AUTUMN RECKONING 175 



cob meal, three tons, and oatmeal, three tons, 

 both kinds raised and ground on the farm, and 

 not charged in this account ; wheat bran, three 

 tons at |18, $54 ; gluten meal, two tons at $24, 

 $48 ; oil meal, one ton, $26 ; total cash outlay 

 for four cows, $128, or $32 per head. This esti- 

 mate is, however, about $2 too liberal. We will, 

 hereafter, charge each milch cow $30, and will 

 also charge each hog fattened on the place $1 for 

 shorts and middlings consumed. This is not 

 exact, but it is near enough, and it greatly sim- 

 plifies accounts. 



As I kept twenty-six cows ten months, and 

 ten more for an average of four and a half 

 months, the feeding for 1896 would be equivalent 

 to one year for thirty cows, or $900. To this 

 add $120 for swine food and $25 for grits and 

 oyster shells for the chickens, and we have $1045 

 paid for food for stock. Shoeing the horses for 

 the year and repairs to machinery cost $157. 

 The purchased food for eight employees for 

 twelve months and for two additional ones for 

 eight months, amounted to $734. The wage 

 account, including $50 extra to Thompson, was 

 $2358. 



A second hen-house, a duplicate of the first, 

 was built before October. It was intended that 

 each house should accommodate four hundred 

 laying hens. We haye now on the place five of 

 these houses ; but only two of them, besides the 

 incubator and the brooder-house, were built in 



