43 8 FUNDAMENTALS OF AGRICULTURE. 



and the check-book are the only records necessary for 

 this purpose so far as business transactions are con- 

 cerned. 



Cost of Each Crop. To find where gains and losses 

 occur it is necessary to know the cost of each crop. 

 The labor cost is most difficult to obtain unless a time 

 record is kept. This is a simple thing to do, and should 

 show the amount of manual and team labor expended 

 on each crop and each line of work. The printed time- 

 books which contractors use serve the purpose well. 

 By the aid of this and by adding the cost of seed, fer- 

 tilizer, rent of land, etc., the cost of a crop is readily 

 determined. Then by knowing its yield and value it is 

 easy to see the profit or loss. Feeding records, milk 

 weights and butter fat tests are also necessary in live- 

 stock and dairy lines. 



A careful study of such business phases of the enter- 

 prise will do much to put the farm on a paying basis. 



EXERCISE. Make a list of farms following the four types of farm- 

 ing and tell why the different types are followed on these farms. 

 State what crops are raised, live-stock and equipment on hand, build- 

 ings, and the number of hands employed. On how many of these 

 farms are the hands and horses always employed? What is the 

 average price paid to farm hands? How many hours constitute a 

 working day? Are records and accounts kept on any of these 

 farms? Do the dairy farms weigh their milk and test it for butter 

 fat? Write your ideas on how you would improve conditions on 

 some of these farms. 



SECTION LXXV. FARM MACHINERY. 



By PROF. L. W. CHASE, 

 Department of Farm Mechanics, University of Nebraska. 



i. Tillage Machinery. The action of the atmos- 

 pheric forces and the weight of the soil itself, together 

 with the trampling of beasts and human beings, causes 

 it to settle and become hard and compact. The hard- 

 est soil is that which has stood for ages undisturbed by 

 either man or nature. The earliest farmers learned 

 that to procure good crops the soil must be loosened or 



