SUCCESSFUL FARMING 441 



to go from place to place about the village or city to make deliv- 

 eries to customers. A more recent method of retailing is to ship 

 the products by parcels post direct to the consumer. Any or all 

 of these methods of marketing the various farm products may be 

 tried and the best one finally adopted as the method to be followed. 



Cooperation in Marketing. Among the best examples of 

 marketing are those conducted by cooperative associations run- 

 ning butter factories, cheese factories, fruit packing establish- 

 ments, grain selling, and others. The methods used are entirely 

 legitimate, and usually bring better returns to the producer. The 

 market is not so badly glutted with worthless products if the pack- 

 ing and marketing are done under the rules of a cooperative asso- 

 ciation. Bad butter, bad cheese, poor fruit and other products 

 are eliminated. These are simply not produced at all by the mem- 

 bers of the cooperative association. One of the chief benefits result- 

 ing from such cooperation is that it teaches the members to produce 

 articles which the market demands. For example, fruit is thinned 

 to make it larger, and it is sprayed to keep it from being damaged 

 by insects and diseases. Selling by cooperative societies usually 

 allows the use of wholesale methods, such as shipping in carload 

 lots, and the holding of products in cold storage for better prices. 



Cost of Crop Production. Much study has been given in efforts 

 to devise the best method of keeping accounts of the cost of pro- 

 duction of crops. In contrast with these efforts, we find thousands 

 of farmers who do not keep any record of production. A simple 

 method of cost-accounting should be devised and intelligently 

 followed by every farmer. Ordinary bookkeeping will not fit 

 the conditions on a farm. Special accounts must be kept with 

 each crop, and a simple method of charging up the man labor, 

 horse labor, machine depreciation and maintenance, fertilizer, 

 seed and other items must be used. A simple method of keeping 

 records is described in Productive Farming (which see). 



Successful Farming. Whether farming operations are suc- 

 cessful or not will depend to a very great extent upon the losses 

 sustained in the operations. Losses are common along the fol- 

 lowing lines: (a) Climate and weather conditions, which are 

 largely beyond the control of the farmer, (b) Bad management 

 of the manure, (c) Erosion due to bad management, (d) Un- 

 profitable use of the time of hired hands, (e) Loss from sickness 

 and death of work horses or other animals, (f) Failure to spray 

 or otherwise combat insects and plant diseases, (g) Bad manage- 



