MUST YOU KEEP A COW 85 



scarcely any carry-over of home crops into the new 

 year. In the six months from June to November 

 my feed cost was less than half a cent a quart; 

 while in the four months from July to October 

 there was no cost at all: the cows subsisted wholly 

 on pasture grass. The price I got for one milch 

 cow with calf paid all but $12.20 of the mill feed 

 bill. Meantime, excluding the time they were on 

 pasture, the cows produced not less than twenty- 

 five tons of manure. 



In reckoning milk feed costs I exclude feed 

 bought for calves, as well as the farm labor and 

 expense for home hay and grain crops. As I said 

 before it is impracticable to allocate the latter in 

 accurate proportion to the different kinds of live- 

 stock. Calf feed is really capital investment: it is a 

 good plan to have young cows coming along; if 

 they are not needed at home the investment can 

 always be quickly liquidated. In 1937 I sold two 

 cows and a bred heifer for three hundred and 

 eighty-five dollars, which more than covered the 

 milk feed, calf feed, and farm crop costs. 



The one thing we went short on in 1937 was 

 veal. Of four calves dropped on the farm in twelve 

 months only one was a bull. (It is of record that 

 the mother of one of my cows related to all the 

 herd never dropped a bull calf in her life.) It 

 would suit both my purpose and my taste better 

 if the proportion were reversed. Until I had eaten 



