The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1909-01-02
FARM PRODUCTS OF 1908.

] IN all the countries on eai III
paid to the American farmer for the
products of his broad acres tris year.
according to the report OF the depart
ment of agriculture. The value of our
farm products foro l9Os Is reekoheu az
| SITS, zoo, 00O--the highest marx ever
reached Everybody is congratuiatlns
the farmer, of course, but IN the miuse
of all the rejoicing a few voices Oh
warning are heard For instance the
New York journal of Commerce notes
that this extraordinary value ID not
due to the size of the crops, but to the
increase in prices, SO that while the
farmer is to be felicitated, the rest OF
us are not SO lucky we must re-
member, says this paper, that the
general well-being is promoted by
/ abundance and fair distribution OF its
fruits, and not by high values shown
in figures Hence what appears to
have been good fortune for the farmers
in a dull year has not been a comfort
to those whose earnings have been re-
duced.''
The farm value of all farm products
of 1908 reaches the most extraordinary
total in the nations history-$7,77S,-
100000 This is about four times the
value of the product of the mines, III
Guiding mineral oils and precious met
ais. The farmer contributes 81 per
cent of the raw materials used in those
manufacturing industries, and these in
dustries use AZ per cent OF all materl-
ais used in all industries.
THE gain in value of farm products
in 1908 is $290,00OO00 and would have
been much larger had not the prices
OF cotton and hay been low. The value
of products in 1899, the census year,
being taken at 100, the value for 1903
stands at 1876; for 1904 at 131; for
1905, at 1874; for 1906, at 143; for 1907,
at 159, and for 1908, at 1865. During
the last ten years the wealth produc-
ton on the farms of this country has
exceeded the fabulous sum of S60000,-
600, 900.
The exports OF agricultural prod
ucts in the fiscal year 1908 were valued
at s1,o17,O 100000, an amount greater
than for any year except 1907, the re-
duction of $37, 100000 under that year
being chiefly due to the falling off
in value of cotton exports.
: The exported cotton was valued al
. $43S,000, 600, the grain and grain prod
ucts at s215, 100000, and the packing
house products at S196000,000
The exports of domestic agricultur
al products in 1908 being worth s1,017,
100000, the exports of foreign agricul
, tural products S10,000,O00, and the i'm
ports of agricultural products $4,000,
000 balance of trade of the enor
NOUS value of $4SS000,000 in favor o
the farm products of this country re
2 suits, an amount exceeded only in 1870.
: and 1898"
Upon examining these fabulous fig
ures" little more closely, however
the New York World finds that tn
4 farmer is not yet among the idle rich
!, Deducting $1,S00,00O,000 from Secre
tary Wilson's impressive total for in
terest on the value of the farm land
The World divides the remainde
: among the 6,SS7 ,5S8 farmers and find
they have an average of 1858 each. l
continues:
Less than 5000 cash, besid IS con
siderable proportion of his food ant
, fuel and smaller proportion of hi
lighting and clothing is the annual re
: turn of the average American farme
for his own labor and that of is wifi
t and children and hired help.
y ..He has large cash expenditure
S with the blacksmith, tool man. an,
seed man, and for stock, repairs t.
building and taxes. He saves a littl
for the mortgage. He paid SEA for Lab
u or in 1899; the average is higher now
and the complaint is that he canno
/ get enough help"
t The farmer would have still more
y declares the Washington Post, if h
t were not so "thriftless and wasteful,
Scientific farming, declares this paper
would have given us crop of 1000
d 100000 bushels instead of 2,643, 900
0 600:
y And the same philosophy applies t
r cotton, tobacco, wheat, oats, rye, bal
V ley, hay, and all the vegetables Loo
:. at the millions of acres of once highl
fertile lands exhausted by the thrift
: less and ignorant farmers, and turne
Z adrift as barren wastes
II The secretary tells us that the eg
and poultry output equals in value tn
cotton crop, which is second to cor
IT alon1 as t. a money-producer Bu
10 tn re is not one farmer in dozen VIII
\. knows what to do with hen an
i chickens. They are turned loose in tn
yard or woodland lot or barnyard t
y work for a living, and on the averag
farm one egg is gathered where thre
Sc or four should be produced If poultr
,5 farming We're conducted as it shoul
is be. There az enough hens in tn
a union to reduce the price of eggs I
twenty cents a dozen in this town
strictly fresh eggs-at Christmas if tn
hens were given fair show
$ The dairy products are put at $500
lg 100000 by the secretary and that
- not half enough There are fed an
. MIXED tens of thousands of COWS thu
O. do not yield 100 pounds Of butter pc
u annum. The same food and the SAN
!, attention would reward the dairyma
a. with 300 or 400 pounds Of butter
r. he would pay attention TO intelligel
M breeding
How much the farmer Ices by Il