The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1876-06-15
Weigh or Measure Farm Products.

IL every 1hiulcT WOulu weigh Ut MEAS
ure his products correctly before sending
or hauling them to market, he might es-
cape much annoyance as we'll as direct
loss. Although we begin our investiga-
lions into the cause Of so much complaint
of short weight or measure in farm pro-
ducts reaching the markets by assuming
that both buyer and seller are strictly
honest, there is still left abundance of room
for errors which may engender much bit
ter feeling between dealers. There are
very few farmers who possess correct
scales with which to weigh all articles
sold by weight, before they are taken to
market; hence there is much guessing
where actual knowledge might be en-
ployeds instead. The bushel or half bush
el measures employed are usually little
better than guesses at the quantity they
are supposed to hold, and disappointments
or actual losses follow their use. If a
farmer sends the grocer six bushels of
potatoes or apples, and only charges for
five, the difference is seldom made up, for
it is rule of trade for both parties to
farmer should provide himself with cor
rect scales and measures, and then care
fully weigh or measure every article, and
AOIC uONA tAC ~ lCdNCS
his premises. Then he will have the
means Of knowing positively whether
cheating is attempted, or successfully
practiced by those who purchase his pro-
ducts. Without some such precautionary
whether they are honest or otherwise.
Of course it is not to be supposed that
every farmer can afford to purchase large
! 1of ooo1oc nf inY,f corncit1y IN
weigh load Of hay or coal but a num-
an entire neighborhood. But every far
mer who raises anything to sell can GER
tainly afford to own scales of sufficient
capacity to weigh all small articles rang
ing from fifty to five hundred pounds.
Correct weights and measures promote
correct habits, and a man who makes a
practice of taking facts as basis for his
operations on the farm will soon get in
the way of studying loss and gain in the
results. If he should have two COWS CIV
ing the same quantity of milk per diem,
and if, from actual test, the milk of one
yielded twenty per cent. more butter than
the other, he would very naturally place
corresponding valuation on each, keep
ing aud breeding from the best, and sell
| ing the other. BY correctly weighing or
measuring all the products of the farm, a
man soon discovers whether he is making
or losing in following any particular sys-
tenn of culture, as we'll as what kind of
stock is best adapted to his locality or cir
cumstances.
1t is this exactness in all things pertain
ing to farming which makes the difference
between what is called scientific agricul-
| <,,ro In r,rco;onfiEo ou1 c1nron1xy
man cannot tell how many pounds of
whether it makes any difference to what
breed Of hogs it is fed, he is certainly
cropping in the dark, and will never reach
profit on the amount of capital and labor
as is generally claimed, 1t must be owing
it. The groceryman who buys pork fol
eight knows the amount of profit; but the
farmer can seldom tell whether he makes
or loses money when disposing of it al
market prices, for he has neither weighed
nor measured the materials from which il
has been produced.
| Whenever farmer can put his finger
upon the figures which will inform him
just how much it costs TO produce apound
of pork, beef, mutton or wool, as well as 9
bushel of corn, oats, wheat, or othel
grain. he will possess pretty safe guide
for future operations. If pork shows
most profit. then he has only to push his
whole strength and capital in that direc
ton and the same will be true with othel
products of the farm This positive
knowledge of farm. operations can be OBJ
tanned as readily as the manufacturers o.
cloth can ascertain how much each yaro
costs, delivered on the counters of theil
customers. When farmers learn to DE-
this, then, and not till then, will they
know Just what can or cannot be made i1
farming.-N. Y. SIM.