Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1912-03-12
Does Farming Pay?

DIR. Harvey w. Wiley, national pure
food expert, stird up a hornets nest
when he said at banquet at the Wal
dOrf-Astoria in New York that farming
is an Improbable business. To sustain
his position, DIR. Wiley cited his own re-
cent experience on farm in Virginia.
He raised twenty-four bushels OF wheat
to an acre at total cost of S21 and sold
the crop for $50. He bought forty five
steers and fed them, but now he could
not sell them except at a loss.
This provoked many replies, but DR..
Wiley was not through. At the Chicago
Irrigation Congress he said:
1--WE have more land than we can pro-
fitably occupy because IL people could
make more money on the farms they
would remain there People do not
leave the farms because of the attractions
of the city, but because they can make
more money there and live more COM
fortably in the city than on the farms"
Il. Il. Gross, president of the Nation
al Soil Fertility League, replies to the
doctor as followes:
Any one familiar with the present sta
tus of agriculture knows that the farmers
are more generally prosperous than those
engaged in other avocatiOns. This CEN
sus shows that farm values have more
than doubled in ten years. The country
banks are full of farmers money. The
farm mortgages have been paid off and
the farmers are the largest buyers of
automobiles to-day. The bond houses
are sending their statesmen to the coun-
try to place their Investments with the
DOCTORS unfortunate (?) friends, the till
ers of the soil.
"As farmer the doctor does not shine.
He says il cost him S2l per acre to raise
and market his wheat. The writer has
before him tabulation showing the av-
erage cost of raising and marketing
wheat on 2S9 farms in Nebraska. The
entire cost, including interest and taxes,
was S12.19 per acre. The Nebraska
yield was about two bushels less than
that raised on the doctors farm. The
Nebraska farmers cost was 33 cents per
bushel less than that of DR.. Wiley.
The doctor says that he paid a man
81 Is day to cut his corn, and the man
was no good at that. Real farmers cut
their own corn or have it done by one of
their regular hands at less than half the
price the doctor paid.
1t will be noted that DIR. Wiley draws
his illustration from Virginia and Mr..
Gross cites Nebraska. Difference in
conditions may account for their differ
ent conclusions. A quotation from
Dean F. b. Mumford of Missouri uni
versity may throw some light upon the
reason DR.. Wiley's farm Is not success,
al far
dividends. The dean says:
"Great opportunities, large RESPONSE
bilities and abundant success await the
farm boys Of the coming generation who
select farming as a vocation. 1T were
advising young men as TO their future
profession says President Taft, Il
would say that there are greater oppor-
tuuities in agriculture than in any other
profession in our country
"The farm boy whose early life and
training has given him some idea of the
actual life of the farmer is best fitted to
win success on the farm.
Success on the farm as elsewhere is
the result of good training, industry and
business ability. These requirements
are fundamental TO success in any voca-
ton. 1t is possible that in the past the
average physician or lawyer has prosper
ed more than the average farmer, but II
they have SO prospered believe it is be-
cause they have been better trained.
When all farmers are as well trained as
the professional man, agriculture will be
the most desirable vocation of all. Only
recently has such training been available
to the farmer"