64 WE FARM FOR A HOBBY 



right on using bought feed, only offsetting it with 

 home-grown as we were able to do a proper job 

 of crop raising. All that part of the feed which 

 converted into manure would in effect constitute 

 a discount from the feed bill; and a substantial 

 one, since upwards of eighty per cent of what an 

 animal eats goes to manure. I am still working out 

 this program, still buying stockfeeds, and supple- 

 menting them with steadily increasing quantities 

 of home-grown. It strikes me as particularly sig- 

 nificant that I have achieved the financial results 

 indicated at the beginning of this book on a pro- 

 gram that involved the purchase of most of my stock 

 feed at retail prices. In the first nine months of 1937 

 mill feed still accounted for more than one-third 

 the entire cost of farm operation. 



If we were to reckon the manure value of mill 

 feed at forty per cent of the feed bill, then the 

 current net cost of food and farm operations would 

 drop from twenty-three to nineteen dollars a week. 

 Since it is not readily calculable with accuracy I 

 have chosen to ignore it. For it cuts both ways; 

 as it is it shows up in the fact that I am able to 

 maintain more livestock, and sell more farm prod- 

 uce with a disproportionately small increase in 

 operating costs. Its importance is further illumi- 

 nated thus: when hay, for example, is sold "off" 

 the farm, fully seventy per cent of the price re- 

 ceived for it must be returned to the land in com- 



