MANURE OX DAIRY-FARMS. 109 



land or on low-priced land, we must raise good crops, or the expense 

 of cultivating and harvesting them will eat up all the profits. In 

 the dairy districts, I believe land, in proportion to its quality and 

 nearness to market, commands a higher price than land in the grain- 

 growing districts. Hence it follows that high farming should be 

 the aim of the American dairyman. 



I am told that there are farms in the dairy districts of this State 

 worth from one hundred to one hundred and fifty dollars per acre, 

 on which a cow to four acres for the year is considered a good 

 average. At a meeting of the Little Falls Farmers' Club, the Hon. 

 Josiah Shull, gave a statement of the receipts and expenses of his 

 farm of 8U- acres. The farm cost $130 per acre. He kept twenty 

 cows, and fatted one for beef. The receipts were as follows : 



Twenty cows yielding 8,337 Ibs. of cheese, at about 14i cents 



per pound $1,186.33 



Increase on beef cow 40 00 



Calves 45.00 



Total receipts 81,271.33 



EXPENSES. 



Boy, six months and board $180.00 



Man by the year, and board 360.00 



Carting milk and manufacturing cheese 215.00 



Total cost of labor $755.00 



THE OTHER EXPENSES WERE : 



Fertilizers, plants, etc $ 18.00 



Horse-shoeing and other repairs of farming implements, (which 



is certainly pretty cheap,) 50.00 



Wear and tear of implements 65.00 



Average repairs of place and buildings 175.00 



Average depreciation and interest on stock 180.00 



Insurance 4.00 



Incidentals, (also pretty low,) 50.00 



$630.00 



Total receipts $1,271.33. 



Total expenses 1,375.00. 



This statement, it is said, the Club considered a very fair estimate. 



Now, here is a farm costing $10,595, the receipts from which, 

 saying nothing about interest, are less than the expenses. And if 

 you add two cents per pound more to the price of the cheese, the 

 profit would still be only about $50 per year. The trouble is not 

 so much in the low price of cheese, as in the low product per acre. 

 I know some grain-growing farmers who have done no better than 

 this for a few years past. 



Mr. Shull places the annual depreciation and interest on stock at 

 $180, equal to nearly one-seventh of the total receipts of the farm. 

 It would pay the wages and board of another man for six months. 



