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Editorial Page of the American 
American 
Agriculturist 
Founded 1842 
Henry Morgenthau, Jr . Publisher 
E. R. Eastman . ... EdiUbr 
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VOL. 114 August 9, 1924 No. 6 
What is the Future of the Dairy 
Business for Me? 
N THESE times of low prices for milk, thou¬ 
sands of dairy farmers are beginning to look 
ahead and ask themselves the above question. 
To a good many dairymen, every year seems to 
be a little more difficult than the last, the compe¬ 
tition seems to be a little more bitter, and the 
effort to make the milk check pay all of the bills 
and have a little left over seems to be a little 
harder. Many thought when cooperative market¬ 
ing came that a solution of the difficulties was 
found, but while cooperation has helped some, 
too much was expected of it, and there has not 
been time or experience enough since it started for 
it to work the sand out of its machinery so as to 
help the farmer when he needs the help the most— 
that is, when milk prices are low. 
On the other hand, while there is a temporary 
overproduction, and some mismanagement in 
marketing, yet the population in the cities is 
increasing and will continue to increase and people 
are learning to use more dairy products per 
capita, so that for the right kind of a dairyman, 
there is still some hope for the future of his 
business. What is the right kind? 
There was a time when the country was new, 
when almost anybody who failed at every other 
business could still make a living by farming. 
That time is passed; especially is it passed for the 
dairy farmer, for dairying under present condi¬ 
tions is one of the most highly skilled businesses in 
the world* For a man without that skill or who is 
unable or unwilling to acquire it, there is no 
future, in our opinion, nothing but loss and 
disappointment. There may be a year once in a 
while when the unskilled dairyman will make a 
little money. But the competition is so strict that 
in most years he will not, and at times like the 
present, he will be mighty near, if not quite, 
ruined. Dean Cook, himself a very successful 
dairyman, said in a recent article in the American 
Agriculturist, “There never can be any 
universal prosperity for farmers.” In other 
words, there never can come a time when prices 
will be high enough so that everybody will make 
money; and in the worst of times, there will be a 
few always who still will make a profit. It is just 
as important to make milk at low costs of produc¬ 
tion as it is to market that milk well. The 
average cow in the United States produces little 
better than 4,000 pounds a. year. The owner of a 
herd of such cows is a curse to himself and to 
everyone else in the industry. He keeps the price 
of milk down by increasing the production. He 
never can make money and the sooner he quits 
the better. One good effect of low prices is that 
they force such producers out of the business. 
These are plain words, but it is time for plain 
speaking. The chief purpose of this discussion is 
to make the statement, call it a prophecy if you 
wish, that the man who stays in the dairy business 
during the next decade will be forced to know in 
some way what the record of each individual ijn 
his herd is AND TO GET RID OF EVERY 
ONE OF THOSE INDIVIDUALS WHOM 
THE RECORDS SHOW IS NOT MAKING 
HIM A PROFIT. 
“What time have I,” said the busy farmer, “to 
fool around weighing milk and feed? Can’t get 
my milking done with the help I have now.” 
All the same, a little such “fooling around” 
would enable most farmers to cut their herd down 
about half and have considerably more money 
with a great deal less hard work at the end of the 
year. And we repeat that the man who is not 
willing to do some of this “fooling around” 
might just as well make up his mind to get out of 
the business. 
The New Dairy Bureau 
AIRYMEN of the whole country are 
approving the recent action of the United 
States Department pf Agriculture in establishing 
a separate Bureau of Dairying. The policy of the 
Department heretofore in keeping the dairy work 
as a subordinate division in another bureau has 
been hardly fair to this great branch of farming. 
Under the new bureau all the old lines of work 
will be continued and some new projects begun. 
A great deal of emphasis will be placed upon 
market milk investigations. 
Dairymen will also approve of the appointment 
of Dr. C. W. Larson as chief of the new Bureau of 
Dairying. While exceptionally well trained along 
technical lines for his work, Dr. Larson is also a 
very practical dairyman, following no fads and 
fancies, keeping at all times his feet upon the 
ground. Some years ago when Mr. Morgenthau, 
publisher of American Agriculturist, was 
starting his foundation herd at his farm at Fishkill, 
Dr. Larson designed Mr. Morgenthau’s big new 
cowbarn along modern and scientific principles 
and then he personally selected the first twelve 
purebred Holsteins which Mr. Morgenthau bought. 
The records which these animals and their off¬ 
spring are now making under test justify Dr. 
Larson’s good judgment. 
A Good Time to Buy 
OT in many years have farms been so cheap, 
or have there been so many farms for sale or at 
such low prices as there are now. The same state¬ 
ment is equally true of purebred cattle. • In look¬ 
ing over the advertisements of farm real estate, 
it is perfectly astonishing what can be had in the 
way of a farm home, land and equipment for a few 
thousand dollars. And nearly every recent sale of 
purebred cattle 1ms been an opportunity for those 
who wish to get started in the business or to add 
to what they already had at very low prices. 
Strange as it may seem, these low prices for 
stock and for farm real estate are good signs for 
the real farmer who knows Ins business and intends 
to stick to it. Farming is a long time business. 
Results must be judged in periods of quarter of a 
century not in single years. Furthermore, farming 
is more than a business, it is an established home. 
The pendulum of farming has swung discourag- 
ingly low, but it has done so many times before in 
the history of agriculture, and has always swung 
back again. Just as surely as the sun rises there 
will be eventually a swing back from the present 
hard times. In fact, the rising price of wheat and 
other factors are indications that the swing up¬ 
ward has already begun. People must eat, and 
people in this country are increasing all of the 
time. The last government estimate of the 
population showed over a hundred and twelve 
million people, while the farmers who feed them 
are growing rapidly less. 
Universal prosperity on the farm would be a 
calamity. The time will never come when every- 
American Agriculturist, August 9, I 924 
Agriculturist 
body can succeed. But the time is coming when 
the good farmer will again be able to make a gooi 
living and some besides. Therefore, it seems to us 
that this is a particularly good time to buy either 
farms or purebred cattle, particularly purebret 
bulls. When we say this, we do not include every, 
body. We mean the man who is a good, carefu 
farmer who has a little money to invest, who 
knows how to buy without getting in over his 
head, and above all, who intends to stick to his 
business through thick and thin. 
Vandalism 
HE season has approached again when 
farmers have to be on the watch for the 
petty automobile sneak-thieves. It is hard to 
understand why some of those who ride the high- 
ways seem to think that all the earth and the 
fullness thereof belongs to them for the taking, 
Mr. Morgenthau, publisher of American Agri- 
culturist, had this fact recently brought home 
to him very disagreeably. On the farm house 
gate post at Fishkill, Mrs. Morgenthau had taken 
great pride in growing two fine crimson rambler 
rosebushes. One day wdien these bushes were in 
bloom and she was absent, some one in an auto¬ 
mobile stopped, and not being satisfied with 
merely picking the roses, yanked the vine out by 
the roots so as to absolutely destroy the bush itself, 
It is getting so that there are few farmers who 
have not had experiences of this kind. There has 
been a good deal of talk, and some farmers have 
gone so far as to take the law into their own 
hands. But still this sort of vandalism, destruc¬ 
tion and stealing of farmer’s property goes 011 . 
It should meet with the stiffest kmd of jail 
sentence, but even then farmers cannot spend all 
of their time night and day watching their fruit 
and other property, so most of the thieves get 
away. It is unfortunate too, for the great 
majority of car owners who are decent and law- 
abiding, because of a few vicious criminals. It is 
getting so no one can stop for a few moments 
along the road to rest or to look at the summary 
without being under suspicion. 
A Billion Dollars More for Farmers 
HE rapid increase in prices recently in wheat 
and several other farm products has been 
estimated to mean at least a billion dollars more for 
American farmers. When we stop to realize what 
these few extra dollars will mean in the thousands 
and thousands of farm homes in lessened worry 
and increased comfort, it does our heart good. 
The best of it is that farmers themselves will 
actually reap the benefit of this increase. Very 
often a quick rise in prices of farm products has 
come at a time when most farmers had little to sell 
and the increased prices benefited only the dealer 
and speculator. This time the prices come right 
at the beginning of the harvest. 
Eastman’s Chestnuts 
T has not been so many years since a feather 
bed was regarded as almost the last word in 
luxurious ease in most American families. With 
what great care mother would save and carefully 
dry the feathers from every fowl that was killed on 
the farm! But customs change, and while a good 
many folks, particularly the older ones, still like 
their feather bed, most of us have come to pretty 
well agree wiih the tramp in the following story: 
Traveling along the road one morning, he picked 
up a feather. Looking it over interestedly as it 
lay in his hand, he said: 
“Seems as though I’ve heard somewhere about 
folks sleepin’ on feathers. I’ll jest stick it in my 
pocket and try it tonight.” 
So that night after he had found a sheltered 
spot in the corner of a hedge, the tramp carefully 
placed the feather under him before he went to 
sleep. The next morning when he arose, he was 
lame, and stiff and sore in every joint. As he was 
rubbing himself, groaning and grunting, he sud¬ 
denly caught sight of the feather. 
“Dang ye!” he shouted at it. “I wondered 
what ailed me. If one feather can do this to me. 
what would a whole feather bed do!” 
