Practical farming; a treatise on present farming conditions and how to improve them

II RAND, McNALLY & COMPANY 1907

CLASb A XXc, No.

COPY D.

Copyright, 1907, by Samuel W. AUerton

'■'■He ivho sJioweth his neighbor how to better existing conditiojis is a public benefactor.''

Preface

Coming from Nebraska recently, my son said to me, "Father, you should write a book on farming, for you have given me lessons in farming, and I raise double the amount of oats and corn the farmers do in Illinois, and my land is no better than my neighbors'. If 3^ou can write a book and show the farmers how they can improve their systems of farming, you will be a great public benefactor. While traveling in the Old World, particularly in India and China, I saw the table lands worn out and abandoned. Will this not happen in our country unless the farmers change their systems of farming and study how to improve their land ? If you could show the farmers how to improve their land in a practical way instead of making it poorer, wouldn't it be the best work of your life?"

Influenced by this suggestion, I submit my ideas. Having lived on a farm for twelve years — from the time I was fourteen years old to the twenty-sixth year of my life — having plowed, mowed, cradled, and done every kind of work connected with a farm, and having owned and operated farms practically all my life, I feel that this experience gives me some knowledge of farming, and enables me to present some practical ideas to those who may be interested in my conclusions. I notice that the rich farmers are the men who have systems and keep their land in a high state of cultivation. The farmer with no system and land worn out is the poor farmer.

I feel that it is the duty of every man who has had any experience in cultivating soil to give publicity to his efforts and progress along this line, and thus add to the success of the American farmer.

It is a well-established fact that Illinois, as a com State, is the richest natural body of com land in the United States. Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Missouri constitute the com belt. All are great states and naturally very rich, productive land. We see, however, that the great State of Illinois averages only about thirty-three bushels to the acre in a good corn year. What does this indicate? That the land has not been properly cultivated and kept in a suitable condition to raise large crops of corn.

Every farmer knows that his land is steadily being reduced in fertility, and is wondering what can be done to restore it. I met some farmers last year who lived east of Bement, on the Wabash road, who said they raised only thirty bushels of com and oats to the acre. They raise corn one year and oats the next year; this they call rotation of crops, but they return nothing to the soil, and wonder why they can't raise as big crops as they used to. This is very rich land — no better in the State of Illinois — and should raise sixty bushels of oats per acre and eighty bushels of com per acre, if they would rotate their crops, keep part of it in grass; keep some live stock — cattle, sheep, or hogs — and use some phosphate.

Samuel W. Allerton.

Chicago, September, 1907.

GRADUALLY KILLING THE LAND

Every man familiar with raising com knows that eighty bushels per acre can be raised as easily as thirty bushels per acre, if the land is properly treated. With all the big crops we raise — corn, oats, wheat, rye, barley, and flax — under our present system of general fanning (there are exceptions), we are reducing the production 2 per cent yearly. Professor Hopkins of the University of Illinois claims that the great rich State of Illinois will be a desert within one hundred years unless we change our system of farming. How does he prove it? He has a plot of ground which he has planted to corn for the last twenty-eight years. In a few years it will be exhausted, and will raise neither com nor clover. He estimates that it will take forty-eight years to exhaust the soil of phosphorus. He has two other plots, and raises corn on one and oats on the other every other year. This is the system that most of our famiers lo Practical F arming follow — plow their oat stubble in the fall, plant corn the next year, and sow their oats on the corn stubble.

These two strips are as fine land as there is in Illinois, and yet raise only thirty bushels of corn per acre and thirty bushels of oats, and lose about 2 to 3 per cent every year in producing a crop, and, obviously, in thirty years will be exhausted. He has other plots where he plants clover one year, corn the next year and oats the third year, and in this way raises sixty bushels per acre; he has still other plots where he plants clover, com, and oats in rotation, with fertilizer, and raises ninety bushels per acre. These facts have been demonstrated by the State Agricultural Society at Champaign. These being facts, has not the time come when the farmers of the great Northwest should do a little thinking and study how to improve their land?

In the State of Maine, where the soil is of a very poor quality, they raise a greater quantity per acre than we do in the great State of Illinois. These facts must certainly convince every intelligent farmer

Five-Field System 1 1

that we must return something to the soil, and that we cannot constantly reduce it without serious consequences. Probably 70 per cent of the com land in Illinois has been cultivated for the last thirty years in this way — oats one year, corn the next year, with really nothing returned to the soil. FIVE-FIELD SYSTEM Take the average farmer who has 160 acres of land. He may raise about seventy acres of corn and seventy acres of oats. His gross sales will not be much over $1,200. He should divide his 160 acres into five fields of thirty acres each, allowing ten acres for a house, barn, and garden; keep 100 good ewes; have sixty acres in com, sixty acres in grass, thirty acres in rye or oats; keep twenty good brood sows, raise 100 pigs, and arrange to have the pigs come in the last of February or the first of March. In this way his land would be kept in a rich state and he would be sure to raise seventyfive bushels of corn per acre (unless he had an excessively dry July and August), and he would probably raise about thirty bushels of rye to the acre.

It would be better to sow rye, because he would be sure to get a better set of clover than after oats. If he raised loo good market lambs, they would be worth $500; his wool should bring $150; he should raise 100 hogs to weigh 200 pounds, worth $1,200; his rye crop would be worth $400 at least, and he should raise about 4,500 bushels of corn, half of which he would feed to his hogs and horses, leaving about 2,000 bushels to sell, which would yield $800 more. This would make his gross sales amount to $3,050, and his land would be growing richer every year instead of poorer, as it is now. His corn fodder, properly cared for, would be much better feed for his stock than hay. He would have sixty acres in grass, and he could divide off ten acres, with a temporary fence, for a meadow.

CROP ROTATION

Hon. Secretary Wilson says we can keep our land up by the ordinary rotation of crops, but Professor Hopkins says not. I have always been of the same opinion as Secretary Wilson, that we can keep our land

Fertilizers 1 3

up by the rotation of crops under the five-field system, but I have watched this rotation of crops and am now convinced Professor Hopkins is right. I find the straw gets weak and lodges easily; after a few years the corn is not plump, the ears are not sound and firm as when we use phosphate or potash, but with the five-field system and phosphate, we would restore our land to its natural fertility and keep it in a state of high cultivation.

FERTILIZERS

Professor Hopkins advises buying Tennessee phosphate rock for fertilizer. Some of our farmers have used it, but can't really see any benefit from its use, but that is because they don't use it properly. It should be sown on the green clover or green weeds and plowed under or mixed with manure and plowed under. This affords acids enough to liberate the phosphate from the rock. Therefore, any farmer dividing his farm into five fields, two in pasture, one in rye, and two in com, utilizing all his manure with a moderate amount of phosphate or Tennessee rock, would improve his land every year, and, in a few years, raise more corn on sixty acres of land than he now raises on loo acres, and raise a very much larger crop of rye, oats, or wheat. I consider this system well adapted to Illinois, Iowa, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Missouri. Traveling through the old world, China or Japan, you find that when they market their products they always take something back to fertilize their soil. Necessity has taught them this, and should we not begin to think of our situation with this fact before us — that Illinois raises only thirty bushels of oats and thirty bushels of com per acre. This is a fact that we cannot ignore. I know that farmers sometimes get into a rut, and it is hard work for them to change, but the only thing to do is to recognize these mistakes and correct them. Don't try to plant so many acres, but raise more corn on fewer acres.

Testing Commercial Fertilizers i 5

TESTING COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS

It is very simple to make a test to know positively the value of the different kinds of commercial fertilizers, by taking a strip of land through your field and treating it with fertilizer. Of course, you could take several strips and try the value of all commercial fertilizers. Naturally, there is a great variety of soil in the different states, ■ and generally the farmer knows what is the best crop to raise on his land, but take the great states I have named, and com and oats are the best products. Nature's law has arranged things so that we can keep our land in a state of high cultivation by the proper rotation of crops and applying phosphate. I have one farm on which corn was raised on clover sod and yielded 82 bushels per acre. The next year this same land was again planted to corn and yielded only 56 bushels to the acre. A farmer adjoining me, with as fine land as there is in the State of Illinois, has corn that will yield only 25 bushels to the acre. He is one of the farmers with the system of oats one year, corn i6 Practical Farming

the next year, and never returning anything to the soil.

Hon. James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture, says that corn cobs are of no use to any man. He is generally right, but I disagree with him in this. The cobs and the stalks have as much phosphate as the com. Stalks and cobs should never be burned. As good a piece of corn as I ever saw was raised on land covered with cobs. In the old states they husband their manure with great care. We, in the West, burn our straw and stalks, and put little value on the manure, which is a mistake. It should all be saved and spread on the land and plowed under.

TENNESSEE PHOSPHATE ROCK

Professor Hopkins has great faith in Tennessee phosphate rock as a cheap fertilizer. I have not yet had experience enough to state its true value. I see the Agricultural College of Ohio claims that when it is properly mixed with manure it is worth $50 per ton, as it will increase a crop of com that much.

Proving the Value of Fertilizers 17

PROVING THE VALUE OF FERTILIZERS Take one or two barrels and saw them in two; get some sand; wash it and fill each half barrel with this sand. If mixed with the proper fertilizers you can grow big corn. This test should certainly satisfy any farmer of the value of commercial fertilizers, for the corn could not grow in this sand without fertilizers, and should convince the farmer of the importance of buying the proper fertilizers for his soil.

CHICAGO'S MISTAKE There is no doubt in my mind but what Chicago will realize in fifty years one great mistake it made. V^e should have dug a tunnel under the city for sewerage and saved the fertilizer. We would then have had drainage for the city, and fertilizer to sell to enrich farm lands.

JAMES J. HILL James Hill has given the American people warning of over- confidence in believing that our land will always produce great crops without greater intelligence in farming. Hill is a thinking and an observing man.

1 8 Practical F ar niing

He sees the rich valley of the Red River gradually being reduced in fertility; that they now have to summer fallow their land, and that it takes two years to raise a crop. In the early history of (California they sowed wheat, and it would shell out and they would have a volunteer crop, but now the land has to be summer fallowed, and it takes two years to raise a crop. Hill sees the necessity of arousing the farmer to realize that he is gradually wearing out his land. It is only a question of time when the farmer will be asking himself, "Why can't I raise such crops as I used to?" Prof. Hopkins tells me he receives thousands of letters from farmers making this inquiry. His answer is, "A better system of farming by rotating crops and applying phosphate to the soil," phosphate being the most important element in raising a good crop of com, potatoes, oats, barley, and clover. England, France, and Germany buy 2,500,000 tons of phosphate yearly. Surely they realize its value or they would not continually increase their demand. Shall we remain dormant and allow them to

Wilful Waste Makes Woeful Want 19

take from us that which our lands are hungering for? This is a serious question for our farmers to consider.

WILFUL WASTE MAKES WOEFUL WANT

There is no city in the history of the world that has grown, in a short time, so vast in population, wealth, and importance as the city of Chicago ; but no city has tributary to it so many acres of productive land. Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Missouri abounded in fertile soil. All the fanner had to do was to break these rich rolling prairies and he had a garden of the richest soil in the world. Crops grew in great abundance. We can feed the world from these lands, and yet, in shipping millions of bushels of grain, we are gradually taking from the soil millions of tons of phosphate and other elements that made our soil so productive. No nation has so vastly reduced its soil. The inventor and the enterprising manufacturer have made machinery to cultivate these rich prairies with great economy. In fifty years more, however, with this continual debasing of your soil, without any thought of restoring it to its natural fertility, what will be the condition of the great Mississippi Valley that should be the empire of the nation?

Unless we study how to improve our lands, we will be hunting for bread to feed our own people. No question is of so great importance to the American people. How shall tee restore our land and maintain its fertility? We know it has been reduced 30 per cent and is gradually growing less productive, but with the aid of scientific men practical farmers can restore it. How shall we arouse the farmer to realize the important position he holds, for the successful farmer is the basis of all our great industries. We have fine agricultural colleges, and yet 90 per cent of our faiTQers cultivate their land as they have for the last forty years. We read about the poor Russians starving because their land is worn out. We think this will never happen to us, but if we go through the southern part of the State of Illinois, where they used to grow fine crops of wheat on the rolling prairies,

Important Questions 21

the land abandoned to-day and selling at $18 to $20 per acre, we will realize our position. Take Central Illinois, the richest land in the world, and it will not raise half a crop. We read about Illinois raising on an average only half a crop of oats, and yet the fanners who cultivate their land properly have fine crops. We ship yearly 2,500,000 tons of phosphate rock to the old country when we need it at home. How can we arouse the farmer to buy these fertilizers and keep them at home ?

IMPORTANT QUESTIONS

We have many great questions to solve in this country. The tariff question, for instance, which is simple within itself. If too high, gradually reduce it a percentage each year and let the manufacturer adjust himself to a lower tariff.

We have men who wish to run for President ; clamoring for government ownership of railroads, which means a centralized government that will be more arbitrary than the Russian government.

The immigration question is of great importance; great numbers of foreigners coming to our land who don't tmderstand the meaning of Liberty — individual rights with reciprocal duties. This question should call for the best thoughts of our people.

THE GREATEST PROBLEM OF ALL Great as all these questions are, however, there is no question of so great importance to the American people as how to restore our land to its natural fertility and keep it in a state of high cultivation.

KEEP THE LAND UP To be prosperous and successful, the farmer must study how to keep his land in a state of high cultivation, for if kept in this condition, he will raise a fairly good crop in a bad year. If his land is run down, of course he will raise a poor crop, and when his land gets poor, he will grow poor.

LACK OF TILING AND CROP ROTATION

Coming from Omaha, and riding through

Eastern Iowa and Northern Illinois, I saw

a beautiful cotmtry, but I know the corn

will not average thirty bushels per acre.

Reclaiming Land 23

Eastern Iowa and Northern Illinois need tiling, but I did not see a drainage tile factory anywhere in that district. No man could wish for a more beautiful country and richer soil. If tiled and farmed by rotation, all this land should raise 75 bushels of corn per acre. I saw no farm that seemed to be laid out with any regard to system of lots. The whole thing seems to be run on a haphazard, go-as-yoti-like-it plan. On any of these good 160-acre farms 30 cows could be kept by being soiled, as easy as 15 cows if pastured, as cattle running in pasture fields tread, out more or less grass and stomp the ground, which is bad for it.

RECLAIMING LAND The Government is spending large amounts of money for irrigation. If the State of Iowa would pass a drainage law, the same as Illinois has, issue 4 per cent bonds which they could sell, and loan the money to the farmers to drain the Missouri bottom by making proper canals and outlets for the rivers, they would make more good acres of land than the Government will by spending millions of dollars for irrigation.

With proper outlets for the water, the farmers in the Missouri bottom would soon pay back to the State all they had borrowed to carry out this system, for then they would possess some of the finest lands in the world. Necessarily, the farmers must begin to think, and send men to the legislature in their interest and in the State's best interest. Wouldn't it be better to let the farmers have their own drainage districts and do the work themselves, as they would probably do the same work at one-half the cost the State would do it for?

THE FARMER IS KING People generally think that farming is a laborious occupation, but by the ingenuity of our machinery manufacturers, the burden of farming has been reduced so that very little laborious work is done on a farm. In fact, it is the most independent life a man can lead; and, with rural free delivery, and by taking a good newspaper, the farmer can know what is going on in the world. Life on a farm gives children a good constitution, and, with our free schools, their opportunities are better than those of the

The Farmer is King 25

boy raised in the city. So far as living is concerned, the fanner is 100 per cent better off than half the people living in cities. I took a friend of mine down on a farm once, and he remarked that he supposed he would not get much to eat. I said, as he was raised in Vermont he would probably get along with a rind of pork, and bread and milk. He replied he could get along if he got plenty of good bread and milk. We drove up to a farm house and I told the lady we would like some dinner. She said it would be ready in two hours. After my friend ate his dinner he commenced writing, and I asked him what it was about. He said he was making note of the fact that although he had eaten at Delmonico's and Kinsley's, and a good many other places, this was the finest dinner he had ever eaten. There were thirt^^-seven different dishes on the table, and all raised on the farm, except the coffee, sugar, salt, and spices. A good garden every' farmer ought to have. If he would have a long garden, so he could cultivate it with a horse, and plant his vegetables in rows, he would always have the finest vegetables in the world, while those in the city are, in a measure, stale.

CANTALOUPES

Cantaloupes are a delicious fruit. Plant them in this way : Dig a small hole and put in some horse manure; mix in some cow manure, and put some dirt over it. Take a half-inch board and make an open frame six feet long and three feet wide ; take some cheese cloth and put it on the top to keep the bugs off. After the plants get well started, take the frames off, and if you have some fine animal fertilizer, sprinkle it over the vines. This will help them and also keep off the bugs. The Emerald Gem and Rockyford are good ; Hackensack and Osage are better. They grow to weigh 12 to 15 pounds and are fine. To get them started early, cut a rich sod one foot square and put it in a small box and plant your seeds. If you have a cold frame put it in this; if not, set your box in the garret. They will start to grow and when the weather gets warm set them out and this will give you

Dairy Cows 27

early cantaloupes. I think any man will work better who has a cantaloupe for breakfast. All men appreciate good food and will respond when they realize their employers mean to treat them well. Every one likes to be considered. It costs a farmer but little to have a good garden, and it will pay him ten-fold in many ways.

DAIRY COWS

There is no doubt but what a farmer with 160 to 240 acres of land in Northern Illinois ought to keep cows, as that is the best stock, if he is within a reasonable distance of the market for his milk; for with the system I have laid out, he would keep his land in a state of high cultivation with the cows. I am informed that cows kept in a bam and soiled in summer will give more milk than those running in pasture. The farmer should have some phosphate on hand to mix with his manure, as it is necessary to have some kind of acid to liberate the phosphate from the Tennessee Rock.

STEERS

A farmer with i6o acres of land, living a good distance from the market, could keep forty steers if he soiled them in the summer. A farmer keeping steers would need a bam forty-two feet wide and sixty feet long, with racks on each side of the bam to feed his cut com, clover hay, or oat straw, with a water trough on each side and a yard on the outside. This would give the steers a chance to walk in the sun, which is of great importance in fattening them. With a 1 2-foot loft over his cattle shed, he could use this space to store his corn fodder in.

In the summer let him mow his green clover and soil his cattle. On his corn fodder cut up, a little clover hay, and five ears of corn each day, his cattle would grow all winter. During the months of May and June feed them a peck of corn each day; then he would have a lot of fat cattle, and not feed over forty bushels of com to a steer. If his farm is rich Illinois land, he would probably raise eighty acres of com, forty acres of clover, and forty acres of rye,

Steers and, with the manure and a Httle commercial fertihzer, would keep his land up in good shape.

80 acres of corn at 75 bushels

per acre would be 6,000 bu.

To feed cattle, horses, and hogs

would take 3,600 bu.

Leaving to sell 2,400 bu.

2,400 bu. corn at $.40 per

bushel would be $ 960

40 steers should bring a profit of 1,600

100 hogs should bring 1,200

30 acres of clover seed should

produce 270

30 acres of rye should produce . . 360

$4,390 Expenses :

Two men $720

General expenses 200

Grocery bill 200

Interest on money invested

in cattle 96 $1,216

Leaving a net profit of $3,174

As a general rule, I think a small farmer better keep a good flock of ewes or cows than to handle steers ; but if he has a fancy for steers and knows how to buy and care for them, he can make money with them.

DRY FARMING

To raise a crop of corn the land should be well cultivated before planting; it can't be made too fine and in too good a condition before planting. If the ground is properly prepared, a crop of corn can be raised much easier, and if kept mellow, a crop of corn can be raised without much rain. If the land is well pulverized before planting, and the corn planted in a furrow 2^ inches deep, it can be harrowed after it has been planted four or five days. This starts the weeds, and it can be harrowed the second time. This kills the weeds and keeps the land mellow, which should be plowed not less than four times. I think we all plant our com too thick when planted in hills. Com will not grow under a tree in a field ; it must have the sun. If planted 4I feet apart in

Dry Farming 31

rows, in drills, one spear every nine inches, the sun reaches the blossoms of the com. In this way we get 12,848 spears on an acre, while if planted in hills we get only 10,602 spears. A spear of corn growing alongside of another is an enemy to it when planted in hills. You seldom get over three ears, generally two, to each hill, but when the spears are grown separately, you will have an ear on every stalk and better ears. The farmer will say it is more work to cultivate the com in drills than when planted in hills, but plant less acres and keep more in grass and raise more corn on half the land. If the corn is planted in a furrow 2^ inches deep and the harrow used at least twice after plowing, a crop can be raised as easily as if planted in hills.

You have probably read about dry farming in Colorado and Western Kansas. The farmers plow their land as deep as possible, and keep the top of the soil mellow so as to retain the moisture, and in this way they raise a crop with very little rain.

$ioo-ACRE LAND

It is a common remark: "I can't afford to keep live stock on $ioo-acre land," but this is a great mistake. The farmer who keeps his land in corn will wear out the soil in a few years so he can raise only half a crop, and the land will grow poorer every year. I worked one of my farms on the four-field system. I had 2,000 acres of corn which only shelled out 62 bushels per acre. One piece had been in grass for three years , and that shelled out ninety bushels per acre ; so I am about convinced that I will have to adopt a new system — have five fields instead of four. Illinois as a State in a few years would raise more corn if it only raised half the acres, and kept part of the land in grass. This I have no doubt of.