Putnam patriot., 1912-08-30
THE BUsL.sS. oe FARMING


 ialy becoming extinct. His happy hunting grounds consist now of only small part of ths total hog produc- ing area He has been succeeded by the more domesticated and more highly developed type of hog, which someone has properly dubbed the mortgage raiser" Many farmers can easily attribute the possession of mes, wealth and all that goes there V lth, othe edomesticated hog. His place la the scheme of industrial progress las been won not by any unusual trait, dI IS largely due to the fact that his proAt45ieness is result of instinctivs econcmIcai habits. By nature he seems to 1t into the whole scheme of farming as utiliZer, to the best pos- slble advantage, of many of the farm products that Noald otherwise be s total loss.
 We ca7 draw a very valuable lesson from this all but artistic animal whose only language is his saueal of CisapproVal and his sturdy grunt of satisfaction. He saves where others waste, and makes his living by roofing around sometimes in places where wanted, sometimes not. If there is ani thing within reach that he likes he usually finds it and proceeds to make good use of the opportunity without any manifest concern or ex- citement. He seems to make it his b1sineSS to look after small things, even the holes in the fence if the out side looks more inviting
 Profitable farming is becoming more and more business proposition in N hich 1t is necessary to look after the small things and to use to the best advantage every opportunity to pro duee more economically. The best and most profitable farmers have adopted systems of farm accounting. or, in other words they have become b0okkeepers, have kept such com plete records asto enable them to de- termine which fields were profitable and which were not. To begin with, Il IS not absolutely necessary to follow up all little details, but it is good plan to do so as completely as possible
 w H1A1 to V AEtNO q ilidllQi d0 UAil ~ ing plant, one of the first things to impress us would be the system of doing things and the strict principles of economy that are followed. All products that can be used for other purposes are saved. properly stored, and used when the time comes At the end of each month, and possibly each day, the manager knows the exact status of atfairs-the amount of stock on hand, and the quantity Of finished product ready for the market. Every part of great machine is numbered and each must be accounted for.
 If the same unsystematic methods were practiced in factories as are used on some farms, they would soon lose their identity with the worlds pro- gress, and become nothing but idle monuments to some mans failure. On careful consideration it is plain to see that with farming it is as import ant, if not more so, to keep definite and strict records of all expenditures of time, money and labor.
 The space allotted to this article will not permit detailed explanation of all the possibilities of an account ing system on the farm and what it will accomplish, but carefully kept records will be an index finger to point the farmer to loop holes through which the profits are now slipping. He would know which are the profitable fields; which are the most profit producing crops; which cows were boarders, that he might at the end of the season sell such animals to pay their board bills; he would know whether he was utilizing his horse power to the best possible advantage. In this connection it might be said that one of our foremost universities has just found that on l60-acre farm, equipped with six splendid head of work stock, the average daily labor per horse was only little over three hours for the entire year "a very small average labor record, indicating a lack of efficiency.
 We'll kept accounts would enable us to determine the most satisfactory way of utilizing our dairy products. Experiment Stations have found that the cream separator reduces the loss of butter fat per COW to one-eighth that of the deep setting; one-twenty- first of the shallow pan, and one thirty-third of the water dilution methods of cream separation. This shows that with the ordinary farmer who is milking ten average cows, figuring butter at the market price, will save mere than the price of separator in single season. It not only is economical from the stand point of obtaining more Of the butter fat from the milk and other methods of cream separation, but makes It possible to utilize the milk before It has undergone the action of detri- mental bacteria, to which 1t IS very susceptible Every farmer knows that milk as it comes fresh from the separator is in the most wholesome condition for feeding young pigs and young calves.
 We hear a great deal said nowadays about maintaining the fertility of the soil We all know that if grain IS sold direct on the market that we deplete the fertility of the land very rapidly The next best system L. farming is stock raising for meat pro duction, and the best of all systems for maintaining the productivity ol the land, and at the same time reap profits therefrom, is dairying not selling the whole milk but selling butter only.
 Only by following some system of farm accounting can we know these