Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1911-08-12


it won't do to assess against the crop
merely the money you've paid for labor
| and fertilizer, aid call everything
above that profit. There are scores OF
other charges against every crop. And
some of these other charges run over
from year to year, SO that it takes
fine figuring to decide what proportion
any single years product shall bear.
Take, for instance, that field of tim
othy 1t was in corn four years ago,
in potatoes three years ago, in oats
two years ago, bore mostly clover last
year You MANFRED and cultivated for
corn; you MANFRED and cultivated for
potatoes; you probably drilled in some
fertilizer for oats. Some of that ma
nure and some of the results of those
civilizations are brought forward into
your this years timothy crops. You
know, yourself that you wouldn't have
had the bunkum crop of hay you did,
# you hadn't MANFRED and cultivated
the preceding crops. TIE timothy
ought to pay its share of these fer
tilizing and cultivating costs just as
the corn and potatoes should have paid
their share. 1t wants pretty sound
judgment and a sharp pointed pencil
to figure out these proportions, now
let me tell you.
Then there's the taxes. Your crops,
including your timothy, must pay
Just share. Also your insurance. The
house and barns aren't paying the in
Surance on them Your crops must
pay that, too. The timothy must be
charged with it's just share of this
bill. Also fencing cost The field had
ton by pasturins animals, and each
years crop must be charged with each
years just share of this expense. The
hay must pay for needed repairs and
for proportionate part of the natural
deterioration of the fences. Then
there's the wear and tear on your
tools. your mower and tedder and
horse rake and wagon and rigging
and harnesses, etc. They've all had
something taken out OF them by the
work, AMI that something is more than
the immediate repair bills for a few
mower 7ections or a new rake-tooth.
And so on and so on. When you've got
together all the charges which that
acre of timothy hay properly should
bear, you'll have found that the wages
you paid for hired labor in cutting and
curing and hauling it are only part
of what it has actually cost you.
And, if you charge dollar day
for the time it will take you to work
out to ultimate decimals all these and
other proper charges, it will have cost
quite bit more, yet!
Nevertheless, it's right in this line
that there is field for the exercise of
scientific management in farming.
Perhaps you have read how a scien-
tific study of the methods employed by
bricklayers and notifications Of those
meth DDS TO eliminate waste of time
and effort has resulted in the reduc-
ton of the cost of laying a thousand
bricks by more than one-kaf There
are builders today putting up brick
walls where the same workmen using
similar bricks and mortar and work
ing the same number of hours lay
more than twice as many bricks in
day as they laid two years ago. If We
farmers can reduce the cost of raising
our hay and our corn and our pork
we can make more money than now
though we get no bette" prices.
The very first thing to do, along this
line, is to find out what such crops
now cost us. We must have that
knowledge to start from. 1t must be
knowledge, too; not guesswork. The
agricultural department of Nebraska
has been working for two years to find
out what it costs Nebraska farmers to
produce certain crops. It announces
that an average of reports for two
years indicates that it has cost about
thirty cents bushel to produce corn;
about thirty-two cents a bushel to pro-
duce OATS about fffty-five cents
bushel to produce wheat. and $4.18 a
ton to produce clover hay. 1t is ex-
planned that these figures are based
on returns from the best farmers in
various communities" also that the
yields are higher than the average
in the state; also that the cost of
marketing is not included.
You bet it isn't! Nor a whole lot
of other costs which 1 have heretofore
suggested Why, with me, at the rate
of wages I have to pay, the labor cost
alone of a ton of clover hay, properly
cured IN the average ca.ehy' weather
and properly stored, is more than S418.
| mean the cost for cutting and STIR
ring and cooking and shaking out and
rahlnG and drawing and moving
away" know, for I've just got
through my own haying, and there
isn't ton in my barn but has cost
me more than SIS for labor, alone and
everybody knows that the curing of
clover takes more labor and time than
any other sort of hay When I shall
have added to this labor cost all the
other proper charges against my hay
crop, 1 should want more than $40
ton for it, in the barn, to get all
my money back-if 1 were to sell it,