418 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



parison is between corn and tobacco, simply charge each of 

 these crops for all it gets in the way of labor and supplies just 

 as one keeps an account with a neighbor with whom labor is 

 exchanged, from whom seed oats are borrowed, and to whom 

 some calves were sold on account. Accounts of this kind are 

 invaluable because they show which of two more or less profit- 

 able crops will add the greater amount to the total profits of the 

 farm. It should be kept in mind that in agriculture the purpose 

 of cost accounts is not to find out the specific cost of the different 

 products but to ascertain the relative profitableness of the 

 different types of farming and of the different competing ele- 

 ments in each type of farming. Not cost but relative profitable- 

 ness is the basis of answering all the economic questions in farm 

 management. 



Livestock records and accounts. Every farm record should 

 form the basis of answering an important question. On the 

 dairy farm the production record is of first importance. Where 

 the corn, the oats, and the hay grown on the farm are used in the 

 dairy and marketed in the form of milk it is a matter of some 

 consequence to know what each cow in the herd is paying for her 

 feed. This requires feed records, milk records, and labor 

 records. 



Feed records may be kept in a simple manner. For example, 

 the farmer has decided that a twelve hundred pound cow should 

 be fed thirty-five pounds of ensilage per day, twelve pounds of 

 hay per day, and a pound of ground oats (or some other grain 

 equivalent) for every four pounds of milk produced. In order 

 to feed intelligently the herdsman must have definite figures in 

 mind for each cow as he passes down the alley with his feed cart. 

 If the cow is cleaning up what she is receiving these figures will 

 not usually be changed oftener than every two weeks and then 

 the change is in the grain only. It is a simple matter, therefore, 

 to list the cows and the amounts fed each on the first of the 

 month and make no further entries until a change is made in 

 the ration of one of the cows, which is then entered with the 

 date. This gives a satisfactory record of what each cow has 

 consumed. 



