PART V. FARM ECONOMICS 



CHAPTER XXX 

 FARM AND HOME MANAGEMENT 



FARMING, like banking or running a railroad, requires 

 good business management. Not only hard work, but 

 careful planning is necessary to success. Brains are com- 

 ing to be quite as essential on a modern farm as muscle. 



1. Planning the Farm and Its Work 



In Europe, land is high and labor cheap; in the United 

 States, land is comparatively cheap and labor expensive. 

 The first principle for the American farmer therefore is 

 so to select his farm and organize its enterprises as to make 

 the best possible use of the labor available upon it. This is 

 to say that the farm enterprise should be so diversified as to 

 give the largest possible number of working days during the 

 year to the family, hired help, teams and machinery. Idle- 

 ness soon eats up the profits of labor, whether it be that of 

 man, beast or machine. 



Selecting and planning the farm. The farm should 

 be carefully selected with reference (1) to its soil; (2) its 

 adaptability to the enterprises to be entered into, such as 

 stock raising or cropping; (3) its nearness to markets, 

 school, church and neighbors ; (4) the length of season and 



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