T HE American farmer has production is 14.1 bushels to the acre; Take the Wheat King for instance. He has long been a favorite subject of the versifier and the novelist. There is something poetic in the idea of the rustling grain, the golden harvest. "A glow is on the countryside, a yellowgolden gleam," sings the poet, overlooking or ignoring the fact that much. of the glow is sunburn on the swarthy farmer toiling in the hot harvest field. The cold hard facts are that the Wheat King has a much smaller budget or exchequer back of him than most people imagine. From figures furnished the Department of Agriculture by more than five thousand crop reporters the average cost of producing an acre of wheat is fixed at $11.15. The average wheat the average price at which this is sold. is eighty cents a bushel-a return, per acre, of $11.28. Here, then, is a net profit of only thirteen cents per acre, hardly enough to warrant any very extensive or kingly extravagances. Consider the corn grower next. Corn is our greatest crop. Farm prosperity is supposed to be greater in the corn belt than anywhere else in the United States, and it is a fact that the farmer in the corn belt lives better and has more money than any of his agricultural brothers. Yet corn growing yields but small profits. From figures furnished the Department of Agriculture by six thousand crop reporters the average cost of producing an acre of corn is fixed at $12.27. The average annual value of an acre of corn in the United States, from 1901 to 1910, was $12.53. Here, then, is a twenty-six cent profit per acre. THE REVOLUTION ON THE FARM Take the grower of the oats next. Oats have never been considered a profitable crop, being raised generally as a nurse crop or to insure the proper rotation and to conserve the fertility of the soil. Yet, even at this, almost forty million acres of fine farm land were devoted to this one crop last year. From figures furnished the Department of Agriculture by five thousand crop reporters the average cost of producing an acre of oats is fixed at $10.91. The average annual value of an acre of oats in the United States, from 1902 to 1911, was $10.66. Here we have a clear loss of twenty-five cents an acre. Forty million acres being seeded, the annual loss to the oat growers of the country is ten million dollars. Now, what, if anything, is there to offset this poor showing for the grain farmer? Has he ceased to be a king 199 his family. Thus, in the raising of wheat the labor item is placed at $5.38 an acre; in the raising of corn it is $6.99; in the raising of oats it is $4.73. Some of this expense is for the teams and tractors employed; some of it is for the hired help; but a large part, probably the largest, is for the work of the farmer himself or some member of his family. The second greatest item of expense is land rental or interest on capital invested and this, again, comes into the farmer's pocket, in the event he owns his land. Thus, for example, the Department figures the rental or interest in the cost of raising an acre of wheat to be $3.30; an acre of corn $3.75; an acre of oats $3.78. Over against this," of course, must be charged off the actual rental paid out, if the farmer be a tenant, and the interest paid out, if he be a borrower. NINETY MILLION DOLLARS INVESTED BY FARMERS IN CARS LIKE THIS IN THE TEN STATES OF THE GREAT GRAIN BELT and become merely a pretender to the throne, struggling as best he can to keep up appearances? The main fact that must be considered is this: The principal item of expense, as figured by the Department of Agriculture, in the raising of wheat, corn, and oats, is that of labor, much if not most of which is performed by the farmer himself and by members of If it were not for the fact that he is being paid for his own labor-a small amount, to be sure-and is being reimbursed, though at a low rate of interest, for his capital invested, the grain farmer would find himself receiving such small returns for his work as to discourage him from extending the field of his operations and deter others from following in his footsteps. These are some of the things the American farmer has discovered, as a result of learning how to keep books. The result is not wholly discouraging for, with customary industry, he has set about to remedy matters. In one way it is merely evolution; in another it is revolution, spreading like wildfire. How are conditions to be changed? In various ways: chiefly by increasing the yield of crops already grown at far too little or no profit; by getting away from specialized farming, by which is meant the growing of wheat or corn or any one crop exclusively, and by going in for diversified or mixed grain THE SOURCE OF WEALTH OF A GREAT IN But by the time it reaches the railroad it represents a profit of only thirteen cents to the acre. Thomas and live-stock farming. Cooper, director of the North Dakota Experiment Station, put it admirably when he said: "Extreme specialization in either live-stock or grain farming, except under very favorable. conditions, is not as profitable as where a good proportion of the income of the farm is secured from either stock or grain products. Apparently the ideal relation of live stock to the farm is to carry sufficient productive stock to consume all roughage and cheap coarse grains, purchasing the minimum quantity of feeds and concentrates, unless the prices as compared with those of live-stock products IT IS FITTING THAT POETS HAVE SUNG OF THIS, ROMANCERS HAVE WOVEN THEIR TALES ABOUT IT, FOR IT REPRESENTS ANYTHING BUT COMMERCIAL PROFIT THERE IS MORE PROFIT IN HOGS, PER ACRE, THAN FROM ALMOST ANY OTHER SOURCE OF FARM INCOME pendent somewhat upon the size of the farm and the capital invested, that the greatest net profit can be obtained where from fifty to seventy-five per cent of the income is secured from live stock or live-stock products. Take the figures for the acre yields in live stock and compare them with the yields of wheat, corn, and oats. Careful investigation of farm conditions in Western Minnesota, a typical farming region, has shown that, on the average pastures, an average steer make this same return, with the prices prevailing the last two years, would require an average wheat yield of twenty-three bushels, fifty per cent more than the national average; an average oat yield of fifty-one bushels, seventy per cent more than the national average; an average corn yield of thirty-four bushels, fifty per cent more than the national average. According to Minnesota and North Dakota experiments, the average farm cow produces eight hundred and forty |
