EEAL COST OF OPEEATION 217 



depreciation, etc. So the farmer should, if he 

 would figure the true cost of operation. True this 

 will not avail him much if he cannot fix the price 

 of his products, but it will show him the real cost 

 of production, and may enable him to lop off the 

 unnecessary expenses, or the expense he might 

 get along without, or, at least, enable him to plan 

 to eliminate some of the expenses of production. 



The real cost of farm operations is taxes, in- 

 surance, interest, rental value of land, repairs to 

 buildings, fences and machinery, depreciation of 

 buildings, fences, horses, mules, machinery, ani- 

 mals kept for breeding purposes and for furnish- 

 ing food for his family, grain or other products 

 used for food, amount expended for fertilizers and 

 for seeds planted to produce crops for green ma- 

 nuring, expeditures for seeds and plants, plowing, 

 cultivating, and harvesting and hauling products 

 to market. 



In estimating cost of marketing products, the 

 actual time expended in the process of hauling 

 products to the market place should be estimated 

 as well as the time consumed in shipping to' market 

 and its incident expense, if the farmer or his help 

 accompanies the products to the final market place, 

 and the return to the farm home. From this it 

 will be seen that there are a great many items of 

 cost to be considered in making up the real items of 

 cost of farm operations, shipping and marketing 

 of farm products. So if the farmer has no voice 

 in fixing the market price of his products he can 

 reduce costs. But how? 



1st. In the matter of repairs to buildings, ma- 

 chinery, fences, etc., a few dollars spent at the 



