36 BULLETIN 716, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
FEED. 
The annual expense for feed bought on all these farms was $38 
per farm, or nearly 10 per cent of the total farm expenses. For all 
farms about one-twelfth of the feed expense was for roughage, 
mainly hay, and eleven-twelfths for concentrates — corn, middlings, 
bran, oil meal, cottonseed meal, tankage, poultry feeds, and in a few 
instances oats and wheat. 
FERTILIZER AND SEED. 
Expenses for fertilizer and seeds were $65 per farm, or about one- 
sixth of the total farm expense. Of this, $42 was for fertilizer and 
$23 for seed. 
Most of the fertilizer used in Palmer Township, was 14 per cent 
or 16 per cent acid phosphate. On a few farms steamed bone was 
the source of their phosphoric-acid supply, and occasionally farmers 
used both of these fertilizers. Some farmers used ready-mixed goods, 
with analysis of something like 2-8-2. Some farmers have practiced 
mixing fertilizers to some extent, generally using nitrate of soda, acid 
phosphate, and muriate of potash. Most farmers seemed to think 
that acid phosphate was the preferable form in which to get the 
supply of phosphoric acid. The expense for fertilizer included that 
for lime, which amounted to only a few dollars per farm. 
Most of the seed expense was for clover and grass seeds. As shown 
on page 23, very few of these farms produced all the clover seed used 
on them, and the production of timothy seed received even less atten- 
tion than that of clover. In reality, practically all farmers bought 
all the timothy seed they used. In addition to the purchase of clover 
and timothy seed, several farmers bought bluegrass or redtop. Of 
course, a farmer occasionally bought seed corn, wheat, oats, or rye, 
but the expense for such seeds was of little importance when com- 
pared with that for clover and grass seeds. . The annual seed expense 
for all these farms was 50 cents per crop acre. 
INSURANCE AND TAXES. 
The insurance carried on buildings and contents and live stock cost 
$5 per farm and varied from $3 to $6 for different years. Prac- 
tically all the insurance was carried in mutual companies. 
Taxes amounted to $48 per farm, increasing from $45 in 1912 to 
$51 in 1916. The combined expense for insurance and taxes was $53 
per farm, or one-eighth of all farm expenses. 
MISCELLANEOUS EXPENSES. 
All farm expenses not already discussed have been combined under 
" miscellaneous expenses." In this group were included all such 
