EIGHTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X. 663 



"The machinery necessary to operate the average farm successfully 

 costs about $1,516. A shed 70x30 feet would house every tool in the 

 above list. Building the shed without a floor, setting the posts in cement 

 blocks one foot square, and putting doors on both sides, would cost 

 $492.60, or, in round numbers, $500. 



"The question simply resolves itself into this query of farm economics: 

 Is it cheaper to have $1,516 worth of necessary machinery in a shed 

 worth $500 or leave it exposed to the deteriorating action of the weather? 

 We will assume that the shed will last fifty years, which is not unreason- 

 able, and will have to be painted five times during that period. We will 

 also allow $300 for new roofs and other repairs. Our expenses per year 

 would then be as follows: 



Interest on S500, at 5 per cent $25.00 



Depreciation of shed 10.00 



Painting 2.50 



Roofing and other repairs 6.00 



Total S43.50 



"For $43.50 per year $1,516 worth of machinery can be housed. If 

 these machines are left out of doors they will depreciate 10 per cent (and 

 that is putting it mildly) of their value per year, or $151.60. It is thus 

 readily seen that it is neater, cheaper, more convenient and more business- 

 like in every respect to build a machinery shed and then see that the 

 tools are put inside when not in use. Simply by having the shed to 

 house the machinery we are making a great saving, namely, the difference 

 between $151.60 and $43.50, or $108.10. A paying proposition, to say 

 the least." 



SCALES ON THE FARM. 



Breeders' Gazette. 



Guesswork has cost farmers a deal of money. Years ago it was a 

 pardonable business breach; it is not today. In the experimental stage 

 of farm scales, when these inventions were very costly and the necessity 

 of conducting farming operations on a strictly economic basis was little 

 appreciated, the sale of live stock and farm produce at guessed weights 

 was among the unavoidable evils. Experienced buyers with eyes trained 

 in the calculation of animal avoirdupois almost invariably had the better 

 of sellers. Usually the buyer greatly underestimated weights and the 

 seller went to a similar extreme in the other direction, with the result 

 that in effecting a compromise large advantages quite uniformly accrued 

 to the clever buyer. Many a farmer, for example, has sold hogs at 

 guessed weights and the next day been humiliated to learn that the buyer 

 sold them off the scales at advances ranging from 20 to 50 pounds per 

 head. It is singular that while farmers esteem themselves highly as 

 guessers of the weights of farm animals, and many times seem more 

 interested in their heft than in breed character or perfection of feeder 

 type, their cocksure estimates are often ridiculous when compared with 

 the readings of the scale beam. It is not within the ability of the eye 



