THE BUSINESS OF FARMING

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LIV, Issue 9028, 6 November 1925, Page 5

THE BUSINESS OF FARMING

, j SCIENTIFIC .METHODS : { The last t vvu decadeiS have marked a. u oinlcriul advance in tin- application of scientific methods of farming, ami , agriculturists are now realising that n pays to give serious attention t<> details ot management and production, matters whicli were formerly neglected. It h not long since tile “book farmer''' and his methods were held up t° ridicule hy his neighbours, who, in their satisfied ignorance, looked upon any new proposal to make the land more productive with contempt, and the men who departed from the custom handed down by their fathers were set down as “cranks,” who had more money than sense. Time ami the exigencies of modi ern requirements have, however,, shown that the farmer who has been unwilling to get out of the old rut formed hy prejudice, and longstanding is now the man who is derided. To-day it is the reading farmer, who exercises Ids intelligence and applies his knowledge, that is making the most oup of his business, and opening up possibilities of rural husbandry not contemplated H years ago. That farmers are becoming _ readers in increasing numbers is provcd by the wonderful increase in the output of agricultural literature, not in t [be shape of books merely, flbfiu by the prominence given to farming matters _ in the daily and weekly press. No branch of work ‘has been more abused than general farming. The j great fertility of the soil of (his conn- ( try has made large crops possible with ( a minimum of cultivation. In the past , farmers have in the majority of in- ( stances taken up the work with little appreciation of the value that good . management was to them. They have- , looked upon the systematic keeping of , accounts as something not consistent , with the requirements of the farm. All . these things arc changing, and farmers ( nowadays appreciate the value of system in every phase of their business, 'faking farmers as an instance, perhaps nothing has done more to stimulate the development of tin’s industry than the campaign carried on hy ilu' newspapers advocating cowtes.t.ing, the cultivation of supplemen(ary feed for summer and winter, and so (in. It is good management and .system that will restore worn out, arable lands that have been depleted of their fertility by Rio ignorance of former occupiers ; that will make what are now (practically barren and waste lands productive and profit bearing, and increase the earning power of farm land everywhere. Business farming is the only kind of farming that makes it posdhle for a man to know just where he stands at any time witli regard to anv crop nr ~ ' is any line of work. It makes it possible for a farmer to know wbat each earlv crop is costing bim ; to know wbat each animal in the dairy berd is costing | and returning bim ; ;>nd under normal * conditions to know what profits be may expect from any department on his ” farm. Greater profit must lie in redneed co«f of production r-tt-T- Than ;l the hope of iucre'csr-d .far- - prices C The latter will vary from time to time “ but the safe system of increasing tire income is l>v svs f ernatising tbe wo'-t o e M product! -n. and 7, v making a careful j’■ study to ascc 'a ii where anv itmn urn- i Ih- reduced without le-sen?” - ,ho out- I* pu(. System ami good mm moment raise the farmer m die place of }, sue- * N ccsstnl business man. It will nor tetter 1,1 stock ou the f rm. provide - t rpus } ' lures an 1 bui’di' g-. increase 'b-1: 1 ( v of crops, arid mor« ”i<"i" i” - ho j A banking account 'Hi »■ > is nr-'b U [■,- no jMI other b-aneh f '’rkisUT U“' ■•' T >•- rt , same pro-pr-b- •' * throng. applied s.yst» m nd j m-oii --e t’-'u that which m-w ’e p. - d by v -- j man vd> own- ’’ " —' • land. In ; u fhmv r m<l j , (> necv>s«.oril\- k, - > proportion cf wknlo r | partial fm’bj • bur ir is the nur.i wk, > j V;l r ries and fri =• •-> 'min %vb eventual I ', lends tbe wav ’ be “faddist” rf day becomes tm- public bviu Carter in J 2 (lie years that billow, Tb