THE SKIM-MILK TRUST 283 
do what you will or feed what you like, the hen 
will insist upon a vacation at this season of the 
year. You may shorten it, perhaps, but you 
cannot prevent it. The only way to keep the 
egg-basket full is to have a lot of youngsters 
coming on who will take up the laying for Oc- 
tober and November. 
We milked thirty-seven cows during July, 
August, and September, and got more than a 
thousand pounds of milk aday. The butter sold 
amounted to a trifle more than $375 a month. 
I think this an excellent showing, considering the 
fact that the colony at Four Oaks never num- 
bered less than twenty-four during that time, 
and often many more. 
I ought to say that the calves had the first 
claim to the skim-milk; but as we never kept 
many for more than a few weeks, this claim was 
easily satisfied. It was like the bonds of a cor- 
poration, — the first claim, but a comparatively 
small one. The hens came next; they held pre- 
ferred stock, and always received a five-pound, 
semi-daily dividend to each pen of forty. The 
growing pigs came last; they held the common 
stock, which was often watered by the swill and 
dish-water from both houses and the buttermilk 
and butter-washing from the dairy. I hold that 
the feeding value of skim-milk is not less than 
forty cents a hundred pounds, as we use it at 
Four Oaks. This seems a high price when it 
can often be bought for fifteen cents a hundred 
