68 



X. TI. Agr. ExPERnrEXT Statiox 



[Bull.'tin 260 



efficiency is indicative of the importance of this factor. Tliere is no 

 more significant criterion by which to judpe a man's success as a 

 farmer than to analyze his business organization from the standpoint 

 of labor efficiency. The large-sized business lends itself most easily to 

 plans for using labor economically. "NVitli every increase in man work 

 units per man, the table registers an appreciable and consistent pre- 

 requisite in the form of more cows and more Avork units per farm. 



Number of Cows Per Man 



A simpler method of checking efficiency would be to compare tiie 

 number of men with the number of cows to learn how many cows Avere 

 cared for per man. Table 59 bears evidence of the effectiveness of this 

 measure. The 60 farms on which the average number of cows cared for 

 per man was 15.4 got an average labor income of $832. The i)roduetion 

 of milk per cow was not appreciably more than for those in the second 

 group who average 5.7 cows per man, but the average labor income 

 was increased by more than four-fold. In so far as an average of only 

 59 per cent of the income on all these farms is from dairy products and 

 a small amount from net sales of cattle, this is not a thorough measure. 

 Some farmers were more efficient because, with few cows, they did 

 other things to effectively bring increased incomes ; others had in- 

 creased the production per cow. 



Table 59 — Relation of innnhcr of coirs per iikiii to labor iii<-omc. 



Milk Production and Cows Per Man 



The results of efficiency as measured by number of cows per man 

 may be shown better by first arranging the farms in groups according 

 to milk production per cow (Table 60). Even more cows per man may 

 not save the situation with poor-producing cows. "With medium or 

 good production per cow, the importance of this measure is emj^ha- 

 sized. "With poor production and poor efficiency, 43 operators lacked 

 $57 on the average of being able to cover all tlieir expenses and in- 

 terest from the ])roceeds of the business, but another 43 oi^erators, 

 with good production and good efficiency, obtained average labor in- 

 comes of $1,371. 



