Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1916-05-10
DETERMINE WAGE INCOME.
Demonstrators Point Out Re-
suits Obtained From Both
Conditions On Farm.

In every community there are GER
tain number of farmers who have
found out for themselves how to make
a good profit from their farms. They
are now being used by county agents
as practical OBJECT lessons for their
less successful neighbors. Under
what is known as the farm manage
ment demonstration plan, the county
agent analyses the systems these men
have adopted, compares them with the
practice on farms that pay less or not
at all, and learns in this way the fac
tors that make for successful farming
in a given community. He is then in
a position to say: "This is the kind of
farming that pays. If you don't be-
Iieve me, look around you. It's not a
theory; it's a fact"
The demonstrations of this kind that
the Department of Agriculture, coop
Grating with the state colleges of ag-
ricuIture has made already, afford
some striking instances Of the differ
ence in results between good and bad
farm management. Recently 81 groups
of farms in 10 states were stdUied in
order to ascertain what the farmer OBJ
tanned for his years work after de-
Quoting the interest at 5 per cent on
the value of lis farm and other CAPT
tain other words, to find out his la
Dor income or wages. In each Of these
groups, which included altogether A.,
400 farms, the conditions were reason
ably similar In each group the
farmers were divided into five numer-
ically equal classes according to their
labor incomes.
Divided Into Five Classes.
1t was found that although the aver
age 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 the best-was
S1,421 In the second class it was
S642 The last class-the fifth of the
farmers who were least successful
got nothing for wages and lost, on
the average, $517. That is to say, the
interest on the amount of money rep
resented by their farm, stock, and
equipment would have been $517 more
than the farm returned them. 1t
should be borne in mind in this con-
nectiOn that the labor income is mere
" the farmers wages, and that the
family has in addition, besides inter
est on investment, the use of the farm
house and such fuel and food as the
farm supplies free of money cost.
similar results. In almost any north
ern community, one-fifth of the farm
ers are making approximately $1,000
a year more than the average and ST.
600 a year more than the least sue
cessful. This is not luck, nor is it
altogether, or even chiefly, 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 not. 1t
is the business of the county agents
and farm management demonstrators
to ascertain what those methods are
and to point them out.
An Instance Cited.
How this can be done is shown by
study of farm which, for the sake of
convenience, can be called the Bald
win farm. The owners labor income
one year was minus $45-his income
was $45 less than the interest on his
farm and equipment. That year the
average labor income on 1913 farms in
the same community was $3.50 and for
- 81
The amount of capital represented by
the Baldwin farm was a little more
than the average and little less than
that of the best farms. In neither
case, however, was the difference suf-