44 EARNING CAPACITY REQUIRES STUDY 



change is ever made in the system of feeding. Even the 

 change from green corn to silage is made gradually. 



Every particle of roughage fed on this farm, including 

 hay and all soiling crops, is cut in quarter-inch lengths. 

 Even the bedding is cut in this manner. There are two 

 round silos on the farm, each 10 feet in diameter and 

 34 feet high. These together hold about ioo tons of 

 silage, and this quantity of corn silage is produced on 4 

 acres. 



We have given the account of a pioneer farmer, start- 

 ing in with no experience, but going to work in a method- 

 ical manner to learn what he could from the experience of 

 others, making a careful study of surrounding conditions, 

 and adjusting himself to those conditions. This farmer, 

 by applying scientific principles and business methods, has 

 blazed a path into a region of great possibilities. The 

 most important lesson to be learned from his achieve- 

 ments is that it is possible to cause land to yield twice or 

 three times as much as the present average from what are 

 considered good methods. The place has returned a 

 gross income of upward of $2,500 a year, with a total 

 expense of about $1,000. It would be feasible to raise 

 poultry also on this place. 



Many a farmer fails to get adequate returns from his 

 farm because he stays at home too closely, puts in too 

 many hours a day following the plow, and does not often 

 enough visit good farmers in his neighborhood or other 

 sections of the country where good farming is done. 

 Furthermore, a man physically exhausted from a long, 

 hard day's work is in no condition to follow and get 

 much out of the literature of his business as reported 

 in farm papers, agricultural bulletins, reports, and books, 

 and without the advantage of all the information available 

 from every possible source he will find awkward situations 

 when he comes to replan his farm for profit. 



Success in farming calls for the very best effort in a 



