RECORDS AND ACCOUNTS 377 



a ten-year-old boy can hardly stand a labor charge of ten cents an 

 hour. Neither can the colt that the boy raises be so charged for time, 

 nor for what feed it picks up at the straw stack, at the town price of 

 straw less the cost of baling and hauling. Caution as well as zeal 

 should go into the making of cost accounts. 



Probably the greatest source of error and confusion in our farm 

 accounts is to be found in the fact that the farm business and the farm 

 home are not separate. This results frequently in the burdening of 

 the former with expenses which properly belong with the latter. 

 There is the residence, which is often used for storage of the products, 

 quarters for the hired help, and even as a workshop where butter is 

 manufactured, chickens are hatched, seeds tested, and so forth. On 

 or two driving-horses are kept largely for family use, but they are also 

 used to go to town on errands and for light work in the fields. Any- 

 one can add to this list of overlapping uses, but the point is that when 

 the year is done and the profits and expenses are checked up on the 

 books, it should not be forgotten that the farm family has already 

 consumed a large amount of what the farm has produced during the 

 year. It is no easy matter to charge this all on the books. How 

 much, for instance, shall the family pay for its drive to church in the 

 carriage which is exclusively a pleasure vehicle, and behind the team 

 which is used steadily for work purposes ? No doubt such difficulties 

 can be worked out in any individual case by common-sense rules 

 which are not too complicated to apply. But also, no doubt, many 

 of the figures which have been given to the public in the past con- 

 cerning farmers' incomes and costs of production have failed to make 

 just such allowances. 



A. Production Records 



121. INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE OF DAIRY COWS 1 

 BY CLARENCE B. LANE 



The condition of the farm industry as seen on the average farm 

 points to the need of better business methods and more definite 

 knowledge of the sources of profit or loss. In no department con- 

 nected with the farm is there more need for absolute data than in the 



1 Adapted from Bulletin 75, Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, pp. 9-14, 45, 49- 



