Farm Management 465 



TABLE XVIII 

 SIZE OF FARM AND EFFICIENCY OF HORSE LABOR 



ACRES IN FARM ACRES PER HORSE 



30 or less 15 



31-60 21 



61-100 30 



101-150 37 



151-200 41 



over 200 49 



240. Planning a cropping system. An individual problem 

 for each farm is the planning of the cropping system. It in- 

 volves a knowledge of the crops that are grown in the region, 

 which ones do best in the different rotations, the money returns 

 that may be expected from each, the effects of the different 

 crops on the soil, and other similar factors. 



241. Farm accounts. In conducting a farm business, it 

 is necessary to know whether or not the business is profitable, 

 how much is made or lost annually on each crop or class of 

 live-stock, and how to improve the methods so as to make 

 more money. These facts a farmer can know only by keeping 

 a set of books. The keeping of farm accounts is not as difficult 

 as it may seem, nor does it necessarily involve an outlay of 

 much time. One of the best and simplest systems of farm 

 accounts has been developed by G. F. Warren, the principles 

 of which are published in his book, Farm Management. Also, 

 in Farmers' Bulletin 572 C. E. Ladd describes this system after 

 having given it a thorough trial for three years with a number 

 of farmers working under his supervision. 



The time to keep a set of books by this system averages 

 about five minutes daily and a number of hours at the end of 

 the year to close the set of books. No bookkeeping knowl- 

 edge is necessary to take care of a set of books by this 

 method. In fact Ladd found that in some instances a knowl- 

 edge of bookkeeping proved to be detrimental, since trained 

 bookkeepers have a tendency to insert technicalities and com- 

 2n 



