CHAPTER LIII 
THE MILK MACHINE 
In opening the year 1898 I was faced by a 
larger business proposition than I had originally 
planned. When I undertook the experiment of 
a factory farm, I placed the limit of capital to 
be invested at about $60,000. Now I found that 
I had exceeded that amount by a good many 
thousand dollars, and I knew that the end was 
not yet. The factory was not complete, and it 
would be several years before it would be at its 
best in output. While it had cost me more than 
was originally contemplated, and while there was 
yet more money to be spent, there was still no 
reason for discouragement. Indeed, I felt so 
certain of ultimate profits that I was ready to 
put as much into it as could possibly be used 
to advantage. 
The original plan was for a soiling farm on 
which I could milk thirty cows, fatten two hun- 
dred hogs, feed a thousand hens, and wait for 
thirty-five hundred fruit trees to come to a profit- 
able age. With this in view,I set apart forty 
acres of high, dry land, for the feeding-grounds, 
twenty acres of which was devoted to the cows; 
and I now found that this twenty-acre lot would 
317 
