CAPITAL AND CONTINUOUS CROPPING 135 



of eating his crops. In normal times he could purchase 

 five two-year-old bullocks for this amount at £i6 per 

 head which a year later he could sell at £22 a head, 

 leaving a gross profit of £30. For the same amount he 

 could buy (in normal times) 20 weaned calves at £4 

 per head, which, if well fed, would certainly sell for 

 £10 a head in twelve months, or £200 in all, leaving a 

 gross profit of £120. 



The twenty calves would certainly consume more 

 food than the five bullocks, but certainly not three 

 times as much, whereas the gross profit from the 

 calves is four times greater than from the bullocks. 

 That is to say, young dry stock for the smallholder is 

 more profitable than old dry stock, for the very obvious 

 reason that in the case of the former more attention 

 and labour are required which the small farmer and his 

 family invest in the stock by attending to them. 



Again, if a small farmer has a surplus of milk, along 

 with a patch of summer fodder crop to consume, then 

 instead of buying a bullock or weaned calves, his best 

 investment would be three or four young sows, which in 

 early autumn with their litters would be worth three 

 or four times what they cost. 



CONTINUOUS CROPPING AND DAIRYING MEANS 

 CONTINUOUS CA^H 



In like manner, instead of paying high prices for 

 calving cows for the dairy herd at which he is ultimately 

 aiming, the small farmer should raise instead of buy 

 dairy cows. Once a dairy herd has been started, then 

 there is a regular supply of cash coming in, and it is this 

 feature, together with the facilities which dairying offers 

 for the conversion of the family labour into cash, which 

 makes tillage dairy farming ideal for the small man 00 

 the land. 



