AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY 



1505 



FARM ENGINEERING. 



mo- Machinery Cost of Farm Operations in Western New York. — Mo wry, h. ir. in 



Bulletin No. 338. United States Department of A riculture. M'ashington. D. C, Uinuary 

 iS, 1916. 



The aim of the writer (Assistant Agriculturist, Office of Farm Mana- 

 gementj is to determine what is, under normal conditions, the average ser- 

 vice given by agricultural implements generally in use in seven different 

 counties in New York State : Niagara, Orleans, ]\Ionroe, Wayne, Genesee 

 Livingston and Ontario. In response to an -enquiry addressed to several 

 thousands of farmers, reports were received on some thousands of machines 

 of 19 different kinds : I 165 walking ploughs, 294 sulley ploiighs, I 169 

 spring-tooth harrows, 824 spike-tooth harrows, 738 disc harrows i 173 land 

 rollers, I 061 grain drills, 72 one-row corn planters, 97 two-row corn plan- 

 ters, I 114 one horse cultivators, 881 riding cultivators, 217 cabbage trans- 

 planters, 359 engine sprayers, i 232 mowers, i 217 hay rakes, -|i6 hay 

 tedders, 563 bean harvesters, i 028 grain binders, and 458 corn binders. 



Method of Computing Replacement Costs. — The replacement charge per 

 year, per acre, or per day is based on the proportional use and not on the sale 

 price of the machine at any time during its life. For the farmer who ex- 

 pects to remain in business for a pei^iod exceeding the life of the machine, this 

 is the logical method to use. 



The tables of which we give an extract, will be found viseful in esti- 

 mating the machinery cost of work and the fair charge against work already 

 done. They will also assist the man expecting to give up farming and sell 

 his m.achinery, or wishing to buy secondhand implements. Both buyer 

 and seller will then have a fair means of arriving at a fair value in their 

 transactions. 



Method of Computing the Interest Charge (i). -- Where a ])art of the 

 first cost of equipment is charged off annually to provide for its replacement, 

 the average investment upon which interest must be allowed is shown in 

 the table below : 



Method of Determining the Service of Farm Machinery. — The writer de- 

 scribes the method used to obtain his results : it is based on the average fi- 

 gures for each type of implement in New York State. 



The ser^'ice expressed in acres was obtained by multiplying the service 

 in years by the average work done annually. The work in days was found 



(i) The average investment in equipment, where a fraction of its first cost is cliargcd 

 off each year for replacement, may be found by the rule : 



Average investment = first cost X 



years of service -\- i 

 years of service X - 



By multiplying the average investment by the prevailing rate of interest in the locality 

 when- the eciuipment is located the annual interest charge against the e(|uipnient is lound. 



AGRICULTURAL 

 MACHINERY 



AND 

 IMPLEMENT? 



