McNairy County independent. (Selmer, McNairy County, Tenn.) 1902-1969, 1922-09-01
Waste or the Farm
By T. F. PECK.
Commissioner of Agriculture.

~ 40 oy oSShiieltiECO, hOW oil WASH
is eliminated, how labor is 81
distributed that it is 100 per cent
efficient every moment it is EN-
ployed; how all lost motion is
eliminated, how every part of the
raw material is utilized. Then
you can understand how the fin
ished product is produced at such
low cost.
Go through one of the great
packing plants, where live stock
is slaughtered, and you can un-
derstand how everything about
the pig, except the squealis turn
ed into profit, and how the pack
ing houses pay big dividends by
utilizing what is let go to waste
on the farm when the farmer
butchers his meat.
If the waste and loss on the
farms could be turned into profit,
the balance would be found on
the right side of the ledger.
Many farmers do not realize they
are wasting or losing on their
production. They have continued
to do things as their fathers did
before them, when there was no
competition and none but local
markets for their products. It
is hard for them to realize their
wasteful practices until they have
observed the methods employed
in large and well regulated pro-
duction enterprises.
Farmers do not appreciate the
fact that they are just as much
manufacturers asare the concerns
that turn out automobiles, tract
ors and other kinds of farm ma
chinery, or that the same system
can be applied to their work with
profit.
We unconsciously waste time,
waste feed, let crops go to waste,
but we are most wasteful in our
marketing methods. We waste
the fertility of our soils. We
waste in the care of our live stock,
and waste in production by neg
Letting crops at the time they
most need attention. We have
not given the attention to the de-
tails of our work which would
mean so much in the final profits.
| am a farmer and have been
all my life, and realize that am
chargeable, in varying degrees,
with the things | have enumer-
ated. / am trying to correct the
/ have made, and | am
bringing them to the attention
Of my fellow farmers, so that we,
may be able to avoid in the fu-
ture a repetition of the mistakes
Of the past.
What with prices for our pro-
ducts and with high taxes and
high living costs, we farmers are
having hard shedding to get by.
1t is our duty to ourselves and
our families to remove as many
of our handicaps as we possibly
can. / am trying to point ont
the things we can do that will
help US. Doing them will make
more endurable the things that
we cannot control or eliminate
from among our handicaps.
We can cut our waste of time,
waste of our crops, waste in the
neglect of live stock and in feed
ing, waste in the neglect of our
farm machinery. We can i'm
prove our marketing methods by
cooperative effort. When we do
all these things that it is possible
for US to do, we will be more firm
ly on our feet and better able to
tackle the problems that now
seem impossible of solution.
There is one thing certain
we will be far better off than
those who idle away their time
bemoaning their state and doing
nothing to make conditions bet
ter, l am firmly convinced that
when we do all that we can do,
we can insure the most depend
able prosperity for ourselves on
the farm, and in that way help
in the prosperity of the whole
country.