Page Two 



THE I. A. A. RECORD 



Changing Habits Hurt 

 Farmer Says Davenport 



Dean Would Have Co-operatives 

 Quote, Not Fix, Prices Fair to 

 Producer and Consumer 

 I AUiie 



■p^EAN-EMERITUS EUGENE DAV- 

 J-^'eNPORT who retired as head of 

 the Illinois College of Agriculture in 

 1922 hearkened back to lessons from 

 the past in an interesting radio ad- 

 dress to Illinois farmers on the I. A. 

 A. Forum from Station WLS Wednes- 

 day night, March 6. The Dean who 

 was bom at Woodland, Michigan, in 

 1856, his present home, explained the 

 farm surplus problem in part by re- 

 ferring to changes in eating habits 

 and dress in late years. 



"When we look the facts in the 

 face," he said, "the real wonder is 

 that conditions are not worse than 

 they are. For there are many reasons 

 for such surpluses as do exist. During 

 the war we learned to speed up in 

 everything. We were forced to sub- 

 stitute machinery for hand labor at 

 many points. Pastures were plowed 

 up to increase the acreage of grain 

 production. We have had a long series 

 of good seasons, with practically no 

 crop failures anywhere. It all meant 

 more production. Only Russia has 

 gone bad. 



Europe Poor 



"But on the consumption side there 

 has been an amazing falling off. 

 Europe has been poor and it has af- 

 fected her buying power and cut our 

 markets. Our farms are cleared, our 

 timber lands are stripped and lumber- 

 ing has disappeared. All this means 

 a vast reduction in hand labor on the 

 land. It is still further reduced by 

 machinery for mowing, harvesting and 

 the pitching done by our fathers. In 

 factories and warehouses freight is 

 hauled about by gasoline engines in- 

 stead of by man power. Iron is han- 

 dled in the yards by great magnets 

 working on cranes or carriers, and 

 not by men with wheel-barrows. 



"The result has been a vast reduc- 

 tion in man labor and that means re- 

 duction in the amount of food con- 

 sumed per man. For men eat as we 

 stoke the boiler, in proportion to the 

 work they do. The 4,000 calorie 

 ration therefore, is almost a thing of 

 the past. In a surprising number of 

 cases, the noon meal, even of the 

 laborer, consists mainly of a beef sand- 

 wich or two. While that of his wife 

 or working daughter may be a veg- 

 etable salad, all instead of the meat 

 and potatoes, or the pork and beans 

 of our hard-working fathers and moth- 

 ers. This means less food consump- 

 tion and it cuts into the farmers' mar- 

 kets amazingly. As \vi this were not 

 enough, fashion has decreed the slim 

 figure for ladies. This, too, has re- 

 duced food consumption, especially in 

 the young, and the farmer's pocket- 

 book has suffered accordingly. 



Less l?ooA Eaten 



"Besides all this, our houses are bet- 



Dean Davenport 



ter warmed than they used to be and 

 a larger proportion of men work in 

 offices or heated factories. This too, 

 means less food consumption, for in 

 the cold we eat for warmth as well as 

 for body repairs. All these reductions 

 go far toward offsetting any effect of 

 increased population. 



"Even this is not all. We no longer 

 put on heavy woolen underclothing at 

 the first sign of winter, but wear the 

 lighter garments the year round. Nor 

 do we wear so many thicknesses, by 

 half, as did our fathers and mothers. 

 The ordinary suit in men's clothing 

 made ten years ago, would out-weigh, 

 almost two to one, the suits men wear 

 today. As to the ladies, all we can 

 say is that skirts are fewer and shorter 

 than ever before. What the changes 

 in living conditions and in fashion 

 have left undone, the invention of 

 rayon has finished. It has meant lit- 

 tle difference to the manufacturer, but 

 it has meant much to the grower of 

 wool and cotton. 



Poverty in Europe 



"Put into a few words, it all means 

 that we have vastly reduced consump- 

 tion in recent years, both in food and 

 clothing, and it has affected the farm- 

 ers markets even less than would have 

 seemed inevitable. The saving ele- 

 ment of the situation has been the in- 

 crease in population. This increase, 

 except for the change in living habits 

 and the poverty of Europe would, by 

 this time, have almost put food and 

 clothing in the luxury class. For the 

 speaker has seen the population of the 

 United States doubled twice within 

 his own recollection, and men are still 

 living who have seen it doubled three 

 times. When it doubles once or twice 

 more, we shall hear very little about 

 the surplus in food and textiles. . . . 



"The farmer's marketing problem 

 lies largely in products subject to 

 great variability in quality or grade. 

 I cannot see how organization can help 

 much in the marketing of a perfectly 

 standard article like wheat, produced 

 the world around. It may help in 

 regional production, and the raising of 

 the general grade of the product, but 

 it is subject to world competition and 



the amount the world will take (that 

 is the amount of bread the world will 

 consume) is not subject to a very 

 great increase. If automobiles were 

 to be had at $10 apiece, we should all- 

 own a half dozen or so but we would 

 not double our consumption of flour, 

 even if bread were given away. 



Quality Important r3 1' 



"Even so, there remains a vast range 

 of food products in which quality 

 bulks large. The principal of high 

 grade or low grade products applies 

 to all fruits and vegetables, to meats, 

 and to dairy and poultry products. 

 Here then, it seems to me, is the farm- 

 er's opportunity to enter the field of 

 high grade marketing; first, by stand- 

 ardizing the product, second by legiti- 

 mate advertising that will advise the 

 world of what it may secure, and third, 

 by quoting a price which the producer 

 and consumer alike will consider fair. 



"At all three of these points organi- 

 zation can exert its influence. By ad- 

 vice and by grading it can either assist 

 or coerce the producer by high stand- 

 ards^ By co-operative effort it can 

 placi^ judicious advertising where it 

 will count in opening up new markets. 

 And it can, if it takes the pains suf- 

 ficiently to inform itself, quote a price 

 which would be considered fair. 



Hard Nut To Crack I 



"This last is the hardest nut of all 

 to crack. Any farmer can fix a price 

 upon his own product at any time but 

 he cannot compel the public to pay it. 

 Neither can an organization, however 

 powerful. But if the organization will 

 sufficiently inform itself as to avail- 

 able markets, the quality which they 

 will demand and accept, the available 

 supply, and the possibility of substi- 

 tutes, then the organization can, in the 

 not distant future and for many com- 

 modities, quote (not fix) a price which 

 will be attractive both to the purchaser 

 and the producer. 



"This last is an important point. Be- 

 cause if the price be too low, the 

 farmer will not produce and the con- 

 suming public will be compelled to 

 look about for a substitute, shifting 

 its patronage to something else and 

 the force of advertising would be lost. 

 If, on the other hand, the price quoted 

 be too high, it will either unduly at- 

 tract producers or it will drive the 

 purchaser away and force him to try 

 a substitute. The final result, there- 

 fore, of a wrong price, whether too 

 high or too low, is pretty much the 

 same. This all means a series of 

 regional commodity organizations, 

 each dealing with a particular output 

 as produced under special conditions 

 prevailing in that particular region 

 and seeking to cater to a well-known 

 and well-developed market." 



Tune in on the Illinois Agricultural Associ- 

 ation Forum from Prairie Fanners* Radio 

 Station, WLS, on Wednesday eveniac, 6:30 

 to 7:00 p. m. 



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