Milford chronicle., 1931-11-13
GLENDALE
Markets In GeneraI

Markets In General
The farmers have been laboring
the past year without any prospect
of having any surplus cash at the
end of the season.
The work on the farm in these
days takes women and men, who
have been trained in the ways OF
/ systematic farming. The old ways
such as practiced by our fathers
and mothers of long ago, will not do
today.
Now and then we see people who
cling to the old modes of farming,
and generally we have to notice the
condition of the farm on which they
live, the buildings, condition of the
land, which shows conclusively the
lack of knowledge of the up-to-date
farming methods.
1t takes improved land to produce
sufficient crops to pay the farmer
for his work, and he must also use
the most up-to-date machinery to
/ save manual labor, or else he would
not raise sufficient crops to pay ex-
! penses.
/ The present prices of wheat, corn,
/ potatoes, etc, don't seem to warrant
( the farmer to grow them in very
large quantities.
Wheat of late has taken a sudden
advance, but the present price will
not pay the farmer for producing
it. Most of the farmer had sold their
| crops before the advance; some sold
as low as forty cents per bushel.
The acreage this year will be
much smaller than that which was
sOwn last season.
Corn, considered one of the best
crops, and if farmers could not sell
anything else, they could always
sell their corn. But at the present
prices, corn like wheat, doesn't
warrant the farmer in growing it
beyond what he needs for home use.
Potatoes, the early crop, though
abundant, would not sell for enough
to pay for growing them. The late
crop was failure in many pleaces,
and the prices offered for them twill
not make the farmer. rich very fast. !
Sweet potatoes. We used to say
that any farmer who had a good
crop of sweets had something which
would bring in an abundance of
cash when needed. But the crop this |
season is so abundant and the price
so low, that in several sections they
are not worth digging.
The farmer who grew tomatoes
did so at loss. Ten to fifteen cents ,
per five-eighths basket, won't hard (
ly pay for the fertilizer, let alone /
the work done in producing them.
Peaches was an abundant crop.
this year. The markets were in such .
a state that the growers could not
realize one cent from the crop, and
in fact toward the last they gave
them away to anyone who would
come and get them.
Apples, while plentiful, did not
yield the grower any surplus over
the cost of picking. When you can
buy apples at a cost of fifteen or
twenty cents per bushel, someone is
losing money, and it generallys falls
on the one who produces them.
Peppers have not been paying
crop this year. The sun seems to
have been SO hot during the hot
spell as to blister them and caus-
ing them to be worthless, and unfit
for picking.
Lima beans for factory use did
not produce this year as much as in
former seasons. The early crop
was almost a failure, but the later
crop was much better and made
sufficient cash to let the farmer out
much loss.
Soy beans, which has heretofore
been a money making crop, have
gone down so much, that the low
markets of today would not pay the
farmer to raise them.
Keiffer pears have in some years
made the growers some money.
They are such prolific bearers, but
today you can hardly give them
away, and growers are letting them
rot on the trees.
Oats are not grown to any extent
in Sussex county but those who
have tried to grow them find they
are like wheat and corn, not worth
Onions seem to be going higher
1ut as the farmers don't raise many ]
outside of home use, they will not
ser Iich growing them this year.
There are other crops which the !
armer could grow abundantly, but s
t would be of no use as the markets I
Ire so low that they could only be
produced at a loss. S
The farmer has been hard hit '
rom all sides; yet he seems cheer I
ul and will go on trying to feed the
Millions who depend on his labor to a
produce those things which are \
for their support. No diff
erence whether the price is very n
ow, as the people of the world must T
lave something to eat n
Congress has been saying for n
ometime that they would enact o
avs which would benefit the farm o
+. So far we very much doubt if a
hey will ever do anything which d
ill be of permanent benefit to the S
lrmer. 81
Have you ever stopped and con- N
idered what the world would do for v
to eat if the farmers
hould 90 out of the business of al
aising produce? 1t is worth think "
Ig about! fl
cath Of Mrs. Annie B. Prettyman G.
Mrs. Annie B. Prettyman, one of T
lr most highly respected women,
ged &C years, passed away at her M
Dme here on Sunday morning last FIJI