Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1912-11-01
EARN ORGANIZATION.

~ Prof. w. !. SWllman. -
Q A recent article in Wallaces Farm
81, giving some of the data concerning
the organization of my farm. has led !
Feaders of the paper to request me to,
discuss the subject of farm .organiza-
ton in greater detail. It would be
impossible within the limits of . al
newspaper article, to set forth even
IN outline, all the principles involved
I shall therefore not attempt a full
discussion.
From the standpoint of profit in
farming there are two leading fac
tors In the cost of production per
unit Of product. One Of these is acre
yields. The cost Of a sixty -bushel
crop Of corn is not much greater than
that of a forty -bushel crop; but when
we divide the cost by sixty and forty,
respectively, to get the cost per bu-
shel, the larger the dividend, the
smaller the Quotient. This is fac.
cor that depends upon the fertility
Of the soil and upon the methods us
ed in growing the crop. This fac
tor concerns farm operation rather
than farm Organization.
The other factor has to do with
means of reducing the overhead eX-
penses of the farm per unit of pro
duct. 1 can illustrate my meaning in
this way: Suppose that on a given
farm there are four work horses. and
that the amount of work there is op-
pOrtunity for them to do during the
year would amount to three full
months. work. The cost of these
three months work is not Simply
what it would cost to hire a horse
and maintain him during these three
months, but it is the cost of keeping
the horse for a year on the farm in
GLIDING feed, interest, depreciation
taxes; barn rent. etc. Suppose that
on another farm we had the same
number Of horses. but on the average
we get six full months work out Of
each. The cost Of the six months
: work is approximately the same as
{: the cost of the three months worl
on the other farm. On the fam
where the horse. does only thret
months work, the. cost Of horse labol
per unit of product is approximate!
twice as great as 1t is on the other
The main point of farm Organiza
don is to so distribute the labor o
.. man and horse throughout the work
Ing season as to secure approximate
" "a uniform amount of work at al
; times. Where this is done, the mum
Der Of horses and. the corresponding
implements required to farm a give
area is very much reduced. Thus cl
.my"owm farm. which l am farming Il
partnership with my brother, VIII
lives on the farm. several years ag
we planned a system for producin
a. maximum number of hogs. The sy'
TEN worked we'll from the standpoint
>. Of the number of hogs produced, ar
It built up the land in very sati'
factory manner We got considerable
larger crops than our neighbOrs, an
our hogs always sold for excelleI
prices, yet the cost of operation wa
= 90 great that for several years ther
was no profit. In two out Of six yea
we had very nice profit, because u
were able to sell our hogs at an III
usually high price. Finally it daw'
ed upon US that the trouble was "
had a system which required II
much work i'm March. April and Ma
and. too little work at other seasol
of the year. We then went to wol
and changed our rotation somewhe
introducing some crops that ga
work in July, August and Septembe
This greatly reduced the amount