622 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



This amount, if placed at interest at 6 per cent would yield annually 

 $1,351.80. Now how many farmers do you think make interest on their 

 money, after taking out pay for their work? 



The question is now, how can we apply business methods to the average 

 farm and increase its income. One of the first things to do, is to get the 

 fields and buildings so arranged that the least possible time will be spent 

 in going to the fields and in doing chores. A factory or store is never 

 so arranged that much time is spent by employes in going from one piece 

 of work to another, or in carrying on their work. I know of one farm 

 of eighty acres on which the owner travels three quarters of a mile in 

 going to one field of twelve acres During the season I estimated that he 

 would go to this field twice a day for twenty days, making a total distance 

 traveled of sixty miles. At a rate of three miles per hour he would 

 spend two days each year in going to and from work to this particular 

 field, while by a different arrangement of fields he could eliminate most 

 all of this travel. 



I was reading an article in a paper last week in which the writer stated 

 that some men did chores by the mile instead of by the hour. Now while 

 the arrangement of buildings for convenience seems a small trifle, it 

 sometimes makes enough difference that an extra man has to be kept 

 during the winter just to do chores. Of course we say the reason is that 

 we have so much stock to care for, while in reality an arrangement for 

 conveniences, such as piping water and storing feed where it is needed, 

 would make enough difference that one man could easily manage during 

 the winter months. 



Another thing which helps to run the farm on a business basis is the 

 farm scales. They are as important to the farmer as the stenographer is 

 to the broker. Most farmers use their scales only during corn husking 

 aad occasionally when selling something. They should be used regularly 

 when the farmer is feeding any type of live stock. He of course desires 

 to get the largest gains possible for the least feed consumed; so use the 

 scales. The gain per day is the best recommendation for a ration that 

 we can get. By the use of the scales, tankage for the hogs and cotton 

 seed meal for the fattening steers can be tried out. These supplementary 

 feeds to balance corn in a ration have paid for some people; why not for 

 all. It does not take any exceptional business ability to interpret from 

 daily gain and cost of grain whether the supplementary feeds are pay- 

 ing. 



When a business man's expense for advertising brings increased sales, 

 he does not hesitate to advertise, so why need a farmer hesitate to buy 

 supplementary feeds when they give larger and cheaper gains. 



Much is said at the present time about the high cost of living, espe- 

 cially with reference to the price of meat. By co-operation farmers can 

 have fresh meat during the summer months the same as in the winter. 

 It isn't necessary for a farmer to sell butcher stuff which will dress 

 out from 60-70 per cent to the local butcher for five cents a pound and 

 then buy it back at from twelve to eighteen cents. Not much business 

 to that, is there? By the farmers organizing beef clubs with a definite 

 number of members, and each member taking his turn to furnish the 



