The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1911-08-18
farmer NO
BUSINESS man
Neglects Mercantile Side
Of Agriculture.
Addresses Congress Of Producers
il College, Tex, Praising
States Advancement.

-
College, Tex, Aug. 15.-No state In
the Union is making such rapid head
way as Texas in agricultural produc-
ton, said B. F. Yoakum, chairman
of Che Frisco lines, in an address to
the Texas Farmers Congress yester-
day. His spasch in part. follows
There are in Texas one and one
half million people engaged in pro-
ducing from the soil. Texas has more
to gain than any other stats by i'm
proved conditions in marketing. The
formers do not get as much as they
should for their products,and no one
can improve this but the farmers
themselves. According to government
reports, the producer receives 46 cents
for products of the farm for which
the consumer rays 81.
Last years agricultural products
were worth $9,OOO,OOO,OOO to the far
mers- The government seed farm val
es in getting figures for this total. AS
Stunning that the farmers hept one
third of the products for their own
use the consumers paid more than
$4,000 100000 for what the producers
received $4,000, 100000.
The cost eff getting the years prod
ucts. from producers to consumers
amounted to the enormous sum of
81 10000 900. The real problem to
deal with is not high cost of living
1t is high cost of sailing.
The industrial exports are inrscas-
ing over agricultural exports at the
rate of to 1, because factory prod
ucts are marketed in more business
like way than farm products. The
United States is exporting $4,000, 00O,-
coo worth of goods a year. In the
last twenty-five years our agricultur
al exports have increased 60 par cent.
while our commercial exports have
increased nearly 400 per cent. This
ID N1pUeAHiy d VDNIu oHOWLAS hOl 'uho Aehi
mars. 1t is plain rural development
has not kept pace with manufacturing
and city growth.
There may be reasons for this,
but there is one which is more impor-
tant than all others: our long neglect
of the business side of farming. The
late S. A. Sap, who had charge OF
farm demonstra ion work in the De-
partment of Agriculture. and who had
more to do with the recent agricul-
tural development in the south .han
any one man, usad TO say one-eighth
of successful farming required scien-
tific knowledge, THAT three-eighths
was an art and the remainder was
simply business.
The business end of husbandry has
been sadly neglected, and that is the
chief reason why agricultural growth
makes such a poor showing in COM
ment-
The farmers of this country, to re-
ceiye better prices, do not have to
experiment with untried theories.
They only have to copy what Others
are doing successfully. For instance,
the people of Denmark thirty years
ago neceived sl2,OOO,OO0 for their but
ter, eggs and bacon. Then they bgean
the organization OF market socie-
ties.
Now the same character cf products
brings in over $l0O.000.O00 a year.
Nearly all their dairy products are
marketed through cooperative cream
cries and other egg export societies
have $4,000 members. There Is no
such talk of high cost of living in
that little country because they have
la system OF economical marketing.
The FARMERS there have organized un-
der tust methods. The commercial
waste In aihe distribution of farm prod
ucts Is rodmced TO minimum. They
Share in the profits of economical
marketing
We know that all farmers ara not
able 10 have their own onaameries.
Therefore, a community of FARMER
gt together 10 build and operate one
for the convenience and profit of all.
The creamery is the concrete unit
around which will be constructed the
neighborhood co-opemtiva market
The government should assist in
finding a way for Ibetter farm market