The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-10-11
The Farm and the Farmer
BY William r. Sanborn

corn is now put at 1855, 100000 bush
els.
Despite a steady increase in prices
for turkeys since 1915, fewer birds
nave been grown from year 10 yea,.
The average price paid for turkeys on
farms during the four months of Oc-
tober to January. 1856. was Is cents
pound. The price received during
the corresponding period, 192O-21, was
81 cents pound Going back to the
census year 1900, we find that we had
6,595,000 turkeys in the farms tina;
fall, while in 1910 there were only
3,6SS,000 and in 1920 there were but
$4,000. During the past six years,
the price of turkeys has increased
more than 100 per cent and production
has fallen off at least so per cent in
the past 20 years.
The department of agriculture tells
US that the raising of turkeys may be
found very profitable where there is
an abundance of range and reasonable
freedom from preying animals Ever
for the farmer with limited range there
are opportunities for the profitable
raising of few turkeys, if proper at
tention is given them.
II is very difficult to shin turkeys
alive to market since the shrinkage is
very heavy Ordinarily turkeys do not
eat very much when confined and
therefore they are usually killed ami
dressed locally and then shipped t.
market, packed in barrels or boxes.
Turkeys, like chickens. may be either
scalded or dry picked, but the dry
picked birds are preferred because
they keep better.
Wool Marketing Methods.
during the past so years the wool
grower has seen an almost complete
reversal of methods of marketing wool,
namely the change from the consign-
ment method that was then in vogue.
then TO system of speculative buying
that, up to the advent of the pooling
system, took care of about 80 percent
of our American clip.
Inc decline of the consignment bust
ness and the development OF specula.
tive buying, says Mark J. Smith. of
the Ohio state farm bureau. came
about through the realization by large
Wool-center dealers that there were
fortunes to be made by speculative
buylng, where as there was only a nice
living in the consignment business.
NO one ever got rich out of consign-
ments' is a familiar statement among
wool men. 1t is obvious. therefore.
that an extensive system of sr~~--T~
tive capital on which interest must be
paid, large wool-center dealers. az
rled regional buyers and an army of
local buyers has been an expensive
system for the wool growers 1t has
resulted in hammering down wool
values prior to and at shearing time
and has made little incentive to pro
duce good product. The local buyer
being so far removed from the ultimate
consumer of~the wool, merit in many
cases was not a factor. Much farm
wool has been bought without being
inspected"
The wool pool is an honest attempt
on the part of the wool growers to cor
rect this erratic condition that is
determined to the entire sheep indus
try and to improve their own condi-
tions by stabilizing the market by max
ing market by making it unneces-
sary to have speculative margins taken
out of their wool for the purpose of
protecting spectators and by selling
wool on its merits, thus securing its
full market value each year and for all
wool.