OHIO FARMERS

Waipa Post, Volume 38, Issue 2270, 19 February 1929, Page 2

OHIO FARMERS

NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS. Latest American files to hand publish the following message from Cleveland:— This is the week for resolutions to make the New Year, 1929, more profitable, to make home more comfortable, and to view the farm is more optimistic vein than in the past. Believing that each farmer can accomplish more to improve conditions about his farm through his own efforts than any legislative body can do for him, we are assuming that the average farmer of Ohio is studying his programme for 1929; and in the light of experimental evidence and the experience of most successful farmers, he makes these resolutions for the coming year, says the Ohio Farmer:— I.—l resolve to show no inferiority complex in my business. Agriculture is still the one great industry of the State. It is basic. It is dignified. No farmer needs self pity. 2.—1 resolve to keep accounts of my business. An annual inventory plus an account of income and expense for the year will be a wise use of time. Every business firm demands it. This farm is going to be classed as a business firm henceforth.

3.—1 resolve to study my market:) and produce a high quality product that my market demands. Ohio has more large cities than any other State

in the Union. Those people mast be fed. Dairy products, poultry and eggs, fruits and vegetables, are increasing in consumption in Ohio. Meats—pork, beef, mutton—a?:e always in demand, too. 4.—1 resolve to enlarge my legume acreage. Legumes will cheapen my rations, supply high priced protein and minerals, and besides give a greater tonnage per acre. Alfalfa, sweet clover, soybeans, red clover, all need a greater place on Ohio farms. They will build up our soils, make farms more productive, provide more hay and a more nutritious feed in respect to protein and mineral nutriment.

5.—1 resolve to keep only purebred sires. Competition in farming is too keen in Ohio to-day to allow a place for scrub or grade sires. Less than five per cent of our livestock are purebred. Pure breeding spells advancement and profits. This same principle can be applied in crop production also. Pure seeds mean larger yields and lower costs.

6.—1 resolve to improve my acre yields. Ohio must not be content with an average yield of 15 bushels of wheat, 37 of corn, or 35 of oats. Many successful farmers average twice those figures. The experiment station shows that a 34 bushel crop cost 85 cents a bushel, while a 17 bushel crop the same year cost one dollar 45 cents. As much fertility is lost from barnyards by leaching of manure as is bought in commercial fertilisers. Manure, fertilisers, lime, legumes, good seed, proper machinery and cultural practices will increase yields per acre, lower the cost of a bushel of grain and make Ohio soils more profitable. 7. —I resolve to cull my livestock. Fully a fourth of Ohio's dairy cows and hens do not pay their way. With better breeding, records of productions to enable us to cull out poor producers, and more intelligent feeding, the same production in dairy products and eggs is possible with only two-thirds as many cows and hens. 8. —I resolve to install some labour saving equipment on my farm this year. About the barn this may mean a hay fork, litter carrier, milking machine, separator, silo, concrete floors or mangers, water system, electric lights, a gas engine, re-arran-gement of feed pens and the like. On the farm it may mean new machinery, a tractor, a four row cultivator, a gang plough—multiple hitch to work four or five horses and fire the extra Ihtired man, a power sprayer, electric power plant, or some other muchneeded machinery." Likely I can rearrange some fields, make them larger, fill some ditches, and clean out some fence rows, to make my tractor and large machinery more effective and save my time. 9.. —I resolve to lighten my wife's work by at least one new convenience. This may be some major convenience, such as installation of a water system, a sewage disposal system, a furnace, electric lights, rearrangement of rooms, rearrangement of kitchen; or it may mean adding some appliance to what she already has; an electric epuipment, new furniture, a better stove, or even a radio. ,

10.—I resolve to encourage my children towards right living. This might come by their joining a 4-H club, a school orchestra, or team; their activity in grange or church; or their reading good magazines. It will come, too, by my own example. There should be some farm project the boy can call his own—a calf, a pig, the chickens, a plot in potatoes or some other crop. There should be some project for the girl, too—clothing,

canning, or something of that nature, perhaps. This year the children should have a chance to develop their own initiative and responsibility. 11. —I resolve this year to be a better neighbour. I am going to help my neighbour more in his work, give him the benefit of my experience, cooperate with him in religious, education and social activities, and not scold about line fences, ditches, breachy stock and such things that are as much my fault as his.

12.—1 resolve to make this a better rural community. The church, the school and the farm organisations deserve the support of all farmers. Cp-operation through grange, farm bureau, marketing organisations and kindred rural groups will go a long way toward a solution of the ills of agriculture. Participation in elections and public office are also a part of rural citizenship that must not be dodged. These dozen resolutions for 1929 may not apply to all of you. However, no doubt there is one at least that fits you. The Ohio Farmer concludes: Read them over again and pick out that one. If every farmer carried out just one of these resolutions through the new year, Ohio agriculture would make another grand step forward.