In 1912 the association built a potato warehouse at a cost of about $2,500, and we store the members’ potatoes for them at a nominal cost.  In 1914 the association decided to put in a stock of flour and feed and keep the manager the year around.  Our business in this line has been increasing all the time.  It is very interesting to note that over 60 per cent of our flour and feed customers are not members of the association.

We are growing all the time and branching out.  A few months ago we added a small stock of hardware and some groceries, and these have taken so well that we would not be at all surprised if eventually we find ourselves in the retail store business.

Evergreens for Both Utility and Ornament.

Earl Ferris, nurseryman, Hampton, Iowa.

As far as horticulture is concerned, the only touch of color on the Northwestern landscape during the coming winter will be furnished by the greens and blues of evergreens.

Did you ever pass a farm home in the winter that was protected by a good evergreen grove and notice how beautiful it looked?  Did you ever stop to think of the difference in temperature that an evergreen grove makes, to say nothing of the contrast in the appearance of the place to that of a home with no grove?

[Illustration:  A shelter of old Scotch pine at Mr. Earl Ferris’.]

When I was a small boy I was fortunate enough to be raised on a farm in Butler County, Iowa, that was well protected by a good Norway spruce, white pine and Scotch pine windbreak.  The Norway spruce and white pine are still there and if anything better than they were thirty years ago.  At that time my father fed from one to five carloads of stock every winter back of this grove, and I honestly believe that he fed his steers at a cost of from $5 to $15 per steer less than a neighboring feeder who fed out on the open prairie with a few sheds to furnish the only winter protection.  I shall never forget the remark a German made who was hauling corn to us one cold winter day.  As he drove onto the scales back of this grove, he straightened up and said:  “Well, the evergreen grove feels like putting on a fur coat,” and I never heard the difference in temperature described any better.  Our evergreen grove moved our feeding pens at least 300 miles further south every winter, as far as the cold was concerned.

[Illustration:  Thrifty windbreak of Norway spruce at Mr. Earl Ferris’ place, in Hampton, Ia.]

Near Hampton, Iowa, we have three or four of the best stock raisers in the United States.  Every one of them is feeding cattle back of a large evergreen grove.  In recent years they have divided up some of their large farms into smaller places and made new feeding sheds, and the first improvement that they made on each and every one of these places was an evergreen grove.  They buy the best trees that can be obtained that have been transplanted and root pruned, and most of them prefer the Norway spruce in the two to three foot size.  After planting, they take as good care of them as they do of any crop on the farm, for they fully realize that cultivation is an all important thing in getting a good evergreen grove started.