466 Effective Farming 



plex entries that are out of place in such a system of farm 

 accounts. 



Farmers' Bulletin 782, The Use of a Diary for Farm Ac- 

 counts, can be utilized in making a simple set of books. This 

 method has proved satisfactory to many farmers. Farmers' 

 Bulletin 511, Farm Bookkeeping, is another excellent publication 

 that is of value in working up a set of farm accounts. 



242. Farm records. Differing somewhat from farm ac- 

 counts, farm records include such items as the yearly records 

 of production of the dairy herd, breeding records of all classes 

 of live-stock, feeding records, lists of feeds and other supplies, 

 weather records, seeding dates, and reports of the last killing 

 frosts in spring and first killing frost in the fall. The keeping 

 of such records requires but little time and this time is well 

 spent. 



243. The marketing of farm products. A detail of farm 

 management that should receive more attention from the 

 average American farmer is the marketing of his products. 

 As a rule farmers in this country have produced their products 

 better than they have sold them. Selling goods of any kind 

 requires business ability. Much has been said about the 

 proper grading and packing of produce, but one has only to 

 visit almost any market where produce is sold to find unsorted 

 and unattractive potatoes and apples side by side with those 

 packed and sorted properly. This means that all farmers 

 have not learned that it pays to put up these products correctly. 



Another detail that must be considered in marketing is whether 

 or not crops that shrink in storage, like corn and potatoes, 

 would better be sold in the fall or spring. The Iowa Station 

 found in tests that ran for eight years that the shrinkage on 

 corn was : Dec. 1, 5.2 per cent ; Jan. 1, 6.9 per cent ; Feb. 1, 7.5 

 per cent ; March 1, 7.8 per cent ; April 1, 9.7 per cent ; May 1, 

 12.8 per cent; June 1, 14.7 per cent; July 1, 16.3 per cent; 

 August 1, 17.3 per cent; September 1, 17.8 per cent; October 

 1, 18.2 per cent. 



