PROFITS THAT FARMERS RECEIVE 



By E. H. Thomson, Agriculturist, Bureau of Plant Industry, 

 United States Department of Agriculture 



(Reprinted from the Annals of the American Academy of Political and 

 Social Science, November, 191 3) 



MANY wrong impressions prevail in regard to the real profits 

 in farming. The consumer in the city believes that the 

 farmer must certainly be growing rich. His impression is clue to 

 the fact that he has to pay high prices for the things the farmer 

 sells. He little realizes the amount of capital and labor utilized in 

 the production of these products, neither does he consider care- 

 fully the difference between the price the farmer receives for the 

 quart of milk or bushel of potatoes and what the consumer pays. 



Within the last few years the Office of Farm Management of 

 the Bureau of Plant Industry, United States Department of Agri- 

 culture, has made certain investigations with the view of determin- 

 ing the profits in farming and those factors that seem to control 

 them. These investigations, called farm-management surveys, 

 were made in representative farming areas in seven states, the 

 results from which, with those found by the New York State 

 College of Agriculture at Cornell, give an excellent indication of 

 the profits farmers receive for their year's work. Each district 

 surveyed usually comprised a group of three or four townships 

 and included all the farms within the area selected. In this way 

 average conditions were studied, otherwise there would be a tend- 

 ency on the part of the enumerator to select certain farms and 

 pass by others. All data were collected by trained agricultural stu- 

 dents working under the supervision of persons acquainted with the 

 work and who exercised the utmost care to obtain accurate results. 



A large number of farmers keep some sort of accounts, but 

 very few keep complete records whereby all data needed in the 



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