Maine Agricultural Experiment Station. 1917. 87 



labor at what it costs, food at what it is worth, and taking fixed 

 charges into account, would show book profit. Nevertheless, 

 on every hand there are farmers who with incomes derived from 

 small flocks, small herds, and small areas devoted to crops, live 

 comfortably, educate their children, and accumulate some bank 

 surplus. 



There will always be an expense for fitting up and main- 

 taining pastures, buildings, etc., for sheep that will vary on 

 different farms and with dift'erent farmers. The overhead charges, 

 such as interest, taxes, and the like, will also vary with varying 

 conditions. In an experiment conducted by the Station, where 

 it is necessary to keep individual records, buttons for the ears 

 a.Tid time involved in note taking are expense items that the 

 ordinary farmer need not be at. For these and similar reasons 

 the cost of fencing the pastures, erecting shelters in the pas- 

 tures, fitting up the barns for winter quarters, expenses for pip- 

 ing water, water troughs, sheep dipping tanks, shearing ma- 

 chine, gas engine, root cutter, rent of land for pastures and 

 crops for the sheep, while necessary expenses that must be 

 taken into accout by the practical farmer, are omitted from the 

 following statement. The amounts included are the inventory 

 value of the sheep, the cost of labor in caring for the sheep, 

 cost of the food purchased, the value of the hay and straw at the 

 barn, the cost to grow the roots used. The credits are the 

 sheep and wool sold and the inventory at the end of the year. 



As reported in Bullentin 246, the year as given ran from 

 July 1 to June 30. This is the fiscal year as prescribed by the 

 State Auditor, but is not a good one for an experiment of this 

 kind which far more naturally begins and ends either with 

 turning the sheep out to pasture in the spring, or, still better, 

 with the housing of the sheep in the fall. In order to make it 

 possible to include practically all the income from the sheep 

 within the year, the duration of the year is changed so that it 

 now runs for 12 months from the first of November, instead of 

 the first of July. In order to compare fairly the first report as 

 given has been changed so as to make it begin November 1, 

 1914, instead of July 1, 1914, as it was previously reported. 

 The tabulations that follow give two years expenditures and 

 receipts begining November 1, and ending October 31, for each 

 year 



