The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1916-05-11
DOES THE FARM PAY.
Demonstrators Point Out the Differ.
ences in Results Between Good and
Rad Mana cement.

had Management
In every community there are a GER
tain number Of farmers who have
found out for themselves how to make
q good profit from their farms. They
are nov being used by county agents
as practical object lessons for their
ieSs successful ncighbors Under
what Is known az the farm-manaRe-
ment demonstration plan, the county
agent analyses the systems that these
men have adopted. compares them
with the practice on farms that pay
less or not at all, and learns in this
way the factors that make for success
full farming tn given community. He
is then in a position 10 say: This is
the kind Of farming that pays. II
you don't believe me. look around you.
Its not a theory; it's a fact
The demonstrations Of this kind
that the Department Of Agriculture,
cooperating with the State colleges Of
agriculture 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
studied in order to ascertain what the
farmer obtained for his years work
after deducting the interest at per
cent on the value Of his farm and
other Captain other words, TO find
out his labor income or wages, In
each Of these groups, which included
altogether d,400 farms, the conditions
were reasonably similar. In each
group the farmers were divided into
five numerically equal classes accord
ing to their labor incomes
The Successful Fifth
1t was found that although the av
erage labor income for all the groups
was only 1887, the average for the
farmers in the first claas-that fifth of
the farmers who did bcst--was 81 ,42l.
In the second class is was $642. The
last class-thc fifth of the farmers
who were least successful-got moth
ing for wages and lost, on the aver
age, $517 That is to say, the interest
on the amount of money represented |
by their farm, stock, and equipment
would have been $5l7 more than the
farm returned them. 1t should be
borne in mind in this connection that
the labor income Is merely the farm
er's wages, and that the family has in
addition, besides interest on invest
ment, the use Of the farmhouse and
such fuel and food as the farm sup
plies free of money cost.
Other demonstrations have produced
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
$4,000 more than the least successful.
This is not luck, nor is it altogether,
or even chiefly, a question of the skill
of the individual farmer. Further an
alysis 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.
How this can be done is shown by a
study of farm which, for the sake of
can be called the Baldwin
farm. The owners labor income one
wear was minus $45--his income was
$40 less than the interest on his farm
and equipment. That year the aver
age labor income on 1913 farms in the
same community was $3.50 and for the
Is more successful farms $3.50. The
amount of capital represented by the
Baldwin farm was a little more than
the average and little less than that c
Of the best farms. In neither case,
however, was the difference sufficient 9
TO account at all for the striking diff
ference in income. G
Improbable Cows J
There were, however, other differ |
ences which did account for it. Bald I
win had 81 acres in crops, as com ,
pared with an average Of 6S and for
the best farms Of 49, He fed prac- S
ideally all his crops TO his ] ] cows and a
2 horses, but the receipts in butter o
and milk from each Of his cows aver p
aged only $50 On the average farm Q
here were 6 cows, giving average re- n