The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1898-12-22
The 0f1cial Paper Of San Juan County
THURSDAY. DEC. %, 1928.
AN IMPORTANT QUESTION.

"Instead of telling us farmers how
to raise more produce, wish you
would tell us how to sell at profit
what we do raise"
So wrote a farmer recently to the
Country Gentleman, the leading agri-
cultural paper of the United States,
and this is the editorial reply:
"Let us discuss the problem. We
take it you mean that you wish ways
and means provided by which you
can sell at profit whatever you may
have to spare. That is, you want the
market to fit your products rather
than your products to fit the demand
of the market. If this is fair state
ment, you are asking much. If a
manufacturer finds that he has been
turning out goods which the public
has little desire for, he clears them out
at whatever he can get, and tries to
become wiser by his mistakes and
meet the demand more accurately
next time.
eff shopkeeper in your village has
an overstock Of some particular line of
goods, he does not ask you and your
neighbOr to buy them at a fair profit
to him, regardless of whether you need
them or not. If he did, you would
laugh at him. His only remedy is to
put his wares on the bargain counter,
and make the price such that the pub.
lie will be induced to buy. If his in
vestment has been so unfortunate as
to make him a loss, you do not feel
so sorry for him as to feel obliged to
buy them at price that the seller
thinks he would like to have.
''If the manufacturers and merchants
suffer from insists on the market, why
should an exception be made in your
case? The manufacturers and the
merchants have many more points to
their problem than has the farmer
Beside the cost of the article, there are
the whims of fashion, the change of
seasons and many other vagaries;
while with the farmer, the main point
of consideration is cost of production.
The bulk of what he has to sell is to
be eaten, aud the the human appetite
has never yet gone out of fashion and is
with us at all times of the year. If q
manufacturer or merchant can secure
goods ten per cent below his competi-
tor, he has an advantage that will
make him master of the trade. All
farmers are competitors. Are you sure
none of your competitors are produc-
ing farm products ten per cent less
than you are? In fact, do you know
what your products are costing you !?
Do you know the cost of pound of
butter or pound of pork, a bushel of
potatoes or bushel Of corn or wheat T?
A manufacturer would know. AS COM
petition in producing farm products
continues, you also will have to know
or go to the wall. How can you have
the courage to ask that the world buy
your goods at paying price when
you cannot tell what the price should
be?
Competition in farm products has
come to be nearly as strong as competi-
ton in manufactured goods-a COM
petition so keen that only the strongest
succeed and all the weaker fail. In
these later years, lead pencil has be-
come very important farm nipple
ment. Not only that, but a farmer
should know the principles of his
business. Can you tell us in general
way how plant grows? With the
present competition, something more
than hard work and pinching economy
is required for success in farming"
There is undoubtedly a good deal Of
good sense in the above answer to the
farmers inquiry, and yet after all il
borders little on begging his question
The necessity for not only good bust.
ness management but also for the ap
plication ofapproved scientific methods
in order to make farming profitable il
becoming more and more apparent
with each passing year, but so also Is
the importance of placing a much
larger portion Of the country's vas
fsurplus' of agricultural product.
within the reach of the hundreds O
thousands Of our own people who fine
IT difficult and at times impossible t.
obtain the commonest necessaries O
life, and whose palates are seldom
tickled by the taste of fresh butter
eggsor fruit. Certainly farmers should
not be asked or expected to suppl,
them at lower prices than they now do
though their attention may properl,
enough be directed to the importance
TO themselves, of cheapening the cos
OF production by the application o
scientific principles in cultivation ant
the same careful management that i
essential to success in any business.
THAT was was an eloquentAnd force
ftpl