1O WE FARM FOR A HOBBY 



than we spent. By the end of 1934 we realized we 

 had something. The next year we recorded not 

 only farm expenses, but what we spent for food 

 bought in stores. The total bill for food actually 

 purchased ready for use in 1935 was $179.03, an 

 average of $3.44 per week. Whatever else we did, 

 we had knocked the tar out of that item. Since we 

 seemed to entertain much more than when all the 

 food had to be bought in stores I checked the 

 actual number of meals eaten in the house and 

 found that week-in-week-out, deducting meals 

 eaten away from home by all four members of the 

 family as well as adding the extra places laid for 

 our guests, we were providing for an average of 

 five people instead of the actual four numbered in 

 family. 



Of course this is only one side of the story; it 

 is incomplete until you know how much more it 

 cost to operate the farm in 1935 than it did in 

 1932. There are two extreme views of farming 

 costs. Most people cling to the conviction fostered 

 by manufacturers, as well as by the type called 

 4 'gentleman farmer" who is at least in this country 

 seldom either one or the other, and who has 

 been known to boast that a glass of milk costs him 

 more than a glass of champagne, that it is cheaper 

 to buy anything than it is to make it or grow it 

 yourself; that whatever advantages may accrue to 

 country life, its great disadvantage is its high cost. 



