Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1916-05-16
Does the Rarm Paya
THE DIFFERENCES IN RESULTS BETwEEH
GOOD AND BAD MANAGEMENT.

Enumber Of farmers who have found on
for themselves how to make good prof
from their farms. They are now beini
used by county agents as practical objec
lessons for their less successful neighbour
Under what IL known as the farm-man
agement demonstration plan, the count!
agent analy zss the systems that thes'
men have adopted, compares them will
the practice on farms that pay less OF
not at all, and learns In this way th,
factors that make for successful farming
In given community. He 10 then In q
position to cay: "This is the kind o
farming that pays. If you don't believe
me, look around you. It's not theory
it's q fact"
The demonstrations of this kind that
tho Department of Agriculture, cooper.
ating with the State colleges OF sgricul
ture has made already. afford some strik
ing instances of the difference In results
between good and bad farm management
Recently "a groups of farms 10 10 States
were studied In order to ascertain what
the farmer obtained for his years work
after deducting the interest ct 8 per cent
on the value of bis farm and other capi.
tal-in other words, to find out bis labor
income or wages. In each OF these
groups, which included altogether A. ,40O
farms, the conditions were reasonably
similar. In each group the farmers were
divided into FIVE numerically equal
classes according to their labor incomes.
THE SUCCESSFUL FIFTH.
It was found that although the average
labor income for all the groups Was only
1887, the average for the farmers In the
first class-that fifth of the farmers who
did best-was $1,421. In the second
GLASS 1t was $842. The last olass-the
fifth of the farmers who were least sue
cessful-got nothing for wages and lost,
on the average, $517. That is to say, the
interest on the amount OF money repre-
sented by their farm, stock, and equip.
ment would have been $517 more than
the farm returned them. 1t should be
borne in mind in this connection that the
labor income is merely the farmers
wages, and that the family has In addi-
ton, besides interest on investment, the
use of the farmhouse and such fuel and
food % the farm supplies free of money
cost.
Other demonstrations have produced
similar results. In almost any northern
community, one-f1fth of the farmers are
making approximately 900 q year
more than the average and $1,000 more
than the least successful. This 10 not
luck, nor is it altogether, or even chiefly,
a question of the skill of the individual
farmer. Further analysis will show that
the successful men are following certain
methods adapted to their conditions and
that the unsuccessful are pot. 1t is the
business of the county agents and farm
management demonstrators to ascertain
what those methods are and to point
them out.
How this can be done 10 shown by q
study of farm which, for the sake OF
convenience, can be called the Baldwin
farm. The owners labor income one
year was minus $45-his income was as
less than the interest on his farm and
equipment. That year the average labor
income on 1913 farms In the same COM
munity was 500 and for the 25 more sue
cessful farms $3.50. The amount OF cap
ital represented by the Baldwin farm was
q little more than the average and little
less than that Of the best farms. In
neither case, however, Was the difference
sufficient to account at all for the strik.
ing difference in income.
UNPRoFITABLE COWS.
There were, however, other differences
which did account for 1t. Baldwin had
81 acres In crops, ss compared with an
average of 6S and for the best farms OF
93. he fed practically all his crops to
his II COWS and horses, but the receipts
In butter and milk from sach Of bis COWS
averaged only $50. On the average farm
there were 6 COWS, giving average re.
oeipts Of ~, and on best farms 8 COWS,
with average receipts from each of $62
The other farmers with their larger crop
acreage had q surplus Of crops to sell.
Baldwin, with a. good yields a. the
others per acre, had practically nothing
to sell, and the stock to which he fed his
crops was too poor to give him profitable
returns.
The important thing for Baldwin. said
the demonstrators when they had ascer'
tanned these facts, was to weed out hii
herd, to keep record of tho production
OF each COW and to get rid of those which
were costing him money. The nex'
thing was II possible to rent or buy q
little more land so that the size OF hil
business would be more commensurate
with its equipment. he and bis horses
were capable of farming as much land Q.
his-neighbors, and by not doing 1t he wss
wasting bis time just - bis COWS were
wasting bis feed.
Such demonstrations, Of course. are
valuable only for the community In which
they are made. They cannot be taken "a
mean that it is better to keep 8 cows
than II, to sell crops than to feed them,
or to cultivate 90 acres than 80. They
show, however, that there are always
profitable and Improbable ways Of run.
ming farm In any community, and that
If man ID losing money In return fol
hard work 1t will pay him to learn from
his neighbors who are making 1t. It ID
In helping him 10 do this that the county
agents are now finding ono Of their most
useful functions.