•I- 1' 



THE 1. A. A. RECORD 



Page Nine 



See Gas Engine As 



Partly Responsible 



For Farm Depression 



Brings 41,000,000 Acres Under Plow To 

 Produce Surplus Crops 



'"T^RACTORS, automobiles, and 

 X other gasoline engines have 

 destroyed the market for 20,000,- 

 000 acres of farm crops by dis- 

 placing over six million horses 

 during the past nine years," de- 

 clared Willford I. King of New 

 York University in a recent paper 

 read before the American Farm 

 Economic Association, convention. 

 "Another 21,000,000 acres for- 

 merly used for hay and pasture 

 for horses, have been plowed up 

 to grow farm crops so as to ag- 

 gravate the crop surplus prob- 

 lem," he continued. "Thus we 

 have 41,000,000 more acres pro- 

 ducing crops of which we have a 

 surplus as a result of the influ- 

 ence of gas engines. This is 

 approximately one-ninth of the 

 total acreage in farm crops." 



Outlook Favorable 



According to Prof. King the gas en- 

 gine is largely responsible for the pres- 

 ent agricultural depression. He pointed 

 out, however, that the outlook for the 

 future is not so gloomy as appears on 

 the surface since the population in this 

 country is increasing 1,250,000 each 

 year and that 5,000,000 more acres 

 yearly are needed to care for this in- 

 crease in population providing yields 

 continue on the present level. The 

 crop acreage per capita has decreased 

 steadily in this country since 1918. 



Gas Costs High 



L. H. Bean of the Division of Agri- 

 cultural Economics in commenting on 

 Prof. King's paper asserted that the 

 gas engine has made farm costs of pro- 

 duction more inflexible. "Gas engine 

 expense has increased from year to 

 year," he said, "while other farm ex- 

 penses have decreased." Prof. Bean 

 stated that farmers' cash income for 

 living expenditures is 20 per cent less 

 now than it was in 1919 whereas the 

 buying power of factory employees has 

 increased 20 per cent since 1919 mak- 

 ing a disparity of 40 per cent between 

 buying power of farmers and factory 

 workers. 



Bean found that since 1920 the use of 

 tractors and gas engrines on farms has 

 nearly doubled, although the acreage 

 in crops has not expanded. In 1919 

 the cost of operating automobiles, trac- 

 tors, and gas engines for farm pro- 

 duction comprised one-third of the pro- 

 duction costs. In 1927, costs of pro- 

 duction on farms declined, but costs 

 attributed to gas engines increased so 

 that the latter constituted about half 

 of the total farm operating costs. The 

 gas engine is responsible for an annual 

 depreciation of over a billion dollars. 

 Bean is of the opinion that the present 

 generation is paying the price for the 



"Farmers Have Brains" 



"I have no patience with 

 farmers and their self-pity. 

 Farmers do not need to organize 

 — that has been done. They do 

 need to join their Farm Bureau 

 and give it their most loyal sup- 

 port. We have only to look at 

 the medical and legal profes- 

 sions to see what may be accom- 

 plished by cooperation. Farmers 

 have brains. Let them use them 

 if they would strengthen their 

 position in the world. I expect 

 my husband to have enough pro- 

 fessional pride to belong to his 

 ovirn organization and cooperate 

 to the best of his ability. Then 

 I know he is working for the 

 good of his home and commu- 

 nity. And I have faith to believe 

 that ultimately it will result in 

 a standard of living for the farm 

 home that he will be proud to 

 pass on to his son." 



Mrs D. H. Stevenaon, a Hancock 

 County Farm Bureau member' » 

 wife. 



revolution in agriculture, the benefits 

 of which will be derived by succeeding 

 generations. 



LARGE GAINS SHOWN 



BY FARM MUTUALS 



Farmers' mutual fire insurance com- 

 panies in the United States have in 

 the last decade greatly increased the 

 volume of their insurance in force, 

 according to^ke department of agri- 

 culture, which compares figures for 

 1926 with figures for 1916. 



The number of farmers' mutual fire 

 insurance companies increased little 

 in the period reviewed, because the 

 formation of new organizations was 

 largely offset by the consolidation of 

 old ones. Their growth in business, 

 however, was extremely large, as ap- 

 pears from the fact that 1,911 such 

 companies on December 31, 1926, 

 had nearly $10,000,000,000 of insur- 

 ance in force, compared with less than 

 $6,000,000,000 on the books of 1,883 

 similar companies at the close of 

 1916. 



The business of 1926 was done at 

 the average cost of about 26 cents 

 per $100 of insurance in force. The 

 average membership of 1,060 com- 

 panies was 1,762, compared with an 

 average of 1,532 members for 1,116 

 companies in 1916. Insurance per 

 member in 1926, for companies re- 

 porting both membership and risks, 

 was $3,144. No corresponding figure 

 for the country as a whole is avaUable 

 for 1916. 



Middlemen Fight ' 



Co-Op. Marketing and 

 * Government Activity 



Would Move Bureau of Agr. Economics 

 to Dept. of Commerce 



WAR on co-operative market- 

 ing by organized middle- 

 men determined to cripple the 

 government's activity in this di- 

 rection continues. 



W. F. Jensen, professional or- 

 ganizer and business manager of 

 the American Association of 

 Creamery Butter Manufacturers, 

 has written the members of the 

 organization presenting an out- 

 line of proposed discussion on Co- 

 operative Marketing and the Bu- 

 reau of Agricultural Economics. 

 The statement forwarded to the 

 butter manufacturers follows : ^ 



Marketing No Place 



"The present over-development of the 

 marketing side of the U. S. Dept. of 

 Agriculture is a product of the war 

 control of industry; and as marketing, 

 is a purely commercial operation and 

 has no proper place in the agricultural 

 department. 



"The obstacle in the way of market- 

 ing studies by the Department of Agri- 

 culture is that it limits its activities to 

 those marketing agencies in which 

 farmers are members, while 95 per 

 cent of the agricultural marketing is 

 performed by middlemen, whose activi- 

 ties would come under the U. S. De- 

 partment of Commerce, of which the 

 President-elect was, until recently, the 

 head. 



"The Department of Commerce must 

 necessarily maintain agencies at home 

 and abroad to further the interests of 

 our mining industry, our fisheries, our 

 manufacturers and exporters. With the 

 Bureau of Agriculture Economics trans- 

 ferred from the Department of Agri- 

 culture to the Department of Commerce 

 much wasteful duplication of effort 

 would be done away with. 



"As at present conducted by the De- 

 partment of Agriculture, there is never 

 any comparison of the economy of 

 marketing grain by the co-operative 

 companies, the pools or the independent 

 dealers, since the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment' invariably confines its research 

 to the financial statements of co-opera- 

 tive companies, when the middlemen, 

 handling 90 per cent of the crops are 

 certainly entitled to whatever assistance 

 the government can give." 



A limited number of I. A. A. An- 

 nual Reports for 1928 will be avail- 

 able for general distribution. This 

 book, handsomely illustrated, will tell 

 what the I. A. A. is, and what it ac- 

 complished last year. If you want a 

 copy, write to the Department of In- 

 formation, I. A. A., 608 So. Dearborn 

 St., Chicago, at once. Those who at- 

 tend the Annual Meeting, Danville, 

 can get copies at the Terrace Theatre, 

 Wednesday morning. 



