FARM MANAGEMENT 405 



may be ascertained by adding the cost of feed, shoeing, and labor cost 

 of care, interest on the money invested and depreciation, dividing the 

 sum by the number of hours worked during the year by each horse. 

 It is easily possible to keep more horses than the labor of the farm 

 requires, resulting in an item of loss to the farm. With horse labor 

 also it is important that the farm operations be so arranged that a min- 

 imum amount of work will be uniformly in demand through the year. 

 Many farmers barely make farm wages for themselves after paying 

 interest on the capital invested. Whether wages for labor are high or 

 low makes little difference with the farm labor problem. Unless the 

 manager is able to use the labor employed to as good advantage as his 

 competitors, or even better, there will be but little profit in employ- 

 ing it. 



FARM PLANNING 



The cost of operating a farm can often be greatly 

 reduced by a careful arrangement of the fields and 

 farmstead. 



The farmstead being the center of activity should 

 be so located as to give easy and direct access to all of 

 the fields. It is a point of economy, though not often 

 practiced, to have each field border directly on the farm- 

 stead so that men and teams can begin work at once 

 upon leaving the barns instead of driving 80 to 160 

 rods before entering the field. The amount of travel 

 saved in this way is surprising to one who has not cal- 

 culated the difference. The arrangement of the fields 

 themselves as to shape and size is another feature 

 which bears directly on the convenience and economy 

 of operating the farm. A long and comparatively 

 narrow field is more easily worked than a square one 

 because less time is lost in turning corners. A square 

 field, however, requires less fencing than a long one. 

 These two opposing factors must, therefore, be adjusted 

 and the best plan decided upon. 



