The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1925-01-15
POINTERS FOR
FARM OWNERS
professor George Severance
piyes Farm Talk Over
Station KFAE

The articles below, DrOaOcaSteu OV-
- station KFAE, gives some val
,,.ble information and statistics rela-
,;ve to farm management and opera
tion In this article, which is the first
of series, it is pointed out that sue
.essful farming is not always due to
,ord conditions alone and that in ev-
erv instance there should be as cor
-.ct set of books kept for the farm
as for business.
"Essentials of Farm Management"
bv Professor Severance:
Farmers and land owners are be-
shining to realize as never before
MAT farming is real business. Prac-
t;cally every experiment station in
the United States, as well as the u.
8. department of agriculture, has been
securing first-hand information on the
financial returns of representative
farms. A study of many thousands of
farms has shown clearly that for
many years prior to the recent peak
of land prices, the so-called profits
in farming consisted largely of rise
in land values. When the rise in land
values has been deducted, the profits
from operation of the average farm
have been very low in all parts of the
United States, a surprisingly large
percent of the farmers making moth
ing at all from the actual operation.
While no one can safely prophesy
as to future land values, our shrewd-
est economists do not predict any
such rise in values as occurred be-
tween the period of depression dur
ing the COS and the world war. 1t
seems inevitable, therefore, that for
many years to come the farmer who
makes a profit and gets ahead on the
farm will be obliged to do so very
largely from the operation of the
farm rather than from rise of land
values. The individual must adjust
his family budget so as to provide
larger percentage for food, just as
the relative expenses of other ele-
ments of the family budget have
been adjusted from time to time.
Second, the farmer himself must
organize his farm on better business
basis and observe the principles that
prevail in other lines of business.
During the last Is years the various
experiment stations and the National
Bureau of Agriculture Economies
have gathered and analysed the fl
nancial results of many thousands Of
farms. Their studies have brought
out many interesting facts and funda-
mental principles.
One of the most striking facts is
the great difference in results secur-
ed by individual farmers. For example
the most unsuccessful farmer found
in survey of $50 farms in the Pa
louise country, made net loss of
$1,000 in addition to donating his time,
while the most successful farmer in
the same neighborhood, in the same
year, made a net profit of over $751;
600 to pay him for his time after al.
lowing 8 per cent interest on the use
of his capital.
In a study of over 2,743 farms in
Now York state conducted by Prof.
g. F. Warren before the war, the av-
erage returns from all these farms
for the operators time was just about
equal to laborers' wages, yet 40 of
these farmers made over $1,000 for
their own time in addition to allow
ing 8 per cent interest on the capital
invested and allowing regular pay for
any work done by the rest of the