Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-04-18
Skim Milk Farming.

III JIG ScCClOu L IlVC III Guc ldIIlcFS
m chiefly engaged in wheat raising,
with a growing tendency in the direc-
ton of stock and dairy farming. Care
full estimates have placed the actual
cost of producing a bushel of wheat in
this section at not far from ~sixty-tive
cents T; this does not include depreci-
alton in land nor cost of transport alton
by rail, or otherwise, to the markets of
the world. These expenses aggregat at
least twenty-five cents more, and when
the wheat is placed in any market
where it will bring 81 per bushel, the
cost of production and transport
tat,on have run up to at least
ninety cents. The crop of 1913
marketed in my town aggregated
$4,000 bushels, worth in Chicago some
thing like half a million dollars, on
which the farmers have realized q profit
of not more than ten per cent, OF $780,
90, in this favorable wheat year. The
freight tariff alone on this wheat
amounts, however, to $4,000, and as
the cost of transported on affects the
price paid, this enormous tax really
falls ulon the farmers. Their expenses
for freight alone are therefore moe
Vld1 NOuOlC CllO PlOAGos
Now, assuming that stock and dairy
farming are, of themselves, quite as
profitable as wheat f%arming-in
other words, that it costs no
more to produce a given amount
in butter or beef than the same
amount in wheat Gan assumption most
favorable JUDGED to the wheat Interest,",
it is easy to estimate the benefit
the farmer might receive in this
one item alone, by c~ondensing his
products.
Half a million dollars worth of live
| stock could be sent to the Chica o mar
ket at an expense of not to e tceed $685.
600, and thus of this S115,0 600 freight
expense incident to wheat raising, there
would have been saved, to the farmers
profit, $50. 900.
The same product in pork and beef
would have gone to the same market
at an expense of not to exceed 1926, 0O0,
and thus another $4,000 of freight
might have been saved-all clear profit.
The same amount in cheese would
have required the expenditure of but
S15, 900 in freight, instead of SIZE, 900,
and thus an even $4,000 of expense
ulSuU udVO UCcu odtCu w CAC AnAAAClSs
Just twice the amount of their profits
on wheat; and on divid ng it up among
the 200 or more farmers each would
have u balance of $500 to show for
every 800 he realized on wheat.
In the production of butter the differ
ence is still more to his advantage. To
ship $500, 900 worth of butter would
cost not more than from $1,000 to
So, 900 is place of the S115,0 00, and
thus about 33 per cent. of the costs of
wheat tran sportation would be saved,
and The farmers supposed profit of 70
per cent. would be increased to o
slider ,bly over 80 per cent. of the
! pros receipts. Putting it in a different
forr and we find that the Southwestern
Minnesota farmer. who produces good
butter, pays oat for transportation to
market but 2 per cent. of the value OF
his product. The cheese producer pays
out from 8! to 4 per cent. The pork
and beef producer pays from 8 to 6 per
cent. and the live stock shipper from Z
to 8 per cent; but the wheat farmer
settles his little freight account by turn
inc over from % to 25 pei cent of all
the gross receipts of his crop, and a
large share, if not all, of the balance
goes for other expenses.
@ The wheat farmer is content to take
his small pittance of gain in skim-mllk,
while the miIlers' associations, the
speculators, and the railroads AXE all
the cream of his crop.-from a paper
, bv II. b. Heard, read before the NJ W.
Dairvaaens' Associatton.-