Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-06-20
COUNTY AGENT SEES
DECLINE IN PRICES

Stop up the leaks and throw out
all unnecessary loads, is the advice
OF Harry L. Brown, county agricul-
tural agent. Never before in the
history Of American agriculture has
j. been so necessary to keep produc-
tIon costs at conservative point,
Mr.. Brown says. He asserts that
this is an era of declining prices
which may continue with minor up
turns for several years and the man
who does not watch closely every
item of cost and endeavors to cut
at all possible points stands a good
chance to come out with the balance
on the wrong side of the ledger at
the end of the year, he declares.
In a statement given out Saturday,
Mr.. Brown says
According to the United States
department of agriculture, 1872 per
cent of the cost of producing crops
Is due to work stock. The cost Of
: work stock is approximately equal
to half the man labor cost for all
crops.
'The Georgia State College Of Ag-
riculture has recently completed a
study Of work stock costs on 154
: farms in Georgia. According to this
report, the average Georgia farmer
feeds sixty:six and one-half bushels
of corn, eighteen bushels of oats and
one and three-fourths tons of forage,
including hay, fodder and oats in
;. the bundle, per year. If we figure
corn at IS cents per bushel, oats at
{ "a cents and hay at $40 per ton, the
? yearly cost for feed alone is S96.59.
:, The average depreciation on mule
v is about 10 per cent and we should
: allow per cent interest on the in
= vestment. Assuming the value Of
"a mule at $3.50, the interest and de-
5 preciation amounts to $29 per year.
Other costs, such as shoeing, veteri-
= nary expense, taxes, ETC., add $3.9S
3 to the annual cost. The yearly cost
: OF work stock per head at present
- prices totals $129.57. At 20 cents
: per pound, it would take over a bale
:. and quarter Of cotton to pay the
!. upkeep of one mule.
"a "A survey Of Brooks county, Geor-
g1a, in 1914 showed that the average
farm mule works only 113 days per
N
!. would cost $1.15. The farmers of
: Brooks county at that time were
= practicing diversification to a great
@er extent than any other county in
Georgia and were probably getting
more work out of their mules than
the farmer Of other sections. But
: more than one-third of the farmers
! IN that county worked their mules
: only eighty days, making the cost
. per day $1.62. On the other hand,
there were about a third Of +, them
who worked their mules ISL days,
which at present costs of mule labor
would amount to only Sc cents per
day. If it were possible to keep a
mule. busy 800 days in a year, the
daily cost would be just 40 cents.
These figures show that one way
to keep down the cost of production
is to provide some profitable work
for the mules to do every day. This
takes lots of forethought and care.
full management. It means making
plans ahead of time. One very sue
cessful farmer said recently that he
always planned his work a year in
advance, although he has many 9TH
er attributes of a good farmer.
Another way Of reducing work
stock costs is by economical feed
! ing. In the study made by the Geor-
gia State College Of Agriculture,
eighteen OF the 154 farmers feed 100
bushels or more Of corn per year,
while thirty-fve got along with fifty
bushels or less. No doubt most Of
the feed was wasted on the farms
: where 100 bushels per year was
used.
The use Of green sorghum and
pasture, especially at times when
the mules are idle, will help mate
rally to reduce the work stock costs.
At this time, when farming is not
highly profitable, we must stop up
all the leaks and throw overheard
all unnecessary loads, if we are to
keep the old ship af1oat."