Morris tribune., 1907-01-05
THE COST OF
FARM PRODUCTS.
VALUABLE BULLETIN ISSUED BY
EXPERIMENT STATION.
Bulletin No. 81 Should be in the
Hands of Every Farmer for the
Valuable Information and Sug-
gestiOns 1t Contains What 1t
Says ON the Need of System.

The Agricultural Experiment Station
of the University of Minnesota has is
sued most valuable bulletin, No. 81,
on "The Cost of Producing Farm Pro-
ducts" The bulletin is too long to be
reviewed in detail, but every up-to-
date farmer should send for one. Fol-
lowing are some valuable excerpts on
farming as business
Industry in the United States has en-
joyed and will continue to enjoy nat
ural advantages that can not be dupli-
Gated in any other region of the earth.
All classes of productive workers have
shared in these natural advantages.
Progress in mining, numbering, manu-
featuring, railroading, 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 today
partly by reason of natural advantage
es, partly by reason of the American
faculty for discovery and invention,
and partly by reason of the Ameri-
cans application of system and orr
ganization to industry. American.
manufacturing, railroading, and mer-
chandizing 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 COM
pletely utilizad and the product Great
ed by each machine and each laborer
is kept at a 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
bina tons have taken place to more
efficiently use capital, labor and man
aging ability. System and efficient
m engagement are undoubtedly greater
factors in the success of American
manufactures and railroads than ma
tural advantages.
Although agriculture is the largest
industry in the United States and is
pursued by 35 per cent of our workers
it must be admitted by anyone who
has closely observed the progress of
agriculture that system and good
business management are not as high
ly developed in agriculture as in our
other great industries. The success
and prosperity of the American farm
er are due to the unbounded fertility
of the soils, the cheapness of farm
lands and the privilege of utilizing
modern inventions in machinery
rather than to systematic organiza-
ton and efficient farm management.
in land values has not
been met in most instances by COR
responding increase in the efficiency
of farm managers. Land which bears
a high rent is often titled by men
whose managing ability is more in
accord with cheap land than high
priced land and as result the actual
productiveness of the land does not
correspond with the theoretical pro-
ductiveness as shown by the land
values. In some instances a realiza
ton of this discrepancy between land
values and actual productiveness leads
men to sell the high priced land and
move to cheaper lands, where profits
may be secured with less managing
ability. This apparent anomaly be-
tween rents and actual productive
ness in some instances is caused by
the pressure of population upon land,
by land speculation and lack of re-
alization, by the Jiller 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 land values have appreciat-
ed to $50 an acre the value of the
product above the cost of production
must be nearly five times as great to
yield the same rate of profit. Fifteen
bushels of wheat per acre at 20 cents
per bushel on $40 land will return
profit of so per cent on the invest
ment, but the profit is diminished to
per cent on the 500 land. The day of
cheap productive lands is coming to
close in the United States. The pos
sipility of disposing of high priced
lands in well-settled communities and
purchasing equally productive land at
lower price in the west will soon be
at an end. System and more efficient
management must enter the realm of
agriculture if reasonable profits are to
be extracted from the soil and it's fer
Utility be conserved for the use of
future generations.
The present systems Of farm man
agement on large as well as on small
farms devoted mainly to growing