The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1914-10-08
(By Charles w. Stevenson.)

Ah1NU the farm as MANUFACTURE
ing unit tho value of the small
produce rises into large national
Importance. It is not many years since
]. Ogden Armour startled the country
by a series of articles in the Saturday
Evening Post on the use of the re-
frigerator car and its value to the farm
ers of the country. The growth of
great cities while presenting problems
of serious political import furnishes a
vast market for the farmer. The in
crease of transportation lines and the
facilities for marketing produce have
added materially to the farmers an
nual income. The well-managed farm
has become in truth, a factory. Inven-
tion and machinery have become neces-
sary adjuncts, and the telephone fur
nished a daily price list.
But as in the case with every ad-
yancing industry in a country densely
populated, having direct and abundant
railroad connections, the larger markets
control prices. That this has been Of
immense advantage to the farmer the
present high scale of prices of milk,
butter, poultry and eggs testify. st.
Louis, Chicago and New York prices
on turkeys, as an illustration, during
the holiday season, now control the
table Of the town-dweller throughout
the whole Mississippi Valley. And
where, twenty years ago, the market in
the adjacent town controlled the price,
per dozen of spring broilers, today the
price is quoted, per pound, at an ad-
vance Of 300 to 400 per cent, where,
formerly, the farmer ten miles from
country town could not market the
milk Of his cows save by the laborious
process Of churning it into butter by
primitive methods now by means of
the cream separator, the extracted
values can be sold at stable market
prices at the front gate. So that it has
become profitably practical to pay at
tention to these by-products of the
farm.
Two Results.
From these changes two results are
apparent. Small factories are continu-
ally springing up to consume the dairy
products of smaller growing farm
areas; and country towns and small
railroad stations have become shipping
points for all kinds Of farm products,
especially poultry and eggs Not only
this, but the farm has become a fac
tory for converting the raw material
into the finished product, or advancing
it part way toward completion for con
sumption. And again, reverting to the
farm as a unit, the farm industry can
no longer ignore these sources Of in
come. Nor can the farmer refuse to
keep abreast of the prices which pre-
vail; and while the worlds crop con-
trolls the price of cereals, domestic con.
sumption and trade must always afford
q minimum of domination in the sew
eral countries in the matter of small
produce, albeit affected by the density
Of population and the growth Of great
cities. The law of supply and demand
has more freedom Of action and gives
greater benefit
It follows that group Of the ex-
hibits in the coming Panama Pacific
International Exposition devoted to
showing of "Appliances and Methods
Used in Agricultural Industries" Of the
character enumerated, must prove Of
decided advantage and great service to
the farmers Of the world. And it is to
he mantioned that tho farmara of +ha