Imperial Valley press., 1913-05-12
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fha oomInS Evolution

H. E. Cock, School OF 4sriculV,rs,
New York wish to prophssy that the
present system OF American agriculture
is to have a business reorganization
which will come through knowledge
OF cost Of production.
The production of farm and dairy
products is the work Of the family. II
has been brought about by those coun-
try wide influences which were abso-
Iutely beyond control. Land has been
cheap and often free and hence crops
were free and cheap not because of
skill In production but because Of free
raw material. The result has been up
to 1900 an over developed business
which could not be managed on a cash
basis plan. II could be managed by the
farmer and his family because no week
ly pay roll was necessary.
The pay roll was measured by the
income, and came when actual demands
We're made for living expense. II any
| thing was left over it was considered
as profit. That sort Of business man
agement, as the writer knows from ex-
perence, does not develop high order
Of bushes stability. We do not know
| which cow is profitable nor which
crop or acre has balance. The we'll
trained business man says your plan
spells chaos, and he is right.
What MIX Costs
| Let US take for illustration the cost
Of producing milk. The writer has said
for many years that nine quarts Of
milk out of every ten produced in New
York State would not pay cash cost
Of production and thi. is true today
/ with the higher values Of milk. Men
are not going to the almshouse who are
producing milk by any manner of means
because present prices will give them
some sort Of wages for their work
When the labor Of wife and children
| is credited, as it should be, the mar
gin will disappear.
We need some real bookkeeping on
the dairy farms. and the first thing to
| do is to disassociate the dairy from the
farm. A dairy Of mich cows should
stand in the same relationship to the
farm. or rather the soil, as the buyer
OF hay, potatoes, and butter, and
cheese.
Cows have no more right TO have
silage charged to them at $3.50 per
ton, the cost Of production, than we
would to charge the buyer in town on
that basis. Cows should pay for hay
and grain grown on the farm just
; what the market will pay for II and not
less.
| am inclined to think that this sys-
TEN OF bookkeeping would do more
to thin out improbable cows than a
cow test association. Cow test assoeia-
tions are not helpful, by any means
when the permit under charge for the
! feeds grown on the farm. Such a sys-
tenn make. possible low standard OF
production. We are discrediting the
land in order to SHE'D Improbable cows
and plead for the cow test association
as q solution of the Improbable COW
problem. but my mind is changed and
! can see plainly that it is falling short
believe now that the bookkeeping 2
which does not protect the cow is the
only hope. Let me repeat lest we mis-
understand. The dairy and the farm
should be absolutely Independent units
of course this is first Psychological
proposition. 1t would help many man
if his barn could be located off the farm
and the cows be treated as strangers
How many times have men said why
we can't make milk and charge the
cows what the feed is worth" For
| pity sake, then why not sell them
A farmer would be locked up in an