The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1903-11-03

| will continue for some time to be
asked. My answer has always been
the same: Yes, but it must be re-
membered that farming. as business,
is subject to the same general princl-
pies which govern any other business"
If man were to start cotton mill
| and keep no account of receipts and
| disbursements. take no care of his ma
chinery, and keep no lookout on the
market, how long could he continue in
| business. or what bank or individual
would think for moment of advanc-
ing him credit to carry on his enter
prise? And yet the same necessity for
exact business methods exists in agrl-
culture as in manufacturing.
But" says some one land, in fact,
j heard this same argument only a
few days ago., "a cotton mill Is big
affair and a farm a comparatively
small one; and the exact methods OF
the one are not necessary in the con-
duct of the other" Unquestionally The
farm is usually-though by no means
necessarily-a smaller affair, but n
business conducted without system
must of necessity be small.
have purposely used the cotton
mill as an illustration because, though
great fortunes have been built up by
| 1t, the making of cotton cloth is not,
lin itself, very profitable industry.
There is larger percentage of profit
on many agricultural operations. ana
the comparison of the two industries
illustrates the old truism that bad
business well managed will pay where
good business poorly managed will
not.
| 1t is true that the number of bust
ness failures among farmers Is eX-
Itremely small as compared with other
classes, fact that many agricultural
Journals dwell upon with insistence.
But why are these failures so infre-
iquent? Simply because with a very
large proportion of farmers, agriculture
liz not business at all. but only
means Of subsistence, which is very
different thing. A man who has no
business cannot fail in it. But though
farmers may not often be driven into
bankruptcy, they sustain losses from
neglect of business methods which
they little suspect.
An illustration of this, which
think is worth giving, recently came
to my notice.
An acquaintance of mine had 1O2
cows on his dairy farm. The farm was
not paying, and he asked me If l could
find where the trouble lay and point
out a remedy. After careful exam
inution of his farm and equipment l
told him doubted If all his cows were
paying him a profit.
He was surprised and said that
though the cows varied in quality they
were all good cows. The test, how
ever, which consisted in milking each
COW separately until her milking quail
ties were fully ascertained, disclosed
the fact that eleven out of the 1O2 were
being kept at loss, while several 9th
ers were barely self-supporting!
The wedding out of these worthless
animals made it possible to dispense
with the services of one of the farm
hands. and a further test proved that
the cows would give just as much
milk and keep in better health on
considerably less expensive ration
n thing their owner should have known
long before.
The advantage to the farmer OF
knowing just "where he is at In each
and every department that he mas III
hand would seem to be so self-evident
as to be beyond the realm of discus
sion. But don't need to keep books
said country neighbor Of mine; u
have a good Twin and I'm sure o that
much; then If have say, $500 to the
GOOD ut the end o. the year, l don
need any book but my bank to snow
me I've got it-and there's my proht,
see?"
No I didn't see, and l asked him nj
what figure he estimated the cost OIL
bis living. He had very vague ideas on
this subject. and was surprised wheh
Il told him that he ought to know, ana
that the figure should be added TO MS
$500. I said l supposed he at least
knew what he paid out during the year
for groceries. -four and household sup
Mics. But no, he didn't know even
that. Further talk disclosed the fact
that he never disbursed any cash Tor
these Injuries, but "cailated' for MS
hens to pay the store bill, always trad
ing eggs for groceries.
''Then you don't know how much TO
credit your hens WITH" No, he didn't.
But the critters done all he required OF
Fem; they paid the store bill.
My averment that an accurate
knowledge of ones business was essen
| tial to obtaining the best results OF
which it was capable he admitted did
sound kinder rashnal; but he cal'lated
to hit pretty nigh the mark without
much cipherin', and concluded as fol
lows: "We farmers hey got a vein o
'mXuriousness in us that amt always
evident in our eXteriors, and were will
lin TO lose few thousands o dollars
in lifetime for the sake o freedom
from harrassin details-a sort o Twin
up to our ideals, ms our parSon says
The unquestioned philosophy Of this
| renly excited nv admiration but