| Show U S farmer puts money mone y in the bank while city folk end up behind 8 ball 4 by OSCAR REGAN r released by western newspaper union TT washington ASHINGTON though whis W his source of income is constantly threatened by natural and artificial disasters and he must support the nations largest family mr av american farmer manages to save more money than any other average man in the united states more technological trends will probably enable him to better his record for economy in the next few years and get fat doing it A house to house survey of more than farm village and city families by the department of ag reveals that 42 per cent of ahe A ahe nations farm families consist of five or more persons only 26 per cent of the village and city groups are that large the average being slightly under three yet where income is from 1000 to 1250 a year a farm family ends the year with a saving of 26 up while city families of the same level wind up in a deep financial hole let a farmer get his hands on as much as to a year and hell save almost halt half of it the survey disclosed c his diet Is better while watching his pennies the farmer manages to eat more good things than other groups his brood of five consumes 60 per cent more milk 16 per cent more butter and 25 per cent more fresh vegetables than city families village families incidentally are shown by the survey to be the poorest fed in the land some almost to the point of malnutrition though an abundance of fresh and nourishing food is usually available just beyond the township line in fairness however the survey discloses that farmers do not have as many incidental expenses as their urban brethren less than half those hose questioned had electricity while 93 per cent of city and village dwell ers get monthly power bills only 52 p per r cent of the rural families had installed telephones as compared with 60 per cent for village and urban families more than 94 per cent of city homes were billed for running water while in the north central region of the united states state only 24 per cent of the farms paid for that convenience furthermore though 94 per cent of the farmers own automobiles to as compared with only 70 per cent of the others the agra aggari ra ans buy three fourths of their cars from the used car market while more than half the city families buy new cars at an average cost of REA PEA and economy however from one point of view farm savings are menaced by the rapid spread of rural electrification within the past nasf decade the benefits of electricity according to the rural electrification administration have been extended to farms in addition the hard surfacing of approximately 85 per cent of the nations primary and secondary highways has brought the costly attractions tr of the city beauty parlors theaters shops and department stores closer than ever to the farm with resultant increases in farm spending however it is pointed out such threats to farm bank balances are more than offset by technological advances which have cut farm production costs chief among these are small low cost all purpose tractors which owe much of their time and fuel savings ability to the pneumatic rubber farm tires on which they have attained speeds comparable to those of the automobile designed specifically for work on the typical american farm of acres or less these rubber shod machines have been found to cost a maximum of 34 cents an hour to operate on regular farm work including depreciation upkeep interest taxes and all other charges replaces the horse with government figures placing the cost of working one horse or mule at cents an hour the small rubber equipped machines replace four draft animals chih would cost a total of an hour to work each hour then the tractor is saving at least cents or every 10 hour day a sizeable addition to farm savings furthermore P W farm service manager of the B F goodrich company A A A W A V A 3 W A A 14 ak t U LORDING IT OVER CITY agriculture department survey shows farmer making to 1250 a year will save a little of it city families avith the same income ivind up in a deep financial hole which pioneered the d development of pneumatic farm tires points out that the saving of approximately 24 working days on a acre farm by the faster machines enables farmers to cultivate approximately 33 additional acres with resultant increases in income up to annually thus it is presumed that farm thriftiness despite rising prices will increase during the next few years to give the agrarian an even more impressive savings bank account statistics on the cash income ot of farm families are peculiarly relevant to modern american problems in new england average net cash income for the group of farm operators era tors families studied was in the central region the average net cash income for the families studied extended from a low of in iowa to 1202 in illinois dust and drouth disasters are reflected still in figures fugures for the mountain and plains p lains regions where the lowest net cash income was for families studied in north dakota the high was in colorado montana and south dakota the average net ne T cash income of pacific coast farm operators e era tors families was generally high in the scale southern california farm families were top with 1623 while families studied in oregon were low with new englanders need morein the southeast white farm families in georgia fared worst with an average net cash income of for the year mississippi white farm operators fared best with an av r net cash income of 1566 many oddities were brought out in the survey despite their traditional thrift new england villagers required an income of from 1750 to 2000 before substantial savings were made the expenditures of low income southern farm wives and daughters for cosmetics and beauty parlors almost equalled equal led those of the pacific coast group where net cash incomes were highest in ohio and pennsylvania the farmer spent more on clothing g per year than his wife while in the midwest men spent more in barber shops than their wives did in beauty parlors one absolute figure was struck for the entire nation no man whether his income is or annually seemed to spend more than 2 for shaving soap and cream |
