THE I. A. A. RECORD 



Page Nine 



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pound. They're all making money now 

 with copper at 18 cents. 



4 4XTOW the failure of a $35,000,000 



•n. American business organization 

 to keep in touch with modem chem- 

 istry has brought the establishment to 

 the verge of bankruptcy was related 

 by Dr. Ira Hilton Jones, international 

 authority on business chemistry before 

 the Executives club recently. 



"The new German method of mak- 

 ing industrial wood alcohol so cheaply 

 that it can be brought into this country 

 and delivered in New York at 16 cents 

 a gallon, and the contention that cot- 

 ton will soon be raised for its seeds 

 and com for its cobs were other fea- 

 tures of Dr. Jones's talk." 



There's a lesson in this insignificant 

 looking item, plucked from the 

 columns of a Chicago newspaper, that 

 may be applied to farming, or any 

 other business. Ignorance, lack of 

 knowledge takes a heavy annual toll. 

 Progrress is so rapid, new methods and 

 inventions so varied and numerous 

 that "keeping up" with the latest of- 

 fers a constant challenge to anyone 

 engaged in production or manufac- 

 turing as is the man on the farm. 



Farming is less subject to sudden 

 changes in methods and practices than 

 many other businesses, yet see what 

 progress has been made, what new 

 ideas and methods have been de- 

 veloped within the past 10 to 25 years. 

 During that time the gas engine, the 

 automobile, the combine, the corn 

 binder, com picker, silo, ensilage cut- 

 ter, electricity, limestone, alfalfa, 

 sweet clover, inoculation, soy beans, 

 four-year rotations, hog cholera serum 

 and virus, the T. B. test, corn root rot, 

 semesan jr., soil acidity tests, market 

 reports by radio, tractors, paved roads, 

 agricultural agents, home bureau and 

 a host of other machines, methods, de- 

 vices, and things which the Illinois 

 farmer has to do with everyday and of 

 which his father knew little or nothing, 

 have been developed. 



The horse has well nigh vanished 

 from the city, and oats, the old standby 

 crop, is growing decidedly unpopular 

 because it is unprofitable. To what 

 extent are individual farmers losing 

 money by not keeping up with modem 

 discoveries and inventions that lower 

 costs of production? If many more 

 increased their efficiency, one may ar- 

 gue, the surplus problem would be 

 further aggravated. True, but the effi- 

 cient producers need not worry about 

 surplus. The high cost producers farm- 

 ing marginal land, poor soil, or using 

 high cost methods on good soil would 

 be the losers. They eventually will be 

 squeezed out anyway during hard 

 times just as are operators of high 

 cost copper mines when the price of 

 the red metal goes below 10 cents a 



A lot of poppycock has been written 

 lately about the farmers' Moses coming 

 now in the form of industrial uses of 

 farm wastes to lead agriculture out of 

 the wilderness. We may be a doubting 

 Thomas but our faith in bringing 

 about the salvation of American agri- 

 culture through making paper and 

 wall-board from cornstalks, alcohol 

 from cobs, buttons from milk solids 

 and the like, is lacking. Making use 

 of farm wastes will help, of course, 

 and in time several dollars an acre 

 may be added to the farm income 

 through such development. But let no 

 one be deceived into believing that 

 modem alchemy will come along and 

 presently discover a gold mine for 

 the farmer in his cornstalks and wheat 

 straw. These cellulose roughages are 

 attracting attention now because of 

 their cheapness. This is their prin- 

 cipal if not their only virtue. 



Before the American Chemical So- 

 ciety at Columbus on April 30, Maj. 

 T. P. Walker of the Commercial Solv- 

 ents Co. told of the use already made 

 by industry of farm products and by- 

 products. "Com, cotton, sugar, and 

 milk are the American farm products 

 most frequently used in industry," he 

 said. "Chemistry is not, however," he 

 continued, "a Messiah come to save the 

 farmer." More than 50 products are 

 made already from corn through chem- 

 ical processes, and yet the papers have 

 contained no recent accounts of any- 

 one making a fortune grrowing com. — 

 E. G. T. i 



Grain, 

 Marketing;' 



By Harrison Fahrnkopf 



"One thing that is wrong with the 



farmer's elevator is that people that 

 belong to it are trying to 'hook' it." 

 These were the words of J. G. Adams, 

 Atlanta, 111., at a recent meeting in 

 Logan county. 



Mr. Adams points out that often- 

 times the grain of a member is not as 

 good as the member thinks it is. He 

 may feel that inasmuch as he is a di- 

 rector or a shareholder that the man- 

 ager should extend him some special 

 privilege in credit, price, or otherwise. 

 In the long run, any special conces- 

 sions of this kind can react only to the 

 detriment of the co-operative. 



The present system of marketing 

 grrain on the terminal markets has 

 grown up over a period of three- 

 fourths of a century. The farmer has 

 had little to do with the grrowth and 

 development of that marketing ma- 

 chinery. Although he has made liberal 

 contributions toward maintaining it, 

 he has nothing to show that he is a 



stockholder in the concern. The farmer 

 I will not be encouraged to enter the 

 terminal markets by those who are al- 

 ready there. He should therefore give 

 his earnest and wholehearted support 

 to his own organization. 



The Rural Grain Company is such 



a concern. It is owned by farmers' 

 elevators of Illinois and Iowa. For 

 Illinois territory it has offices at Chi- 

 cago, Peoria, and St. Louis. If you 

 are in the St. Louis territory, bill car 

 to East St. Louis and notify the Rural 

 Grain Company at St. Louis. 



Few farmers understand how grain 

 is graded on the terminal markets. All 

 grading in the regular channels is done 

 by the state department of grain in- 

 spection. In cases of appeal for rein- 

 spection the federal government steps 

 into the picture. The federal depart- 

 ment is a supervising agency only. 



Chris L. Christensen, chief, division 

 of co-operative marketing, made this 

 significant statement recently: 



"When farmers enter into business 

 through a co-operative organization 

 they have to release a part of their 

 individual right to make a decision 

 here and there. If you are to carry 

 out the job efficiently the responsibil- 

 ity must be delegated to a central 

 party or board of directors, and they 

 in turn delegate part of the job to 

 the general manager. 



"One of the big problems in Amer- 

 ican co-operation today is to find that 

 proper balance, that proper poise be- 

 tween the degree of central control 

 which is essential to efficient manage- 

 ment and operation, and democratic 

 government." i 



Farmers of Illinois and the mid- 

 dle west should have some money 

 to represent them in their grain mar- 

 keting efforts. They have their or- 

 ganizations which are performing a 

 wonderful work, but money is needed. 



The Land O'Lakes Co-operative 

 creamery is a one and one-half million 

 dollar corporation. The organized 

 dairymen in the territory surrounding 

 Baltimore have a cash surplus of 

 $750,000. The Wisconsin Cheese 

 federation has money as well as or- 

 ganization. It has put the props un- 

 der the summer cheese market. In 

 the old days, the price dropped. Not 

 any more. 



Organization and money — both are 

 needed to promote the interests of co- 

 operative grain marketing. The or- 

 ganizations are moving right along. 

 Let us adopt some plan that is fair 

 to all. 



Why not the "check-off?" Other 

 organizations are using it success- 

 fully. In Illinois, 200,000,000 bu. of 

 grain are shipped annually out of the 

 counties where grown. A check-off 

 of Ic per bushel on half that amount 

 or 100,000,000 bushels gives a sum of 

 one million dollars. Think it over. 



