AORIi TI.TrRAI. Al'PnolMMATinV lUI.I^ W24. 395 



arisint]: from the use of rM-rtain |)rarti(o«<. wrniM rrmilt in a morp xini- 

 foriii income for the farmrr rnfhrr than a lan/or jx-n-ontftiri' of rotiirn 

 ono year and loss in anotlirr. 



Doctor 'Payf-oic I think that is n very j)ro|)tr assumption. 



There is one ;;roiip of farms in Ohio where we have Htn«iie<l the 

 samp farms for S or 10 vpars. Onr objective is not simply to stnrlv 

 the cost of production. l)ut the organization of those farms, and we 

 have fjone hack every vear and <;iven a (h»monstration of the results, 

 showin<; the way in which the men wer»' farmin<; who were making 

 the most money and the way in whieli those men are farming who 

 are makinrj tiie least money. 1 liave seen letters from men in that 

 refjifMi maKin<x statements as to the very j^reat henefit thev have 

 received, and I think from that region or the Indiana rej^ion, where 

 similar studies have been made, it would be perfectly ca.sy to work" 

 out n statement of the pro<j^ess; but there are a ntmiber of items 

 that June to be taken into account, namely, the trend of affairs with 

 regard to the elements of cost and tlie prices the farmers are getting 

 for their products, which would make it rather difficult to show sta- 

 tistically just how much the farmers had benefited. 



Mr. ANDF.itsoN". I am far more interested in this cost of production 

 business from the standpoint of farm organization than I am from 

 the standpoint of arriving at an actual or more or less theoretical 

 determination of what it costs t(> raise a bushel of wheat. Such fig- 

 ures as apply to the wliole country, I assume, would l)e more or less 

 instructive: but the practical application is that of farm organiza- 

 tion and farm management, anti if as a result of a series of cost 

 studies there has been no development of farm methods which en- 

 ables a farmer one year after another to get better returns than for- 

 merly as a result of better managerial methods, then there is nothing 

 in it. 



Doctt^r Taylor. \^'Tiat you say is entirely true, but, as I say, I 

 liave not the statistical measurement of that benefit. However, 1 

 have no question about the benefit and the benefit is not simply to 

 the farmers on our farms; the records are kept and analvzed and this 

 material is the basis for tiie educational work c-arried forward by 

 county agents for the benefit of all the farmers in a community. 



Mr. Buchanan. No proper study of cost production could bo 

 made unless based upon proper farm management. They go hand 

 in hand; they are linked together, and no cost of any standard com- 

 modity would be of any value unless that cost was computed upon 

 the basis of proper farm management. The question is: VVhat ought 

 these tilings to cost to produce under proper farm managemcFit ? 

 They have got to go hand in liand to be of any value whatever. 



Doctor Taylor. You will be interested to know that in the study 

 of the cost of production of cotton, in Sumter County, Ga., for 

 instance, the cost was found to be very different on difTi'rent farms, 

 :uid the practices different on different farms. F(»r instance, the 

 cost of production of cotton was less on farms where thev were pro- 

 ducing more velvet beans and more h<»gs and had introduced these 

 other elements. 



Mr. BiciiANA.N. That is all true; but the question is what is tho 

 cost, the average cost, of the production of a pound of cotton, under 

 proper farm management, farm organization, or what does it cost 



