392 AGRICULTURAL APPROPRIATION BILL, 1924. 



they do the whole job with horses. We asked questions intended to 

 bring out the compensating advantages, but I think the studies we 

 have thus far made do not properly measure the question of com- 

 pensating advantages. 



Mr. Anderson. 1 suppose there is some compensating advantage in 

 the greater speed with which certain operations are performed, and 

 perhaps the conseciufnt savings in losses of crops duo to that fact. 

 Suppose a man has a wheat field that is ready to cut and perhaps it 

 is overrcady ; ho might save some loss if he could get at it quickly with 

 a tractor. But I doubt very much whether those advantages offset the 

 increased cost in most cases. 



Doctor Taylor. It seems to me that the way in which the farmers 

 have registered themselves on the question of tractors in the last 

 year, and the small number they have bought, seems to check pretty 

 well with the results we secured and published. 



COST OF GROWING WHEAT STUDIES. 



Other lines of cost studies that we have carried forward are the 

 cost of growing wheat in the principal wheat regions, including studies 

 of 900 farms, and the cost of producing cotton on 640 farms hi specific 

 localities of the different parts of the Cotton Belt, and the cost of grow- 

 ing tobacco in Virginia and Kentucky on 180 farms. 



Mr. Anderson. Do these studies develop any advantage from 

 feeduig grain crops to cattle and hogs as compared with straight 

 grain larming i 



Doctor Taylor. You mean a comparison of that kind ? 



Mr. Anderson. Yes. 



Doctor Taylor. In the Corn Belt of Illinois and Iowa during the 

 period of very high prices for grain the profit went toward tj;rain 

 farming, but during the last two years it has been distinctly in favor 

 of those who were feeding their crops to live stock, owing to the 

 wide difference between the price of^ corn and the amount of pork 

 or beef that could be produced from the corn. That, of course, de- 

 pends upon the trend of the prices of the two things, but this is true; 

 in comparing Iowa or central Illmois, for example, experience has 

 shown that to the extent that the corn is sold the farmei-s, in the 

 very ricii counties of central Illinois, have seemed to hold up their 

 yields pretty well from year to year, and by reason of being close to 

 the Chicago market they find it is more profitable to sell their crops. 



Mr. A.NDHitsoN. That is probably due to the freight rates ^ 



Doctor Taylor. That is one important item, anil the reason tliey 

 can continue to do it is that they have a very rich, deep soil there 

 that will stand that kind of thing for a long period of years. On the 

 other hand, the yield per acre is better in that country on the farms 

 where they have been keeping cattle. Take the large farm that used 

 to bo owned by Sam AUerton, and owned by his son at the present 

 time. They continued to feed cattle there much longer than their 

 neighbors because they were interested in the cattle business, and 

 yet they finally broke over and commenced selling corn because it 

 made them more money, and the yields from their land are ap- 

 preciably higher because they stayed longer in tiie cattle business. 



it is (loul)tful whelhei- in any of these cjusi's aile(|uate considera- 

 tion is iK'ing given to the (luestion of permanency of yields and that 

 a too short time point of view is taken by the farinei*s. 



