Nc. 6. ^ DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 7 



iind from work, convctuciict'S lor watciijij;, ree(liii<^ and slaMinj; of 

 animals will bo adoi»(o(l, and each farmei' will have to study his own 

 peculiar surroundings and conditions and arrange his crops, his 

 fields, his work, so as to do the greatest possible an)ount in the least 

 possible time, and with the least expenditure of effort. In other 

 words, the work will all have to be carefully planned in advance, and 

 arranged with special reference to reducing the cost. This may be 

 illustrated in the plowing of an acre of ground. The distance travel- 

 ed is according to the width of furrow slice taken; an eight inch 

 furrow will require twelve and one-third miles to j)low an acre; a nine 

 inch furrow, eleven miles; ten inch furrow nine and nine-tenths miles; 

 eleven inch furrow nine miles, and twelve inch furrow eight and one- 

 quarter miles. 



The time required for plowing an acre, going at the rate of one 

 and one-half miles an hour and cutting a nine inch furrow, will take 

 seven hours and twenty minutes; one and three-fourths mile an hour 

 will take six hours and thirtv minutes; two and three-fourths miles 

 per hour will take four hours, and three and one-half miles per hour 

 will take three hours and eight minutes. 



It has been shown by numerous experiments that it takes an 

 average of thirty seconds to make a quarter turn in plowing. If the 

 acre is one continuous furrow strip no time will be lost in turning. If 

 it be half as long, two minutes will be lost; if one-quarter, four 

 minutes; if one-eighth, eight minutes. 



If it be in the form of a square and the furrow slice is ten inches 

 wide, there will be 125.5 furrows, with four quarter turns for each 

 time around, consuming two minutes to the round in turning, which 

 represents a loss of four hours and eleven minutes in the plowing 

 of an acre in that form. 



These figures show the importance of close attention to what are 

 commonly called little things. Instances of similar character could 

 be multiplied, showing the losses that occur from inattention to the 

 details of farming, and which cost the farmer much additional labor 

 and expense. 



The man who drives his cattle one-fourth of a mile twice each day 

 to water has traveled, in forty years, 14,600 miles, and the man who 

 pumps water for his cattle ten minutes three times a day will, in forty 

 years, have lost two and one-half years of 300 days each out of his life. 



The solution of the labor problem, therefore, although not wholly, 

 is however to a far greater extent than is generally appreciated, in 

 the hands of the farmer himself. 



