%r^E^?tT!Sf¥WW''^r3SZ:
VOL. XXXI.
INDIANAPOLIS, IND., OCT. 10, 1896.
NO. 41
" .
EXPERIENCE DEPARTMENT
What is Yonr Money Crop?   How do
you Flan Your Parm Management
so as to Make Money.
lst Premium.—I have no special
money crop. Mixed farming is practiced by growing all kinds of
grain that can be raised In this locality,
also all kinds of stock is bred and fed for
market what is not used on the farm. In
grain raised, only corn, oats and wheat is
raised in large quantities, and rye, buckwheat, potatoes and beans are used as
catch crops or in a limited way. Horses,
cattle, hogs and sheep are kept in sullicient numbers to consume all or nearly
all the grain and hay raised on the farm.
Also poultry, fruit and vegetables are
. raised in sufficient quantities  for  home
^ use,. and an occasional surplus to sell or
exchange for groceries and dry goods
needed lor the family. I do not think it
best in this locality on a farm of 200 acres,
and with a large family, to confine myself to the growing of any one kind of
grain or to keeping any one kind of stock.
The fertility of the soil is the foundation
of farming or the farmers' capitol, and
this fertility should be kept up or constantly increased if we would be successful. In the above plan this can most
easily be done, our income is coming in at
;.».,ii».alLtimea of the_y»ar,_-_h-g-B.e"aabling.i-ato
do a cash business. We may have an occasional failure iu one or more of the
above, but in an experience of many
years, one or more has been profitable
and never a failure of all at same time.
- *-* Corn is probably the most profitable
grain crop as it can be fod to stock to best
advantage. Wheat and oats is profitable
in rotation of crops and in seeding to
clover and timothy. I think it good pol.
ioy to raise everything that the farm will
produce that is needed to supply the
home; to keep only the best quality of
stock and to practice intensive rather
than extensive farming and stock raising. In answer to first question in topic,
my money crop is to sell annually two or
more good draft horses, a car load of 16,000
pound cattle, 100 head or more of fat hogs,
the wool and increase from 50 head of
sheep. The surplus wheat, oats and
other grain raised. The surplus butter,
poultry, eggs, fruit and vegetables. And
the farm management is planned on the
above principles, aud these principles,
are carried out by personal experience
and observation and through suggestions
received from others through thelNDiANA
Farmer and other farm papers.
Warrenton, 111. G. E.H.
2d Premium.—I regard corn and
clover as king and queen of crops.
The sharp competition in farming
(as in all industries) is driving
each producer to determine what he
and the natural advantages around him,
are best suited to produce. The invention of new machinery and transportation facilities are constantly changing
the relation of existing circumstances to
profitable production. The Indiana
farmer has lived to see the profits in
wheat raising wrested from him by his
Western competitor. Other localities can
beat him in fruit raising and grazing,
but where is the place that is adapted to
so great variety of grains, fruits and vegetables with two as good leaders as corn
and clover?
Let other lands exulting, glean
The apple from the pine;
The orange from Us glossy green,
The cluster from the vine.
Heap high the farmers wintery hoard!
Heap high the golden corn!
Ko richer gift has autumn poured
From ont her lavish horn!
While the successful farmer will apply
his mind and muscle to the production of
some special product, the present commercial  and   financial   conditions  still
compel him to make his farm somewhat
of a Robison Cruso home, i. e., independent of the rest of the world. Fifty years
ago the farmers family did its own spinning, weaving, tailoring, carpentering,
pork packing, etc. In a few years hence
each farmer will devote his energy to only
a special production, and that best suited
to his soil. The present reckless methods
of many farmers in promiscuously planting first one crop then another without a
program of rotation, will not survive.
During the present Btate of affairs I know
of no. better thing to do than raise corn
and clover aud keep out of debt. Corn is
truly the poor man's crop, as very little
and simple machinery will suffice in its
production. While it is the main ration
for the profitable production of domestic
animals, especially the hog; its many
ways of being utilized on the table are
not sufficiently appreciated. There are
several good reasons for planning indef-
intely ahead for the production of corn:
First, the land suitable to tbe raising of
corn with machinery Is much more limited than that adapted to rye, wheat, oats,
potatoes, etc. Second, it will require
good management to maintain the' fertility of the soil where corn Is continuously
raised, thereby making It easier for the
wide awake farmer to compete with the
slow farmer on his worn out land. Third,
the variety of uses to which corn may be
put, viz, grain, soiling, hay, ensilage.
Getting money, for crops without maintaining the fertility of'the soil is not
really making money. We think we are
making money by preparing our land to
raise larger crops instead of lesser ones.
A good farmer will form rules of action
from which he wiil deviate as little as
possible. Here are a few: (1) Manage so
as to burn nothing. Weeds should be
mown before they go to seed. (2) Never
injure the land while wet by pasturing,
plowing, or hauling manure on to it. (3)
Convert as much straw and other roughness into manure, as bedding, etc., as the
amount of labor it takes will Justify. (4)
Let nothing interfere with clover rotation. We have not been raising wheat,
but have been very successful iu getting
a stand of clover on oats. Oats make a
complete ration along with corn, for
cows, calves and poultry and each farmer
should raise a few each year. If we fail
to g"t a good stand of clover, as in spring
of '95, on account of drouth, we broadcast
rye and run over with diso which does
very little damage to the partial stand of
clover and sow again in clover in spring;
by this plan we keep all the clover we
get. Rye is a better, crop to so w clover
on than wheat; the seed is cheaper; requires less work to put out; is less apt to
freeze out; will uot fall down and
smother out young clover; will permit
more pasturing than wheat. (5) Make as
nearly as possible everything into a finished product that is sold from the farm
—butter and cheese, poultry and live
stock. Some big gun of a politician has
said with much truth that "the producer
of raw or gross material is and always
has been a mud sill and gets what he deserves." Marketing a finished product
does not take away any perceptable
amount of the mineral richness of the
farm, more and better priced labor is
sold with the product. (6) Raise all the
luxuries possible and be wary of going
into debt for any. T. R.
Fountain Co.
would be If the fodder was not shredded;
makes lt more easily handled and more
available for plant food. Wheat brings
money. 'Tis true the price is low, but it
cost me very little to raise it, as I seed it
in the corn and sow It to clover in the
spring, so I have the ground immediately
after harvest for pasture for hogs and
calves, which grow into money. 1 might
also add that the poultry, though we only
keep a few chickens, brings in the way of
provisions and money about $75 per year.
So as to what is a money crop to a farmer)
I think in Indiana where mixed farming
is the rule, all a farmer'ralses should be
his monoy crop and until be makes it so
he has not achieved the success he should
have. Wm. H. P.
Carroll Co.
3d Premium.—As to what is my money,
crop, 1 endeavor to make everything
produced on the farm my money crop.
To begin will say my orchard brings
money from the fruit and also from the
potatoes, broom corn, cabbage, pickles
and buckwheat raised in it. My corn
brings money by feeding into hogs; the
fodder saves and makes money by having
it shredded and being fed horses and milch
cows, thus keeping them in good condition and the  manure being finer than it
Our money crop is rather short down ln
this part of the State, there is none of our
crops that pay very much the past few
years. I try to have a variety of crops
for sometimes one crop will fall while
others will prove successful, yet I aim to
get my money out of my wheat and hogs.
We should have pasture at all times for
our stock, to do this we must sow wheat
to get a set of grass. There is no money
in wheat for the farmer of southern Indiana, yet we are bound to sow_ some, we
have to have the straw to bed our stock
and make manure. We have to save all
the manure we can get to enrich the
poor spots In our fields. Some say there
ls no mo__ey in hogs at the present, but
there has been and no doubt there will be
in the future. So we cannot wait until
the price raises and then raise the crop,
but we must raise the crop aud be ready
for the advance in prices. I have never
sold a load of corn, I feed my corn to my
hogs and sell my hogs as I can haul several loads of corn in one load of hogs and
by so doing I save the manure which is
worth as much or more than any other
kind of manure we make. I also have a
good many cattle and feed my hay and
fodder into my cows and occasionally sell
a few cows, in this manner I again keep
the manure on the place and save the
hauling oil of tho feed. A Farmer.
I have no crop in particular that I call
the money crop for there Isn't much
money now in any of them, but I try to
make the best I can with all of them. I
plant a variety of crops so if one fails may
be that some other will be successful. I
aim to feed as near everything that I
raise as I can and sell it in hogs and cattle and thereby have the manure to put
on the ground again. I always sell some
wheat. There hasn't been much in wheat
for a few years but we must sow some in
order to keep the ground in right condition for other crops. As I have said heretofore, all crops must be put in in the
right condition if we get any profit out of
it. I think that the management_used in
putting the crop in and see that it is well
done is the best part done toward money
making. I manage so as to try to get
some money out of all my crops and some
out of the poultry, some on the butter, as
I think that any one with plenty of land
and raising bogs that milk is a great help
to fatten hogs rapidly and have some
butter to sell also. Farming Is like anything else, everybody has a way of managing of his own. ' And bad management
is next thing to laziness. H. C. F.
Harrison Co.
REVIEW.
-I once asked a neighbor farmer who
had inherited some 80 acres of land and
had bought and paid for 120 more how he
did it. He said he went in debt for part
of the purchased land and built his large
new bouse, going in debt deeper and
that it was all he could do to pay interest and keep up machinery for several
years. Finally he got hold of several
steer calves and bred more hogs, and
when a couple of years past he turned oil
stock enough to pay $1,000 on his debts,
while his wheat money and other little
money carried expenses.
"Xow," said he, "I was on top. I continued to plan my farm so as to concentrate some money crops, especially stock,
so as to strike hard at least every second
or (.third year. And between times I
made things keep square, so that when
my petted crop made me a bunch of
money that paid something I didn't have
to use it to be scattered about in petty-
debts. After paying that first $1,000 I
went out of debt easily."
The writer once asked a farmer of GOO
acres, worth over $100 an acre, how much
of his land was actually producing something. He gave a general answer, and I
then took a pencil and got him to stato
explicitly for each tract. He said: "Well,
the north farm is 120 acres, 40 is a woody
thicket, 23 is bottom and needs ditching,
so we get one crop in abut throe. The
house lots occupy two acres, the public
roads three acres and fence worms '!)'
acres. In all about 70 acres, which
leaves DO acres actually used for making
money, with an occasional crop from 23
more."
We went over his other farms and he
found to his surprise that not over one-
half of his land was really any help to
him.   The pasture in the thick wood land .
would hardly keep up fences.
I said suppose a grocery man ""~"v*n_,ld
put a stock Qf j~po^s_ i" .p-wh.O* .tw    ti
rooms and lock one up paying interest,
rent and taxes on it, while the other room
was asked to keep up all these expenses
and pay an interest on the entire investment.
The ragged edges of a half-used farm
are an expensive burden.
In 1&S9 I bought 80 acres, half a mile
north of Carmel, for $30 an acre. It had
never beon enclosed.
I planted 20 acres of the most open part
tho first vear and enclosed the wholo
farm. Then cleared and fenced and
ditched about 10 acres a year. So that
after this 1 shall havo about 65 acres of
the 7»i in good' cultivation. Theso 11
acres are a creek bottom of broken laud
and thinned out to good blue grass
pasture.
Two years ago I bought eight yearling
steers and they have "slipped" along
without being scarcely felt and
picked up waste till now they are about
finished on corn and will weigh say 1J500.
Other crops have kept up expenses and
these cattle can pay debts. This is not a
great gain in two years and is not, perhaps, all the gain, but I wish to call attention of many farmers without stock,
to the fact that these friends called live
stock are glad to keep up the leaks and
insensibly turn them into cash.
I like the suggestion made by more
than one to grow a variety of crops. A
tenant who made money enough renting
to buy a farm once said that he sowed 20
acres of oats as a rule because he could
sow it and harvest it at intervals not
claimed by other crops; and at no great
expense of extra tools or teams.
So with my method "oats," "tater,"
"corn," "Kng. cloverseed," wheat and
artichoke all "work in" without conflicting, and the same teams, tools and men
can begin steady employment through
the season.
I know a man who sleeps along till the
corn season, then "tends" say 15 acres,
possibly harvests 10 acres of wheat and
thinks his season's work is done.
I notice when I go down town that the
storekeepers are at their business everv
day of the year. One man said the other
day, "This is my first half day off
except one day of sickness." Such persistent attention to business would be
awful to many farmers. But even if the
present depression is preventing both
farmers and others from accumulating
Continual on Oth page.