The Powder River County examiner and the Broadus independent. [volume] (Broadus, Mont.) 1919-1935, 1922-11-17


BY H. G. TAYLOR, Chief OF the Bureau
of Markets, u. s. Dept of Agriculture.
Editors Note.-H. c. Taylor. chief
Of the Bureau Of Markets for the Uni
ted States Department OF Agriculture,
is both a scientific and old-fashioned"
farmer. Which is years of specials
cation and intensive study have given
him wide background on which to
base theory and practice. he has also
undertaken the task of understanding
the actual conditions which confront
the American farmer. TIe is recognized
as one Of the men who will light the
way for the American agriculturist to
a future of greater production and
ever reducing overhead.
The American farmer is now passing
through barren and inhospitable
waste, sort of Death Valley among
his landmarks. Having been through
such experiences before. we may con-
fdently count on coming through. as
we always have in the past hut we
are living in a fools paradise II by
that token we hope to come out at the
same place we went in. We might as
well admit once for all that the "good
Old times" of American agriculture.
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 one eye on the
increment in land value. we must have
tight and rational agriculture. based
upon sound agronomv and animal hus-
bandry. and a knowledge Of the cost
of production nd of market conditions.
Henceforth we must conduct our farm
ing operations so that they will yield
profits on a farming basis, rather than
as a side line in a speculative deal in
real estate.
This being the situation. what of the
outlook?
From the purely economic side TIE
outlook is dark enough. though there
Is reason to believe that the wors, Ia
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 retail prices
have not come down to anywhere hear
the pre-war level and he may assume
that the farmer is stir getting high
prices. when. as matter of fact. he
ia getting smaller net returns for his
products than he got in 1913. and in
dollars that will buy .,riy about half
as much per dollar as would his 1918
dollars.
Take a concrete example. The L. s.
Department of Agriculture has made
an annual analysis of the business of
100 representative farms in central In
diana for the past eight years. In
1913 the average net income Of these
farms, the return for both labor and
capital. was s1.503 In 1920 the net
income was only s1.269. However this
falling Off does not measure the ac-
tual decline in the farmers income. for
in 1920 Who'll esale prices of commodi.
ties other than farm products aver
aged more than two-and-a-half times
as high as the corresponding prices ir
1913. That is. tit ook at least S2.5!
Of this 1920 income to buy what q
dollar would have bought in 1918. Con.
sequently. with a total smaller by ovel
5000. and dollar snrunk to forty
cents. the average 1920 income of the
group of farms in question would bu!
not more than one-third as much a:
would the average fo- 1913. On thi!
basis. the situation looks something
like this:
1918: