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able or unwilling to do these .things should look for some other way to make a living. K. E. Loopc—Farm Management Specialist
Farming is no longer a method of living; it is a highly speculative competitive business. Because of this de\trlopment there are increased opportunities for efficiency and improvement. It also has brought about the absolute necessity for the application of basic farm management principles if the farmer is to be successful.
During rising farm prices, volume production is most important—efficiency secondary but with present trend in farm prices greater efficiency is an immediate necessity.
Since 1910 farm production has increased 88% with a 66% decrease in farm labor supply. Because of this rapid change we have underutilization of labor on many farms. Under employment is unproductive employment resulting in low faiyn earnings per person that could be obtained elsewhere, often the result of too much labor and *too little capital. Since the 1935-39 (base-cost-years) cash farm expenses are up four times. One half of this increase in price and one half in additional kinds or quantities of things purchased. It is much easier to go broke now than prior to these base-cost yeans.
Also there 1 is more difference in income between the good and poor farms. Labor cost is four tunes greater noW than during the 193539 period.
The farm labor supply is tight on many Virginia farms. Farm wage rates are four times highei than 1940 but still have, not kept pace with wage increases in industry. We are losing farm labm at the rate of 2% per year. Fam ilv labor makes up about 80% of Virginai farm labor.
We will continue tc have stiff opposition from industry for sometime.
The productfvtty of labor on farms has in recent years increased more rapidly than the productivity of labor in industry.
We need to incorporate labor saving methods in a high price period since labor costs do not drop in proportion when prices come down.
With low labor costs, an increased volume of production can be cheaply produced by adding more land and more labor. With high labor costs, increased volume and lowered unit costs can be obtained most economically by increased production rates (com silage per acre or milk per cow). We may increase size efficiently by increasing production rates which would be wise on many farms.
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