The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1911-09-20
FARM
Keeping Close to Your Market
By H. C. Taylor

By H.
The farmers interest in prices of
farm products is not an occasional
and incidental matter. The price for
which the product can be sold deter
mines whether he is to realize proflt
or a loss on the past years work. 1t
is the product of past labor that the
farmer has to sell. He is not produce
ing an article from raw material to
finished product within a day. The
labor of selecting seed corn, the labor
of caring for litter of young pigs, as
well as many of the other processes
essential to putting hog IN the
market today, had to be performed
many months before the hog was ripe
for the market.
This means the farmer must fore
cast the market conditions many
months in advance. The process
started, there is but little chance to
change plans. Simply to pick up the
morning paper and say, well, hogs
are selling pretty high now" and then
to reflect, II guess those pigs of mine
won't be ready for month yet is
not sufficient study of the market if
the farmer is to manage his farm for
maximum profits
The farmer is under the necessity
of anticipating the time of the year
when prices will be low, in order to
plan the work of his feed lot in such
a manner that the profits will be
forthcoming in return for his effort.
"Shall l sell my corn this year or iced
t,s.,, tnl1
/ must settle in time to procure and
breed the sows.'' Daily market quo
tations alone will not answer this
question.
Forecasting the Crops
Assistance to the farmer in inform
ing him what to do now in order to
hit the market right many months
in the future is the unworked field in
the subject of markets. Daily pa
pers give market quotations These
are of immediate use and should be
followed closely. The United States
Crop Reporter gives facts regarding
the condition of crops in the various
sections of the country. What is
needed is a digested result of all this
material put in the form of charts
and stories that will enable the farm
er to visualize the forces determine
ing prices. When this is well done
the farmer will be in a position to OBJ
serve more accurately for himself the
trend of affairs on the various farms
with which he is competing and in
the various markets that demand his
products He may then draw more
perfect conclusions regarding what to
do now in order to meet the future
market conditions with "a smiling face
and a fat pocketbook.
1t is too much to expect, however.
that each and every farmer will do
all this thinking for himself. For
many of them this thinking will have
TO be done by some one else and the
results stated in more or less simple
and direct language.
The presentation and publication Of
studies of supply and demand, of
causes and their effects, and of sea-
sonal fluctuations in supply and
prices, with suggestions as to their
meaning with regard to the future
prices, is, | believe, a very important
matter.
Why should the farmer have this
world processes? Simply because he
must constantly adjust himself to
these commercial conditions. To do
this he must think of his farming
operations in terms of the commercial
operations To think is to see rela-
tons. To see the relation of two
things one must see both things.
Must Get Mental Picture
The farmer has mental picture of
his farm. Meet him in town five
miles from his home and he can draw
map of his land located properly
on the road leading to town. He can
draw in all the fields and buildings
and all the crops. He can tell you
how much livestock he has of the
various kinds, and almost tell you, as
he takes glance at the sun, in
what part of the pasture the cattle
can be found at that moment, wheth-
er under the big cottonwood tree,
where both shade and breeze are ap-
preciated in the heat of the day, or
down by the water tank, or grazing
in the three acres of marsh where
the grass is yet green while the blue
grass on the uplands is parched by
SUN and drouth.
But, though the farmer may have
the clearest possible mental picture
of his farm as a going concern, he is
usually without any adequate pictule
of the economical side of life in terms
of which he must think of his farm
ing operations if he would manage his
farm intelligently. He has a clear pic
ture of the local market also He can
draw the location of the stores on the
main street of the village, the stock
pens, the scales, the railway station,
the switch with its box and fiat cars
awaiting use, the main track as far as
ii can be seen to right or to left
sometimes the mental picture is liv-
ened by the black end of the engine
of a coming train, or the red caboose
as the stock train pulls out; but in
the minds of most farmers the pic
ture becomes dim when this point has
passed-the stock train fades out of
mind when it passes out of sight. The
great world beyond into which the
hogs or cattle are going is, as it were.
a blank to the farmer or at best a
spot and a name on the map.