CHAPTER LIII 



THE MILK MACHINE 



IN opening the year 1898 I was faced by a 

 larger business proposition than I had originally 

 planned. When I undertook the experiment of 

 a factory farm, I placed the limit of capital to 

 be invested at about $60,000. Now I found that 

 I had exceeded that amount by a good many 

 thousand dollars, and I knew that the end was 

 not yet. The factory was not complete, and it 

 would be several years before it would be at its 

 best in output. While it had cost me more than 

 was originally contemplated, and while there was 

 yet more money to be spent, there was still no 

 reason for discouragement. Indeed, I felt so 

 certain of ultimate profits that I was ready to 

 put as much into it as could possibly be used 

 to advantage. 



The original plan was for a soiling farm on 

 which I could milk thirty cows, fatten two hun- 

 dred hogs, feed a thousand hens, and wait for 

 thirty-five hundred fruit trees to come to a profit- 

 able age. With this in view, I set apart forty 

 acres of high, dry land, for the feeding-grounds, 

 twenty acres of which was devoted to the cows ; 

 and I now found that this twenty-acre lot would 



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