416 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Special attention has been given to the production of milk for the 

 citj r trade in connection with farm-management surveys during the 

 past year. Records have also been kept of costs on a number of dairy 

 farms. 



Studies have been continued on the cost of growing a dairy cow 

 to maturity. 



Apparently the hog, under suitable conditions, is the most profit- 

 able animal on the American farm. The conditions under which 

 swine husbandry should occupy a major position, as well as those 

 under which it should occupy a minor position in the enterprises of 

 the farm have received attention during the past year in connection 

 with our farm-management surveys. 



Poultry is perhaps more universally found as a productive enter- 

 prise on American farms than any other class of live stock. The 

 proper magnitude of the poultry enterprise on farms of different 

 size and type and in different regions has received particular atten- 

 tion in the surveys. It appears that within certain limits a flock of 

 farm poultry adds very materially, not only to the standard of liv- 

 ing on the farm, but to the profits made by the farmer. This seems 

 to be true even where the usual cost-accounting methods indicate 

 that the poultry are kept at a loss. Department Bulletin 341 gives 

 the most important results of this study thus far published. 



The price of feed for farm work horses has made a knowledge 

 of the cost of keeping farm horses of great importance. The sub- 

 ject has received considerable attention in the Office of Farm Man- 

 agement during the past year. Cost-accounting studies in three 

 districts in the States of New York, Illinois, and Ohio, begun some 

 years ago, are still in progress. These studies include data on the 

 amount, kind, and value of feed consumed, and other items affecting 

 the cost of maintaining horses. The cost of raising colts and the 

 relation of this enterprise to the cost of horse labor on the farm are 

 under investigation. 



CROP ECONOMICS. 



The economic studies on crops during the past year have been 

 confined largely to investigations on sugar beets, apples, potatoes, 

 hay, corn silage, cotton, and the farm wood lot. 



Sugar beets. — Within the past year about 350 cost- accounting 

 records have been procured on farms where the sugar beet is an 

 important crop. These studies have been carried on in the important 

 sugar-beet producing districts in the States of Michigan, Colorado, 

 and Utah. Other important districts will be studied in 1916. These 

 schedules have been summarized and the results are being compiled 

 for publication. Much valuable information has been secured show- 

 ing the place that sugar beets occupy in the farm business, time 

 required for the various operations needed in their production, the 

 cost of these operations, and the cost of the various expense items 

 necessary for the crop. These data will be useful in determining 

 the cost at which sugar beets can be produced economically on farms 

 in the various areas, as well as showing what part of the farm busi- 

 ness should be devoted to the production of this crop. 



Apples. — The work on the economics of apple production has 

 been continued during the past year with marked success. All the 



