20 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



HELPING FARMERS TO HELP THEMSELVES. 



Whatever may or may not be done by government, it is perfectly 

 clear that the success of the individual farmer will depend on his 

 own efforts. That he must work hard goes without saying, but under 

 present conditions it must be work with the head as well as the 

 hands. The crops to be grown and the kind of farming to be fol- 

 lowed must be determined not alone with an understanding of the 

 conditions which influence production but with some knowledge of 

 the prospective demand for those crops and some study of the con- 

 ditions which are likely to influence the price. The Department of 

 Agriculture is trying to help the farmer help himself both in de- 

 termining what to grow and how to grow it and in putting in his 

 hands the kind of information concerning domestic and foreign con- 

 ditions which he needs to produce and market to the best advantage. 



The change in railway rates has led to the necessity of readjust- 

 ing the agriculture in the regions surrounding many of our cities. 

 Food products wliich were formerly produced under more favorable 

 soil and climatic conditions and shipped great distances can, with 

 present freight rates, be produced on the neighboring farms and 

 delivered to these cities with profit. A start has been made in help- 

 ing the farmers around certain centers of population to solve their 

 problems of readjustment to these changed conditions. Joint mar- 

 ket demand and farm management surveys have been made for 

 Altoona, Pa.; Boston and Springfield, Mass.; New York City, and 

 Tulsa, Okla. It is believed that owing to lack of information with 

 regard to local demands, foods are often shipped great distances 

 when they might be sold with greater profit close at hand. The pur- 

 pose of these surveys is to help farmers make the readjustments 

 in their farming and marketing which will enable them to provide 

 the local markets, so far as they can profitably do so, with such food 

 products as have formerly been shipped great distances. In the 

 larger cities the study of market demand has a broader significance 

 than providing information for the near-by producers. The mar- 

 ket analysis research which has been conducted for the past two 

 years in New York City and Boston looks toward the development 

 of methods of measuring and forecasting the market demand in 

 these consuming centers. Other consuming centers, particularly those 

 located in the one-crop producing areas, should be surveyed in a 



