Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-03-15

| This is vital question for which ex-
perts in the office of farm management
of the United States De-
Farm Profits partment of Agriculture
Ir hope to have an answer
in a comparatively short
time. 1t will not be possible to cover
every county in every state, because such
a stupendous task would take too much
time and require too large an expenditure
Of money. The plan will be to select rep
resentative areas in the more important
agricultural sections and to make a
careful farm management survey which
will develop information to show wherein
farmers methods are good and wherein
they are bad.
The governments farm management ex-
perts have already completed surveys in
the states of Pennsylvania, Michigan
Oregon Indiana, Illinois and Iowa, and
arrangements have been made to start
work in Georgia. The reports for the first
three states named are not completed
The reports for Indiana. Illinois and Iowa
were the first to be finished, and the in
formation gathered offers interesting and
somewhat startling reading.
The farm management surveys which
CHClo sam Is are III
character to the investigations made by
a modern business doctor" or system ex-
pert, who is called in to find out what Is
wrong and what is right with the con-
duct of the affairs of a corporation. The
government is proceeding on the theory
that the farmer needs information on bet
ter methods and on the more scientific
management Of both his farm resources
and his farm labor, which may lead to
an increase of his profits. just as much
as the manufacturer from whom the
farmer buys his pillow or harrow, or the
miller to whom he sends his wheat to be
made into flour.
The purpose of the surveys is to help
the food producers of the nation in the
business Of farming. The profits of the
the factors which control his income. The
simple economics of food production in
this or any other country is that to be
progressive 1t must be profitable. The
farmer must not only make fair in
come on his investment in farm property
and equipment, but he should calculate
on receiving wages for his work. Just the
same as the head of going commercial
establishment or manufacturing firm cal
culates the value of his services to the
enterprise.
The study of farming as a bus, ness
proposition brings out some rather START
ling information, and the reports on the
surveys in Indiana, Illinois and Iowa
show that even in the most prospe rous
farming sections the man who tills the
soil needs a business doctor to help him
to make agriculture more profitable. On
one-third of the 273 farms operated by
owners and Investigated in these three
states it was found that the farmer was
not even earning for himself the wages
of a section hand. after the moderate in
terest Of per cent had been deducted
from his farm capital. that is, from the
amount of his investment in real estate.
farm equipment. stock and supplies. In
other words one man out of every three
who are farming in the sections covered
by the surveys would be better off finan-
cially if he sold his farm, invested his
money at ) per cent and went to work
for some one else.
More than 10 per cent of the 273 In
diana, Illinois and Iowa farms investi-
gated were losing from $3.50 to $500 year
for their owners and Is per cent lost
amounts ranging from 500 down to 81 or
managed to break even" Slightly more
than 50 per cent made between 81 and
$500. and only 8 per cent could show
profits of 81 500 or more. These records
We're made in one Of the best farming
sections of the United States. with the
average farm capital of each farm aver
aging more than $4,000. After deduct
ing ) per cent interest on the capital.
each of the 273 farm owners made aver
age profits of $409 on his Investment.
The 247 tenant farmers whose opera
tons were included in the survey Jared
better on net profits than farm owners.
The average tenant with less than one
twelfth of the capital of the owners who
operated their own farms made average
profits of $50. against the farm owner s
net income of only s4Os E. H Thompson
and H. NJ. Dixon of the farm manage
ment experts who were in charge of the
survey, say that the evidence is unmis-
taxable that the man with small capital
should rent rather than buy a farm. The
net profits of landlords renting farm prop
erty averaged $40 per cent on the CAPT
tai invested.
An interesting feature of the report on
the Indiana, Illinois and Iowa surveys
is that men with high school education
made almost double the profits of those
without this training, and that the farm
ers with a college education made an
average income Of so per cent more than
those with high school records The
investigation developed the information
that the men with the best training made
the largest incomes. although they had
a material advantage because in most
cases they were the owner OF larger
farms with greater capital.
1t was learned during the course of
the surveys that many farmers are losing
money because there is poor distri-
button of farm work through the year
and labor is not utilized efficiently.
Diversifcation of crops in most cases
serves to equalize labor In some IN
stances the farms were too small to be
operated protitably: some were too large.
In some cases, losses were sustained be-
cause the man had selected some type
of farming which was unsuited or was
improbable in the region over which the
surveys were made.
w j. Spillman, chief of the Office OF
farm management of the Department OF
Agriculture points out that while the
average profits of only S40S for farm
owners and $3.50 for tenants may appear
small to city people, it must be remem-
bered that the operators had a house and
the products which the farm furnished
toward their living. With the continual
Improvement of farm methods and man
agement, farmers incomes may be ex-
pected to rise gradually and make agrf-
culture more and more attractive.
"A half dozen states are still without
laws recurring parents and guardians to
give their chill
Compulsory dren and wards
an opportunity
ocnoOl ALTERNATIVE to profit by the
provisions made by these states for their
education, and thousands of children are
growing up without that education and
+r,;,;n1 necessary for life, for making a