INSTITUTE PAPERS. 79 



Fourth, fcarm capital should have the same reward for its 

 use or even greater reward than most other capital. It is a prey 

 to losses in droughts, frosts, storms, insects, taxes and other 

 forces that he cannot control. Yet the world does not expect 

 the farm to pay over three or four per cent on the investment. 



Fifth, farm buildings and all farm improvements directed to 

 the care of the cows should be estimated in the cost of milk 

 production to as full a degree as such items are in the produc- 

 tion of a yard of cloth. Every cost should be estimated to 

 the full. The dairyman has never so done in respect to hours 

 of labor and real value of his labor, nor has he estimated the 

 capital in buildings and their care, interest and risk on cows, 

 &c., &c., as is done below. That we as a class have failed to 

 properly estimate cost and have failed to secure adequate 

 profits is in evidence by the constantly decreasing ratio of 

 farmers, by the failure of our boys to accept as a gift their 

 fathers' farms when accompanied by the necessity of remain- 

 ing on them. 



To many the above expressions will seem out of place, pessi- 

 mistic, and the words of a mere agitator. In long service for 

 the public as an exponent of farm problems I have not given 

 expression to similar views. I do so now with the belief that 

 it is better for us to face real costs as they fairly are, since 

 otherwise we certainly will not be prepared to exact the price 

 we should, nor will the public, accustomed to other conditions, 

 cease to cry out against the high price of food products, a com- 

 plaint now especially aimed at butter and milk. 



In estimating the costs of keeping a cow per year below, I, 

 too, have refrained from applying fully the principles laid down 

 above, as we are not yet ready to accept any estimate based on 

 the short day and longer pay, yet including something for mana- 

 gerial service. My hearers are many of them aware that I 

 devoted i8 years of tiine to a long array of nutrition investiga- 

 tions at the colleges of three states and that I am. now, as I was 

 before entering upon that work, engaged heavily in farming. 

 I have a very large herd. IMy data are then based upon a back- 

 ground of large experience and thousands of weighings of 

 food. They are intended to be as accurate and fair as I can 

 well make them. The total will surprise and repel most farm- 

 ers at first sight. I Invite a close scrutiny and criticism of every 

 figure. 



