DETERMINATION OF METHOD 33 



stack by several tons. Probably dealers are more correct 

 in their estimates, as a rule, than farmers, having greater 

 opportunity for testing their judgements, but this is by the 

 way, and leaving the question of relative loss and gain 

 arising out of this slipshod method of marketing, the point 

 for the moment is that the acquisition of knowledge of 

 farming costs is impossible under it, and this alone should 

 be sufficient to condemn it. In connexion with the analysis 

 of the farm records used as examples in this volume, it has 

 been found impossible to produce any figures for the unit 

 weight of fat or of store cattle, of mangolds or of turnips, 

 and the farmer will continue to be at a serious disadvantage 

 in the control of his work until this disability is removed. 

 As regards meat, the organization of public slaughterhouses, 

 many of them owned and operated by farmers themselves 

 on co-operative principles, which has been developed during 

 the war in many places, should facilitate the preparation of 

 meat costs in the future. 



With the records of the distribution of capital, of the 

 expenditure of labour, of sales and purchases, and of the 

 weight of products realized, all noted in a form as complete 

 as may be, the work of analysis next calls for consideration. 

 The Time-sheet figures are transferred to a Labour Analysis- 

 sheet, a copy of which is printed here as Table VIII. It 

 consists of sets of columns, each set headed with the title 

 of an account or of a department of the farm. At the 

 beginning of each line is the name of the man whose time is 

 analysed on it, and then, by inspection of his work during 

 the week as recorded on his Time -sheet, an analysis is made, 

 and the work in the different departments is recorded in 

 hours in the case of day-work, and in money in the case of 

 piece-work. The record of hours of horse -work begun in 

 the Time-sheet is continued also in the Analysis -sheet, 

 a column headed ' Horses ' being attached to each set of 

 columns for the purpose. The man-hours and the horse- 

 hours in each department are cast up week by week, and 

 by dividing the total number of hours at the end of the year 

 into the total cost of labour and of horse-keep, the cost of 



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