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BUSINESS METHODS 179 



is not about generalities, but about actual facts concerning the 

 inquirer closely. The farmer sees at once that he stands to profit by 

 it, because it will bring him in dollars, besides teaching him a useful 

 lesson. And I think that I may venture to say that the work is not 

 really as laborious as at first blush it would appear to be, for in the 

 same district farming is usually very much of a piece. The rule which 

 applies to A. applies also to B., and A. and B. learn from one another. 

 There are numerous meetings, lectures and " institutes " — the last- 

 named often a matter of more than one day, affording opportunities 

 for, and, indeed, directly inviting, exchanges of information. The 

 official agricultural Press is in America very much more active than 

 is ours, and American farmers read. 



Under such treatment as has been described, so it will readily be 

 understood, farming stands a very good chance of being brought 

 under sound " business " conditions, and made a real " business " 

 of. The shackles of old habits and traditions drop off of them- 

 selves, and the farmer instinctively and naturally takes to operat- 

 ing his farm as the manufacturer does his factory or the merchant 

 his business, freed from prejudice or the slavery of routine, simply 

 with a view to making a profit out of it. His problem is not one of 

 improved book-keeping only, such as we at the moment appear 

 greatly bent upon — and which is, as likely as not, soon to become a 

 matter of mechanical routine without conveying to us any lesson 

 as to trustworthy reckoning, just as antiquated husbandry has 

 become. It is an object with life in it, with perfect freedom of 

 movement, because our man has become acquainted with the aids 

 and hindrances amid which he is called upon to steer his course 

 and can, therefore, use his powers unrestrainedly. Such " costing " 

 and " farm management demonstration " is, therefore, fully worth 

 its outlay. 



Now, what we are doing here in Great Britain is all of a different 

 order — undoubtedly useful in its own way, as a technological 

 inquiry, but for its practical results not to be placed on a par with 

 what has been just described. Certainly we study " costings " ; and 

 we do so with assiduous care and searching minuteness. However, 

 what the measure of our doing so suggests is, that an all-managing 

 Government desires to arrive, by a comparison of reports, at a mean 

 or average figure showing how much it costs to produce a quarter 

 of wheat— just as on the institution of its " Book Club " the Times 

 newspaper calculated on the ground of a careful inquiry what 

 might be accepted as the normal price for bringing out a book of 

 so many pages — with a view, apparently, of completing its regula- 



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