Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 May 1916 — Fann Kitchen Costs. [ARTICLE]

Fann Kitchen Costs.

Farmers are really keeping more cost accounts these days. They have records of man-hours and horsehours, can distinguish between running expenses and capital charges, know if grain or hogs are profitable at a given market price, and compare horse and tractor costs intelligently.

But farm costs will never bo right and fair until they are extended to the farm kitchen. Three meals a day make up a major item in the cost of growing crops. A big Monday wash for hired men is a legitimate charge on butterfat for the creamery. How long does it take each week to cook the meals and do the washing? How many waste motions are involved In lack of good equipment or in poor arrangement of the kitchen tools? Is mother running her department on a reasonable expenditure of labor and time? Or wbuld it be possible to alter the whole scheme, Jet the hands get their meals and washing elsewhere, ami make a better money profit on farm products while giving her more leisure and the family more privacy?

For five years or more father haa been urged to provide better kitchen facilities lor mother, and.he has responded admirably. But father has been urged to bring about his kitchen reform lor mother Chiefly as a matter of sentiment. There is not a particle of sentiment in better farm kitchens. It is a plain matter of costs, as anybody can learn by keeping records. Let father begin keeping kitchen eo'ats. If he hasn’t time let mother keep them herself and use the figuies to back up her demand for better equipment.—Country Gentleman.