| Show I I 0 THE AG CLUB LINK PAGE FOUR FARM ACCOUNTS ManBy E B Brossard Head of aFrm agement Department Utah Agricultural College and In Charge of the Farm Management Investigations of the Experiment Station (1) How many farmers know accurately their net financial worth or how their investment in farm property is distributed! (2) How many know even approximately how much they are progressing or falling behind each year? (3) How many farmers have the complete information as to the value of their respective farms and its accessories? (4) How many farmers have complete inventories of their assets and liabilities? (5) How many farmers are able to make out accurate financial statements of their farm business for the Federal Reserve Banks when they go there to borrow money? (6) How many farmers know the value of all property and have an itemized account on books of these values so that insurance claims may be readily adjusted in case of fires? (7) How many farmers know what their net incomes or net losses were for 1920? (8) How many farmers are able to make out accurately and without difficulty an Income Tax Statement for the Federal Government? (9) How many farmers are able to make a study of their 1920 farm accounts and reorganize their 1921 farm business on a more safe and profitable basis as a result of their past experiences as recorded and summarized? (10) How many farmers know what it cost them in 1920 to produce their respective farm products? It is sad but it is true that the answer to each of the ten questions is “Very few” These ten questions are on important farm problems and every farmer old or young who can fulfill the suggestions for success contained in them is far ahead in the solution of the problem of obtaining a happy and successful farm life The younger generation of farmers represented by the agricultural clubs of the United States must come to the rescue of agriculture and set the pace in farm business for 1921 by keeping the farm accounts Farm Inventories Farm inventories are simple yet valu- able records At the beginning of this new year 1921 an inventory of all farm property should be taken Of all business records it is safe to say that the annual inventory is the most important and indispensable if the business man wishes to know his financial standing If the farmer finds no time for further bookkeeping this one thing should he do: Take stock of his belongings at the end of every year The annual inventory should include all resources or assets and also all liabilities Resources or Assets All property owned comes under the Sr wwy" —ft mmnwu'mui head of resources or assets The resources may be divided into two subdivisions known as physical or tngible property and financial or intangible property The value of the physical property must be estimated and appraised the financial property has a face value which under any conditions ordinarily met with on the farms needs no apprisal Values to Use Use market values except for machinery and tools adding expense of getting to the farm all those things the farmer buys and subtracting the probable expense of marketing from the market value of all those things he has to sell Value machinery and tools at first cost and allow for annual depreciation Good judgment coupled with experience should enable a farmer t° come fairly close to the right figures “A middle course is the safest since the results of an appraisal either too high or far too low will be of little or no value False appraisal to make the figures show up well is labor thrown away since the one who indulges in this pastime is only fooling himself” Liabilities Liabilities inculde all bills and acAll items counts owed by the farm owed by the farm whether note or open “account should be listed giving the name of the person or the firm to whom money is owed when due for what the debt is owing and the amount Net Worth The net worth is found by subtracting from the sum of the resources the sum of the liabilities By this is meant the net value to the owner of the farm property after all debts are accounted for or in other words the net amount invested in the farm business at the inventory date The difference in the net worth January and the net 1921 shows the gain worth January or loss in net worth which is a fairly good measure of economic progress Slogan for 1921 The agricultural clubs of the state might very appropriately adopt the following as their slogan for the year 1921 —STICK TO THE FACTS— KNOW WHERE THE FARM BUSINESS STANDS And each club member might now resolve to keep farm accounts on the home farm or some other farm this 1920 1 1 year— 1921 THE TRACTOR AND THE H0R By II J Frederick Veterinarian l’tt ricultural Experiment Station It is not the intention of this ari work in opposition to mot6r tract tractors but to place the true the horse as a power unit for and working before the public l cede that the truck and tractorb have their field of usefulness they have a work they are fitted to very efficiently but some of the in favor of this kind if all kinds of work have been greatly aggerated The impression of the tractor will eliminate that the a large p on the far centage of the horses kept is not borne out by a study of the ject made by experts of the U S ment of Agriculture The results this investigation are published mers’ Bulletin No 1093 The covered a full year’s work on Depar in Fa inqui 191 far in seven states in the middlewest was found that while the use of thetrai tor brought about a reduction of in the number of horses b on the farms the remaining horses alio one-four- th toi tinued to perform tractive work In other words thetr tor may cause a slight reduction number of horses needed for farm but the horse stil remains indispensi: for most of the work The chief value of the tractor its ability to do heavy work plowing in hard soil and to cover desired acreage in a shorter time the same work can be done by horses The best results seem to comefromt combined use of both horse and tract each doing the work that it can best advantage and each supplement the other The tractor purchaser vised to keep enough horses to mon farm work cultivate crops and other necessary work which be done at the same time but would not be economical for the to do The types of farm tractors in use cannot be economically on farms of less than 220 cultivated beussd So remember the horse will three-fourt- of t hs in t wo especia! t!i do is a do cor et mu wh tract no emploj1 mo long as we live we should raise the right kind the kind the market draft horses are always inde®1 Under a system of farming v'he trac tation in farm crops is practised can compete with the horse asafl omic farm motor only a very li®1 gree The more diversified thecit greater the number of livestock fed on the farm The fewer tbe of idle days for horses when they their heads off” and the less pbc will be for auto motive power ini formance of farm labor Raise more good draft horses d'fl itedf! 3 6 ' vv aA A ‘ V “A Real 3 - ' 'v Beauty” ' V e |
