Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1919-04-02

done by the farm management sur
veys originated at Cornell, where a
large amount of data upon New York
farms has been secured. The Yer
mont extension service is at present
! accommodating data for Vermont, six
widely different areas having been
covered already. Fortunately one of
these is in Orleans county. Seventy
two farms around Orleans, in the
towns of Barton, Bloomington, and
Irasburg have been visited and data
secured upon the business being con-
Quoted. These figures should be typi-
cal OF the county as a whole, and are
valuable for comparison with data
secured in other states, in the other
| Vermont areas, and with similar fig
ures secured in other ways. The re-
suits of this survey are given in Table
5.
w. J. Spillman, in 1913, devised a
method of ascertaining the so-called
labor income from the census figures
by the use of certain arbitrary per-
centages. When his methods are ap-
piled to the Vermont figures the re-
suits shown in Table are secured
The assumed percentages are not en-
| tirely satisfactory for Vermont con-
dltions, though an attempt to secure
accurate factors from the data from
the Orleans area was not successful.
Spillman's method is as follows
| The census gives the gross farm in
come from animals, animal products,
and the sale of feedable crops; the
| farm expenses for labor, feed and
| fertilizer; and the farm investment
| To the sum of the farm expenses
| is added 209c on the equipment and
! $50 on the buildings for depreciation
and O.69o on the total investment
for taxes. To this sum is add
ed 1870 for miscellaneous expens-
es and the whole is deducted from the
gross farm income, giving the "labor
income" This method gives a labor
income of 1913 for the entire country
i while for Vermont it is a negative
| figure, - 500, and only three counties
show positive figure, Caledonia, Es-
sex and Orange.
| As a test of the value of this meth
| cd the actual figures of the 72 Or
leans area farms were worked up, by
: this method, giving a total expense
for these farms that is 11@o greater
than the sum of all actual farm eX-
penses. For this area at least we
are forced to the conclusion that the
arbitrary percentages taken are too
| high for Vermont conditions, especial
| ly since interest is taken upon the
machinery and building investments
in addition to the other amounts TAX
/ en- for depreciation. To render the
/ figures in the labor incomes as figured
/ by Spillman's method more nearly
| like the actual conditions, 1870 should
/ be subtracted in place of the 1870
added
| Since the labor income derived by
/ this method cannot be an accurate
| figure for the actual cash received by
/ the farmer, it has been considered
/ best after careful study to allow it
to remain as an index of the relative,
if not of the exact amount of the
j farmers income. Using these fig
ures in this manner gives the follow
ing rank of the counties. 1t must be
distinctly understood that these sums,
even if they were accurate, represent
not the total cash the farmer receives
| but only that portion of the total
farm income that he receives as pay
for his labor, after interest upon his
investment has been subtracted.