Omaha daily bee., 1917-04-24
Department Of Agriculture
Making the Farm Pay
D.. n.ada-i. HnnLin
BIZ Frederic j. Hdskin

| WI UhUty bUo w Nv Wy
| By Frederic J. Haskin
Washington, D. c., April 2l-When the grain
and cotton standards, now established by law,
were still under discussion, the secretary of agr-
culture pointed out that they were needed because
the farmer rarely knew what he was selling, while
the buyer always knew what he was buying AS
usual, the man with the knowledge got the best
of the bargain.
1t was a rare thing, according to Secretary
Houston to find a farmer who knew the grade
of cotton he had on his wagon. The man who
bought it always knew, and he often bought it
as one grade and sold it as better one, with
corresponding profit. Prices on the best corn
were based on a grade of NO. or better"
farmer who raised No. 2 corn or No. ! got no
benefit from his good farming Down in the
southwest where big business is done in sheep
pelts and goat skins, the skins are classified in
different grades, and some grades are worth twice
as much as others. Here, too, it is always the
buyer who knows absolutely to which grade
skin belongs, and the grower is largely dependent
on his honesty. In word the man who produces
does not know as much about the business as
the man who buys his goods.
This state of affairs must be changed. The
whole campaign for better farming is in the
broadcast sense campaign to make farm life
more attractive. Only by building up an attrac-
stay on the farm to produce the nations food
and keep down prices. And one of the most
attractive things about any business is the money
to be made out of it.
How to make farming as profitable as it ought
to be in view of the investment in capital and
labor is really the big economic problem of the
country The matter of grades and standards is
only one detail Of the question. This phase has
been largely solved by the establishment of legal
standard grades for all grain and cotton shipped
in interstate commerce. To deal with the prob
lem in all its phases is the object Of the federal
Office OF farm management, which has been
granted $2S6,000 for the coming year to continue
its work.
Lest it be said that after all the farmer ought
to know more about his own business than the
men in government Offices and that there is usu-
ally wide gap between theory and practice, the
office of farm management points out that it is
up to the farmers themselves to study the best
methods. Here and there in every community
you will find farmer who gets bigger crops
than the men all around him, who has worked out
successful methods OF his own. 1t has become
almost an axiom with the experts that if all Amer
lean farmers used the methods that the best farm
ers use, the agriculture of the nation would be
revoutionized, production would go up and prices
would go down.
The office of farm management has been
studying the business angles OF farming-the best
size of farm, the best crops to plant how many
horses and cows the farmer should keep, how
many hogs he should raise whether it pays bet
ter to rent farm or buy one and hundred SINH
lar questions. Such work is particularly needed
now, because we are witnessing what seems to be
beginning Of back-to-the farm movement.
Whether it is due to the high prices of food
stuffs, which make city life more expensive and
farm wori. more profitable, or to the fact that
country life has been getting more attractive with
the building of roads and the advent of the cheap
automobile and kindred improvements, there is an
increasing activity to be noted all over the coun-
try in the purchase and sale of small farms. The
inexperienced man who decidesto take up farm
ing is badly in need of guidance.
The business of making the farm pay involves
great deal more than the production of big
yield per acre. If you have l50-acre farm in
Pennsylvania, how many acres are you going to
plant to wheat? There is a certain wheat acreage
d. that will give the maximum profit If you plant
too little wheat and too much of other crops, your
profits go down; if you plant too much wheat and
too little for other crops, you make just as costly
an error. Then you have to figure out how many
head of cattle and hogs you will keep; if you
have too few, you are losing out in meat and fer
tilizer; if you have too many, you need too much
pasture, and your profits go into feed. For each
of these elements there is single proportion that
gets best results. This proportion is being de-
termined by careful study of the years earnings
of hundreds of farmers. In the wheat problem
in an eastern state, for instance, it was found
that the proper amount to plant was thirty acres.
The farmers who planted less than thirty acres
made less money and so did those who planted
more. The profit curve touched its maximum
point at the thirty nark,
Many other farm problems are being worked
out by studying the successful farmer. A sys-
tenn of bookkeeping for farms has been devised
on this plan. Almost every farmer feels the need
of keennp hooks but OmDaratIve1y few Of them
have a simple and adequate system. The office
of farm management studied the systems in use.
They found that there were scores of different
systems on the farms, but most of the farmers
had only been using a particular system for
few months or year. They studied the systems
of farmers who had been keeping their books on
one plan for more than two years and found
that they were all using practically the same sys-
tenn. standard system was worked out on this
basis, and it is proving popular all over the
country.
The best size for the farm has been studied
and the conclusion is that the ideal farm for this
country, considering profits and standards of liv-
ing, is one that will keep two men and four
horses busy. Smaller farms are not so profitable
and larger ones tend to concentrate the owner
ship of land in few hands. An interesting re-
suit reached in the investigation is the conclusion
that it is good deal more profitable to rent a
small farm than to buy one. man who has only
few thousand dollars to invest can make more
money by paying rent and sinking his capital in
tools and stock than by tying it up in the land.
The whole problem of making the farm pay is
a very fundamental one. In unusual times such as
these the farmer is a prosperous citizen. But in
normal or depressed periods he has to get all
the profit that is coming to him or big crops alone
will not suffice. And the farmer must be kept
contented or the whole nation has to pay the bill.