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practice. They have learned that the exposure of cows to storms, or even 

 cold winds, affects the cash income unfavorably. They are fast learning 

 that it is not profitable to turn all their calves to the butcher and depend 

 for their supply of dairy stock upon second-class cows brought from other 

 localities. 



These things they have learned and are learning because the market 

 for milk has induced them to turn all the resources of the farm toward the 

 production of that one article, for which they receive their pay in cash. 

 Thus, having but one article to market, the keeping of accurate accounts 

 becomes a very simple matter, and they see, almost without effort, what 

 method of feeding and managing dairy cows and farm crops, fills the purse 

 the fastest. Not so with the man engaged in " mixed farming." It 

 requires no little skill as an accountant on the part of such a farmer, to 

 determine the true source of the different parts of his income. His cows, 

 his hogs, his sheep, his poultry, his horses, his steers, are all fed from the 

 same crib. (In too many cases, however, the poor cows get nothing from 

 the crib.) The hogs are fed sour milk, which must be placed to the credit 

 of the cows, and they eat the corn that escapes the digestive apparatus of 

 the steers. Most of the income from the poultry is consumed upon the 

 table, while the labor of both men and horses, all the minor expenses of the 

 farm and of the household, are chargeable in different proportions to the 

 various sources of income. 



Thus the task of keeping debt and credit with each department of the 

 farm, becomes one of considerable magnitude. Yet I am positive that the 

 highest degree of success cannot be attained without doing this, and that 

 for the time so consumed, if the work be well done, the farmer will, " in 

 the long run," be richly compensated. As soon as one commences such 

 work as this, he is led to observe more carefully ; every bushel of corn, 

 every ton of hay, every pound of oil meal, will, after its consumption, be 

 brought to judgment, and will be required to give an account of its work. 

 Comparisons will be made, correct values • will be placed upon the various 

 farm crops, and " guess-work " will, in many cases at least, give place to 

 positive knowledge. 



A very intelligent Irishman, whom I have had in my employ for some 

 time, and whose judgment upon most matters is of real value to me, often 

 insists that I keep my " growing pigs" too fat ; that I " throw away corn" 

 by so doing, etc. Very likely half the farmers in Kane County would 

 agree with him ; and yet, I cannot find one who holds to such opinions 

 that ever loeiglied or measured to find the actual cost of a three hundred 

 pound hog. They often make assertions with great positiveness, but they 



