INTERPRETATION OF COST ACCOUNTS 375 



tain times during the summer months. Just what the na- 

 ture of the work shall be is to be decided by the farmer 

 himself. It might mean the addition of some new produc- 

 tive element. 



The figures under discussion in Illustration 71 are taken 

 from four farms in Missouri engaged in diversified farming 

 with dairying on a small scale. The total area of the four 

 farms is 723 acres, or an average of 180% acres per farm. 

 There were 23 work animals on the four farms at the time 

 of the investigation. This indicates that there was one 

 work animal to about every 31.4 acres of land. 



It should be noted in connection with the monthly distri- 

 bution of labor figures presented above that the total hours 

 for man and horse represent the time spent on the farm 

 in some recognized active capacity. They do not represent 

 the average hours that might have been worked if everyone 

 had worked full time every day. Likewise, the per cent 

 of time given to crops means the per cent of the total time 

 worked that was devoted to crops. For example, the table 

 total shows that in March the average man worked 260.9 

 hours, 31.2% of which was spent in connection with crops. 

 If the average man works ten hours a day on week days, 

 and, say, four hours on Sundays, the total time for work in 

 March would be about 280 hours, counting 26 week days 

 and 5 Sundays. This would result in a figure showing that 

 29% of the total time for which the workman was paid was 

 spent on crops. 



Another point for the farmer to observe in studying such 

 a Distribution of Labor, is that the horses are used much 

 less efficiently than the men. Considering the total hours 

 shown in Illustration 71, it appears that the average man 

 worked 3271.3 hours during the year and the average horse 

 worked 1216.6 hours. If we consider 300 working days to 

 the year, these totals indicate that man worked 10.9 hours 

 and horse 4 hours a day on the average. If we consider 



