Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1906-03-26

THE BUSINESS OF FARMING.

10 SOhiO w II hSCA5 Vi any SSAA
try in the annals of the worlds agri-
culture.
The wealth production on farms IN
the United States reached last year
the highest amount ever attained by
the farmers of this or any other coun-
try, a stupendous aggregate of results
of brain and muscle and machine,
amounting in value to Sc, Ale, 900 900.
The American farmer is held up as
one of the best types of the American
citizen. His independence, his pros
perity and his social condition impress
foreigners. The Anne rican farmer as
a matter of fact enjoys more advan-
tages than any other class of toilers In
the nation. The great part that he
plays in the world as a feeder of the
nations alone would entitle him to a..
high degree of dignity and self
respect.
Both as an effect and a cause of this
condition we find that farming has
come to be recognized more and more
as a business and a profession than as
a dull, laborious method of obtaining
a livelihood.
The change that has taken place in
this respect is stupendous. The bust
ness management which is devoted
today to the conduct of a farm was
practically unknown a generation or
two ago, and the business system and
method that are to be found in agti-
culture were developed much earlier
and more extensively in other Amer
iean industries.
The reason for this is plain. The
American farmer enjoyed exceptional
natural advantages. Unlimited soil
fertility and large acreage were the
most conspicuous of these. Later the
appreciation of land values and the
invention of improved machinery
were additional advantages of great
value.
Marvellous as the farm production
of America has been, however, it is to
be noted that it has not reached any
thing like it's limit. 1t may be sail,
indeed, to have been only partially
developed.
This is due to the fact that, while
} the application of business system and
} method to agriculture in America has
been very marked it has been by no
means universal. The study of farm
management has not even been ex-
tensive among American %agricultur-
} lists until within a comparatively re-
cent period of time.
The important subject of crop rota-
ton alone received measurably little
attention, although in these latter
days the department of agriculture
has expended an immense lot of prof
liable energy in awakening interest ir
these matters as parts of a scientific
4 business proposition. The farmer
suffers also frcm the fact that hi
profits are kept at a low point by thu
monopolies among the interests tina
handle the produces Of the farm. T.
= remedy this copci ion, cooperative
creameries ard butcher shops an
farmers elevators have beea estab
/; lished to enable the agriculturist t
a sell his goods at a better price.
+ As a rule the American agriculture
is responding to the invitation whic
a the department Mt of agriculture extend
. to explore the mysteries of such sci
- entifc subjects as soils and the!
. properties, the chemistry of food
plant-breeding, variety-testing, an
the breeding and feeding of live stool
b. Investigation of these fields is yielG
IN ing quick and profitable returns.
IS, But a short time back the conditio
"a of the average farm presented lit
y trace of business system. Drainae
- often was neglected, crops were RI
Ii. tated only as chance determined, an
o.. live stock was raised with little ru
en- or order, regarded as a business il
vestment.
IN Thousands of farmers in the mo-
opulent agricultural regions of tt
~ country still conduct their farms in
1v haPhazard way, but everywhere tt
advantage and necessity of the bus
to ness spirit are being recognized.
Sc: The west has been warned, for e.
Wy ample, that the fertilizer problem
the east and south will have to be m
d. before many decades unless the sol
are put under better rotations, al
Us economy of land is being preacbe
O 1t is now generally accepted as
IN truism that the better the busine
man the agriculturist of today b
tie Gomez, the nor profitable will
led found that occupation which once W
'od described by a keen, though n
oc' wholly wise farmer, in the stateme
that "farmin' amt all keepin' boob