The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1917-08-10
MANY FARMERS
KEEPING BOOKS
Adopting More and More the
PraCtlCeof Analyzing Their
Business.
GET AID FROM UNCLE SAM
Experts Of Department Of Agriculture
and County Agents Are Cooper
atIng With AarleulturIsts In
Making Surveys.

That the farmers Of the country are
adopting more and more the practice
OF analyzing their business carefully
and using this analysis In keeping
books is the opinion Of experts In the
office of farm management of Uncle
Sans department of agriculture.
1t is interesting to note In this con-
nection that the office Of farm man
agement, which is trying in every way
to help build up the farming business,
has provided blanks for use In analyz-
ing farm business in such a way that
the farmer can readily ascertain the
various sources from which he derives
his income, the ways in which he
spends his money, the total income
from the farm and the amount which
should be charged of for interest on
his investment.
County Agents Aid.
County agents Of the department, 1t
is said, make good use Of these blanks.
They take them to the farmer, sit
down with him and work out with him
a complete analysis of his business, so
that he is able to see exactly in what
respects he is losing money and In
what respects he is making 1t.
Furthermore, these blanks are fire.
duently used when farmers write to
the department for advice and assist
ance. In many cases 1t is customary
to request the inquirer to analyze his
business. The information thus OBJ
tained is compared with similar infOr-
nation on file In the department and
the specialists In the Office Of farm
managements are thus enabled to point
out the mistakes which are causing
trouble in any one individual case. 1t
may be found, for example, that a
dairyman is spending from three to
four times as much money for labor
as other farmers conducting business
on a similar scale.
Farm Surveys Made.
To secure the necessary data that
enable the department to determine
whether or not a farmer is conducting
his business as efficiently in any one
respect as he should, extensive farm
surveys are made in representative To-
callties. A group of from 800 to 700
contiguous farms is selected, and a
detailed analysis of the business of
each one of these made by trained ex-
perts. They ascertain what the Invest
ment is, how much Of 1t is in land and
buildings and how much in live stock,
machinery, feed, supplies, etc. The
production of the farm In crops and
live stock is next studied and the re-
turns from the sales of all products as
certained. The survey also includes
an estimate of the amount Of depreci-
alton of the buildings, work stock ma
chinery, ETC., on the farm. With this
1t is possible to determine
what the average farm
er In that section Is doing, and when
this average is compared with indi-
vidual cases 1t is possible to throw
light on why the prosperous farmer
Is succeeding and why his less fortu-
nate neighbor is not.
It is said that approximately one
third of the farmers who have been
Induced to analyze their business in
this way are now keeping books. Hith-
erto, say these farm experts, many
farmers have been discouraged from
this by the apparent complexity of the
systems employed. By simplifying
these systems SO that the farmer can
tell what the figures are all about and
how to use them the department is
greatly increasing the amount Of book
keeping being done on the farms.