418 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



tion in this subject was recalled, and an offer to begin the work in their 

 territory was met by a cordial acceptance on the part of the milk pro- 

 ducers. 



MANNER OF OBTAINING DATA. 



It will be well to state at the outset just how the data were obtained. 



During the years 1913 to 1916 twenty-five farmers co-operated in the 

 work. The Field Investigator, Mr. F. T. Riddell, spent his entire time on 

 these twenty-five farms, allowing himself one day per month to each 

 farm and giving such supplementary direction at other times as he found 

 necessary. 



On blanks which were provided and conveniently posted, each farmer 

 kept the daily time account, and made record of the receipts and expend- 

 itures, and other needed memoranda. During the monthly visit of the 

 investigator he entered these data on his permanent records, and in con- 

 ference with the farmer obtained such supplementary data as he needed 

 to complete the history of the month's business. Besides completing 

 and posting these items the investigator secured such other first-hand in- 

 formation as was necessary to give complete and accurate records. 



In addition to checking and summarizing the farmers' entries, the in- 

 vestigator secured still more accurate information of all dairy opera- 

 tions throughout the entire day spent at the farm. He arose with the 

 farmer in the early morning and with watch in hand literally timed every 

 process carried on in the stable or the dairy. At the close of the day he 

 was able to write down not only the total number of hours of man labor, 

 but was able to say with certainty just how much time had been devoted 

 to the milking process, how much to feeding the herd, how much to clean- 

 ing the stable and barn, how much to grooming the cows, and how much 

 had been devoted to the care of the milk and the dairy utensils. Further, 

 he had taken cognizance of all feeds supplied to the herd during the day, 

 and had made accurate weighings of the same. The data thus secured 

 were used as a check on those recorded by the farmer, and wherever the 

 farmer's data seemed inaccurate or too fragmentary, those obtained by 

 the investigator during his random day were used as the basis for 

 monthly computation. 



WHAT DATA WERE OBTAINED. 



To the end that the reader may not be confused by the mass of figures 

 which it is found necessary to present, some preliminary explanation 

 and discussion of the data and their classification and arrangement is 

 deemed advisable. 



It must be constantly borne in mind by the reader that the subject of 

 our inquiry was the cost of producing milk for the city market. 



On all of the farms where the investigations were carried on the pro- 

 duction of milk was only one of the enterprises of the farm. On a few 

 of them it was practically the sole enterprise, and crops were grown sim- 

 ply to feed the herd. On other farms milk production was coupled with 

 grain, vegetables, live stock, or fruit production for the market. None 

 of these other enterprises were considered in any manner. 



Each farm was conducted in accordance with the farming scheme of 



