Engineering on the Farm 



PART I. INTRODUCTORY 



CHAPTER I 

 RECORDS AND REPORTS 



Necessity for clearness. All specialized work requires 

 the use of notebooks for recording original data and other 

 information, and the subsequent compilation of well- 

 arranged and tabulated reports. These are frequently 

 given too little attention by the employee recently out of 

 school, and probably more new men are criticized for failure 

 along this line than in any other. , 



There is a tendency to keep notes on scraps of paper 

 loosely carried in the pocket, or in an unarranged notebook 

 with other matters. Items are hurriedly written or incom- 

 pletely explained, and after a few weeks the collector of the 

 notes himself is not able to interpret his book with any 

 degree of certainty, and another person can make nothing of 

 it. Reports supposed to give a clear idea of a situation are 

 written up without attention to the logical order of the events 

 covered, details are omitted,- and the reader is left in the dark 

 as to the ideas which the writer intended to convey. 



The man engaged in the collection of information required 

 for future use should keep such a record that doubt cannot 

 exist in his own mind as to the interpretation, and a second 

 person can take the notebook and interpret the data cor- 

 rectly and rapidly after a short study. Reports should be 

 clear and concise, carrying to the reader the exact information 

 that has been developed by the field record. In other 

 words, the assistant, by means of his notebook and report, 



