10 



BULLETIN 501, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



the average being $29.03. The price per ton of corn stover ranged 

 from So to S6. Hay ranged from $4 to $10 per ton, according to 

 kind and quality. Silage was valued at about $5 per ton. The 

 average price of all dry roughages ranged from $5.17 to $8.13, with 

 an average of $6.51. Owing to the prices of feed materials in this 

 section the average cost of feedmg a cow on this farm is high. 



These records show that a ration having as a basis cottonseed 

 meal, even at southern prices, is more expensive than a ration with 

 com as a basis at prices prevailing on northern farms at the time 

 of this investigation. The concentrates on this farm constitute 54 

 per cent of the total feed cost, which is from 7 to 20 per cent higher, 

 proportionately, than on the three northern farms. 



In the production of milk the cost of labor on these four farms is 

 second in importance to feed. As shown in Table I, the labor is 

 approximately one-fourth of the total cost of keeping a dairy cow, 

 or about one-half the cost of feed. This labor includes the work of 

 men and horses required to feed and care for cows, handle the milk, 

 and market the products. Man labor is charged on the basis of 

 the complete cost of hired labor on each farni; that is, the rate 

 per hour is obtained by adding to the cash wages the value of board 

 and other perquisites and dividing this total by the total number 

 of hours of all hired labor. Horse labor is charged on the basis of 

 cost, and the rate per hour is obtained by dividing the total cost of 

 keeping the horses on the farm by the number of hours of horse work. 



Table VII. — Number of hours of man and horse labor required per cow per year to pro- 

 duce milk and deliver it at the railroad station on each of the four farms. 



Year. 



Wisconsin farm. 



Michigan farm. 



Pennsylvania 

 farm. 



North Carolina 

 farm. 



Man 

 labor. 



Horse 

 labor. 



Man 

 labor. 



Horse 

 labor. 



Man 

 labor. 



Horse 

 labor. 



Man 

 labor. 



Horse 

 labor. 



1909 



Hours. 

 213 

 214 



Hours. 

 41 



.^8 



Hours. 

 195 

 260 

 236 



Hours. 

 28 

 32 

 35 



Hours. 



Hours. 



Hours. 



Hours. 



1910 











1911 



205 28 

 224 24 







268 



277 



242 



1507 



74 



1912 



189 

 151 



20 

 22 



46 



1913 







46 



1914 .. 









U30 



















214 .33 



230 



32 



170 



21 



262 



55 











' 1914 not included in average. 



Table VH gives the hours of labor required per cow for each of 

 the four farms. The highest labor requirement is on the North 

 Carolina farm. This is due, in part, to the fact that the herd is the 

 smallest and the distance to market greatest. The extra labor of 

 bottling and retailing the milk in 1914 accounts for the greater labor 

 requirement of the last year. Owing to this extra labor for retail 

 marketing figures for this year are omitted in the farm average. 



