Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1914-08-18
Boarders at the Banks Farm.
BUT NOT THE SUMMER KIND, AND THEY
DIDN'T PAY.

the balance for twenty head of cattle a
an average cost of $50 each, for Wagon
aud horses for delivery, bottles, mill
cooler, and other equipment necessary il
his business. He gave his personal at
tentiou to the work from about 800 A
NJ. to 900 P. NJ, and was assisted by hi
wife, an eighteen year-old son, and
sixteen-y ear. old daughter when she wal
not in school.
At the close of three years he fount
himself in debt to about every tradesmar
IN the town who bad trusted him, anc
up against it" good and rocky. HI
walled aud rallied at his lack OF success
and condemned everyo one who had ad
vised or assisted him in his business.
QUESTIONS THAT PUZZLED JIM
A friend approached him one day anG
said, "Jim, how much does it cost you
to produce quart of milk?"
~ don't know"
"How much does it cost you to sell q
quart of milk?"
THAT'S fool question to ask"
"How much does 1t cost you to keep a
COW day?"
"How can tell?"
what percentage of your sales do you
fail to colect?"
"Say, my friend, what are you driving
at ?"
"Just this: You don't deserve to sue.
csed. You haven't learned your business
yet You are a business menace. You
are the type of man who tears down the
business of another without building one
for yourself.
"Be just with yourself. Get your fig.
ure facts before you. Before you can
succeed you must know all these things
aud more. You must keep before you
the costs, so that you know what your
farn produces, and what it earns. And
when you sell your farm produce to your
dairy business, deal as if you were deal.
ing with a stranger. Find what your
overhead expense is-Shat the limit is
where a cow ceases to be profitable. You
have fine looking cows; that gets you
no nothiDg-yo are selling milk, not cows.
OVERHEAD" EXPENSES OF cow
"Wby, Jim, when you pay s25 ton
for hay to feed COW that eats two tons
of hay year, you can realize that your
COW costs you dollar a week for hay.
Aud add to that thirty-fi cents week
for grain. And add her proportion OF
overhead" such as interest, taxes, in
surance, depreciation-you realize that
dairy COW is good COW for only four
years, having to charge off one-fifth her
cost to depreciation every year-and the
bottles and wear and tear on wagon, the
keep of your delivery horse, the wages
you pay to deliver, must all find unit
value somewhere that you can charge
whyw
"What is a unit vslue?"
"a basis for your fixed charges. You
have twenty cows. Against these twenty
units you have to charge all your expense
and credit all your revenues.
"For instance, your interest on 50, 600
at six per cent is S2l6. Your taxes are
$40. Your insurance is $40. Your hay
bill is 5000 a year. Your grain bill is
5000. Your wage bill for your son is
$500. For YOUR wife $500. For your
daughter $3.50. You yourself should be
put on a salary, say 5000. Any one OF
you would earn more than this working
as you do now, for someone else. Your
depreciation of cattle is S240. Your
breakage of bottles and depreciation OF
equipment is fully $50.
MUST EARN sl35 A YEAR
Look fact in the face, 30 1t WON'T
rise up later from business shroud and
look you in the face. Just off-hand,
without counting tickets and bottle caps,
and advertising, and sickness, and the
thousand and one leaks that you must
consider, nor the loss from customers
who don't pay, you can see that your
cows have got to earn 50, 708 a year, oI
Sl35 and better a year apiece. Aud tha,
reduced to quarts Of milk at six cents IL
2, ,250 quarts per year, or between six and
seven quarts of milk per day.
"And so, by getting your figure facts
right, Jim, you find that COW that gives
six quarts or less of milk per day is q
financial loss besides the labor she
causes.
snow IL while cow is fresh, and fol
two months, she gives twelve or fourteen
quarts of milk day, and then for two
months more nine or ten, and then fol
two months seven or eight, you will see
that for two months that she gives five
and six and the two she is dry she il
loss, and if you will get your figure
facts right you will find that you can no,
afford to keep her at $40 when you car
buy fresh one at S60-and will know
just when to do it.
"And you will know that your loss Of
collections is confined within certain
families, and that by cutting off the
trade to that class and going after others
you will save yourself and your bust
ness.
what you need. Jim, is a system, &c
that you can figure and reason and
analyzs without getting tired. You hat
better have twelve cows, fresh, and ;
sy stem, than your twenty COWS as yor
are now. You would have less worl
and more money, less worry and more
leisure, and could enjoy life for yor
would know your dead line and coulC
stop there, have sure profit, and you
whole life work would take on rosie
tinge."
Did Jim disregard his friends advice
| GETS ON A SCIENTIFIC BASIS
You would hardly say so, If you coult
visit Jim at W. In three years h.
has revolutionized his business. HI
knows at the end of every day just W her
he stands. If he has made q profit o
one hundred dollars, he knows it. a.
knows himself and he knows his bust
ness. It's just a case of building bust
ness on scientific basis.
Have you learned the value Of keeping
strict watch on the financial end o
your farm?-E. c. Whitmyre in Farm
Life.
| Ace High.
Even the enthusiastic western OF
chardists admit II cornered that New
Ennland has fwn great adVanfap6a nya