60 A STUDY OF FARM EQUIPMENT IN OHIO. 



by the appearance of curves plotted to show the frequency of different 

 acre costs for all the machines. Extremely high costs on a few farms 

 were sufficient to raise the averages considerably^ above the cost occur- 

 ring most frequently. The curve of planter costs showed two dis- 

 tinct groups, with the average midway between. It is evident that 

 machinery costs should be studied for different acreages, especially 

 since the annual cost of the same machme on different farms varies 

 much less widely than the acre costs. 



Only 9 out of 130 walking plows cost over 20 cents per acre, and 

 these were excluded from the average. The question of plow costs 

 in the hill section was raised. Twenty plows in this section showed 

 an average of 6.1 cents per acre and a mean of mdividual costs of 

 7.2 cents. The first value was $13.20; second value, $6.80; average 

 investment, $10.40; years used, 9.15; annual depreciation, 71 cents; 

 percentage of depreciation, 5.3; acres per year, 26.3. The approxi- 

 mate uniformity of these figures with the average for the whole num- 

 ber was surprising, especially in view of the low percentage of crop 

 area on many farms in this section. 



The cost shown for cultivators, harrows, rollers, plankers, and 

 weeders is on the basis of 1 acre covered once, or the "acre-time." 

 Since m the tillage of an acre of land the same implement may be used 

 a varymg number of times, the acre-time is considered a more logical 

 unit than the acre. One spring-tooth harrow covering a total of 

 250 acres per year at 0.7 cent per acre-time and one covering 10 acres 

 per year at 17 cents per acre-time are omitted from the average. The 

 roller operating at 0.4 cent per acre-tune was used 300 acre-times per 

 year. Excludmg this one, the cost per acre-time was 2.4 cents. 

 About four-fifths of the rollers cost between 0.5 and 5 cents per acre- 

 time. The wooden planker, drag, or float, as it is variously called, 

 is usually homemade, hence the low first cost. Many homemade 

 wooden rollers are also found. Weeders range rather uniformly from 

 2 to 12 cents per acre-time. One which covered the equivalent of 300 

 acre-times per year at a cost of 0.3 cent was omitted from the average. 



No records are at hand as to the acres covered by many of the ma- 

 nure spreaders, and of course the cost of fanning mills, wagons, corn 

 shredders, ensilage cutters, and corn shellers can not well be reduced 

 to an acre basis. Annual costs are given for all such. The mean acre 

 cost of 12 spreaders was 87 cents, and the mean cost (or macliinery 

 charge) per load for 12 otlier spreaders was 5.9 cents. It is interest- 

 ing to note that the average years m use for spreaders is much lower 

 than that of most machmes. The majority of spreaders in use are 

 probably innovations on the various farms; hence the cost data arc 

 more difficult to obtain than those for machines introduced earlier. 



212 



