PROFITS OF THE BUSINESS. 85 



cents per pound. She paid a net profit of $64.40 ; or she paid $63.- 

 76 per ton for the hay she ate. 



I never sold any butter so low as the price I have reckoned, 

 twenty cents per pound. None of these are extra cases except the 

 last one. That was a very extra cow, and I kept her a little extra, 

 and kept a careful account of her expenses and proceeds for a year. 

 The figures in the other cases are no more than any farmer with a 

 good herd of cows well kept may reasonably expect to realize. 



Here is a statement from Mr. Meader, of Albion, in this county, 

 who kept an itemized account, with a dairy of twelve cows for one 

 year. He reckoned the interest on his money invested, taxes, pas- 

 turing at five dollars per head, hay at ten dollars per ton in the 

 barn, and provender at cost in barn. The total product of his cows 

 in butter cost him twelve cents and seven mills per pound. Or 

 reckoning butter at what it brought in the market, the business paid 

 him $25 27 per ton in the barn for the hay fed. 



He kept another account with his cows of which I will give a 

 synopsis. From fifteen cows, from August 16, 188G, to July 24, 

 1887, he made 3462 pounds of butter that was sold, besides furnish- 

 ing a family of eight persons. Reckoning the same amount for the 

 remainder of the 3'ear, and one-half pound of butter per week for 

 each member of his famil}', which is about a fair average, and we 

 have 3928 pounds of butter from fifteen cows, an average of 262 

 pounds per cow. This at twent}' cents a pound amounts to $52.40, 

 $8.00 added for the milk makes $60.40. If his cost of keep was 

 the same as mine, $39.00, he had a net profit per cow of $21.40. 

 In this case, as in the others, the price of the butter is put down to 

 twenty cents, though he actually got from twenty-five to thirty 

 cents. 



I have had, heretofore, a great many statements of this nature, 

 and it is astonishing how nearly alike they are. If there is any man 

 here who has kept an itemized account with his dairy I think his 

 figures will vary but little from those I have given. Now, gentle- 

 men, if they are correct, if they are anywhere near correct, is it not 

 the most profitable business we can engage in in the State of Maine ? It 

 is a business which pays you every month or every week in cash. And 

 you need not fear of running out your farm if you sell only the but- 

 ter. In a ton of butter there isn't fertilizer value enough to be 

 worth mentioning. I have put these figures where no farmer can 

 object to them on the ground that his surroundings are such that he 



