The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1927-07-07
1927 Stearns County Fair
Was Successful Venture
Continued from Page One

Continued from Page One
stand. From a dairyman's stand
point it was a classic. Several
hundred farmers Were on hand but
this address should have been
heard by every dairyman in Cen
tral Minnesota. Mr.. VanPelt said
in part:
Present day competition has
placeC all industries on a CONNER
cial basis. The successful mer-
chant is the one who can sell his
wares at the lowest price and still
make a percentage of profit as
large as or larger than his COM
petitors. The successful profess
Sional man is the one who receives
the greatest remuneration because
of the value of his services to his
clients. The successful manufact-
urer is the one whose methods en-
able him to produce an article and
sell it at a price as low as or low
er than that asked by other manu-
facturers and still make as great
a profit. The farmer who produc-
es products on his farm for the
beast possible cost, quality consid-
cred, is the one who is successful.
There has never been a time
when the farmer could not boast
that of all humanity he alone is
really independent. To so great an
extent has this been true and so
well has it generally become known
among agriculturists that there is
a likelihood that the farmer has
grown careless to a degree and
in his strife for higher prices has
overlooked a very important point
namely, that a dollar saved in the
cost of producing 100 pounds of
any commodity is, in reality, dol
lar made, and probably the easiest
dollar that could be made upon the
farm.
This is especially true of the
dairy farmer or the man on the
farm who milks cows. There is a
general complaint all over the land
that the dairy business is very
combining and where one farmer or
farmers son is found who likes to
milk there are so who would rath-
er do any other farm labor. Why?
Because so many of the cows are
not worth milking. The conditions
under which they are MIXED are
repelling. There are few farms on
which there are not from so to rs
per cent of the cows that are alb
solutely making no profit whatever
and many that are source of loss
to their owners. In the days when
butterfat was selling for 10 to IL
cents a pound, and a drug on the
market at that, there might have
been some excuse for the manufac-
turer of dairy products losing
money on some of his cows, yet
undoubtedly, a larger percentage
of the cows in those days were
making net profits for their owners
than are at the present time. When
COWS are kept upon land worth
from S25 to $50 an acre and can
be fed corn worth from 10 to IL
cents a bushel; oats, from 8 to 1C
cents; bran, from $40 to $12 pei
ton; oil meal, from $40 to $40 pei
ton; hay, from So to SIS a ton, il
is mighty poor cow that will not
pay for her feed and make hel
owner some sort of Ia net profit tt
remunerate him for his labor
Farmers complained bitterly il
those times because it was impos
sible to secure more for the butter.
fat. Today the farmer is, in many
localities, receiving an average Of
more than 80 cents a pound the
year around for butterfat. If
however, he will look the PROPOSE
ton squarely in the face, he viii
find that with corn worth SO cent.
or more a bushel; oats, from 81
to 40 cents a bushel; bran, from
$25 to $28 a ton; oil meal, from
$50 to $40 per ton; hay from SIC
to $40 per ton; and other foods
proportionately high, he is making
less real profit in feeding cows OF
land worth from 500 to $500 pei
acre than he did during those times
which we called hard. This state
ment is made advisedly and refers
to that class of cows which are
apt to be found on the average
farm.
Farm conditions have changed
SO radically and yet so gradually
that few are the farmers who
realize that they really are milk.
ing IA number of cows over TOO
times each year merely for the fur
of doing so, and yet statistics de.
termined by considering the mum.