



Produced by Tom Roch, ronnie sahlberg and the Online
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[Illustration: Hon. R. W. Dunlap, Kingston, Ohio, graduate of course in
agriculture, Ohio State University, 1895, noted football player, state
senator, state dairy and food commissioner. Farmer and institute
lecturer. Introduced alfalfa fourteen years ago into his farm and
community. Introduced commercial fertilizers and raised thereby more
wheat from 50 acres than his father did from 150 acres, thus convincing
his father and neighbors that when rightly used commercial fertilizers
paid. Mr. Dunlap claimed that the agricultural college made him a farmer,
because when he left for college he had no intention of returning to the
farm.]


                                 The
                            Young Farmer

                     Some Things He Should Know

                                _By_

                           THOMAS F. HUNT




          Imperial man! Co-worker with the wind
          And rain and light and heat and cold, and all
          The agencies of God to feed and clothe
          And render beautiful and glad the world!
                                               --_Stockard_


                              NEW YORK
                         ORANGE JUDD COMPANY

                               LONDON
             KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., Limited
                                1913


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                         ORANGE JUDD COMPANY


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                     Entered at Stationers' Hall
                          _LONDON, ENGLAND_

                         PRINTED IN U. S. A.



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                              CONTENTS

CHAPTER                                  PAGE
      I  ESSENTIALS OF SUCCESS              1
     II  MEANS OF ACQUIRING LAND           14
    III  FARM ORGANIZATION                 31
     IV  OPPORTUNITIES IN AGRICULTURE      44
      V  WHERE TO LOCATE                   57
     VI  SIZE OF FARM                      64
    VII  SELECTION OF FARM                 71
   VIII  THE FARM SCHEME                   88
     IX  THE ROTATION OF CROPS            101
      X  THE EQUIPMENT                    109
     XI  HOW TO ESTIMATE PROFITS          117
    XII  GRAIN AND HAY FARMING            135
   XIII  THE COST OF FARMING OPERATIONS   148
    XIV  THE PLACE OF INTENSIVE FARMING   162
     XV  REASONS FOR ANIMAL HUSBANDRY     172
    XVI  RETURNS FROM ANIMALS             185
   XVII  FARM LABOR                       195
  XVIII  SHIPPING                         210
    XIX  MARKETING                        220
     XX  LAWS AFFECTING LAND AND LABOR    233
    XXI  RURAL LEGISLATION                248
   XXII  RURAL FORCES                     268


                          THE YOUNG FARMER:
                     SOME THINGS HE SHOULD KNOW

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                              CHAPTER I

                        ESSENTIALS OF SUCCESS


Columella, the much traveled Spanish-Roman writer of the first century
A. D., said that for successful farming three things are essential:
knowledge, capital and love for the calling. This statement is just as
true today as it was when written 1900 years ago by this early writer
on European agriculture.

Every man who loves the calling and has an ambition to become a
successful farmer should understand that no two of these essentials
are sufficient, but that all three are necessary. Although this is so
simple as to be almost axiomatic, it is indeed surprising how few
people believe a knowledge of farming is really essential to success.

America is strewn with cases of failure, in farming, by men investing
capital acquired in other business. In nine cases out of ten failure
has been due to lack of knowledge of farming.

There is known to the writer an expert mineralogist and metallurgist.
On the subject of coal and gold mining he can give the most valuable
information. His advice is constantly sought on all such matters.
Instead of investing his money in mining, on which he is a recognized
authority, he has invested it in a farm, about which he knows next to
nothing. He has not even had the advantage of being raised on a farm,
since his father was a railroad man.

A mechanical engineer remarked that if he had $25,000 he would invest
it in a farm. This man is supposed to be an expert in business methods
as applied to manufacturing in general, and he is especially
conversant with the manufacture and trade in automobiles. About all he
has seen of farming he has observed from the window of a Pullman car
or from the steering wheel of an automobile. Instead of investing his
earnings in some manufacturing business, about which he has spent
years of study and in which he has had some training, he would invest
it in farming, of which he has only the most rudimentary knowledge, if
only he had sufficient capital. As a matter of fact, he is more in
need of knowledge than of capital.

Even farmers of experience do not always realize the training required
to succeed in farming. A letter was received by the dean of a certain
agricultural college saying that a graduate of another agricultural
college had taken one of the poorest farms in his neighborhood and was
raising better potatoes than anyone else could raise. The letter asked
that information be sent by return mail as to how this young man could
be beaten in raising potatoes. Of course the answer had to be sent
that while information upon raising potatoes could easily be supplied,
although not in the limits of an ordinary letter, the training in
observation, judgment and reasoning faculties essential to meet the
daily problems as they arise could not be supplied.

There is no objection to men of other vocations adopting farming as an
avocation if they can afford it. It is a rational form of pleasure for
wealthy people, and one in which they can often be of great service.
This cannot be said of all forms of relaxation. Wealthy men have been
of special service to the cause of agriculture by promoting the
breeding of improved live stock. Men in other callings should clearly
understand, however, that if they have a farm merely as a place to
spend a week end, that they may expect to find the financial returns
unsatisfactory.

To no one is there more significance in the old school aphorism
"knowledge is power" than to the young man who is to become a farmer.
While it is not necessary to be educated in schools in order to gain
knowledge, yet the schoolroom with all its limitations is usually the
most economical and most efficient method of acquiring certain forms of
knowledge essential to every successful man or woman. A farm-to-farm
canvass of a certain region of the state of New York discloses the fact
that farmers with college training are obtaining a higher income from
their farms than those whose school days ended with high school.
Similarly, those who have finished the high school are more prosperous
financially than those who never advanced beyond the grades. The
investigation showed, for example, that with the farmers under
observation the high school education was equivalent to $6,000 worth of
5% bonds. Farming is an occupation requiring keen observation, sound
judgment and accurate reasoning, all attributes which are strengthened
greatly by proper education. This is so true that many men, perhaps
most men, are forty before they have grasped the problems which the
truly successful farmer must solve.

A considerable part of the knowledge essential to success in any
pursuit is acquired by actually working at the occupation, or, as we
say, by practical experience. Some features of any occupation can be
obtained in no other way. A preliminary education may, however,
great