306 THE FAT OF THE LAND 
most I have paid for wages during the seven 
years since this experiment was inaugurated. 
The food purchased for cows, hogs, and hens 
may also be definitely estimated. It costs about 
$30 a year for each cow, $1 for each hog, and thirty 
cents for each hen. Everything else comes from 
the land, and is covered by such fixed charges 
as interest, wages, taxes, insurance, repairs, and 
replenishments. The food for the colony at 
Four Oaks, usually bought at wholesale, doesn’t 
cost more than $5 a month per capita. This 
seems small to a man who is in the habit of 
paying cash for everything that enters his doors; 
but it amply provides for comforts and even for 
luxuries, not only for the household, but also for 
the stranger within the gates. In the city, where 
water and ice cost money and the daily purchase 
of food is taxed by three or four middlemen, one 
cannot realize the factory farmer’s independence 
of tradesmen. I do not mean that this sum will 
furnish terrapin and champagne, but I do not 
understand that terrapin and champagne are nec- 
essary to comfort, health, or happiness. 
Let us look for a moment at some of the 
things which the factory farmer does not buy, 
and perhaps we shall see that a comfortable 
existence need not demand much more. His 
cows give him milk, cream, butter, and veal; his 
swine give roast pig, fresh pork, salt pork, ham, 
bacon, sausages, and lard; his hens give eggs and 
poultry; his fields yield hulled corn, samp, and 
