Page:Walter Renton Ingalls - Current Economic Affairs (1924).pdf/69

Rh impresses anyone who applies his mind to the agricultural situation is the wide diversity of productive efficiency which prevails among the units which the farmer employs in carrying on his business… The inefficient units with which the great mass of our farmers are still operating, and the ineffective methods which are employed by fully one-half of our 6,500,000 farmers, are the chief causes of distress among this large agricultural group. It may be economically unsound to counsel increased production for American agriculture, but only good can come from a decrease in the cost of production.”

I should not say that it would be economically unsound to counsel increased production by the farmers, who might be best advised to increase their production, but to do it in different things and by improved methods. In his present situation it is undoubtedly sound to advise the farmer to curtail his production of wheat, which he is already starting to do by cutting down his acreage under cultivation, but it is not so good advice to recommend him to reduce his aggregate production unless we are in a position to reduce the number of farmers. In that connection there would be many things to study. Wheat is relatively an easy crop to raise and the grain is easily capable of transportation, wherefore remote land may be cultivated for this purpose. The direct labor in raising the wheat crop is small. Perhaps not more than the work of 30 days per annum. The wheat raiser, like the hay-cropper, has much time for raising other things, for his own consumption at least.

It is of course cold comfort to the farmer in the present juncture to tell him that he ought to improve