Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1921-12-22
Holds American Farmer in Death
Valley Period
GOVERNMENT AGRICULTURAL
HEAD GIVES HOPES FOR
BETTER FUTURE,
HOWEVER
Declares Farms Must Be Placed on
Scientific Pre- ductiOn Basis
for Results
(By H. c. Taylor)
Chief of the Bureau of Markets, U. S..
Dept. of Agriculture

Chief of the Bureau of Markets, u. s.
Dept. of Agriculture
Editors Note-H. C. Taylor, chief
of the Bureau of Markets for the
United States Department of Agri-
culture, is both scientific and "old-
fashioned" farmer While his years
of specialization and intensive study
have given him a wide background on
which to base theory and practice, he
has also undertaken the task of under
standing the actual conditions which
confront the American farmer. He is
recognized as one of the men who will
light the way for the American agri-
culturist to a future of greater pro-
duction and ever reducing overhead.
The American farmer is now pass
ing through a barren and inhospitable
wastes, a sort of Death Valley among
his landmarks. Having been through
such experiences before, we may con-
fidently count on coming through, as
VIC AWAY nave III tiiC pdoCy UuC VIC
are living in fools paradise if by
that token we hope to come out at
the same place we went in. We might
as we'll admit once for all that the
"good old times" of American agricul-
ture, the free and easy times of cheap
land, continually advancing in price,
are gone forever.
The change of base was inevitable,
Henceforth, instead of an agriculture
conducted loosely, with an eye on the
increment in land value, we must
have tight and rational agriculture,
based upon sound agronomy and ami
NAL husbandry, and knowledge of
the cost of production ana of market
conditions. Henceforth we must con-
duct our farming operations so that
they will yield profits on a farming
basis, rather than as a side line in
speculative deal in real estate.
This being the situation, what of
the outlook?
Worst is Past
From a purely economic side the
outlook is dark enough, though there
is reason to believe that the worst is
now past. The consuming public
seems to have no conception of the
plight in which the farmer has been
left by the slump in farm prices. All
that the consumer knows is that re-
tail prices have not come down to
anywhere near the pre-war level, ard
he may assume that the farmer is
still getting high prices, when as
matter of fact, he is getting smaller
net returns for his products than he
got in 1913, and in dollars that will
buy only about half as much per dol
lar as would his 1913 dollars.
Take a concrete example. The u.
S. Department of Agriculture has
made an annual analysis of the bust
ness of 100 representative farms in
central Indiana for the past eight
years. In 1918 the average net income
of these farms, the return for both
the net income was only 81 ,269. How
ever, this falling off does not measure
the actual decline in the farmers in
come, for in 1920 wholesale prices of
commodities other than farm products
averaged more than two-and-a-half
times as high as the corresponding
prices in 1913. That is, it took at
least $3.50 of this 1920 income to buy
what a dollar would have bought in
1913. Consequently, with total
smaller by over 5000, and a dollar
shrunk to 40 cents, the average 1920
income of the group of farms in ques-
tion would not buy more than one
third as would the average for 1913.
On this basis, the situation looks
something like this:
1918: