14 BULLETIN 757, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
costs of labor to be $2.50 per day for man and $1 per day for horse, 
which were approximately prevailing costs at that time (1913), the 
cost of stacking with the smaller crew was $7 per day or $0.65 per acre. 
With the larger crew the cost was $11.50 per day or $0.805 per acre. 
With an average yield of 12 bushels of wheat per acre the saving 
by thrashing from the stack (from Table II) amounts to but $0.52 
per acre. However, several factors taken together have an important 
bearing in this connection. If grain is stacked as soon as cured sufii- 
ciently, there is very little loss in quality of grain, except in rare 
instances. Scarcely any loss of grain from shelling occurs when 
thrashing is done from the stack, while considerable losses occur when 
the dry, ripe grain is taken from shock to machine. Also, the reduc- 
tion in the size of the thrashing crew, made possible by having the 
grain stacked, is very important, especially during any shortage of 
labor. While a slightly larger total amount of labor is required 
when the grain is stacked, the distribution of the work over a much 
longer period is an advantage. 
The average crew usually thrashes from 1,800 to 2,000 bushels of 
wheat, about 2,500 bushels of barley, and approximately 3,500 bushels 
of oats in a full day. 
FARM UP-KEEP. 
Of the total amount of man Jabor required on the farm, 40 opera- 
tors estimated that on the average 16.2 per cent was required for 
overhead work not chargeable directly to any productive enterprise. 
This overhead labor is utilized in general repair of buildings, fences: 
and ditches, repair of machinery, care of work stock, ete. 
The amount of horse labor required in the overhead work is esti- 
mated to be about one-quarter as much as man labor. 
MANAGEMENT OF FARMS. 
The management of North Dakota farms is somewhat more costly 
than that of farms in some other sections. In determining this cost 
the value of the operator’s time was assumed to be the value of his 
actual manual labor at current wages plus the estimated value of his 
management. The average farm operator puts in the equivalent of 
about eight months of actual work, averaging 21 days per month. 
This allows him credit for caring for productive stock in winter at 
the rate of about 30 hours per animal unit per year. 
The average estimated value of management for 40 farms is $549. 
This amount is prorated to the productive enterprises in proportion 
to the number of days of work required on each. The total amount 
of man labor on crops and productive stock, together with outside 
labor, such as thrashing and hauling outside of the cperator’s own 
farm, is 505 days per year, so that the management charge is $1.09 
per day of productive work on the average farm of 640 acres. 
