Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1915-01-16
VALUABLE DATA
 FOR THE FARMER
Suggestions as to Ii 0 W Farmers Can Use Depart
 mept of Agriculture.
The Office of Farm Management.

The principal object of ,he office of farm management is to show the farmer how he can increase his farm income by good management. The office not Cnly deals with general problems but endeavors tG point out specific ways for any farmer with [, specific problem to handle. The office has G6 trained investigators of agri- culture distributed throughout tho Northern and Western states whose first business is to gather the expert cnce of successful local farmers. The results cf their Investigations arc sum mariZed and the conclusions made generally known.
 The office of farm management en- deavors to enable the farmer to or ganize his work so us tc dispense with unnecessary work animals and imple- ments, and permit the farmer and his family to do a maximum share of the work so that large part of their profits will not have to go for hired labor ard 10 feed an overlarge number of work animals ever ,on unproduct1vc period
 The Office is gathering data con corning the crops aud types of live stock which are most profitable in all sections of the country and is at tempting to formulate systems of farming based on the most profitable enterprises for farms of different size and for different soil, climatic and eco homie conditions. It has shown that gccd farm organization greatly re duces the cost of production as con- Dnrod with Cr1iy1 a,,y 1Oofbn1c
 The office is giving special attention to the problem of farm equipment in the hope of being able to standardize this equipment to certain extent, or at least to give out information that will enable the farmer to know what he needs and what it should cost; also how much he is justified in putting in- tC equipment of different kinds.
 The office is cooperating with a considerable number of farmers, usu- ally including in the cooperation the state agricultural college, in keeping complete records of farm labor, ln- come and expenses. This enables the specialists to determine the cost of production as well as the cost of each type of operation carried on on the farm.
 Some of the most interesting pro- jects of the office are it's farm man. agement surveys" These surveys cov- CT a group usually of about 700 farms in one locality. The data collected from each farm includes the total in vestment and it's distribution between land, buildings, live stock, machinery, etc., together With the total income and the enterprises from which it is derived, the total expenses and the character of these expenses. These data permit the calculation of the farmers profits.
 These surveys have given much in- formation concerning the factors of efficiency in farming They have shown that the size of the farm is a very important factor. In gen. eral the larger the farm the better the net profits. They have shown that the number of days productive labor which the farm provides is one of the best measures of the profitable ness of the farm. Many other facts of interest have been brought out, too to mention in this brief summary of the work.
 Another investigation has shown just how the yield of corps depends not only on the fertility of the soil but upon the character O: the seed used, the kind and number of operations performed, and the dates on which