AN EXAMPLE OP SUCCESSFUL FARM MANAGEMENT. 17 



MANAGEMENT THE FIRST YEAR. 



It was desired not to spend any more money on the farm than was 

 absolutely necessary and to make the farm earn interest on the in- 

 vestment as soon as possible. This fact makes the example all the 

 more practical for the farmer of average means* to follow. A tenant 

 was engaged to live in the house and do the work on the place under 

 the owner's direction. He was given one-half of the oats, buck- 

 wheat, and potatoes, and was permitted to keep four cows and to 

 have the income from them, provided he fed all the hay and roughage 

 and used all the straw on the farm, returning the manure, straw, 

 etc., to the land. The tenant was also to do all the improvement 

 work for the owner which he had time to do, such as picking up 

 stones and cutting hedgerows. A small apple orchard was reserved. 

 The owner furnished all the lime and clover seed and one-half of the 

 other seeds and fertilizer. The tenant furnished his own teams, most 

 of the machinery, and all the labor. The owner furnished a potato 

 planter and a digger. 



Mr. English took actual possession of the farm on April 1, 1910. 

 Owing to the time of starting it was impossible to carry out the defi- 

 nite plans for improvement and only such crops as could be planted 

 conveniently were used the first year. Consequently, the land was 

 not as carefully prepared as it would otherwise have been. The 

 potato seed available was very poor and only 400 pounds of commer- 

 cial fertilizer were used, thus making a low yield, the 4 acres pro- 

 ducing about 90 bushels per acre. About 5 acres of buckwheat were 

 sown, yielding 116 bushels. Lime and acid phosphate were applied to 

 one 8-acre tract. On this tract 300 bushels of oats and an excellent 

 stand of clover were obtained. Ten head of young cattle were pas- 

 tured on the west slope, where the land was rough and not available 

 for tillage. The old meadow was cut, yielding about 1 ton of poor 

 hay per acre. 



Permanent repairs cost practically $400. During the summer 

 the tenant cut the brush and young trees in the hedgerows on the 

 farm and generally cleaned up about the place. The balance on the 

 owner's books showed that his account with the farm at the end of 

 the first year, on April 1, 1911, stood as shown in Table IV. 



