Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 69, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 May 1907 — ADVICE THAT PAID. [ARTICLE]

ADVICE THAT PAID.

Clergyman Who Found the Agricultural Department Reliable. A few years ago a clergyman who had injured his health retired from the vineyard of the Lord to 15 poor acres in Pennsylvania. He knew absolutely nothing about farming. From, the different parts of his little field he sent samples of. soil to the Agricultural Department at Washington and asked for guidance, and he got it. The scientists were delighted to encounter a man who had no inherited agricultural prejudices to uproot. He was ready to plow according to the rules laid down in the pamphlets and to treat his stock scientifically. The farm, because of its good house, cost the preacher $7,000. His own faith in the ability of the Agricultural Department so make it pay, and the friendliness of a parishioner, enabled him to get the place on credit. He has conducted his crops with strict fiedlity to instructions from Washington. The result is that within a few years ho paid off tho $7,000 mortgage, with interest. has an accumulating balance in the bank,' and is deriving from his 15 acres an annual income of $2,000. The Department of Agriculture Ims published an account of this preacher’s remarkably successful experiment, describing his 15 acres as a model American farm.