COMPLETE SET OF COST ACCOUNTS 475 



ut the end of the year. At the prices of feed, it probably 

 cost $150 for feed for these for the year, whereas they in- 

 creased in value only $70. Where feed is so high in price, 

 it is better to buy grade cows or raise pure-breds. Instead of 

 going out of the cow business, the farmer decided to keep 

 more cows so as to reduce the labor cost per cow and to 

 stop raising any grade heifers. 



279. Hens. The hens paid all expenses and left a 

 profit of 42 cents per hour of man labor. They laid about 8 

 dozen eggs apiece. The eggs brought an average of about 

 25 cents per dozen. It took about 1| hours to take care 

 of a hen for a year and took about 50 minutes of time on 

 chickens for each pullet raised. This is doing very well 

 indeed. The cockerels nearly paid the cost of raising 

 chickens except the food. The accounts do not give the 

 food cost, but this was about $1 in a previous year, so that 

 the pullets cost about $1 each on this farm. 



280. Horses. The horses worked on an average of 

 about 4 hours a day for the year, or 4.6 hours if we allow for 

 the time before some of them were purchased. The cost per 

 hour was 13 cents or $2.60 for a ten-hour day of a team. 

 This is very reasonable when feed is so high, but both of 

 these might be improved. Making no allowance for the 

 colts, it took about 179 hours to take care of a horse a 

 year. Calling the colt equal to half a horse, the cost of 

 feed was at the rate of about $130 per horse. The total 

 cost of horses was $766, or $192 per horse. It will be seen 

 that a team of horses costs more than a man for the time 

 it works. This cost is, of course, much lower when feed 

 is worth less. 



The colt increased in value from $40 to $75. This is 

 probably not half enough to pay for its feed for a year. 

 The colt increased rather than decreased the cost of the 



