Milford chronicle., 1921-02-18
FEED AND FREIGHT

A city resident who was visiting 6
farmer extensively engaged in pOul-
try raising expressed surprise at the
care with which the farmer weighed
certain kinds of feed he was about to
distribute for consumption by his
flocks. "I know just exactly how
much of this feed the hens can con-
sumo to advantage" said the farmer
"and the waste of an ounce of this
food per hen per day represents the
difference between profit and loss in
my business" An ounce of chicken
feed is a small quantity, and yet, if
it be a special kind of feed given for
a special purpose, the cost might cas-
lily be a determining factor in the re-
suits of a years business. Take your
pencil and multiply an ounce per day
by 365 and then multiply that by 5000,
the number of hens poultryman
might be expected to have, and you
will see that the farmer may have
been pretty near right.
If waste of an ounce per hen per
day represents the difference between
profit and loss, it is certain that Un-
Gle Sam could never make a success
of poultry raising. Your Uncle Sam
could never get his hired men to save
that ounce of food. It requires the in
centive of personal interest to induce
the manager of any concern to eX-
ercise the care and judgment neces-
sary to assure success. Therein lies
the key to the question of private, as
compared with government operation.
"Since their return to private op:
Grafton, the railroads of the country
have made some interesting and i'm
portant records. Among other things,
they have increased the average move
ment of freight cars from 22.3 miles
to 286 miles per day, an increase of
6.3 miles per day. Multiply that by
365, and you will get an impressive
mileage. In addition, the new manag-
ers have increased the average car
load from 28.3 tons to 80 tons, which
is small item in itself, unless you
the increase by the total
number of cars in daily use, which is
in the neighborhood of 2,250,000, af-
Ter making allowance for those in the
repair shops or otherwise out of COM
For the same reason that your I'm
,le Sam could never make a business
success of operating a poultry yard,
le cannot make a success of operat- !
ng railroads. He never would save
hat ounce of food per hen per day, |
lor would he get that additional load |
ng of IL tons per car or the increas-
ID travel of 6.3 miles per car per day, |
which increases, very likely, may rep
'esent the difference between profit
md loss.
Of course, all that increase is not
let gain. If car is hauled little
arther per day, it takes more coal to
laul it, but does not take more wages
or the employees, nor more interest
n the investment. If car is loaded
little heavier, it takes more coal to
aul it, but does not take any more of
he time of engineers, and tiremen,
nd brakemen and telegraph opera
Ors, and supervisory officials. There
) some net gain, and this will all
how up on the right side of the led
er when the annual statements of
perations are made.
We all like to smile at the idiosyn-
rasy of banker who saved all the
envelopes and had his mes {
enger boys put in their spare time
Dlitting the envelopes open so that t
le backs could be used for computa- t
on purposes by bank clerks, yet the l
pplication of that principle Of econ Y
my to all his affairs makes that t
anker a success while the wasteful G
,mpetitor, applying wasteful habits
larger things, winds up with re- L
eivership.