PLAN No. 770. NORTHWEST FARMER BELIEVES IN DIVERSIFIED FARMING
In the Northwest much of the land is summer-fallowed every other year, and when the land can be put to profitable use those years it means much to the profit end of farming. Here is what a man did near Colfax, Washington. His statement is as follows:
“Four years ago I fenced my ranch with hog-tight woven wire fence and purchased a bunch of hogs. The first year I sold $1,400 worth of hogs and have averaged $2,000 per year ever since. I also purchased some sheep and found that by running them between harvest and summer-fallow I was able to keep down the weeds. I made a profit on my sheep in both wool and mutton. I believe that if diversified farming is followed, sixty to eighty acres is enough for one family in this locality.”
PLAN No. 771. WHAT A FARMER DID FOR HIS LAND
Here is his statement:
“It is my intention to abandon the practice of summer-fallow altogether here by growing peas and other crops that can be grown to advantage on the land. To-day, May 23rd, we are cultivating our peas, and after one more cultivation they will be ready to lay by until harvesting. A piece of wheat planted on ground cultivated to peas and hogged-off last fall, stands four inches higher than any other wheat on the place. I believe in alfalfa, clover and peas and the stock to consume them, in order to return the manure to the soil.”
Thousands of acres of land in the past few years have been put to peas and a good profit has been obtained.
PLAN No. 772. WESTERN FARMER’S EXPERIENCE
He lives in the Palouse farming district in the State of Washington and makes the following statement:
“In 1915, fifty acres of wheat planted on corn land gave me $1,000 after all expenses were paid. This was more than double the returns from fifty acres of land that had grown wheat continuously or been summer-fallowed. The same year fifty acres of corn brought me $600; that is, from corn, potatoes, beans, etc. I sold seed corn to neighbors, to poultry raisers and sold corn-fat hogs, and had left all my feed for two cows and five horses for a year. My fifty acres of wheat on stalk land, the neighbors will tell you, is the finest field to be found in this section of the country.”