224 
American Agriculturist, October 6,1923 
Editorial Page of the American 
American 
Agriculturist 
Founded 1842 
Henry MorgenthaIj, Jr .Publisher 
E. R. Eastman .Editor 
Fred W. Ohm ..... Associate Editor 
Gabrielle Elliot .... Household Editor 
Birge Kinne .Advertising Manager 
H. L. Vonderlieth . . . Circulation Manager 
CONTRIBUTING STAFF 
H. E. Cook, Jared Van Wagenen, Jr., H. H. Jones, 
Paul Work, G. T. Hughes, H. E. Babcock 
OUR ADVERTISEMENTS GUARANTEED 
The American Agriculturist accepts only advertis¬ 
ing which it believes to be thoroughly honest. 
We positively guarantee to our readers fair and 
honest treatment in dealing with our advertisers. 
We guarantee to refund the price of goods pur¬ 
chased by our subscribers from any advertiser who 
fails to make good when the article purchased is 
found not to be as advertised. 
To benefit by this guarantee subscribers must say: 
“I saw your ad in the American Agriculturist” when 
ordering from our advertisers. 
Published Weekly by 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, INC. 
Address all correspondence for editorial, advertising, or 
subscription departments to 
461 Fourth Ave., New York, N. Y. 
Entered as Second-Class Matter, December J.5, 1922, at the 
Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879. 
Subscription price, payable in advance, $1 a year. 
Canadian and foreign, $2 a year. 
VOL. 112 October 6. 1923 14 
For the Dairymen 
AIRYING is the largest and probably 
the most important branch of farming. 
Not only is this true, but dairy husbandry is 
the basis for much other good farming, es¬ 
pecially in the East. Where there are cattle, 
there is fertilizer and there are compara¬ 
tively few farms in eastern United States 
that do not need manure in order to produce 
good crops. 
Because milk production is so important, 
and because next week at Syracuse there will 
be the greatest gathering of dairy interests 
in the history of the industry, we have taken 
particular pains to emphasize in this issue 
this great branch of farming. 
In doing this, we want to make it clear 
that we are not urging more men to take up 
dairying, nor are we urging those already in 
the business to increase their production. 
What needs to be emphasized not only in 
dairying but in every branch of farming is 
the placing of our different branches of agri¬ 
culture on a better business basis. This 
means first, cutting the costs of production 
by increasing the quality of the animals and 
of the crops which we raise; and second, 
marketing our products to better advantage 
than we have in the past. 
Because these points are both well em¬ 
phasized at the Dairy Show, at Syracuse, we 
hope you will be able to attend. But even 
if you cannot go, we think that the gather¬ 
ing of dairymen and dairy scientists from 
every State in the Union and from many of 
the other countries of the world will be of 
direct benefit to you and to all of our eastern 
dairymen by the stimulus and encourage¬ 
ment it will give toward getting this im¬ 
portant branch of agriculture on a better 
paying basis. 
Now Sell It Well — 
N the next few months farmers will market 
all of their products that they have worked 
so hard during the past season to raise. On 
the attention that they give to marketing 
those products properly will depend to a 
large extent how much real money they get 
for them. We have often said that we could 
never see any use in giving so much time 
and hard work to growing stuff and then 
paying so little attention to selling it. A 
lot depends upon the way the fruit or veg¬ 
etable is packed. Culls and second quality 
stuff might better be thrown away than 
crowded into a package with the first quality 
product. Attractive packages, attractively 
packed with the same good product from top 
to bottom will pay for the extra care taken. 
No matter what you have for sale it will 
pay to very carefully study the market situa¬ 
tion. There are market reports now in every 
newspaper, and American Agriculturist 
pays special attention in the paper and by 
broadcasting reports by radio every day, so 
as to give you the market trend of prices, 
so that you can judge for yourself when is 
the time to best sell your stuff. We will be 
glad to answer any particular questions that 
you may have at any time. 
What Does It Cost You To Do 
Business ? 
W E have just received some very interest¬ 
ing figures collected by the United 
States Department of Agriculture, showing 
the average costs of producing farm crops. 
These figures are discouraging to the aver¬ 
age farmer, but they are distinctly encourag¬ 
ing to the man who does a little better than 
the average. 
The investigations show that in 1922 it 
cost 66 cents a bushel to produce corn; $1.23 
to produce wheat; and 53 cents to produce 
oats. The cost figures include charges for 
labor of the operator and his family and 
for the use of the land. It cost $23.01 per 
acre to grow corn. The average yield was 
35 bushels per acre, making the cost per 
bushel 66 cents. The average value of the 
corn sold was 73 cents per bushel. It cost 
$19.68 per acre to grow wheat and the aver¬ 
age yield was 16 bushels per acre. The cost 
of growing oats was $17.40 per acre. 
A similar investigation on every crop 
grown in America would show that the aver¬ 
age farmer’s costs are either very close to 
the selling price or even above his selling 
price. There are two reasons for this: first, 
the yield and quality of the product per 
acre on the average farm are too small, which 
causes the costs of production to be too high, 
and second, the average product is not well 
sold. If a man cannot grow more than 16 
bushels per acre of wheat, which is about 
the average yield in the United States, he 
certainly had better quit, for he will never 
make even a decent living. And the same 
statement applies to all the other average 
producers. The hopeful thing about it is that 
a little more intelligently directed effort and 
a little more attention paid to business de¬ 
tails such as getting better seed, weeding out 
poor cows and poor hens, and keeping ac¬ 
counts, will very quickly and very easily raise 
the returns above the average; and as soon 
as the individual farmer gets out of the aver¬ 
age class, he will begin to make a profit. 
Let’s Talk Up 
N a way it is an admirable virtue to be 
modest, but sometimes it is poor policy 
from a business standpoint, and the farmer 
is in business The western farmer has al¬ 
ways been more willing to talk about his 
business than we who live in the East. We 
have heard a lot, for instance, of the Cali¬ 
fornia fruit cooperatives and their great 
success. The chief reason why we have heard 
so much about them is that the Californians 
have not been afraid to talk up. 
We do not have to go very far West either 
to notice this western habit of advertising 
itself. The other day a prominent farmer 
of the central West was Speaking at a farm- 
Agriculturist 
er’s meeting in New York State. He let it 
be known that he did not think much prog¬ 
ress had been made in cooperation in New 
York and New England, and left the thought 
that we should take example from western 
farmers. Then he went on to tell aBout the 
fruit growers’ organization in a central 
western State which had recently graded and 
packed a brand of apples and successfully 
put them on the market. The joke was that 
this farmer evidently did not know that 
those same fruit growers before establish¬ 
ing their brand of apples came up to west¬ 
ern New York to leaders of the Western 
New York Apple Packing Cooperative Asso¬ 
ciation and learned from them how to do the 
job! 
American Agriculturist asks every farmer 
and farmer’s organization in New England 
and the Middle Atlantic States, to cooperate ’ 
with us in our leading policy of bringing 
the farm business and the farm products 
of the East to the attention of the whole 
country and especially to the attention of our 
eastern markets. In this policy there should 
be no fight with our brothers of the West. 
We admire their advertising enterprise and 
seek to do likewise. 
The Dairy Feed Situation 
T HE increased prices of dairy feed are giv¬ 
ing farmers much concern. Owing to the 
dry season and short pastures, dairymen be¬ 
gan to feed heavily early in the season. Milk 
prices have been fairly good and this, as 
usual, caused many farmers to crowd milk 
production by heavier feeding. Then, too, 
farmers this year* have been encouraged to 
buy their winter feed requirements early. 
All of these factors have greatly increased 
the demand for feed beyohd the immediately 
available supply and high prices have re¬ 
sulted. 
Fundamentally, the situation is abnormal 
because there is a large production of whole 
grains on the western farms. All that is 
needed is for the farmers to ease off on their 
buying for a time and thereby help the feed 
manufacturers to catch up their supply to 
the heavy demand. 
Eastman's Chestnuts 
I N a recent issue we told the story of how 
Mr. Morgenthau, our publisher, on a visit 
to the farm of H. E. Babcock, found a very 
lonesome Holstein cow among Ed’s fine herd 
of Guernseys. It will be remembered that 
when Mr. Morgenthau, who himself has a 
large registered herd of Holsteins, demanded 
why the Holstein cow was in such company, 
Ed, standing first on one foot and then on 
the other as is his habit when embarrassed, 
finally confessed that he had to keep the Hol¬ 
stein in order to have the milk to grow his 
Guernsey calves! 
Well, I thought that that settled once and 
for all the great eternal debate between the 
Holstein and Guernsey men about the merit 
of their respective breeds, but it seems it did 
not. A few days ago I got a letter from 
Lewis A. Toan. Lew is another of those 
Guernsey enthusiasts. He is so enthusiastic 
in fact that his fellow breeders have elected 
him president of the State Association. 
In this letter, Lew said: “Your story in 
last week’s Agriculturist was somewhat 
garbled. When Mr. Morgenthau found that 
Holstein cow and kidded Ed Babcock about 
it, Ed, after twisting about a bit, replied, 
TH tell you the truth, Mr. Morgenthau. My 
spring has gone dry and my well has gone 
dry, so I didn’t have a darn Thing to wash mv 
milk cans with!’ ” 
“Upon the farmers of this country in large 
measure rests the fate of the war and of the 
nations.”— Woodrow Wilson, April 15,1917 
