The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-02-26
MODERN FARMER FIGURES RETURN
 ON INVESTMENT

1ue average American farmer is nor much concerned with intensive farm ing. He is more interested in exten- sive farming. The call of the big field is strong. Modern machinery makes increased acreages easy. There are few tillers of the soil who would not rather cultivate large areas with few CT bushels to the acre than the small fields with more intensive yields.
 So long as there is as much fertile, untitled land lying idle in this coun- tidy as there is at present, it would no : seem that there was need of inten.. sive farming as practced in European countries, so far as food production is concerned. Only around the lead ing market centers or close to indus trial districts where the proximity of the land has increased in value ma terialIy has there been any movement toward intensive farming as generally practiCed abroad.
 The farmer today however Is hav- ing to face some of the same problems the manufacturer has to deal with. h. creased cost of production on the farm is as evident as 1t is in the factory. Land values are higher. Labor costs are increased. Taxes, transportation, machinery, and other items have ad- vanced and must be met. They will either need to be absorbed by increas- ed prices of the products of the farm, or like the manufacturer, they must find it possible to meet the difference by speeding up production. This may be accomplished through intensive farming or by employing more scfen- tific methods than were formerly used.
 The farmer has not always figured his investment upon Q. business basis. When land was cheaper, if he made a l living and had a little extra ahead at the end of each year, he was getting along reasonably we'll Today the live | farmer is 8 live business man. He ! figures his investment with as much
 accuracy as any merchant takes stock | of his cash or merchandise. If the 1 farm is not paying sufficient returns on | the capital investment, it must be
 made to do so.
 The agricultural college and the ex- | pertinent station have done much 1 toward increasing the efficiency of l farm production. Farm bureaus and ! farmers institutes are introducing the l best methods of crop raising, breeding
 and other live subjects into almost every community in the country. An ! interchange of ideas is as valuable to farm life as the merchants associa- ton is to the merchant or the clinic to the professional man.
 | Many improvements in crop and ! livestock production have, increased the efficiency of the farm in the past four years. The care and selection of
 seed crops, and the testing of germin-
 ation before planting is receiving mora
 attention year by year. Corn contests
 throughout the country are improv- ing the quality and raising the stan- dard of the seed.
 Recent experiments with oats by a state agricultural college has produced
 a variety which gives an average yield iof more than 5 bushels to the acre, | compared with an average yfeTd of 1 common oats of 32 bushels This is but one of many instances of increased ! production. Surely such experiments
 are of great benefit to the American farmer.
 AS in grain, pure bred stock, wheth-
 CT cattle, hogs, poultry or whatever is raised on the farm, Is more valuable than the mongrel breeds. The returns
 on the investment are much larger from high grade than from the scrub | stock and the government is giving it's
 encouragement through the Depart ment of Agriculture in fostering better
 stock everywhere.
 The adaptation of the proper crops
 to the soils is another matter that has
 received but little attention until re- gently. During the past year detailed
 soil surveys covering 38,136 square miles were made by the United States Bureau of Soils, raising the total to nearly 500, ,O00 square miles, with 22 1 states and four bureaus of the Fed 1 eral Government cooperating in the i work.
 That the farmers of the country are thoroughly in accord with the most 1 modern ideas is attested by the sup i port they are giving to the county | agent plan which is but a few years
 tried. The Department of Agriculture | has announced that at present there are more than a million farmers who are members of organizations assisting ! county agents in. their work
 Through these agents and their bu- 1 reaus which are linked with the fed eral and state agricultural institutions, the farmer may be brought in contact with the latest experiments and scien. i tjf1c research the world over which
 will enable him to produce better re-
 suits and raise the standard financially
 and economically on the American | farm.