6iO READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



The extent to which the farmers are buying cows is about the 

 same in the first three groups. They replace about i cow in 23 

 by purchase each year. Those who get returns of $y6 to $100 

 per cow are doing more buying and seUing. Those who secured 

 returns of over $100 per cow are doing the most buying and 

 selHng. Each year they replace one seventh of the herd by pur- 

 chase and one eighth with heifers raised. They are changing 

 cows almost twice as fast as is the average dairyman. They 

 depend more on purchased cows than do those who get poorer 

 returns. This is exactly contrary to the popular statement that 

 in order to be successful a dairyman must depend on the calves 

 raised by himself. 



By purchase and by heifers raised the farmers who got returns 

 of less than $y6 per cow replaced one seventh of the herd in the 

 year. Those who got returns of $76 to ^100 replaced one fifth 

 of the herd. Those who got returns of over ^100 replaced over 

 one fourth of the herd (28 per cent) in the year. 



Sixty per cent of the farmers who received over $100 per cow 

 kept pure-bred and 30 per cent kept high-grade Holstein bulls. 

 The proportion of pure-bred and high-grade bulls decreased as 

 the receipts per cow decreased. 



Some farmers are selling the wrong kind of dairy product. A 

 few farmers are making butter on the farm to be sold at whole- 

 sale prices. Few of these are getting good returns per cow or 

 are making good labor incomes if they depend very largely on the 

 dairy. It is very diflicult to make a profit from homemade butter 

 sold at ordinary prices. Those who sell to creameries to be made 

 into butter are doing better, but the returns from this source are 

 not very high. When one lives near enough to a milk-shipping 

 station or lives on a milk route so that the milk can be hired 

 hauled, market milk usually pays best. However the product is 

 sold, if the receipts are not $75 to ;^ioo per cow the farmer 

 should study his dairy conditions in order to see whether he can 

 increase the returns, and if they cannot be increased he may well 

 question the advisability of continuing in the dairy business. Near 

 New York City, where feed and milk are both higher in price, 

 the returns should be better in order to make the business pay. 



