8 X. II. Age. Experiment Station [Bulletin 265 



Table 4- Depreciation charges* — average of 28 farm* 



NkiI EstaU 



Poultry laying houses $23.".. 50 



Barn used for poull ry 25. .51 



Permanenl brooder house.'- 32.35 



Other poultry buildings 72.01 



Total depreciation real estate $365.37 



Equipmt tit 



Batteries S4.24 



Colony houses 40.17 



Shelters 17.84 



Incubators 47.87 



Brooder stoves 15.18 



Eoppers 7.99 



Fountains 3.36 



Egg eases 1.96 



Shipping coops -90 



Miscellaneous poultry equipment 15.34 



General equipment 



Car or truck"!" 39.85 



General farm m ichinery 5.85 



M iscella aeous 3.07 



Total depreciation equipmen' $203.62 



Grand total depreciation real estate plus equipment $568.99 



* Depreciation charged at 10% on poultry, real estate and equipment. 



No depreciation charged on other real estate including dwelling house. 



Money spent for minor repairs does not entitle item of real estate or 



equipment to any deduction in depreciation charge, 

 t Where car or truck was used largely for business, depreciation was 

 charged. 



in market eggs, 51.4' ,' of the total receipts were from sale of market 

 eggs, 18% from sale of broilers and roasters, and 12.5% from sale of 

 fowl. On the other hand, in a group of five farms which specialized in 

 breeding, the receipts from sale of market eggs were 37.8%, hatching 

 eggs 17.9$ , dav-old chicks 14.8%, broilers and roasters 10.9% and fowl 

 10.6%. 



Expenses 



The average cash expense on the 23 farms was $8019 (Table 6). This 

 is $(i.20 per bird housed, or $8.05 per bird based on average number 

 through the year. Feed represented the largest single expenditure, be- 

 ing about 65% of the total. The fact that the average expense for pur- 

 chased feed was over $5000 indicates the importance of feed prices. A 

 ten per cent increase in price of Uhh\ without a corresponding change 

 in price of poultry products would be disastrous to many poultry farm- 

 ers. Hired labor was the next largest item of expense, representing 

 10% of the total. On five farms averaging less than 500 layers, the 

 expense for labor was only 3% of the total. On some of the larger 

 farms it ran to \l.l c /< . 



