FARM L A TOUT 397 



very attractive investment if it did not pay at least 8 to 

 10 per cent a year. This amount has to cover interest, 

 repairs, depreciation, insurance, and taxes. If one in- 

 vested $1000 in a dairy barn to house 20 cows, the annual 

 rent that the cows should pay would be $80, or $4 per cow. 

 If butter sells for 30 cents a pound, this would require 13 

 pounds of butter from every cow to pay her barn rent. In 

 many parts of the United States the barns cost less than 

 $50 for each cow or horse. 



Nearly all persons from the cities who go to farming 

 invest too much in farm buildings. There are many cases 

 where the barns and milk rooms cost as much as $1000 

 for every cow housed. Each cow ought to pay $80 a year 

 for the privilege of living in such a palace. These cow- 

 palaces are often built by misguided wealthy men, who feel 

 that they are building a barn that is to be a model for 

 farmers. 



But farmers are far from free from the same error of over- 

 investment. Many times a farmer finds that he has 

 money enough to build a new barn and starts out to outdo 

 his neighbors, regardless of whether his farm would justify 

 such a barn or not. 



The cost of a henhouse ought not to exceed $1 per hen. 

 If a comfortable house can be built for less, so much the 

 better. This cost would make the yearly charge about 10 

 cents per hen. 



There are also many cases in which too little money is 

 invested in buildings. 



245. Arrangement for convenience. Even more im- 

 portant than the capital invested in buildings is the ar- 

 rangement for saving labor. The average farmer makes 

 more mistakes in this than in over-capitalization. Farm 

 buildings are put up at different times, and usually without 



