Increased Size of Farming Operation Not Always Answer to More Profits HAVE YOU HEARD a discussion of the Amencan Agricultural situation lately that did not eventually get around to “Sur plusses” and “The Cost-Price Squeeze”? These two topics seem to be the fav onte subjects of politicians, farm leaders, economists, alarmists, and your neighbors We must admit that they are both import ant problems because they both have a bearing on your ability to make a living Some authorities have maintained that the only way to beat the squeeze is to in tegrate the farming operation or handle larger units We have been told that the family farm is on the way out and only the bigger and bigger farms can survive today. We have been told that the small farmer must increase the total volume of his business or face bankruptcy We have been told so often that we must increase the size of our operation to meet rising costs that we have begun to believe a high gioss re turn always means a large net profit. This is not necessarily true But many people acting upon the advice of so-called experts have doubled or tripled their nor mal business size Naturally when the size of the operation is increased the quantity of pioducts flowing to the markets wall in uease The situation created is more sur plus pioducts and lowering of prices Then ve stait thinking m terms of still larger units and more production To manv people the idea of cutting back the size of the farming business is so novel that the possibilities have not even been explored carefully Let’s look at dairying for example. Studies show that it takes four cows giv ing 8 000 pounds of milk each per year to letmn as much piofit to their owners as one cow giving 11,000 pounds flowever, those foui cows put 21,000 pounds more * *+++**' U it J: ;: u i> * * 4*. rn —ln Washington X With. Cluiion Davidson z 4 Xo Find A Husband 5 Davdson When we stalled wilting this column thiee veais ago we had no idea it might become a soil of luatnmomal buicau but now we feel compelled to pass on a Up lioin the Alaska Chambei ot Coni mcicc Gnls the A C ol C icpoiG Uuuo me eight unmaimd men ir Alaska ioi even unmamed worn an r Jhis slaitling news, it is e\ peeled niav cause a stampede that would make the gold msh look like an alleinoon shell in the park Thiow awav those uncouth pic tine' vou have ol Alaska nun \ ith a si\ month gi owlh ol bicacl ,nd lough clothing Thev aic on* of dale In Alaska one out o! Id i icn i' a college giaduate a thud highei peiccntage than in the eontmcntal I' S And il 'on aie thuiKiim of cicase was accounted lor b\ na V hat c teiiihlc i)lace the 49th tuia! causes excess ol births stall is to Inc ir it All ovei deaths and about one si a has a lowci diath iau and akthiid In net imnnuiation The bighcM buth laic than am oi theEbiith late is one thud laittei than 48 state s now in the Lmon «m the U S and the death late Tluee Out of loin Ha\e On< *onh a little mole than hall In the I mted Stales pi ope’ This the A C of C modcsth onh Hui out of cion, thici worn concedes is due not to the eh cn ha\c lound . man to uni to mate but to the fact that most love honoi dui'sh ami pav Ih< people in Alaska aie \ounaei cioicii bill \laska women haic than in the U S The median a«e Teen much moie succes-lu' is 26 \eais Inc icais below lhat Thiee out oi loin Iwio like tin ol the U S lx oi 1 h vii st Moi.ntU' aot tin u Theic an no cities in ji,an \laska, mainh because (hice peo Tin foui 1 h oiu so )lu stall pie h\e in the countij foi even tils would unlit alt cillin is i cit x dwellei a icvoisal ol the U conf n ini d old maid or iniuhti S latio is the lai"es' choose". These statistics ot ciU with a population of 32,000 comse do not include the Maine and Fairbanks is second with 16 Eskimos who aie husi lai-uift 000 Juneau, the capital and families m then snu" httic iftloes Kilchikan each ha\e less than 10 Husbands arc not hard to find 000. THIS WEEK in Alaska wo are lolcl, ciespito spates so wide open that the\ make Texas look like a New York suburb Theic aie lorn squaie miles pei poison compaied with 57 pel sons per square mile in the United Slates Texans, of tom sc will hate 'o eat some ot then biaggmg woids if and when Alaska becomes the 49th slate You could pul the whole state ol Texas in a comei ot Alaska s 586 000 squaie miles and all it would do would be cool oIT. Giowmg Like Tops} Alaska has been expei lent nm some phcnommal giowdh, popu lalionwise Between the 1940 and 1950 censuses the population in cieased b\ 77'/, Ine times the late ol the continental U S About two thuds ol this in milk on the market than did the one good cow, In some cases a dairyman might in crease his net income by keeping fewer cows rather than more cows If making additions to the dairy herd will mean that the dairyman will have to hire additional labor or buy additional equipment or build ings, it is entirely possible that his net income could be lower Unless the extra labor and equipment can be used efficiently the net farm income will be lower The' same holds true for field crops. The production of an acre of any crop has certain fixed costs which do not vary with the yield It costs just as much to plow and prepare the ground and just as much to cultivate an acre of corn yielding 50 bush els as one which will yield 150 bushels One acre of corn producing 100 bush els will return to the farmer approximately the same net profit as five acres yielding 60 bushels per acre, but those five acres will put 300 bushels of corn on an already overloaded market Of course we all know that farm busi ness volume must be large enough to make mechanization of operation economically sound This does not necessarily mean that the size of the program must increase with the purchase of each new piece of equip ment If a new piece of machinery helps you market your products at a lower cost, or if it helps you to market a higher qual ity product, it may well pay it’s way with out increasing total sale of pioducts Maybe the time is here when we should stop worrying about how much we can produce and begin to think about how we can produce it more efficiently and of better quality Competition for the con sumei dollar m industry has proved that quality pays off Competition in Agricul ture will prove it too Lancaster Farming Lancaster County’s Own Farm Weekly Alfred C Alspach, Publisher, Jack H Owen, Editor, Robeil G Campbell Advertising Director, Robeit J Wiggins, Calculation Director Established November 4, 1955 Published eveiy Friday by OCTORARO NEWSPAPERS, Qparryville, Pa - Phone STerlmg 6-2131 or Lancaster, Entered as Second-Class matter at the Post Office, Quarryville. Pa., iu*-dcr Act of March 3, 1879 Subscuption Rates’ $2 per sear, thieo years $5, Single copy Price 5 cents Wagon Trains to Roll In Penna. This Month “Wagon trams will 101 l agam in Pennsylvania this month, and vour faim can be lepicsentccl This is the word liom Mr Chaile; Passmore of the Pennsylvania Farm Mathmon Dcaleis Associa lion The association has the iob of getting 88 tiactors and 176 farm wagons to ho used as sightseeing trains at the National Plowm" Contest at Hcishcy on August 21 and 22 The ti actors do not pose am pailicular problem since they can be supplied bv the machinery dealois The faun wagons aio another stoic You can help In contacting xour local machines dealer if \ou have a wogan that could bo used in one ol the traim Machinen dealois also need diners foi the tiains Anv one who is o\ei 16 max applx di icctlx to the local machinerx deal or Thcic will be no pax but it will be one was to get a view of the plowing matches fiom a ti at tor set Express 4-3047 4 Lancaster Farming, Friday, August 15, 1958 Bible Material: Leviticus 19 33-37. Deii teionomv 23 7-8, 24 14-15; Matthew 9 9-13 John 4 7-9. 39-41. Galatians 3 26-28 Devotional BeadinsTJ Psalm 10 10-18. Minorities Lesson for August 17, 1958 THE Bible is a man’s book. But that’s not all. The Bible is a property-owner’s book, it is a book for the "dominant classes” of so ciety. This does not mean it is not for everybody. But the fact Is, the laws and the letters and mdeed most of the Bible, you will discover when you read it carefully, is ad- dressed to people who are in posi tions of author- ity. It Is all the more remark able, therefore, and a sign that the Bible is in- spired by some thing besides D r * Foreman wishes of the dispossessed—all the more remaikable that the Bible/ writers speak out clearly on behalf of the depressed classes, the little people, the people who could not speak for themselves, the people who piobably could neither read, nor write and of course had no Bibles themselves. The Stranger In ancient times everybody be longed somewheie. People did not move about from city to city, from farm to farm, as they do here In America, on the average, every family moves once every hve years. In ancient Palestine a family would stay in one locality for 500 years, wars and pestilence permit ting Strangers were not (as with us often) interesting people, to be invited out and “cultivated." Strangers weie under suspicion— what would a man be doing so far from home? The stiangers in any land were a voiceless, voteless, dis organized mmonty. Yet God com manded the Hebrew majorities to remember that they themselves were strangers once in Egypt, and to take special care of strangers in their own land. The Hired Man Some hired men are Now Is The By MAX SMITH County Agricultmal Agent TO VENTILATE TOBACCO SHEDS Early cut tobacco has giown veiy fast this year and is full ol sap and moisture Since the county tobacco ciop depends largely upon natuial air to diy and cuie the crop all available ventilation should be pio \ided during the maioiity of the time On wet 01 iogg> da\s man> gioweis shut the large pait of their vcnlilatois Cross ventilation in all pails ol the shed 01 barn is dcsnable in Older to cure the tobacco and prevent pole burning TO ORDER LIME Wmtci giam fields that are to be seeded to legume mixtmes next spring or summer should be tiealed with lime this lall dur ing the piepaiing of the giound ioi winter giam Max Smith "With giouncl limestone set oral months are needed tor the lime to woik in the soil and i educe acidilj, the best time to applv this lime is in the fall when mixed with the soil and not nevt vpnng on top ol the winter giain A lime lequuenienl lost oi com plcle soil test thiough our ofiicc will give this mfoimation TO PREPARE FOR WINTER OATS Some veais the winter oats ciop is much better than the spnng oats this laigely depends upon the sevei ity ot the wintei and the ebamage of the particular field. We leconimend that the winter oats be seeded around the middle of Sep tember on well chained giouncl La Conte or Du Bois aie the two i ocoinmeiidc'd vanetics. TO .MAKE SORGHUM-SOYBEAN SILAGE This forage mixture that was seeded aiound the middle ol May will no doubt be ready to cut b.x the List ol Septembei Weathci conditions this year have been xerx taxoiablc and a veij heaxj jield ol silage is expected The time to cu this silage mixtuie is when the have a small green bean m the pod and the ‘■oighuin gram is doughv when broken open with the tingei nail also the sorghum seed head will he tinning a darker biown No peiseivatixe is needed TO ENTER STATE FARM SHOW SAMPLES Sounds a bit eariv but all cxlubilois of milk at the 1959 Pcnna Slate Farm Show must j ecjiicst an enti> blank trom Mr John McCool Director Penna Farm Show’ Farm Show Bldg Banishing Pa In not lalci than Septembei Ist The iiilcs have been changed and all exhibitors are urged to take note The ontij blank is then to be completed by the producer or the dealer and leluined to McCool, In Octobci Ist Further instructions will he gnen at that time bers of the community. They con tribute to its welfare in various ways besides doing their jobs well. But there are workers who drift about, sometimes in large numbers. Last winter many thousands oi migrant woikers were stranded in heatless sheds in Florida’s sensa tional cold spell. Their work was gone, they had no place to live, no hope of earning anything until crops farther north began to ripen. Such workers are another minority group. They do not stay in any one place long enough even for the children to get started in school. If one of them dies it will be hardly mentioned in the paper. Whatever happens to them, many respectable people think, “Oh, it’s only one of those tramp woikers.” Does your community give any kind of recognition o r help to migrant woikers? Do cotton-pick ers, bean-pickers, summer hired help, have any place to go in your community ? Do Christians have any responsibilities for them? - The Disrespectable? Everybody is a sinner. But some people are outrageous sinners, and they are another minority. A pes simist might say that you have to be a pietty outiageous sinner to be worse-than-average enough to be noticed. Such weie the tax-collec tors or “publicans” of the New Testament They were “bloodsuck ers” and eveiybody knew it. For a present-day Christian, the minor ity coiiespondmg to these “sin ners” would be the classes the chuich geneially gives up, washes its hands of, forgets: boys in re formatones, for example, men in the penitentiary, ex-convicts Jesus was accused of having too much to do with such people. Is your chuich more like Jesus, or more like the Pharisees, in its attmde toward them’ No Lines Drawn We have minorities outside the chuich What about minorities in side it’ Does the chuich have second-class members as ceitam states and countries have second class citizens’ St Paul mentions what were then the sharpest lines dividing men from men —Jew from Gentile, slave from free man, male from female, and he tells us such lines do not belong in the Christian chuich They should never be diawn Any church setting limits or qualifications to its member ship which were not drawn by Chnst and his apostles, raises at. once a fair question: Is this any longei a Christian church? on outlines copyrighted by the Di\ mion of Chnstian Educition, N.tionil Council of the Churches ol Christ in the U. S. A. Released by ( oinmuutty Tress Service ) stable mem- Time . . .
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers