Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1909-09-10
FARMING AS A BUSINESS.

FARMING AS A BUSINESS.
New York Sun: A correspondent
of The Sun admits that much can
be done to improve conditions by
better business Methods but re-
CARDS as doubtful the arrival of the
time predicted by The Sun when ''the
farm will be as much of business
enterprise as the store or the fac
tory" He holds that because of such
Incidents as insect pests, drought and
excessive moisture 1.-THE cost of any
given crop cannot be estimated until
that particular crop has been harvest
ed" and that for this reason there is
a distinct difference between a farm
and a store or factory in the COM
putation of cost of production.
This argument carries no excuse
whatever for the condition to which
The Sun has called attention-name-
", the general lack of business
methods on the farm, with result
ant excessive if not actually exorbi-
tant cost Of products and an indie
feasible enchantment of cost of liv-
ing for the great army of consumers.
The force of the assertions made by
our correspondent is quite destroyed
by the fact that throughout the coun-
try individual farmers in ever in
ereasing number are adopting bust
ness methods, are making farming a
business enterprise. ~, An interest
ing illustration is furnished by a
pamphlet recently issued by the De-
partment of Agriculture. The story
is told of a farm In South Carolina
bought in 1902. It was one Of the
old worn out" farms of that section,
worn out by eighty years Of that al
legged cultivation" which is in fact
only soil exhaustion.
Prior 70 its purchase by it's present
owner this farm had been yielding
less than ten bushels of corn to the
acre and about 300 pounds Of cotton
to the acre. In 1903, the first year un-
der the new ownership, it yielded
thirty-seven bushels Of corn to the
acre and $50 pounds of cotton an
acre. Last year, after five years of
business" the acreage yield was
eighty-fiye bushels of corn, eighty
bushels Of oats and LIPS pounds of
cotton. That is 'business." The
average yield an acre of these crops
throughout the whole United States
for the last five years has been TWEEN
ty-six bushels of corn, twenty-ntne
bushels of oats and 200 pounds of
cotton. 1t is perhaps impossible to
obtain from the entire cultivated area
Of the United States such results as
are shown in this particular instance,
but the case shows the difference be-
tween the old method Of farming
for a living" and farming as a
business enterprise
Naturally this enterprising and
businesslike farmer could not have
estimated on the first day Of last
March the cost Of his cotton, his
corn or his oats, nor could he have
determined at that time his profit
for the year. No more could store
keeper or mill owner. There are
accidents in all lines of trade or in
dustry. There are fires and strikes
and panics and trade losses in COM
mercia1 and manufacturing lines, as
there are floods and drought and in
sects and blight in agricultural lines.
/ The point introduced by our CORES
3 pendent begs the question. It is
I little better than q weak apology for
earelessness or Indifference. Are
the climate and soils Of Europe bet
3 ter adapted to agriculture than those
81 the United States? Are our boast
"a natural resources a fake, the fruit
of vigorous imagination? The De
partment OF Agriculture submitted re
Gently the following table of average
Jie1ds an acre ID this country and in
Europe, including Great Britain:
Bushels An Acre.
Bar Pota-
Wheat Oats Rye Icy toes
{ Europe 90. IS 46 rs a a 1877. 8
Unit. States IL Is 81 % 1874 2s.8 SO
10 there any natural Or visible reas-