American Agriculturist, January 5, 1924 
Losses and Gains on the Farm in 1923 
Dairying Stands Out As Our Stable Farm Industry 
D airying is a stable industry. This state¬ 
ment is not intended as a pun. The 
accompanying graph shows the steady 
growth in the number of milk cows on 
farms during the last three-quarters of a century 
as reported by the Bureau of the Census and the 
Department of Agriculture. The sag in the line 
from 1910 to 1913 was due primarily to revisions 
in the estimates based on census data and does not 
necessarily signify a pause in the growth of com¬ 
mercial dairying. The point is that the history of 
dairying has not been characterized by pro¬ 
nounced periods of contraction and overexpansion 
which are found in some other branches of 
agriculture. 
Besides the gain in the milk cow population, 
production per cow has increased so that per 
capita consumption of dairy products has in¬ 
creased materially in the last quarter of a century. 
The gradual recognition of the high value of milk 
and milk products in the diet of both young and 
old and the development of new forms of con¬ 
sumption such as ice cream, condensed milk, 
powdered milk and the like have provided for 
this increase in output. 
Dairying has expanded rather rapidly in each 
of the last three years because of the fact that 
dairy products offered more certain and more 
profitable returns than many other farm com¬ 
modities. Nevertheless, prices of butter, cheese 
and whole milk were higher in 1923 than in 1922, 
and probably more than enough higher to offset 
the rise in feed and labor costs. Eventually, this 
expansion may lead to moderate overdoing. The 
time required to raise more dairy cows and the 
fact that many people do not like to milk, however, 
tend to keep the growth of dairying from outrun¬ 
ning the demand which itself is growing steadily. 
* 
Poultry Producers May Overdo It 
T HE dynamic hen has been harnessed to help 
pull the farmer out of the slough in the last 
three years so that the present scale of egg and 
poultry production shows a marked expansion 
since 1919, the last census year. On a per capita 
basis, however, egg production in 1919 was con¬ 
siderably below the level of ten years or 
twenty years before. On this basis, egg produc¬ 
tion in 1922 was but little above the 1899 and 
1909 level, especially when a moderate increase 
in exports is taken into account. Further expan¬ 
sion in 1923, however, has placed production per 
capita above the old level. The rising standard 
of living for most people in the United States 
should mean larger consumption of eggs and 
poultry and it is noteworthy that prices paid to 
farmers for eggs and poultry in 1923 were about 
the same as last year. The feed and labor costs 
of production were higher also and where these 
items must be counted, as on commercial poultry 
farms, returns probably were not so satisfactory 
on the whole as in 1922. Furthermore, production 
seems to have reached the point at which the 
general trend of egg and poultry prices probably 
is downward. 
* * * • 
The Golden Hoof In 1923 
OME of the Colorado feeders who put in heavy 
lambs lost money on their operations early in 
1923 and amateur cornbelt feeders were losers in 
the latter half, partly becaur-e of 
high prices for thin lambs. The 
year as a whole dealt kindly, 
however, with competent opera¬ 
tors in the lamb feeding business. 
Sheep breeders, with both lambs 
and wool to sell, have been in 
clover. Prices on both products 
have been on a high level. 
The sheep industry was over- 
liquidated, extending through an 
interval of more than a decade 
and those able to stick in the 
business are reaping their reward. 
At the same time demand for 
lamb seems to have broadened. 
Expansion is under way again 
and market receipts were heavier 
in 1923 than in 1922. It will 
probably be a long time before 
lamb prices wall pass the peaks 
reached in 1922 and 1923. 
World w r ool consumption has been gaining on 
production for three years, thus fortifying the 
position of prices of the staple. Cotton also 
is high so that no relief is to be had in that 
quarter. Slackening in manufacturing operations 
y 
let the wool market sag in the latter half of 
1923, but as a whole, prices were higher than 
in 1922, and in the last two months of the year 
the market has stiffened noticeably. 
* * * 
Hog Consumption Heavy 
T HE accompanying chart on hogs shows that 
production in 1923 as measured by slaughter 
under federal inspection was about 26 per cent 
greater than in 1922, domestic 
consumption 23 per cent greater 
and exports 37 per cent greater, 
based on records for the first nine 
months of the year. Production 
and domestic consumption in 
1922 were the largest on record 
up to that time. Exports in 
1923 were practically double the 
pre-war average rate. 
Because of the enormous quan¬ 
tity of pork throwm on the market, 
during the year a rather low r level 
of prices was enforced which 
stimulated domestic consumption 
and exports. Corn has been 
working higher since the fall of 
1921 and, beginning early in 1923, 
the ratio between corn and hog 
prices became unfavorable. In the six months 
from May to October inclusive, the farm price 
of 100 pounds of hogs was equal to the farm 
-A General Farm Review 
price of 8.2 bushels of corn compared with an 
average ratio since 1910 of 11.2 bushels. 
The evident tendency at the present time is to 
curtail production of hogs, to sell light hogs and 
pigs and to carry fewer brood sows. It will take 
several months of heavy marketing to exhaust 
the large pig crop of last spring and the fall pig 
crop also was a large one although it is not yet 
certain whether it is any larger than last year. 
Taking into account the seasonal trend in hog 
prices and the present course of the corn market, 
it appears to be a safe conclusion that hog prices 
are at the bottom of this cycle and that the corn- 
hog ratio has passed its most unfavorable point. 
* * * 
Wheat Producers Start Acreage Reduction 
W HEAT prices have been trending downward 
since 1920 and averaged lower in 1923 than 
in 1922. The surplus producing countries had an 
increased amount to sell abroad and the surplus 
in the United States was a dominant factor in 
setting the price on wheat consumed at home. In 
the latter part of the year, the market displayed 
unusual stability in the face of depressing condi¬ 
tions, suggesting that rock bottom had been 
reached. The most hopeful development of the 
year was the recognition that expansion of wheat 
production in other exporting countries and, 
particularly, the probable revival in Russia means 
a new deal in wheat growing in the United States. 
As a result, a moderate reduction was made in 
the winter wheat acreage planted during the fall. 
The exportable surplus of the United States 
reached an extremely high point in 1921 from 
which a sharp decline has occurred in the last two 
years. We are still about 75 per cent above the 
pre-war average. Canada has shown rather 
steady growth since 1918 and in each of the last 
two years more than two and one-half times the 
pre-war amount was exported from that country. 
Argentina shows a 50 per cent gain although 
rather marked irregularity from year to year is 
noticeable. Australia is not exporting so freely 
as in the three years 1919-1922 but is above pre¬ 
war. India’s population is consuming more of the 
home crop, and India is gradually losing her im¬ 
portance as a competitor of the American wheat 
grower. From a pre-war average surplus of 162,- 
000,000 bushels of wheat, Russia faded from the 
exporting map in 1916. She is gradually coming 
back, however, and exports in the last half of 
1923, based on incomplete data, totalled about 
13,000,000 bushels. Rumania exported about 
52,000,000 bushels in pre-war years, and has 
come back to the extent of 10,000,000 bushels in 
1923. 
Pre-war exports from the chief surplus countries 
averaged about 616,000,000 bushels and in 1923 
they approximated 670,000,000 bushels. This 
shows the extent to which increased production 
in the United States, Canada and the southern 
hemisphere offset the loss of Russia, Rumania 
Domestic Consumption and Exports of Hog Products 
Slaughtered Under Federal Inspection 
and Bulgaria. The effective demand for wheat 
in importing countries as based on their purchasing 
(i Continued on 'page 13) j 
Rise of the Dairy Cattle Population Since 1850 
Production, 
