THE TRACTOR AND FARMING COSTS.
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"The Value of the Management of a Farm is Highest when it Solves the Problem of How to Make Labour More Effective."
ABOOK entitled "Farming Costs" has recently been issued by The Clarendon Press, Oxford. The book is written by Mr. C. S. Orwin, Director of the Institute for Research in Agricultural Economies, Oxford. It is really a new edition of Mr. Orwin's book, "The Determination of Farming Costs," which was issued in 1917. Of course it deals with the whole field of farm costing, and with considerable force Mr. Orwin shows how and why it is necessary that a proper system of costing accounts should be introduced into the agricultural industry for every farm of any size.
The part of the book most interesting to us is that dealing with the farm tractor, which has done more, perhaps, in recent years to emphasize the need for some method of discovering what it costs to do a job on a farm and to produce a crop. The author points out that the advent of the farm tractor, and the rapid extension of its use, make it necessary to devise means for recording the nature of the various classes of work performed by it and the quantity and cost of fuel and lubricants consumed by it during its operation.
A record of everything must be kept, and it is necessary to distinguish on the recording form between the different operations, field work, threshing, chaffing, barn machinery work, and so on, as obviously the fuel consumed is by no means constant for all classes of work. A table is given as an example of a simple form enabling a record to be made of the information required. For the benefit of readers I have asked the Editor to reproduce the table. It is, as the writer says, ruled to provide for one week's work at sight, and is self-explanatory.
As with the men working with horses, so with the tractor driver, the time of the man must be entered on his time sheet against the work upon which the machine is engaged, and not against the tractor itself. This last sentence is very important, especially as many farmers are still biased on the side of horses, and very often charge up costs against the tractor which really belong to the field upon which it is working, or rather the crop grown on the field. The writer has a word for the tractor as enabling the farmer to speed up his work, which would have a considerable bearing upon the total farm costs during the year.
The maximum number of working days in a year is 312, a total obviously impossible of attainment in practice. Such records as are available show that the days actually worked by horses on the farm will not usually exceed four-fifths of the maxidium. More time may be lost in summer than in winter, a fact not generally realized, and the period of maximum unemployment falls between haymaking and harvest. The busy seasons are, of course, the autumn and spring, when the preparation of the ground for winter and spring corn is going actively forward. The fact that the busiest times of the year synchronize, more or less, with the seasons when the weather is more uncertain directs attention to the advantages which should accrue to farm management from the application of speedier mechanical power to field operations in substitution for the slower horse labour.
Mr. Orwin points out the need for more data as to the cost of the application of tractor power. It is a matter that calls urgently for investigation. This is a very. important point and one which should receive consideration not only from the farmer, but the tractor manufacturer and agent.
There are many things being said as to the cheapness or costliness of the tractor, but nobody is able to provide really reliable information in substantiation of statements, or to provide data from which to work out the information. A section of the book is devoted to a discussion of tractor costs, and it will be as well to follow it fairly closely until the end.
The value of the management of a farm is highest when it solves the problem of how to make labour more effective. "The value of the output from the farm per man employed is not the only measure by which to gauge the efficiency of the management, but it is certainly one of primary importance. A man with a spade can dig an acre of land in about • two weeks at a cost to-day (1920) of about gl 10s., a horseman and a pair of horses can plough an acre in about a day and half at a cost of about 21 15s., a farm mechanic on a tractor can break up an acre in about a quarter of a day, and although, in the absence of sufficient data, the comparison cannot yet be completed by reference to the cost of motor ploughing, it is fairly safe to suggest that when all the factors are considered—speed, less dependence upon atmospheric and soil conditions, as well as actual cost—there will be a still further advantage to be derived by investing the manual worker with the control of mechanical power."
The following is valuable as giving the " cost of a variety of farm operations performed in 1919-20 by a Titan tractor bought in 1919 at a cost of 2410. Petrol is used to start it, but as soon as the engine is warm it runs on ordinary paraffin. Records have been kept of the number of days worked, of the labour employed, and Qf the petrol, paraffin, and lubricant consumed at each class of work. The costs have been analysed under the headings of Driver,' Petrol," Paraffin," Lubricant," Repairs,' etc., and 'Depreciation.' The driver received a weekly wage at about current rates for wages and overtime, being under contract to occupy himself on any farm work at such times as the tractor was not in use,;and an additional sum by way of bonus on work done when engaged with the tractor. The bonus was at the rate of is. per acre for ploughing, 4d. per acre for cultivating (any kind), and 3d. per acre for harrowing or rolling. The fuel consumption was recorded from day to day by means of the Tractor Recordsheet already described, and lubricant—a very heavy item—was recorded in the same way. The item Repairs, etc.,' covers actual repairs and.replacements to the tractor and driver's time on same, and on cleaning and casual adjustments, together with the comparatively trifling outlay on grease, licence, insurance, and the depreciation on the paraffin cistern (calculated at 10 per cent. of its cost). The total cost under this head has been distributed over the various operations performed by the machine on the basis of fuel consumption, the assumption made being that there must be some fairly close relation between the cost of the fuel required for any piece of work and the destructive effect. Repairs and replacements to tractor implements, etc., have been eliminated from the general repairs account, and have been taken direct to the particular operation concerned, its addition to the apportionment of the general items. • Thus the charge of 217 6s. 9d. against 'Ploughing' includes the share of the general repairs apportioned on a paraffin basis plus the cost of repairs and replacements to the tractor plough; the items £1 7s. 10d., 16s, 7d., and 22 Os. 1.0d, charged for repairs against the operations of chaff-cutting,' 'grinding' and
sawing ' respectively include an apportionment on belting, and so on for the remainder of the yarious operations.
The 'Depreciation ' on the machine is calculated on a life of five years, that is 282 per annum in this case. There are obvious objections to this basis, for depreciation should depend on the amount of work done rather than on the passage of time, but the work done varies so much in its destructive effect, as, for example, in the case of road haulage on the one hand, and chaff-catting on the other, that no satisfactory method of distribution along this line alone suggests itself. Moreover, in an industry so much in its infancy as the manufacture of agricultural motors, the element of time cannot altogether he ignored, for it is probable that the patterns of machines now in use will have been superseded entirely during the next few years. In distributing depreciation over the various operations performed the same assumption has been made as in the case of repairs, namely, that the wear and tear should be roughly proportionate to the fuel consumption, and thus the paraffin used has been made the basis of the apportionment." Mr. Orwin warns us that it is not possible to draw any useful conclusions as to the economy of tractor labour from experience on one farm or from one set of figures. The economic employment of the machine must depend very largely upon ability to keep it in regular use, for whilst labour, fuel, lubricant, and repairs, will vary directly with the number of days worked, tlae item of depreciation, which forms the second highest element of cost, accounting as it does for more than one-fifth of the total, will vary more or less exactly in an inverse ratio.
It is commonly remarked that, in comparison with horses, a tractor costs nothing when it is not at work, but this hardly states the true facts, and it is obvious that tractor labour cannot stand more than a certain percentage of idle days without an excessive inflation of its cost, although when the advantages of ability to carry out work at speed are taken • i into account it s equally clear, that maximum employment is not the only factor to be considered. The tractor taken, for purposes of the illustration given will plough four acres per diem, and will harrow or roll 30 acres per diem when running without stoppage. It• worked for 193 full days in the year ; the farm extended to 405 acres, ef which 125 acres were arable land ; one of-the questions still to be settled is the minimum limit of area on which the tractor can profitably be employed. Those interested in farm castings, whether on the machinery side or relating to any branch, would do well to obtain a copy of this book. AGRI:V[0T.