XV 



BUSINESS METHODS IN" FARMING 



ONE of the most discouraging features of agricul- 

 ture, both from the side of the practical farmer 

 and from the point of view of the business man who 

 wishes to engage in farming, is the complicated system 

 of bookkeeping which every farm requires and which 

 practically no farmer ever uses. An apt illustration is 

 that of my own experience and that of my neighbors in 

 the growing of beef cattle. In the neighborhood where 

 my farm is located it is almost the universal custom of 

 every farmer to grow a few beef cattle for the market. 

 The region naturally comes to blue grass, which affords 

 an opportunity of preparing the cattle for market at a 

 minimum of actual expenditure for food. The farmer 

 in my neighborhood usually buys his cattle in the au- 

 tumn, gathered from the mountains of Southwestern 

 Virginia or Eastern Tennessee, or sent from Chicago. 

 These animals weigh from 600 to 900 pounds, and they 

 are expected to be ready for the market within about 

 ten months after their purchase in October or Novem- 

 ber of each year. These cattle are usually kept in the 

 open over the winter, and fed unshredded corn fodder 

 in the fields, together with a little Indian corn. They 

 gain nothing during the winter, usually lose in weight, 

 and are not particularly pleasing in their appearance 

 when they begin to shed their long hair after the rigors 

 of the season are over. 



Along about the middle of April the grass is suffi- 



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