262 ANNUAL, REPORT OP THE Off. Doc. 



him to apply tlia( year what he learus; and 1 believe that if you leave 

 the time of Institutes to the farmer man, he can better inconvenience 

 himself to attend earlier in the season, and what will serve to help 

 the greater number of farm people will serve to help the whole. 



If we take into consideration the weather conditions, and the ben- 

 efits to be derived from these Institutes, I would say that the earlier 

 in the season we can begin after the summer's work is done, the 

 better. 



WHAT LEADING SUBJECTS SHOULD BE PRESENTED AT 

 OUR INSTITUTES THIS COMING SEASON? 



BY Peof. Franklin Mkngks, York, Pa. 



Mr, Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I don't feel competent to 

 answer that question, but it has occurred to me that cheapness of 

 production and economy of production would be a very good idea to 

 embody in the discussion. Now, I tell you, we have to do with the 

 average farmer, and the average man ; and when I say that I am not 

 lifting myself above the average man; I am only an average man, 

 and I sometimes question whether I am that. 



Now, then, to illustrate what I am driving at — and when I say this 

 I do not mean to discourage the man who is raising wheat; I am 

 as deeply intei-ested in the wheat production as any man, because 

 I know that it is the grain, as Professor Owens told us last evening, 

 of the civilized world. I know that means the increased produc- 

 tion of wheat; but to illustrate what I am driving at, I will go right 

 down into my own town. Winter wheat sells in my town at from 

 seventy to seventy-five cents a bushel. Now, let a man take a thou- 

 sand bushels of wheat to market, and it will amount to$700 or |725, 

 and it takes first-class wheat to bring that price. Now, I believe that 

 the average amount of wheat flour to the bushel is 60 per cent.; in 

 Pennsylvania, I believe, it averages 71, but for the sake of a general 

 average, let us say 60 per cent. Now, if a thousand bushels of wheat 

 average sixty thousand pounds, and if 60 per cent, of that is flour, 

 and at the rate of two hundred pounds to the barrel, it would make 

 one hundred and eight barrels of flour. Now, that flour would sell 

 in our town at |4.80 in sacks; in otherwords, that one hundred and 

 eight barrels of flour was worth ^$744, or |44 more than that man 

 got for the original wheat before it was made into flour. Now, out 

 of that sixty thousand pounds of wheat, if thirty-six thousand pounds 

 is flour, then twelve tons, or twenty-four thousand pounds is sold 

 as bran and middlings, at the rate of'-fl or ,|1..30 per hundred. Now, 

 I don't know what you people do with your bran and middlings, but 

 we sell them dow^n there in our town of York, bran at .|1 to |].30, 

 and middlings at from 70 cents to $1.16 per hundred. 



Now, don't you see that the man who handled that wheat got 

 more out nf it than the man who raised it? Do you call that eron- 

 omy of production? T nm not critirisinc:: T am simplv telling yon. 

 Now, a ton of wheat contains 240 pounds of protein, and 950 pounds 

 of carbo-hydrates. Alfalfa contains 227 pounds of protein and 833 



