Fourth : There is no mortgage upon the farm. That 

 alone should make it a Model Farm, in this day, when nine- 

 teen-twentieths of the farms in the country have this curse 

 upon them. 



Fifth: My farm has always paid a good income above 



