178 Bureau of Farmers' Institutes. 



tions for different kinds of grain. Put in a convenient place a 

 small note book with a pencil tied to it. When you buy six pigs 

 for $2 each, put it down in the book. When you put ten bushels 

 of corn, or other grain in the bin write it in the book, with its 

 market value. You need not keep account of the milk you feed 

 ae it has no market value. In the fall when you sell your pork, 

 you can tell in a very few minutes whether or not you have made 

 anything. If you have fed the hog |16 worth of grain, and only 

 received $12 for it, you better stop raising hogs and sell your 

 grain. The same plan can be used with the hens, and to a satis- 

 factory degree in testing the worth of individual cows, weighing 

 or testing otherwise the milk. You should know what your 

 potatoes, corn, hay, etc., costs, that you may often chose the 

 more profitable crop. Rotation of crops is necessary, but some- 

 times you can chose between two or three different grains in the 

 rotation. 



Study economy in production. The farmer cannot regulate the 

 market price, but he can to a large degree regulate the cost of 

 production, which means to him a larger profit. An Ohio farmer 

 had raised potatoes for several years in the old way of cultiva- 

 tion. One day he decided to plant his potatoes with a potato 

 planter, cultivate them with a cultivator, dig them with a potato 

 digger, and store them in square bushel boxes to save time and 

 expense in handling. He did so and reduced the cost of produc- 

 tion one-third. 



In 1897, at the New York State Experiment Station, two plats 

 of potatoes were planted in the same field. Both were cultivated 

 exactly alike, except when one was hilled, the other was left level. 

 The value of the crop from the latter cultivation was |24 

 per acre more than on the plat where the potatoes were hilled. 

 It is more economical to keep one |50 cow that gives 40 pounds 

 of milk per day, than two $25 cows which only give 20 pounds 

 each per day. Learn the food-value of that which you feed your 

 live-stock. For one cent you can buy a postal card on which 

 to write your address and send it to the Department of Agricul- 



