The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1910-06-23

such line of agriculture is to lie
found. To the one who anticipates;
entering into the business on such
basis the advice should be that he
will find for himself nothing but lot
of hard labor, discouragements ga
lore, and only a poor subsistence for
himself and family.
The dairy COW should be consil-
cred as machine placed upon the
farm much in the same way as the
manufacturer places in his factory a
machine for the purpose of convert.
ing raw material into a finished prod
uct No successful manufacturer will
ever install in his plant machine
that will not convert raw material into
finished product and do it prof1tabls
He realizes that the raw material fed
into the machine costs specified sum
and that the operation of the ma
chine Is more or less expensive, and
costs him money to operate. All these
items of expense are figured by him
very closely. He determines first the
cost of the raw material, next the
wear and tear upon the machine and
the cost of keeping it in running con-
dition, or maintaining it. He then
figures closely the cost Of operating It
in the most successful manner, and in
the end, is able to charge up against
the finished product pound for pound,
or yard for yard, the exact cost of pro-
duction. He knows exactly what the
selling price is to be as well as what
the cost has been, and he realizes that
the margin between the cost and the
net selling price is his profit or loss,
as the case may be. Occasionally, no
doubt, he finds machine in his fac
tory, the producing capacity of which
Is so small, or the cost of running so
large, that the difference between the
cost of producing the article of com.
merce is even higher than the net
selling price, and this particular ma
chine or these particular machines are
losing money for him rather than ma.
king for him profits. Now, if he is
business man, as he usually is, he at
once throws them out of his factory
and installs in their places new ma
chimes with the capacity and the char
actertistics which make it possible for
them to be operated at profit rather
than loss. Or, perhaps, looking at
it in still another manner, we find
manufacturer who started his plant
some 25 years ago with certain class
Of machinery that on the whole makes
for him a small margin Of profit, but
during the last year or two some in.
ventor has placed. upon the market
machines for the purpose of manufuc.
turing. the same article that he has
been making, at much less cost of
operation, thus permitting some one
to manufacture the same commodity
which he is making at a much less
cost, and competing with him upon
the same market in selling. Now, If
he is business man, he realizes that
if there is a machine in the world that
will do the same business that his
machines are doing, and accomplish
the same end at less cost. he at once
sells out his entire factory, or gets
rid of the machines which he is at the
present time using, and installs in
their places, machines of the i'm.
proved type and the character which
insures the most economical pro-
ducing value.
The Farmer a Manufactures.
Now, whether or not the farmer
conducts his business of dairying
along the same lines as the manufac.
turer, determines whether or not he
conducts his business affairs strictly
along business lines. 1t is certainly
apparent that the man who is keep
ing upon his farm inferior machines
in the shape of poor COWS for the con
version of the raw material or the
feeds which he raises upon his farm
or buys, as the case may be, into a
finished product in the form of milk
cream and butter-fat, places himself
in the same position exactly as the
manufacturer who has in his factory
machines that are making him fa1
less profit than would be possible
were he to install in their places ma
chimes Of an improved type and char
acter. Again, we find manufacturer:
who eXpend great deal of money II
establishing plant and fitting it III
with the very best of machinery. 81
far their methods have been excep
tionally good, and point toward sue
cess and profits, but later they max.
a mistake by employing unskilled la
borers who have not the ability t.
operate the machines to the very hes
advantage, and the result of this i
that the machines do no better wor]
and no more of it than much poore
machine would be, were it operate
with more skill, and this again apple
to the conditions on many of GU
farms.