The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1910-11-04
HIGHER PRICES FOR
DAIRY PRODUCE
GOVERNMENT EXPERTS FIGURE
THAT PROFITS ARE NOT
LARGE

Fodder Has Risen 100 to 800 Per Cent
While Dairy Products Have Risen
Only SO Per cent-PopuIation TO BE
Supplied Has Grown Rapidly.
Washington, Oct. 29.-The depart
ment of agriculture warns the Ameri-
can people that they may expect still
higher prices for milk and butter.
Dairy farming it not as profitable as
it was some years ago. The price of
hay and other feed has advanced be-
tween 100 and 800 per cent, while the
price of milk and outer has not gone
up beyond SO per cent.
The result is that many farmers,
hitherto engaged in dairying, are go
ing back to the raising of the usual
field crops, knowing that they will
make more money off them than they
could hope to make off butter and
milk
This decrease in the number of dairy
farms, which is noticeable in all parts
of the country, is still further reducing
the supply of dairy products, in the
face of rapidly growing population
in the urban centers. An advance in
price to the consumer is considered an
inevitable result.
The department experts for several
years have been making a study of
dairy farms, and some of the results
of the study are now being announced
A large number OF these farms, it is
said by the experts, are actually run
ming behind.
A conspicuous example of what is
called fair profit is furnished by a
dairy farm in Michigan. Books care
fully kept by the agricultural depart
ment from the data supplied by the
farmer indicate that each COW gives
him profit of SIT a year. There are
| So cows in his herd. 1t costs him SOS
ia year for each COW, and the gross
income from each is $115.
The Office of farm management in
the department, headed by Prof viii
liam J. Spillman, has records for a
large number of dairy farms scattered
through a number of the states, but
none of them makes as good record
as the farm in Michigan just referred
| to.
This Office has recently made a sur
vey in New Hampshire, including 11S
dairy farms. Fifty-seven of these paid
5 per cent on the farmers investment
and it is figured out that if he cSuld
have mad the same advantage of cheap
living elsewhere, he would have been
much better off if he had put his in
vestment out at interest and done nc
work himself Sixty-one of the New
Hampshire farms paid an average OF
5 per cent on the investment and gave
the farmer $608 for his own labor and
ability as manager. On the average
the proprietors earned 5 per cent in
terest and received. $256 year for
their own management and work
These latter figures from the New
Hampshire survey indicate the entire
results of the. farm operations. The
figures for the Michigan farm, how
ever, take into account only the herd.
The farm as a whole is credited with
the food which it furnished to the
cow, and the food is charged at cur
rent rates. This will probably make
the Michigan farm show good profit
on field crops, for it is well managed.
But the division permits a complete
separation of the dairying operations
and determination of whether it was
really profitable for the farmer to keep
a herd.
The charges against each COW in
clude the value of the food, which
was about $50 a head; labor, about
$25; interest on cows value and de-
probation; barn rent for the room
COW occupied; her share in contribut-
ing to the breeding herd; maintenance
| OF the dairy equipment; the value of
having the cow on the farm for the
sake of the fertilizer.
Now strangely enough, in the case
Iof the Michigan farm, the profit re-
solves itself into the last item. The
amount of credit for fertilization is al
most precisely the same as the amount
credited to each COW as profit. This
thrifty Michigan farmer got nothing
from his herd for his own time and
ability as a manager except manure.
This enabled him to grow fine crops.
and on this account the agricultural
authorities have always urged farm
/ ers to keep stock.
In the case of the Michigan farmer
| it may have paid, for he got his ferti-
lizer without expense: but the experts
are now reaching the point where they
are questioning the wisdom of the
old rule. They are finding that the
land can be kept UP very well by the
application Of commercial fertilizer
and by the occasional use of green
manuring crops.
IN the case Of very many dairy
farms. says the department of agri-
culture, it would probably no nocro