Visit "Show You" Farm

By Mrs. A.J. Wilder

Prosperity and Happiness is Found on a 25-Acre Plot

There is at least one Missourian who is not asking to be “shown.” A.C. Barton of Show You Farm says Missouri people have said “show me” long enough and they should now say “I will show you,” which he is proceeding to do.

Mr. Barton used to be a Methodist preacher. He says that no one ever accused him of being the best preacher at the  St.Louis conference, but they did all acknowledge that he was the best farmer among them. He thought perhaps he had made a mistake like the man who saw, in a vision, the letters G.P.C and thought he had a call to preach, the letters standing for “Go Preach Christ” Later he decided  that the letters meant “Go Plow Corn,” so Mr. Barton made up his mind to follow the profession in which he excelled. He came to Mountain Grove from Dallas county, Nebraska, 8 years ago.

While waiting for his train in Kansas City, Mr. Barton noticed a man, also waiting, surrounded by bundles and luggage. For some reason Mr. Barton thought he was from the Ozarks and approaching him asked:

“Are you from Missouri?”

“Yes sir,” answered the man.

“Are there any farms for sale down there where you came from?” Mr. Barton asked.

“Yes, sir. They’re all for sale,” replied the man from the Ozarks.

While that might have been true at the time, it would not be true now, for Show You Farm is not for sale.

When Mr. Barton bought his 80-acre farm on the “post oak flats” near Mountain Grove, the people he met gave him the encouragement usually given the new comers in the Ozarks. They told him the land was good for nothing, that he could not raise anything on it.

One man remarked in his hearing, “These new comers are workers, “ and another replied:”They’ll have to work if they make a living on that place. Nobody’s ever done it yet.”

So “everybody works” and “father.” The proprietors of Show You Farm are A.C. Barton, Nora L. Barton and family.

They soon found there was more work on an 80-acre farm than they could handle, for while there were eight in the family, the six children were small, so it was decided to adjust the work to the family and 40 acres of the land, on which were the improvements, were sold for $2,500. Later 15 acres more were sold for $600. As the place had cost only $40 an acre that left only $100 as the cost of the 25-acre farm that was kept.

These 25 acres of unimproved, poor land have been made into a truly remarkable little farm. During last season it produced the following crops: Ten acres of corn, 400 bushels; 2 acres of oats, 80 bushels; 1 acre of millet hay, 2 tons; 1 acre of sorghum, 115 gallons of molasses; cowpeas, 100 bushels. Besides these crops there was a 5-acre truck patch which furnished a good income thru the summer, but of which no account was kept. There has been sold off the place this last season livestock amounting to $130, poultry $15, butter $250, and grain $35. The rest of the grain was still on the place when this was written. Not bad for a 25-acre farm, is it?

As there is a young orchard of 3 acres, a pasture of 3 acres and necessarily some ground used for building sites, you may wonder where the cowpeas were raised. Mr. Barton plants cowpeas with all the other crops. He says it is the surest, quickest and cheapest way to build up the soil. When garden crops are harvested cowpeas are planted in their place, they follow the oats and rye and are planted with the corn.

There never has been a pound of commercial fertilizer used on Show You Farm. When clearing his land, Mr. Barton traded wood for stable manure in the town, so that he paid, with his labor, for 300 tons of stable fertilizer. Except for this, the soil has been built up by rotation of crops and raising cowpeas, until from a complete failure of the corn crop the first year, because of poverty of the soil, last year’s bountiful crops were harvested.

By the good farming methods of the Barton family they made their land bring them an average of $30 an acre even in the last dry seasons.

Mr. Barton believes in cultivation, both with plows and by hand. He is old fashioned enough to hoe his corn. A neighbor passing and seeing him hoeing said, “If I can’t raise corn without hoeing it I won’t raise it,” and he didn’t for it was a dry season. As Mr. Barton says, “The reason there are so many POOR farmers is because there are so many poor FARMERS.” For the last four years Show You Farm has taken the blue ribbon for general farm exhibit at the Tri-county Stock show at Mountain Grove and never less than eight blue ribbons in all.

The Barton children have no idea of leaving the farm. They are too much interested in their business for they are full partners with their parents. Mr. Barton says it is easy to interest children in the farm. All that is necessary is to talk to them about the work as it is going on and let them help to plan.

When he is planting the crops he plans with them about the results. “Let’s figure it,” he will say. “If we plant a hill of cantaloupes every 4 feet, we ought to raise two on every hill and if we sell them for 5 cents each that will bring us $128 an acre. But we should do better than that, we ought to make them bring us $300 an acre.” And by explained to them how to do this they are interested and eager to see how much they can make. The children work better when they are interested, Mr. Barton says, and they are willing to stay on the farm.

It is not all work and money making at the Barton home, however. In strawberry time the Sunday school is invited out and treated to strawberries with cream and sugar. Last season it took 8 gallons of strawberries to supply the feast. When melons are ripe there is another gathering and sometimes as many as 100 persons enjoy the delicious treat.

In the long winter evenings work and pleasure are mixed and while on of the family reads aloud some interesting book, the others shell the cowpeas that have been gathered in the fall.

Mr. Barton has not been allowed to drop all his outside activities. He has been elected secretary of the Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance Company and is helping them to organize for their mutual benefit. Also his services are often in demand to supply a country pulpit here and there, for once a Methodist preacher a man is always more or less a Methodist preacher, and as Mr. Barton goes on his daily way, both by acts and words, he is preaching kindness, helpfulness and the brotherhood of man.

He also preaches an agricultural theology. He says that robbing the soil is a sin, the greatest agricultural sin, and that like every other sin it brings its own punishment.

That Mr. Barton has not committed that sin, one is assured when looking over the farm and what he has accomplished is certainly encouraging for the man with a bit of poor land. Mr. Barton’s advice to such a man is “not to go looking for a better place but MAKE one.”

The Barton farmstead is built on rather an original plan. The house is 38 by 24 feet, with a kitchen at the back, 12x14 feet. Joining the back porch of this kitchen is a concrete store room 12x12 feet with the well in a corner, and joining this store room is a long shed 44x56 feet. This is all under one roof and is 170 feet long. It is planned to soon build a barn beyond and joining the shed. It will then be 200 feet from the front door to the back and visitors will be welcome all the way.

Mrs. A.J. Wilder. "Visit 'Show You' Farm." Missouri Ruralist (March 20, 1918): 20-21.

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