37fi FARM ACCOUNTING 



365 working days, man worked 9 hours and the horse 3.3 

 hours a day. Of course, this does not imply that horses 

 ought to work as many hours a day as a man does through- 

 out the year. 



Since the four farms in this survey under discussion 

 practiced diversified farming with dairying on a small 

 scale, the man labor was utilized more efficiently through- 

 out the year than it would be on a farm engaged primarily 

 in raising corn or wheat, without any dairying operations. 



It should be made a practice by each farmer keeping 

 labor and horse labor records, as described and illustrated 

 in Chapter VIII on Cost Accounting, to study them care- 

 fully at the close of each year. A careful study of totals 

 by months may lead the thoughtful farmer to find some 

 means of using men and horses in a profitable way, during 

 the times which are ordinarily dull. l 



Tests of Labor and Horse Labor Efficiency. The num- 

 ber of crop acres per work horse and the number of crop 

 acres per man are two figures that should be shown at the 

 bottom of a page used for recording the monthly distri- 

 bution of labor. They serve to indicate the efficiency with 

 which men and horses are used on a farm. 



From an investigation of 700 farms in Indiana, Illinois 

 and Iowa 2 it has been found that the crop acres per work 

 horse ranged from 9.4 acres on small farms to 32.2 acres 

 on farms averaging nearly 1000 acres. The exact figures 

 tabulated as a result of the investigation are given in Illus- 

 tration 72. Similarly it has been determined that 75 to 

 80 acres per man is a reasonable allowance. 



1 For other references on the utilization of labor, see Research Bul- 

 letin No. 16, Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station; Bulletin No. 

 125, University of Missouri College of Agriculture, "Cost of Pro<hic 

 tion on Missouri Farms," pages 310-315; also Bulletin No. 3 of 

 the U. S. Dept of Agriculture, "A Normal Day's Work for Various 

 Farm Operations." 



Bulletin of U. S. Dept of Agriculture, No. 41. 



