The Covington leader. (Covington, Tenn.) 18??-current, 1922-08-31
WASTE ON THE FARM
(By T. F. Peck, Commissioner Of
Agriculture.l

Go through a well regulated manu-
featuring plant and see how it is
systematized, how al waste is elimi-
mated, how labor is so distributed
that it is 100 per cent. efficient every
moment it is employed; how all lost
motion is eliminated, how every part
of the raw material is utilized Then
you can understand how Che finished
product is produced at such low cost.
Go through one Of the great pack
/ ing plants, where livestock is slaugh-
tered, and you can understand how
everything about the pig, except the
squeal, is turned into profit, and how
the packing houses pay 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 ball
ance would be found on the right side
of the ledger Many farmers do not
realize that they are wasting or los
ing on their production. They have
continued to do things as their faith
ers did before them. when there was
no competition and none but local
markets for their products. It is
hard for them to realize their waste
full practices until they have observed
the methods employed in large and
well regulated production enterprises.
Farmers do not appreciate The fact
that they are Just as much manufac-
turers as are the concerns that turn
out automobiles, tractors and other
kinds of farm machinery, or that the
same system can be applied to their
work with profit.
We uneonsciously waste time,
waste feed, let crops 90 to waste, but
we are most wasteful in our market
ing methods. We waste the fertility
of our soils. We waste the care Of
our livestock, and waste in product
ion by neglecting crops at the time
they most need attention. We have
not given the attention to the details
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 vary
ing degrees with the things / have
enumerated. | am trying to correct |
the mistakes | have made and / am
bringing them to the attention Of my
fellow-farmers so that we may be
able to avoid in the future a repeti-
ton of the mistakes Of the past.
What with low 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
out the things we can do that will
help us. Doing them will make more
endurable the things that we can not
control or eliminate from among our
We can cut our waste of time,
waste of our crops, waste in the neg
Iect Of livestock and in feeding, waste
in the neglect of our farm machinery.
We can improve our marketing
by cooperative effort. When
we do all these things that it is pos
sible for us to do we will be more
firmly on our feet and better able to
tackle the problems that now seem
of solution.
There is one hing certain-we will
be far better off than those who idle
away their time bemoaning their fate
and doing nothing to make conditions
better | am firmly convinced that
when we do all we can do, we can in
sure the most dependable prosperity
for, ourselves on the farm and in that
way help in the prosperity Of the
whole cnuntrV