ob THE FARMERS EDUCATION. 



But there are other things equally importaut. At this 

 point, however, it is necessary to draw the distinction between 

 the farmer producing for a special market, like the vegetable 

 grower near a large town, and one producing for tlie general 

 market, like the wheat grower or the cotton planter. The 

 latter requires far wider knowledge and greater ability. He 

 must be, to succeed, a well-informed business man. It will be 

 well to consider briefly some things which the farmer needs to 

 know as a business man. 



In this category I must place, as not only first, but far 

 more important than all other business information, a knowl- 

 edge of what his competitor is doing. I was for years 

 connected with manufacturing interests, and the one thing 

 which gave us more concern than anything else was to learn 

 what our competitors were doing. It is the most important 

 thing for any business man to know. It is a matter about 

 which most farmers never think. As a matter of fact, he 

 can not know very accurately w^hat they are doing. The 

 farmer who raises wheat in Illinois can get no more for his 

 product than the farmer in Argentina will sell for. The price 

 for both is determined by the outcome of the competition 

 between the wheat growers of all parts of the world under 

 existing conditions of demand. But while the Illinois farmer 

 can not be fully informed of the factors of the cost of wheat 

 in Argentina, he can know a great deal about them. He can, 

 if he will, obtain fairly accurate conceptions of the possibilities 

 of wheat culture, one year with another, in Argentina. The 

 cost of wheat production in any country will be mainly 

 controlled by the physical character of the country and the 

 standard of life of its inhabitants. Of course the amount of 

 capital available is an important factor, but capital is intelli- 

 gent, and does not go where conditions are not favorable for its 

 use. It leaves such places to the uninformed. 



At the head of a farmer's business equipment I would 

 therefore place a good knowledge of physical geography^ 

 including commercial routes, which were formerly determined 

 and will always be greatly influenced by physical geography. 

 This is not yet fully recognized by the universities, whose 



