No. 4.1 STANDARDIZATION OF FARM PRODUCTS. 39 



STANDARDIZATION OF FARM PRODUCTS. 



CHARLES MCCARTHY, CHIEF OF LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE BUREAU, 

 MABISON, WISCONSIN. 



The appalling waste in our agricultural production has at last 

 opened the eyes of our agricultural teachers in this country. 

 The American passion for efficiency in business has at last made 

 its way into the business of agriculture. We have at last 

 brought ourselves to take notice of abandoned farms, the 

 growth of tenantry and the high cost of living. We have 

 wondered why farmers near Boston or New York with the 

 finest markets are not able to sell their goods. We are now 

 seeking a solution of that question. The solution we will find 

 eventually is the solution we have already found in all other 

 industries, — better business. We have got to do what Henry 

 Ford did with the automobile business. We have got to 

 Henry Fordize agriculture, that's all there is to it. If our 

 minds have long been running in other channels, we will have 

 to change, that is all. And we have got to Henry Fordize 

 agriculture in the whole sense. We have got to have thorough 

 organization; produce thoroughly good and guaranteed goods 

 at the lowest cost; get higher pay for the producer; and get 

 more and more profit-sharing both for the producer and the 

 consumer as time goes on. 



When you talk about not being able to compete with dairy 

 products from Canada, New York or the west, what other 

 solution is there but to organize, standardize, get at the cost of 

 production, and then devise ways and means of reducing every 

 little cost? 



And you have got to advertise too. If you have good sani- 

 tary goods and it costs you to get them, make up your mind 

 you are not going to sell them at what they are worth unless 

 you constantly tell men over and over again how it pays them 

 to get clean and wholesome products, or sound fruit or superior 

 articles. 



