Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 104, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 May 1916 — HE WENT HIM ONE BETTER [ARTICLE]

HE WENT HIM ONE BETTER

Crop Story Which is Quite as Good as the Old One of the Fisherman. Crop stories quite frequently rival “fish stories” in their tendency to exceed the speed limit, in crossing the boundary line of veracity, the bigness of pumpkins and the immensity of cabbages, apples or potatoes equaling any big flslrever described. Now the capacity of soils for raising things and “starting something” to grow, claims attention. Here is a story of fertile land told by Dr. Nathan C. Schaeffer, as a joke on himself, remarks the Springfield (Mass.) Union. The richness of soil was being discussed with a woman farmer from the Dakotas. Doctor Schaeffer glorified the crop possibilities of his Lancaster county by saying: ‘Why, in our county the soil is so rich that if you stick a nail into the ground, the next morning it has grown Into a crowbar.” Whereupon the other replied: "Yes, I know, but in our county we use a tack for that purpose.”