Page 10 



BETTER FRUIT 



February 



What Is the Farmer's Real Income 



[Office of Information, United States Department of Agriculture] 



EXTENSIVE investigations into the 

 profits of farming have indicated 

 that the amount of money which the 

 average farmer receives for his year's 

 work is little more than that which he 

 would be paid if he hired himself out 

 as a farm hand to one of his neighbors. 

 In other words, though the farmer is 

 in business for himself, the average 

 farmer gets little or no money reward 

 for the intelligence and skill with 

 which he has managed his affairs or 

 the risk and responsibility he has 

 assumed. But he must get something 

 in return or no one would trouble to 

 farm for himself. A recent study con- 

 ducted by experts in the United States 

 Department of Agriculture shows that 

 in many cases this reward may best be 

 found in the products with which his 

 farm furnishes him directly. When a 

 farm is nearly, if not quite, self-sustain- 

 ing, say agricultural experts, when it 

 supplies the family that lives upon it 

 with most of the necessities of life, a 

 large money income is not necessary 

 to prosperity. A greater sum derived 

 from a farm which yields nothing for 

 home consumption may leave the occu- 

 pants much worse off. 



Under the title of Farmers' Bulletin 

 635, "What the Farm Contributes 

 Directly to the Farmer's Living," the 

 Department of Agriculture is about to 

 publish the results of a survey of con- 

 ditions on a large number of farms 

 in the ten Stales of North Carolina, 

 Georgia, Texas, Kansas, Iowa, Wiscon- 

 sin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and 

 Vermont. The farms selected for study, 

 though possibly a little more prosper- 

 ous than the average, were fairly rep- 

 resentative of their sections, which, it 

 will be noted, included three corn and 

 cotton areas, two states in the corn and 

 wheat belt, two regions where general 

 farming was carried on and three dif- 

 ferent dairy districts. The average 

 value of the chief necessities of life — 

 food, fuel, oil and shelter — used each 

 year by the farm family the investi- 

 gators found to be .$595.08. Of these 

 necessities, estimated in money, the 

 portion contributed directly by the 

 farm was $421.17, leaving $173.9l"to be 

 purchased with the cash obtained from 



the sale of products. In considering 

 these figures it must be remembered 

 that if the farmer had been compelled 

 to pay city prices for his home-grown 

 necessities, this .$421.17 would have rep- 

 resented much less comfort. 



Of the food consumed 63 per cent 

 was furnished by the farm. This pro- 

 portion varied greatly in the different 

 sections, but was greatest in the lo- 

 cality studied in North Carolina, where 

 the farms supplied 82.3 per cent of the 

 food consumed, while the average in 

 the New York locality was only 50.4. 

 In view of the present economic crisis 

 in the South this fact is regarded as of 

 particular significance, since it demon- 

 strates the extent to which, with a 

 proper system of agriculture. Southern 

 farms can be made self-sustaining. 

 Concentration upon one cash crop, cot- 

 ton, has proved disastrous and agricul- 

 tural authorities are now trying in 

 every way to induce the people to 

 adopt a system which will lead to con- 

 ditions similar to those now prevail- 

 ing in this particular area of North 

 Carolina. 



In this connection the investigation 

 revealed some interesting facts in re- 

 gard to the four items of groceries, ani- 

 mal products, fruits and vegetables in 

 the average farm family's food bill. Of 

 the value of the food consumed gro- 

 ceries constituted practically one-quar- 

 ter, animal products more than one- 

 half, vegetables 11.6 per cent and fruit 

 only 6.3. Practically all of the gro- 

 ceries were bought; on the other hand, 

 the quantity of fruits and vegetables 

 used was in direct proportion to the 

 quantity raised on the farm, and where 

 this quantity was great the grocery bill 

 was correspondingly low. This was 

 also found to be true of animal prod- 

 ucts, including of course not only 

 butcher's meat but poultry, eggs, milk, 

 cheese, etc. Where these were abun- 

 dant on the farm fewer groceries were 

 purchased. Since the grocery bill was 

 found to be ordinarily two-thirds of 

 the entire amount expended in cash for 

 food, one very obvious and effective 

 way of economizing appears to be to 

 raise more vegetables, more fruit, more 

 milk and eggs. In many cases, experts 



Prepares a Perfect 



Seed Bed 



On Fall or 

 Spring Plowing 



The coulters cut. crush and pulverize lumps and clods, 



leaving: a leveled surface finely mulched to seeding depth, 



with a compact undersoil. The airspaces are eliminated 



insuring: plant roots a proper medium for healthy and 



viirorous E:rowth. Manure and stubble^^ 



plowed under is left underneath to I'Cmw^^^ No. 23 



nourish plant roots. Sizes from ^ y „^P^^ 



3 to 17'2 feet in cutting; width. For one to four horses. |V, j^/\ 6' ■ Ft 



All Steel -Light Draft J^^C 



Write fur fnt; cataloK and name of nearest duulcr. , ff ^ , .JWl'fcT ''-^'^' ^s ^ 



DUANE H. NASH. Inc. '^w^jy^ji??^^^^^ ^^^^ 



347 Division Ave. iVIillington, N. J. J "" | " iVIHI^ W^ 





say, this can be done with no appre- 

 ciable increase in trouble or expense. 



Next to food, shelter is probably the 

 most important necessity of life. In 

 considering the farmer's income, how- 

 ever, a common error in the past has 

 been to ignore the question of house 

 rent. The value of the house has usu- 

 ally been included in the value of the 

 land and the whole considered as capi- 

 tal invested on which interest must be 

 paid before the farmer can be re- 

 garded as receiving any pay at all. 

 This method, however, assumes that the 

 farm family is to have shelter for 

 nothing — an assumption which the city 

 worker with whom it is not unusual to 

 pay out from one-third to one-quarter 

 of his entire wages for rent alone 

 would regard as most astonishing. 



According to the recent investigation, 

 if the average farmer had to pay rent, 

 his home would cost him .$125 a year. 

 This figure represents ten per cent of 

 the value of the average house. In- 

 cluding interest, depreciation and re- 

 pairs, this is regarded as a fair rental 

 charge for the class of houses usually 

 found on the farm. 



With the information at their com- 

 mand, the investigators were also in a 

 position to compute the average cost of 

 board and lodging on the farm. In this 

 they included an item very easily for- 

 gotten — the value of the housework 

 performed by members of the family. 

 This was reckoned on the basis of the 

 wages that would have had to be paid 

 for hired assistance. Including this 

 with the more obvious charges for 

 food, fuel, light and rent, it was found 

 that board and lodging for each indi- 

 vidual averaged $14.62 a month. But of 

 this sum, it is interesting to note, the 

 farmer paid out in cash only 22 per 

 cent. Exclusive of lodging the board of 

 the average hired man cost $10 a month, 

 but here again the farmer had only to 

 pay $3.00. The remaining $7.00 was 

 furnished by the farm as a result pre- 

 sumably of the hired man's own efforts. 



The averages obtained as the result 

 of this investigation are not, of course, 

 to be taken as mathematically exact for 

 the entire country. In the opinion of 

 agricultural experts, however, they 

 piont with convincing emphasis to the 

 possibilities of comfort and prosperity 

 that may be realized by a fuller utiliza- 

 tion of all the farm's resources. Cash 

 crops are not the sole, and on the aver- 

 age they are not even the chief source 

 of real income. It is really what the 

 farm furnishes directly to the farmer 

 that enables him to support his family. 

 To increase the quantity and quality of 

 this direct supply is one great object of 

 farm management studies. 



Dairying 



Fruitgrowers are taking up dairying 

 (|uite extensively as a side line, and 

 therefore it is our pleasure to call your 

 attention to the fact that Hoard's Dairy- 

 man, published at Fort Atkinson, Wis- 

 consin, is one of the best publications 

 on this subject in America. 



