262 FARM ACCOUNTING 



represent the use of the landlord 's equipment. This makes 

 it -possible to have about the same amount of equipment 

 expense to charge to the various fields as when the tenant 

 owns all of the equipment. As a result, the cost of pro- 

 ducing crops on a share rent farm can be compared on a 

 common detailed basis with the cost on a cash rent farm 

 or on one operated by the landlord. 



Equipment Expense. It has been fairly established by 

 experiment that the use of a machine on a field or other 

 farm element is nearly in proportion to the number of 

 horse hours spent on that field or farm operation. l For 

 example, if the horse labor record shows that horses worked 

 10,000 hours during a given year, and that 1000 of tlmso 

 hours were charged to Field No. 1, thru Field No. 1 should 

 bear 1/10 (1,000 -r- 10,000) of the wear on that cla- 

 equipment drawn by horses. This rule results in a very 

 fair distribution of machine charges over the different 

 farm elements 



An account is kept with Equipment Expense. To this 

 is charged all repairs, depreciation, interest on investment 

 and other expenses in connection with upkeep of farm 

 equipment. At the close of the year the debit balance of 

 the account is ascertained preparatory to distributinr it 

 over the farm elements. For effecting such distribution, 

 the total horse hours worked by the proprietor's horses, 

 as per horse labor summary for the year, is divided into 

 the balance of the Equipment Expense account. This 

 gives the machine cost per hour to be charged over the 

 various accounts shown on the horse labor summary. This 

 cost per hour is multiplied by the number of hours charged 

 against each account. It assumes that for every hour a 

 horse works on some farm element some equipment is used 

 also. 



*By permission of Mr. P. A. Pearson, Dairy Husbandry Dept, 

 University of Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station. 



