30 



BULLETIN 941, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



cash receipts from the sale of cream, though small, was the one 

 factor which enabled them to go ahead with their work of improving 

 and enlarging their farms and building up their herds of live stock, 

 even in some cases preventing actual farm disaster. The sale of 

 dairy products represented a source of cash income for 43 out of 

 the 79 farms for which records were taken. The average amount 

 of sales for farms selling dairy products was $215. On some farms 

 the sales amounted only to an occasional few pounds of butter or 

 cream and on a few farms it constituted the chief source. On many 

 farms the sale of cream was one of the major sources of income. 

 A few of the farmers had kept records of the amount of their sales of 

 butter fat through the year, and one of the local creameries kindly 

 gave information as to production of a few additional farmers with 

 whom the sale of butter fat was a major source of income. In this 

 way the accurate butter-fat production for seven of the better herds 

 of dairy cows in the region was obtained for the year 1917, as is shown 

 in the following table : 



Table IX. — Butter-Jat production oj seven dairy herds. 



Farm. 



Butter 

 fat sold. 



Average 



price per 



pound. 



Value of 

 sales. 



Aver- 

 age 

 num- 

 ber of 

 cows. 



Average produc- 

 tion of butter fat 

 per cow. 





Quantity. 



Value. 



1 



Pounds. 



980 

 1,563 

 2,812 

 2,525 



996 

 1,563 



640 



$0. 438 

 .421 

 .409 

 .424 

 .391 

 .421 

 .40 



$429 

 658 

 1,152 

 1,076 

 390 

 658 

 256 



9 



10 

 18 

 18J 



6| 

 12 



4 



Pounds. 

 109 

 156 

 156 

 136 

 153 

 130 

 160 



S48 



2 



66 



3 



64 



4 



58 





60 



6... 



55 



7 



64 







Total 



11,079 



.417 



4,619 



78 



142 



59 







Included in the above dairy herds are two herds of Jersey and Guern- 

 sey grades, one of grade Holsteins and Jerseys, two of grade Jerseys, 

 one of grade Guernseys, and one containing some grades and also 

 some purebred Jerseys. 



The average price per pound received varies slightly, owing to the 

 fact that creameries located at interior points had to pay extra 

 transportation charges, and therefore could not pay quite the prices 

 v/hich prevailed at railroad points; and also to the fact that the 

 quantity of cream sold by the different operators varied during the 

 year, and hence the cream was sold at varying prices. 



Since the dairy business is an enterprise comparatively new to this 

 area, the average butter-fat production per cow naturally was very 

 much lower than it should be for the most satisfactory returns. The 

 farmers are becoming much interested in the dairy business, how- 

 ever, and improvements are being made gradually. One operator 



