TENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART IX 407 



Nor is the price of butter a thing for special and particular con- 

 gratulation for the farmer, for the reason that the value of eveiy- 

 thing he feeds his cows is increased in much greater proportion 

 than the increase in the price received for his butterfat or his 

 butter in the market. Pasture, corn, oats, hay, all the feeds that 

 go to produce milk on the farm have very greatly increased in 

 market value. On the other hand, hogs, cattle, sheep, which the 

 farmer might produce with his feed instead of milk, have also very 

 much increased. It is also true that grains, such as wheat, fix, 

 barley, which the farmer might raise to sell, have very much in- 

 creased in market value. That is to say, the farmer's increase of 

 cost of feed is greater than his increase of income; or if he had 

 turned his feeds into pork or beef or mutton he would have re- 

 ceived a greater proportionate increase of return for his feed; or 

 if he had raised grains to sell, his income would have been increased 

 in greater proportion. It must be borne in mind that this com- 

 parison has nothing to do with the question of how he shall get the 

 greatest aggregate income from his farm, but only shows that any 

 slight increase in the price of butter is not to be pointed out as 

 the only increase in farm products, but is only one of a dozen such 

 increases in values of farm products, that the increase in the price 

 received by the farmer for his butterfat is less in proportion than 

 increase he has received from the sale of other farm products. A 

 study of the following tables of butter prices, taken from the 

 market reports, and the tables of prices of farm products, taken 

 from the Year-book of the Department of Agriculture, will be of 

 value. 



