452 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



of help in the house, all within ten years, there should be a corresponding 

 increase in farm efficiency and productive power. We must do better 

 farming if we are to realize such a result. The need, with help hard to 

 get, is not so much for bigger farming as for better farming, not so 

 much for added acres as for added bushels. Changed location, perhaps, 

 more than crop rotation, careful seed selection and proper cultivation, 

 gaye the pioneer a land productive of plenty. Today free land, or even 

 cheap land, is practically in the past. Men can no longer afford to "skim, 

 the cream" off 160 acres of land, then move to another "quarter section." 

 It is not for us to condemn the farming methods of our forefathers ; how- 

 ever, we should recognize the fact that changed conditions demand new 

 methods. 



Important as it is that we should increase our crop yields per acre, 

 it is not of more importance than that we should decrease the cost of pro- 

 duction. To do so may benefit both the producer and the consumer. 

 If a lower cost of production can be made to mean a wider margin of 

 profit and at the same time a steadier and more reliable market than 

 phenomenal — and to many would-be purchasers prohibitive — prices can 

 ever bring, it is easy to see how the farmer is helped. It is possible for 

 larger profits to come, even with lower prices ; and in this connection it 

 may be. said that the farmer should know the cost of crop production, 

 for this knowledge may prove to be the first step in reducing the cost. 



Closely connected with crop production is marketing. Many be- 

 lieve that, with the elimination of so many "middle men," the growth of 

 country co-operation and farmers' mutual movements, and the develop- 

 ment of a from-country-to-customer trade, it is possible for the producer 

 to receive more for his farm products while the consumer pays less. That 

 this question of marketing is being given considerable thought is indicated 

 by the replies received from correspondents of the Board of Agriculture. 

 In many sections, farmers and merchants are together co-operating, thus 

 building up better towns and better country communities. The mer- 

 chants encourage the raising of better poultry and the growing of better 

 crops, then pay better prices for premium products. Encouragement is 

 given in the holding of farmers ' institutes and agricultural short courses, 

 in the belief that the lasting benefit for good will mean more than ' ' free 

 street fairs." "Where such conditions obtain, there is seldom much talk 

 of ' ' merchants robbing the people, ' ' or of the growth of the ' ' mail order 

 business." 



We have mentioned briefly the need of preparation on the part of 

 those who are thinking of going from city to country, and here we would 



