The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1923-06-28
WHICH KIND OF FARMING?

Wilt MIMI UT vi
What do you think Of receiving
only $917 a year for the work OF
yourself and family and the use OF
$16,4O0 as invested capital?
Pretty small pay in these days,
isn't it?
The department of agriculture
made a survey for 1922 of 5000 rep
resentative farms devoted to miscel-
laneous farming, and the foregoing
figures were the average result.
The average value of these farms
was S16,40O each, and the average
income for the year after all ex-
penses, except for the work of the
farmer and his family, was $917 each.
Some of the 5000 farms cost more
or less than S16,400, and some pro
duced more or less than $917 in the
year. The figures given were the
average of all the farms.
How would you like to invest S16,-
400 and you and your family work
a year and get only $917 in return?
That may be taken as a fair aver
age of what our farmers who did a
miscellaneous farming did last year.
This record does not encourage mis-
c%ellaneous farming.
This record is as accurate and au-
thentic as it can be made, and proves
conclusively that when conditions are
favorable for specialized farming it
is folly not to engage in the latter
kind.
The Holstein- Friesian Association
of America held its annual conven-
ton in Cleveland It the beginning of
June. At these meetings proof in
plenty was presented to establish the
fact that the dairy farmer is the. only
n of the different classes of farm
ers who is making money under the
present conditions.
"Iowa farmers have been in bad
shape for four or five years, but the
man who is milking cows has been in
better shape than Others" said w.
B. Barney, for twenty years dairy
commissioner of the state.
w. H. Mott, secretary of the Kan
sas Holstein-Friesian Association said
"The dairy farmer is the only one
getting by. In Kansas the banks are
quite willing to loan money to pur-
chase dairy CATTLE"
1t has been proved conclusively
that livestock feeding crops can be
grown to much greater advantage on
this project than Fan grains. Such
crops are bulky and it costs much to
get them to market in their native
condition.
By concentrating them into milk,
the milk into cream, and the cream
into butter, the transportation OBJ
lection is removed. A ton of alfalfa
will not weigh very much when con-
centrated into butter.
And the farmer has to pay the
freight to market in either case. If
wheat brings $1.20 in Duluth, and
the freight from Williams to Duluth
is 20 cents, all the farmer gets at
Williams is S1.00. The same is pro-
p~ortionately true of any farm pro-
duct, whether raw or concentrated.
1t is good business therefore, for
farmers to concentrate their crops
into less weight and thereby increase
the value of each pound of the CON +.
centrated product, that the price of
freight may be reduced to the min
It has been proved that dairying $
S the best sort of specialized farm i
ng for this project.
If a mill is built here, or very near |
lere, that the raw product may be !
oncentrated at home, sugar beet
growing may become a good form of
'~pecialized farming for this
ty.
No matter what products are pro
luced here they have to be hauled to Z
market. The big market for any of
hem is far away and freight is ex- =
1ensive. This the grower has to pay :
n the form of receiving correspond .
ngly lower prices than those receive :
Who are near the markets. =
It is manifest, then, that a policy .
If procedure that will put more dol ?
ars of value into every hundred :
pounds of freight is the one that
be adopted for the general !
rood of the community. -
To put such a policy into effect re- "
Iuires quantity production, and this
will come in due time. =
The progress that has been made Il
IN the project during the past year Il
build the d~airying industry shows
hat u farmers understand this J..
clearly and are arranging =
o profit by its benefcent advantages. :,
-Williams-Manso News. =
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