beginning you have made a profit.

beginning you have made a profit. Deperciation and other such economic termites may be sapping the profits in your business.

t It is a known fact that, other things remaining the same, each addition of another hundred pounds of fertilizer to an acre of crops pays less return than the preceeding. Finally, a point will be reached at which another hundred pounds will not increase yield enough to pay for the fertilizer. For. example, there is the fam>er who put $1,000 worth of fertilizer on his alfalfa. The first $100 worth returned $184. The tenth 0100 returned only $58. The value of return per $100 worth used fell $14. For the $1,000 investment he got back $1,210 or a net of $210. Had he stopped at $700 worth of fertilizer on this crop he would have gotten $994 or a net of $294. Not only is the net greater but it is a much higher return on the amount invested—42 % versus 17.3%.

Of course, it might have paid him still better to shift part of the money into buying more feed for the dairy cows or some other more profitable use. Farmers have many opportunities to make such profitable choices. This is one of the big advantages in buying so many of their production supplies, especially since substitutoins can frequently be made.

Much is being said about the cost-price squeeze in farming. It is interesting to note that recently Dunn & Bradstreet asked officers in 1,225 large businesses in 147 cities, “In your opinion, what is the most important single issue facing American business at this time? Over the next five to ten years?’’ For the present—the highest percentage (22.7%) said “costprice squeeze.” For five to ten years—again the highest percentage (19.2 % ) replied, “Cost-price squeeze.” Next in order was foreign competition —13.3% for present, 18.1 % - in five to ten years. This is of course, cost-price squeeze from outside.