HISTORY OF FAMILY AND FARMS ARE PRESERVED; DESPITE HARD TIMES, CENTURY FARMS CARRY ON TRADITIONS PASSED BETWEEN THE GENERATIONS

HORSE POWER: Ralph Exler of Egypt Mills drives a horse-drawn hay rake on the Henry Steinhoff farm west of Egypt Mills in the late 1940s. Like many area farmers, Exler, who is now 78, used horse-drawn farming implements as late as the 1950s. Exler farmed in the Egypt Mills area all his life, farming his father Ben Exler's farm until retiring two years ago. (RALPH EXLER COLLECTION)

Elmer Bartels is well-acquainted with tradition. He is the fourth generation of his family to operate a 190-acre grain and livestock farm near Whitewater.

"This farm has been in the family since 1878," said the younger Bartels, who also operates a second farm adjacent to the original land. "My great-great grandparents purchased the farm. My dad, who still lives on the farm, operated it until about two years ago."

The Bartels farm, located on Route A about a mile east of Whitewater, is the latest farm to join the Missouri Century Farm Program. The program recognizes farm owners who have farmland that has been in their families for 100 years or more, said Gerald Bryan, area agronomist for University Extension in Cape Girardeau County.

"We're excited about the program," said Bartels. "Farming was once the primary way of life throughout the U.S. and the world, but the farming crowd is dwindling, and this is a great chance for people to recognize the history of their forebears."

The Century Farm program has been a popular one with Missouri farmers.

"We have about 45 Cape Girardeau County farms on the Century Farm program," said a spokesman of the Jackson Extension office. "Two the Bartels Farm and the Emanuel Geiser Farm were announced in February of this year, and seven were announced in 1991."

The Century Farm Program was initiated in 1986 as a continuation of the "Centennial Farm" program of 1976, a one-year program for the American Revolution Bicentennial Year. At that time, 2,850 Missouri Farms were recognized as Centennial Farms.

"These are two different programs," said Bryan. "The Century program was started a decade later, in 1986."

Since 1986, more than 4,250 Missouri farms and families have been recognized through the Century program.

"The Century program is a good honor for both the county and the people involved," said Bryan. "It keeps history within the family."

The Century Farm Program is jointly administered by the University of Missouri-Columbia College of Agriculture and University Extension, along with the Cape Girardeau County Extension Council as co-sponsor.

Acceptance of a farm as a Century Farm depends upon three guide~lines: The farm must have been owned by the same family for 100 years or more; the family must consist of direct descendants only (sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters) and the farm must consist of no fewer than 40 acres and still make a contribution to overall farm income.

"We still operate the farm as a grain and livestock farm," said Bartels. "We produce corn, soybeans, milo and wheat, and raise cattle."

Some of the fifth-generation Bartels also lend a hand on the farm occasionally.

Bartels and his wife, Mabelene, are parents of three sons, Larry, 26, Mike, 24, and Wayne, 20.

"They all have jobs," said Bartels, "but they come back to the farm on some weekends to help."

The oldest Cape Girardeau County farm included on the Missouri Century Farm Program is what was once known as the "Fair Lawn Plantation," near Jackson.

The farm has been in the family almost 200 years, said a great-great-great grandson of the original owner of the farm, William Daugherty, who received a land grant for 123 acres in 1796.

A two-story brick home on the property was constructed more than 135 years ago, in 1855, said Williams.

Another Cape Girardeau County farm that has been under one family flag for about 150 years is the Wills Farm, in the Oak Ridge area.

David H. Wills homesteaded a farm in Cape Girardeau County in 1843, left the area in 1849 to participate in the great California gold rush, then returned to the area to work the land.

Wills' farm, now owned by a great-great grandson, is still being worked, and it is among the older Cape Girardeau County farms to be listed in the Missouri Century Farm Program.

When it comes to farming in the 1990s in Cape Girardeau County, "less is more."

Farming, once the way of life throughout much of the nation, is still vitally important to both the nation's marketbasket and its culture. But in recent years fewer farms are doing more production.

"Farms are continuing a long-time trend of getting smaller in number while their average size increases," says Tim Birk, director of the Cape Girardeau County Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Services (ASCS) in Jackson. "The average farm size of the 1880s was about 125 acres, and there were almost 2,500 farms in the county, with about 1,900 farm owners."

U.S. Census of Agriculture figures now show about 1,365 farms in Cape Girardeau County, with about 1,200 owners.

"These are 1987 totals," said Birk. "We show about 2,300 farms in the county now."

Totals can vary, depending on what is considered a farm.

"We count farms of three and four acres if they are being worked," said Birk.

More specifically, the U.S. Agriculture Department defines a farm as "any establishment from which $1,000 or more of agricultural products are sold or would normally be sold during a year." Government payments are included in the sales.

The Department of Agriculture reveals that in 1850, there was about 173,000 acres of farm land being worked in Cape County. By 1880, this figure had grown to 298,000 acres, divided among 2,381 farmers, for an average of 125 acres each.

In 1910, more than 2,700 farmers were farming 348,957 acres. From that point, the number of farms and owners started a downward spiral to its current totals.

"We have about 195,000 acres of cropland acres in the county now," said Birk. "That does not include woodlands."

The agriculture department in 1987 showed 974 sole owners, and 281 part-owners of more than 1,300 farms in the county, which averaged about 195 acres each.

Prices of land have also increased and decreased over the years, according to the agriculture department survey.

In 1850, land and buildings were valued at $5.06 an acre. It reached an early century high of $69.74 an acre in 1920, but did not reach the $100 an acre mark until 1950 at $121.03. Land prices continued to escalate each year, until they hit a high of $1,100 in 1982.

Estimates by the Agriculture Department show there are more than 2.1 million farms in the United States today. The total land in farms is estimated at 982.6 million acres.

The number of farms has continued to decline faster than land in farms, with the average farm size increasing from 461 acres in 1990 to 467 in 1992.

Missouri is second on the list of states having the most farms with 107,000 farms, down 1,000 from 1990 totals. Only Texas, with a total of 185,000 farms, outranks Missouri. Illinois is considerably down the list, with 82,000 farms.

The number of farms in the United States generally increased in the early part of this century, peaking at more than 6.8 million in 1935 during the Great Depression.

Although there have been occasional upward blips, the trend since 1935 has been downward, reflecting further mechanization and the migration of farm people to urban areas.

Scientific advances since the 1800s have made farming increasingly more productive.

In 1850, each farmer in the United States produced on the average enough food for five persons. The majority of people lived on farms. Today, each farmer produces enough food for nearly 80 persons while only four percent of the population live on farms.

Automation and modernization of equipment for both crop production, and the raising of farm animals, have resulted in higher production totals over the years.