Farm Building Service

(Continued from, Page 19)

13,000,000 fowls each requiring about 2.4 square feet of floor space. The University type house is 18 feet wide hence to house all of the chicken population in this type of house would require. a building 1,733,000 feet long (330 miles approximate). The average cost of this construction is $12.00 per lineal foot, thus making the building investment over $20,00O,000. Naturally, allof California,s poultrymen will not build such houses but they do have an investment in structures of about $1.00 per bird or approximately $13,000,000. The depreciation and maintenance on these structures is over $[,000,00O annually. Even though Jnany poultry men do not have a University type house, they are paying just as much for housing ani tlriy donot have the conveniences and advantageJ thistypt affords.

Again let us think for a moment of our dairv situation. California has about 63OOOO cows, of which approximately &/o are in production. About 40% of. the producing co*i are needed for market milk production. Thi sanitari r"gu- lations for market milk are-such that good dairymen nEed and in time will want considerable areas of concrete pav- ing both in barns and corrals. A conservative estimati of the desirable paved area per cow for both barns and corrals is about 125 square feet per animal or this is equiv- alent to a pavement fr f.eet wide by 225 miles long.- Of course, many barns are now provided with concrete floors, but it is safe !o_ -say that our market milk dairymen need an additional l5O miles of pavement 20 feet wide to provide moje sanitary conditions for the production of maiket milk. This alone represents potential business in excess of two million dollars.

You may' say that sounds fine but the farmer will not do it. Maybe not. Surely not everyone, but our best dairymen will. --The public. is constantly seeking higher quality in its milk supply. As a general rule infeiior milk is produced in a dirty environment. To meet the require- ments of the trade more sanitary structures are required. Then there are milk houses. to build, bunks, silos, -water Then houses'to houses.to silos, water tanks, fences, bull pens, calf sheds and other dairy acces- falrr{s, rences, Durr pcrls, catr sneqs ano carry sories, which the material man must be prepared to sell.

There is in California more than a million beef animals, approximately 3fu million sheep and more than half a million swine. To properly care for these, shelters, corrals, tanks and many other builtling accessories must be pro- vided. Based upon studies of farm efficiency in California, I estimate our livestock and poultry otvners must write off depreciation in structures and building equipment of approximately seven million dollars annually. -This includes only livestock and poultry structures and when one adds to this repairs and renewals of dwellings, packing sheds, fences, garage and machinery shelters, it is evidenl that agriculture should and does do a considerable business with the material dealer. On the other hand, when the total business is divided among more than 100,000 farms the business per farm appears less formidable.

Your business isto iell the farmer accordilg to his needs. Our business is to analyze his needs ind then endeav.or to specify his building requirements. Appar- ently, lt my understanding is correct, we must have some interests in common in rendering our respective services to the industry. Assuming that -you accept this hypothesis, how can we cooperate to mutual advantage? \ ft's easier to SELL lumber that has been seasoned at low temperatures in Moorets Reversible Cross Circula- tion Kilns. fnvestigation will prove this!

It is axiomatic, I -believe, that we will eac"h serve best when agricylture is best served. What we need in agric_ultqre, and all other industries, just now is stabilizatlon. Good serviceable structures tend to stabilize farming, while poor buildi-ngs or extravagant structures may hive the opposite effect. First class sanitary dairy structures, for example, are possible at reasonable cost if these may be used continuously for a term of years, let us say 15 or 0 years, but if the investment must be written ofi in 5 or 6 years they become an economic impossibility. Accordingly, ev-e_ry effort- we exert to stabilize market riilk product-ion will be to the advantage of all concerned. This reguires that the structure must be planned to serve its purpoie for a relatively long term of years, and it must be ionstructed to meet- sanitary regulations present and future. No good material man would recommend wood floors for suih a structure any more than he would recommend a substitute for lumber unless proven by meritorious service. These references, I believe, will serve to illustrate my point that the plan must be right and the material must be adequate to meet the structural requirements. We endeavor to meet the first requirement in our plan service and you accept the responsibility for the latter.

. Every sale should be analyzed from the standpoint of the customer's best interest for service. Furthermore, we should be willing to give up pet ideas if such ideas benefit no one but ourselves. More thought could be very profit- ably devoted to analyzing the potential farm buiiness. I wonder how many dealers catering to farm business actually know the number of fowls, dairy cows, swine, sheep and beef animals in his trade territory. I wonder how many know the number of miles of fencing, the number of garages, kinds of roofs, machine shedi, etc. No doubt many o{ you can give these figures. Do you expect to sell annually approximately ten cents worth of material for each fowl and about $4.00 worth of material for each dairy cow, and so on, depending upon the specific type of agriculture practiced ? If you serve your farming community as agriculture deserves to be served you will look for this business. The farmer will buy some place, be sure of that. If you serve him best you will sell the material most serviceable for his needs.

Our job is to set up the requirements of agriculture for production structures; your job is to adequately meet these requirements. Our service responsibility, and yours too, is directly to agriculture.

How much moisture will lumber pick up in your sheds? rf you know the average remperatufes and relative hunidities, MooRE's free chart will tell yoi!