Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1907-01-03
Farming as a Business.

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The Minnesota Experiment Station
has issued bulletin relating to the
cost Of production of farm products.
It covers a period Of investigation
extending over the years 1902, 1903,
1904 and 1905. The bulletin is val
uable one and though we give our
readers large part Of it here we
should advise them to send for the
bulletin, No. 81, and to study it
carefully. A good many farmers will
disagree with the results obtained by
the Investigation, but they are nm
deniably pursuing the correct me-
thods and it is only a question of
time before they will reach a correct
basis for making estimates of cost of
production:
Industry in the United States has
enjoyed and will continue to enjoy
natural advantages that can not be
duplicated in any other region of tine
earth. All classes of productive
workers have shared in these natural
advantages. Progress in. mining,
numbering, manufacturing, railroad
ing, and agriculture has been rapid
and comparatively easy in the United
States because of the abundance and
accessibility of the raw materials for
production. American Industries are
leading the world to-day partly by
reason of natural advantages, partly
by reason of the American faculty
for discovery and invention, and
partly by reason of the Americans
application of system and organiza-
ton to industry. American manu-
featuring, railroading, and nerchan-
dizing are conducted with a system
and precision in management that is
indeed wonderful. Waste from idle
capital and idle labor is guarded
against, the by-products are complete
ly utilized, and the product created
by each machine and each laborer is
kept at high standard by frequent
tests. The evolution of manufacture
ing from the village mechanics shop
to the city factory has taken place in
Difference to system. Industrial COM
binations have taken place to more
efficiently use capital, labor, and
managing ability. System and
efficient management are undoubt-
eddy greater factors in the success of
American manufactures and rail-
roads than natural advantages.
Although agriculture is the largest
industry in the United States and is
pursued by IS per cent of our work.
ers, it must be admitted by anyone
who has closely observed the progress
OF agriculture that system and good
business management are not as
highly developed in agriculture as in
our other great industries. The sue
cess and prosperity of the American
farmer aredue tothe unbounded fertil-
ity of the soils, the cheapness of farm
lands, and the privilege of utilizing
modern inventions in machinery
rather than to systematic organiza-
tion and efficient farm management.
Appreciation in land values has not
been met in most instances by a COR
responding increase in the efficiency
of farm managers. Land which bears
high rent is often titled by men
whose managing ability is more in
accord with cheap land than high
priced land, and as a result the
actual productiveness of the land
does not correspond with the theore-
tical productiveness as shown by the
land values. In some instances a
realization of this discrepancy be-
tween land values and actual pro-
leads men to sell the
high priced land and move to cheaper
lands, where profits may be secured
with less managing ability. This
anomaly between rents and
actual productiveness in some in
stances is caused by the pressure of
upon land, by land specu-
lation, and lack of realization, by
The tiller Of the soil, of the relation
of rent to net profits. The man who
has purchased land for $40 an acre is
slow to realize that when values have
to $50 an acre the value
Of the product above the cost Of pro-
duction must be nearly five times as
great to yield the same rate OF profit.
Fifteen bushels of wheat per acre at
10 cents per bushel on $40 land will
return a profit Of so per cent on the
investment, but the profit is dimin-
ished to per cent on the $50 land.
The day of cheap productive land is
coming to a close in the United
States. The possibility of disposing
Of hign-priced lands in well-settled
and purchasing equally
productive land at lower price in