Lincoln County times. (Jerome, Idaho) 1911-1919, 1912-02-08
SPECIALIZATION OF CROPS is
ADVOCATED.
Expert Says Communities Should Be
Units for Production.
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gle farmer or groups of farmers, but
by whole communities, is becoming
more and more the cry of the agri-
cultural experts of the state. That
there IS some specific crop that GER
tam communities in the state can
raise so that it will out-distance all
competitors and thus create a mar
ket OF its own, is shown by the Sc
rles OF Investigations that have been
conducted and are now conducting
IN the various sections, each with a
different climate, different problems,
and consequently different crops
that can best be produced at an adj
vantage.
These experts, the latest of whom
Is l.. Z. Aicher, superintendent of
the Aberdeen cooperative expert
ment station, in coming into the
lists, believe that there are COM
munltles IN this state that can pro-
duce apples, and yet the farmers
have not yet realized that fact and
go on month after month wasting
their efforts on raising a crop that
their climate does not favor suffici-
emily To meet the competition of
other sections that are better adapt
ed for apple raising. 1t is not
every man to his own tastes;n it
is the question of the adapting of
the tastes of the farmer to the char
acter of his soil, the climatic condi-
tions that he has to meet, and all
of the other problems that are be-
ing worked out in the hands of the
expert agricultural workers.
Superintendent Aicher calls at
tion to the fact that the local
I ',rkets are merely drop in the
5ucket in the crop industry of the
state. He points out that there are
few towns in Idaho that can take
care of the products of the farmers
in the valley surrounding them
without shipping those products to
eastern markets. In few years"
says Superintendent Aicher, when
the state has been well filled by the
tide OF immigration that is pouring
III here year after year, the local
production will probably be more
nearly matched by local consump-
ption than it is now. At the pres
ent time, however, the Idaho far
mer must look to the eastern mar
kets to dispose of his crops. To get
the best prices for these wealth pro-
ducing harvests he must adapt his
crops to the demands of the markets
and he must produce uniform crops
TO meet that demand year after
year.
To meet the requirements of
the markets it is often necessary to
buy some of the most expensive
machinery, and here is where the
experts think that the community
plan is the money maker. The
community can put in those plants
and buy that machinery that will
make their product the most mar
Setable. =
Speaking along that line, Super
Aicher, in late report
% the university, says;
Community production properly
should always insure
Uniform marketable product. Buy
'rs for the large markets buy and
'ell on close margins. In order to
insure ready sales they must be able
Q secure uniform high quality pro-
lucts in carload quantities.
4 farmers best returns are
hose secured from the sale of the
inished product. No farmer or
of farmers can demand
n even expect Il high price for
mixed, inferior product. The great
st value of community production
les in their ability to meet the de-
hands of fancy trade. For it is
hese markets that pay the highest
)rlces. Once community secures
he reputation of supplying the fam
y markets, the other markets drop
n line because it pays to sell pro-
luctS that have ouality and a rpnn