﻿NORMAL DAY S WORK FOR VARIOUS FARM OPERATIONS. 5 



available in the respective operating seasons. The farmers reporting 

 used figures of their own choice in expressing their judgment, and the 

 percentages were computed separately from these and averaged. 

 The uniform increase in available working time from Indiana west- 

 ward is so in harmony with the weather conditions recorded by the 

 Weather Bureau that any deviation from the true seasonal factors 

 for these States must be common to all of the figures in the table. 

 While Table I is presented here only for purposes of illustration and 

 definition, it also suggests a rapid method for arriving at general 

 seasonal factors for farm work in any locality. 



daily operating factors. 



Methods of Investigation. 



Two methods have been followed in obtaining the data presented 

 in this bulletin. The first, which contemplated extreme accuracy 

 and a long period of study of the subject, was based on personal obser- 

 vations in the field by agents of the Department working in limited 

 areas having uniform conditions. These field observations extended 

 over periods varying in length from 30 minutes to one or more hours. 

 During part of each period the speed in motion was observed under 

 the watch, the length of the speed observation being more or less 

 according to the circumstances which determined convenient dis- 

 tances to be fixed as starting and stopping points. At the same time 

 the agent recorded the entire length of his observation in each case, 

 measured off the acres covered by the workman, and noted the work- 

 ing size of the implement, depth worked, width of rows, distance 

 between turns, kind and condition of soil, amount of power, size of 

 horses, bulk of product handled, and all other factors tending to affect 

 the amount of work performed, so that all data could be compared 

 and variations accounted for. While, in theory, the method of per- 

 sonal and detailed observations should give absolutely accurate and 

 dependable results, because no vital condition is overlooked and the 

 observations are personally and scientifically made, it was found that 

 the variation in observed speed in motion and in surveyed acres per 

 hour in the same area and under identical conditions was quite as 

 wide as the variation in the estimates for a fair day's work by practical 

 farmers reporting for every condition in the United States. It was 

 also apparent from experience with personal observations that these 

 should cover not less than a day and that a very great many of them 

 would be necessary before an average of value could be obtained. 

 The very great cost of the more exact method rendered it available 

 only as a means for furnishing limited data with which to check up 

 results secured by more general and inexpensive methods. 



Many of the activities of the Office of Farm Management are pred- 

 icated on prior experience, from which it has been found that facts 



