46 



FARMERS' UNION AND FEDERATION 



Fear of Overproduction. 



Even with fairly good prices on most farm products, and 

 the prospects of some of them continuing until the war ends? 

 the ever present nightmare of fear of overproduction haunts 

 the farmers who remember the calamity that befell them 

 from overproduction of farm products a few years ago. 

 Tens of thousands were broken up, and many had to seek 

 work in cities after losing their all from raising too much. 

 Think of the monstrously chaotic condition which makes it 

 possible for producers of the most important grain, one that 

 can be kept for years, bankrupting themselves through pro- 

 ducing good crops. It disproves all the finespun philosophy 

 of our ancestors on how to get rich. 



The old advice to work faster, put in longer days, raise 

 bigger crops, if one wishes to prosper better is all wrong, and 

 the reverse has proven more successful, as statistics on 

 wheat raising will prove. 



I shall give a few sample cases from the Yearbook of the 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture of February 8, 1918, to 

 prove that under present methods of pricing wheat it pays 

 better to put in fewer acres, get a smaller yield and less 

 bushels. And this should be done until the wheat growers 

 unionize to insure themselves against loss from an increased 

 production. 



TABLE I. 



