EXPERIMENT STATION REPORTS. 



219 



press. This is the recognized policy of the older departments 

 of the College aud it is tJie polic}' entered upon hy the Depart- 

 ment of Farm Management when organized a little over a year 

 ago. In the pursuance of this policy the Department set out 

 to collect data : 



1. Upon the relative prolitableuesis of the various types of 

 fai*ming in Michigan. 



2. Upon the relative profitableness of the various combina- 

 tians of crops and live stock within each type. 



3. Upon investment units and the relative returns from in- 

 vestment units and the order of investment as the man- 

 ager progresses in a financial way. 



As the department was new and practically no data was at hand a 

 large experiment station force was necessary, and such a force was most 

 generously provided by the Board of Agriculture. Two accounting routes 

 were taken over from the Dairy Department and two other routes were 

 established. These routes as operated during the year were as follows: 



The dairy route in Wayne county was discontinued at the end of the 

 accounting jeav (April 30, 1922j and a new route started o-n April 1, 1922 

 in the dairy and fruit section of Oceana county, mth Mr. D. T. Musselman 

 in charge. 



On these routes each farmer is visited once a month, the route man 

 arriving in the early afternoon and staying on the farm until the middle 

 of the next day. At chore time, feed and milk are w^eighed and the 

 farmer is timed as he proceeds with the chores to determine the amount 

 of time consumed in caring for each kind of live stock. During the day 

 the financial records for the month are checked and posted. Inventories 

 are also taken at the beginning and at the end of the year. 



To make the taking of data most effective, monthly conferences of 

 route men were held at tlie College. At these conferences the problems 

 of the farm manager were discussed to the end that the data secured would 

 be in a form directly usable by farmers and aLso for classroom teaching. 



In making these studies the work has been carried on under the follow- 

 ing projects. 



A study of Farm Management, Farm Accounting and Farm Practices 

 on dairy farms in Waj-oie and Monroe counties in co-operation with 

 Dairy Department. 



