240 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



making on the farm has become a lost art. They may care for the 

 poultry and the bees, do housework and gather vegetables for the 

 table, and cook and keep the dwelling in order. Their domestic 

 work is substantially the limit of their work on the farm. 



C. The Question of Efficiency 



68. WHAT THE FARMER NEEDS TO KNOW 1 

 BY G. F. WARREN 



Some persons, who may succeed well in the very specialized call- 

 ings in the town or city, may not be qualified for farming, for farming 

 calls for such versatile ability. The farmer is a combination of busi- 

 ness man, mechanic, naturalist, and laborer. 



In the days of our fathers the measure of the farmer's success was 

 his ability to raise his own food and clothing rather than his ability 

 to organize his business and buy and sell. But today the farmer no 

 longer supplies his own needs. He sells most of his products and 

 buys most of his necessities. Not only must he have money to buy 

 the innumerable necessary things for his living and equipment, but 

 land, which was once to be had for the asking, is now dear. All these 

 changes mean that the farmer has become a business man. The kind 

 of business ability needed is not so much that of the trader as of the 

 executive who can organize a farm into a successful business enter- 

 prise. The idle horse in the barn is a more frequent source of loss 

 than is the bad bargain in buying a horse. . More farmers fail because 

 of poor farm management than because of poor production. 



Mechanical ability has always been desirable for a farmer, but in 

 the last twenty years the great increase in the number of complicated 

 machines has made this ability .of much more importance than 

 formerly. Grain and corn binders, manure spreaders, potato diggers, 

 gasoline engines, and all the other new and expensive machines call 

 for mechanical ability if they are to be used efficiently. There is 

 something to farming besides taking a pleasure drive with a team of 

 fine horses on one of these machines. A little carelessness or inexpe- 

 rience may cause a loss of more than a month's wages. Occasionally 

 a farmer can depend upon hired men for his mechanical ability, but 

 usually he must not only be the mechanic, but must instruct the men 



1 Adapted from Farm Management, pp. 1-5. (Copyright by the Macmillan 

 Co.) 



