4Q2 CHASE COUNTY, KANSAS. 



F. C. SMITH, 



COTTONWOOD, CHASE COUNTY. 



A Small Farm^ Well Cultivated. 



ECONO:\IY NECESSARY. 



In the beginning of my farming, economy was of the first 

 importance. My success has been altogether due to a strict 

 construction of that word. First, I found that hired help was 

 of no benefit to a man in straightened circumstances, such as I 

 was. Not because there were no good hands in the country, 

 but from the fact that the abundance of cheap lands led 

 men who would be profitable as hired help to obtain better em- 

 ployment for themselves by becoming their own employers. 

 This left only the unprofitable ones to be employed. 



V MY AIM. 



Secondly, how best to make my own labor profitable was a 

 problem, and as cattle and horses require less labor, on account 

 of an abundance of free pasturage, I decided to turn my 

 labors to stock. Herein has been my success. I did not, 

 like many men, go in debt for a stock of cattle to start with, 

 but contented myself with two cows, purchased in 1871. I 

 had also two small mares. 



In 1873 I traded a little town property tliat I had for four 

 more cows and another mare. I consider that the most profit- 

 able transaction of my life. Now I have forty-four head of 

 first-class cattle, and eight head of horses. 



TREATMENT OF CATTLE. 



Kindness has been my universal rule in handling my stock, 

 and, as a natural result, they are always satisfied to stay near 

 home, having all been raised on the place- and no strange cattle 

 permitted among them. No extra labor is needed to keep 

 them from straying or becoming breachy for want of care. 



