The Powder River County examiner and the Broadus independent., 1922-01-06

lRy H. c. TAYLOR.

(By H. c. TAYLOR.
Chief Of the Bureau Of Markets. l.. s
Department of Agriculture.)
Editors Notc.-H. G. Taylcr. CHIEF
Of the Bureau Of Markets for the Uni
ted States Department Of Agriculture
10 both scientific and "old- fashioned
farmer. While his years Of special IA
ton and intensive study have given
him q wide background on which tc
base theory and practice. he has also
undertaken the task Of understanding
the actual conditions which confront
\ the American farmer. He IS recognized
~ one Of the men who will light the
way fer the American agriculturst to
n future of greater producstion and
ever-reducing overhead.
The American farmer is now pass
ing through a barren and inhospitab Bile
waste, a sort of Death Valley among
his landmarks Having been through
such experiences before we may con-
hdently count on coming through. as
we always have in the past, but we
are living in FOOLS paradise ii by
that token we hope to come out at
the same place we went in. We might
as well admit .nce for all that the
ture. the free and easy times CT cheap
land, continually advancing in price.
are gone forever.
The change of base was incvitab ole
Henceforth. inst, ad of an agriculture
conducted loosely, with one eye on the
Increment of land value We must have
q tight and rational agriculture. based
upon sound agronomy and animal
husbandry. and a knowledge of the
cost of production and of market CON-
dttiOns. Henceforth we must conduct
our farming operations 50 that they
Will yield profits on a farming basis,
rather than as side line ir a specu-
lative deal in real estate.
This being the situation what of
the outlook?
From the 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 n farm prices. All that the
consumer knows is that retail prices
have net come down to anywhere near
the pre-war level. and he may assume
that the farmer is still gotting high
prices. when as a matter of fact he
IS getting smaller net returns for his
products than he got in 1918. and in
dollars that will buy only about half
as much per dollar as would his 1919
dollars.
Take concrete example The L. $
Department of Agriculture has made
an annual analysis of th. business cf
Ie0 representative farms IN central
ihdlana FOR the past eight years In
1913 the aNerao" net ineoct4 of these
farms. the return for hotI, lnbar and
capital, was S1.563. In 1920 the net in
come was only s1,269. However. rhis
falling off does not measgr. -ha 4c-
tuaI decline in the farmers income. for
IN 1920 wholesale prices Of co,nmo5i.
ties other than farm produces averaged
more than two-and-a- half times as
hiSh as the corresponding prices in
1913. That IS it took at least sc.5a of
this 1s2" fnccma 10 buy what y 5nI1ar
would haN. bought IN 1913 Corsn-
Iuentit. with 4 total smaller bt- oyer
Szoo. and dollar shrunlS to forty
cents. the average 1920 incom. Of the
group of farms in question would h,ll.
not NOR than one-third as slilri, . !.
would the average for 1913 on this
basis, the situation looks saln.tb;,r
like this: