446 Kansas State Board of Agriculture. 



of the feeds that come under their observation, it can safely be stated 

 that the interests of the consumer were never better protected than at the 

 present time, even though the manufacturer of an honest feed may some- 

 times feel that he is the object of persecution because of the restrictions, 

 the registrations, the special taxes and the tagging systems that are im- 

 posed upon the industry. But this is a single-angled view to take of the 

 matter, since many of the positively bad feeds that were on the market a 

 few years ago can no longer be safely marketed. Thus unfair competi- 

 tion is eliminated, and after all the ultimate consumer is pretty likely 

 to pay the added cost due to state and federal supervision of the industry. 



To conclude these pages with a bit of advice to the person who con- 

 templates engaging in alfalfa milling, the writer would suggest, first of 

 all, a good bank account say $15,000 to $40,000. Next, a favorable 

 location in an irrigated section of the country where 4000 or 5000 acres 

 of growing alfalfa lie within a radius of a half dozen miles from the mill. 

 The plant should provide large facilities for the storage of hay and the 

 sacked meal as sometimes the hay does not come in fast enough and 

 at other times cars for loading the meal may be lacking, or the state 

 of the market renders accumulating the meal desirable. The grinder 

 should have a capacity of at least a half dozen tons of meal per 

 hour and, to keep down the overhead expense, should be operated 

 day and night, if possible, from August until the following spring. 

 You may be told that the cost of milling and putting the sacked 

 meal aboard the cars is $3 per ton, but if you would realize a fair 

 profit on the investment, pay yourself or someone else a manager's 

 salary, allow for depreciation, and if you can secure insurance pro- 

 tection the policy premiums, better figure on $6 a ton between the cost 

 of the hay delivered at the mill and the cost of the meal loaded out of the 

 mill. 



Then if you are able to contract for delivery of several thousand tons 

 of good hay at the mill, and can go to St. Louis or other large market 

 and sell an equal amount of meal at a figure sufficiently above the cost 

 of the hay, you are in position to "go to it." However, the blue book of 

 alfalfa milling fails as yet to record the name of any one who has become 

 a millionaire because of his activities as "hay miller." 



And the midwestern alfalfa miller must not overlook California. 

 While the writer is not accurately informed regarding alfalfa milling 

 conditions in the coast state, he is told that there are some twenty mills, 

 mostly portable and therefore capable of being moved from one alfalfa- 

 producing section to another, which are becoming large producers of 

 meal. Within the past few months California meal has been shipped via 

 the Panama canal and offered on the Atlantic seaboard at figures one to 

 two dollars per ton below the price that must be obtained by the Colo- 

 rado, Wyoming, Nebraska or Kansas miller. (See "Meal," in index.) 



