396 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



on the total farm investment. The blank column headed "Your 

 Farm" may be used to compare the results from your own farm with 

 what other farmers did under the same general conditions. 



At the end of the year we hope to be able to provide you with 

 similar statements for 1916 for a greater number of farms than here 

 represented, and for various sections of the state. These figures will 

 have increasing value as they include more years, since they will tend 

 to overcome the seasonal variation of any one year. 



129. SOME TESTS OF FARM EFFICIENCY 1 



Number of crop acres per work horse 



Number of months of man labor, including operator's 



Number of man-labor years 1 



Number of crop acres per man 2 



Percentage of total investment in real estate 



Investment in buildings per crop acre 



Number of animal units 3 



Investment in barns per animal unit 



Number of productive man-work units 4 



Number of productive man-work units per man 



Man-labor cost per productive work unit 5 



Net receipts per animal unit 6 



Value of feed consumed per animal unit 7 



Milk receipts per cow 



1 Divide number of months of man -labor by 12. 



Divide number of crop acres by number of man-labor years. 



i In figuring the amount of live stock on the farm, it is necessary to have some basis for compar- 

 ing the different kinds of animals. One horse, cow, or steer is equivalent to one animal unit; two head 

 of young stock (of the above kinds) are counted as one animal unit; 7 sheep, 14 lambs, 5 hogs, 10 

 pigs, or 100 chickens are each counted as one animal unit. 



In order to compute the time required for different farm operations, a normal day's labor of 

 10 hours is considered a work unit. See Table I, p. 397. 



Find the cost of all farm labor, including value of operator's, and divide by the number of 

 man-work units. 



* Divide the net increase under live-stock summary by the number of animal units, not 

 including work horses. 



' Find the total at farm prices of the value of all crops fed, plus a charge for pasture, plus amount 

 of feed bought, and plus or minus the difference in the feed inventory, and divide by the number of 

 ' units. 



NOTE 



Efficiency of labor. There are but few standards of farm labor, few 

 measures of how much work a man should do in a day. Generally 

 the worker must be his own boss and must set his own pace. He 

 must also work under most adverse weather conditions at certain 

 times. It is perfectly evident that innumerable factors will influence 

 the time required for most operations. They cannot be standardized 

 as work is in a factory. Some men are naturally slow and take twice 

 as much time as others to do certain kinds of farm work. There has 



1 From Farmers' Bulletin 661, pp. 12, 13, 26. 



