38 



but the net profits remain about the same. In other words, take 

 the country through, the average cow just about pays her keeping. 

 This state of things reduces the profits of dairying to a very small 

 sum on the average, and finds its defence mainly in the fact that 

 the dairyman has found a home market for his crops at a fair 

 price, when without his cows it might be difficult to dispose of 

 them. 



It is thus seen that the average cow, producing 1 ,400 quarts of 

 milk, or 130 lbs. of butter per year, will not figure prominently in 

 lifting mortgages from our Massachusetts farms. 



It is generally believed, however, that keeping a better grade of 

 cows yields a larger profit. Accepting this as a fact, let us briefly 

 consider the extent to which the value of cows is enhanced by their 

 increased productiveness. 



Without gainsaying the close relation between the value of a 

 cow and her annual product, as stated by Alvord, I would like to 

 submit another scheme of valuation based on the net profit which 

 she earns her owner. This basis of value is as follows. A cow 

 must pay for the feed she consumes and six per cent interest, and 

 two per cent taxes on her beef value. Whatever is left to her 

 credit after paying maintenance, interest and taxes is profit. This 

 profit increases her beef value by the amount on which it will pay 

 interest and depreciation. Six per cent interest is ample, but the 

 depreciation is great in good cows. To prevent loss, sufficient 

 allowance should be made to cover her value in from two to four 

 years. While the average usefulness is more than four years, the 

 risk is so great it is wise to err on the side of conservatism in 

 estimating values. If we take the moderate factor of three years' 

 usefulness, then a cow must pay thirty-three and a third per cent 

 depreciation on her cost annually. Adding this to the interest, we 

 have forty per cent in round numbers. Upon this basis a cow is 

 worth the sum above her beef value, on which the profits over her 

 keeping will pay forty per cent. In other words, the value of a 

 cow is two and a half times her annual profit added to what she is 

 worth for beef. To illustrate the working of this method. An 

 average cow costs thirty dollars for annual maintenance, interest 

 and taxes. Her product is worth thirty dollars. She earns no 

 profit, and is worth her beef value, say twenty-five dollars. A 

 better cow costs thirty-five dollars for annual maintenance, inter- 

 est and taxes. Her product is worth forty-one dollars, of which 

 six dollars is profit. Two and one-half times this profit added to 

 twenty-five dollars, her beef value, is forty dollars, which is the 

 value in this case. No one doubts but that the cow which earns 

 her owner six dollars a year profit is worth forty dollars to him as 



