106 THE BUSINESS OF FAEMING 



from father to son, and if they were bad, and un- 

 fortunately for the business of farming many of 

 them were, the business suffered. 



It is said that in the business world the spirit 

 of the times is scientific efficiency. The well 

 managed manufacturing plant installs that ma- 

 chinery and eliminates that cost of labor and 

 materials which not only increases efficiency but 

 lowers the cost of the finished product, and then 

 makes all of those methods of transportation and 

 marketing that will enable the manufactured 

 product to afford a profit. 



Scientific efficiency must become the paramount 

 thing in the business of farming. Therefore, the 

 old notion that any body can farm, must be dis- 

 carded and thrown upon the scrap heap of "im- 

 practical ideas.'* Farming is a business re- 

 quiring as much brains and skill to successfully 

 conduct it as it does to successfully conduct any 

 other business or profession. 



We have now reached that age in our agricul- 

 tural history when our country no longer feeds 

 Europe, no, not even itself. For in the year 1912, 

 with its boasted four billion of a crop yield, 

 pointed to by our National Agricultural Depart- 

 ment with such swelling pride, less than five per 

 cent, of our total exports consisted of foodstuffs 

 in crude conditions and food animals. 



We have imported a dollar and fifteen cents 

 worth of food for every dollar's worth we have 

 exported, whether in a crude or manufactured 

 state. Fifteen years ago two-thirds of our ex- 

 ports were agricultural products. And in the year 

 1912 but one State east of the Mississippi River 



