SECRETARY'S REPORT. 69 



whether his business is profitable or not, nor whether it is advisa- 

 ble for him to change it, or to keep on. 



Premising thus much, let me inquire what it costs, on your farm, 

 to produce a gallon of milk, and what can you sell it for ? How 

 much does it cost to produce a pound of beef, and what will that 

 bring ? How much milk can you get from the food which will 

 make a pound of beef? How many animals have you raised in 

 the last ten or twenty years ; what was the cost of growing them, 

 and how much did they bring you ? In what way do you now 

 dispose of the hay and herbage produced by your meadows and 

 pastures ? How much do you realize for each ton of hay so dis- 

 posed of? How much for the grass which is equal to a ton of 

 good hay, but fed at pasture, without cutting, curing or housing ? 

 (I am not here inquiring the selling price of a ton of hay when 

 carted off to market, either loose or screwed, because that includes 

 some extra labor sold with the hay — and besides, when you sell 

 hay off the farm, you sell some of your farm with it — or what is 

 perhaps rather worse, because more deceptive, you sell a part of 

 your farm's ability to produce hereafter.) What does it cost to 

 raise a steer or heifer up to two and a half years of age ? How 

 does this compare with the keep of a milk cow for a twelvemonth? 

 How much milk will a good cow give while consuming food to the 

 same amount and value as a young animal requires up to two 

 and a half years old ? How much would the latter bring at that 

 age, usually ? 



To wait for definite and correct replies to these and other similar 

 questions which I would like to put, might, perhaps, involve un- 

 seemly delay in issuing this report, and so, with your leave, we 

 will just talk the matter over by the dim light which shines on it 

 at this present moment, and if, in our groping, we trip or stumble 

 or get on the wrong track, let us remember that until some reliable 

 data are furnished, until something like a fixed starting point is 

 gained, we can only compare one product with another, and com- 

 pare guesses about facts at that. 



The comparative profit of the dairy and the stall, is a subject 

 upon which there is not, so far as I am aware, much definite 

 knowledge in existence. But it is a subject of great importance 

 and interest. To arrive at such knowlqdge would require numer- 

 ous and long continued and carefully conducted experiments with 

 many animals, accompanied with constant use of the scales ; such 



