A STUDY IN THE COST OF PRODUCING MILK. 23 
Where this practice of supplementing the dairy business with the 
production of cash crops is feasible, it is profitable for the dairyman 
to sell some crops and purchase concentrates. If, by the growing of 
a cash crop, it is possible from the net receipts of one acre to buy a 
quantity of concentrates equivalent to that which could be raised on 
1^ or 2 acres, it would be folly to grow the concentrates. In other 
words, this class of feed should not be grown when it is possible to 
raise some other crop at a greater profit without seriously affecting 
the labor required on the farm. 
The majority of the cows in the United States are found on the 
general or diversified farms. The herds on these farms are smaller 
than on the specialized dairy farm, but there are so many farms of 
this class that they produce the greater part of our dairy products, 
aside from market milk. Owing to the meagerness of the receipts 
per cow on many farms of this type, it is safe to assume that the 
complete cost of the product is often more than the actual cash re- 
ceipts. Nevertheless, cows are kept on these farms, and have beea 
kept for years. This would not be true if, on the average, their 
owners did not feel that their farms produced greater incomes with 
these cows than they could without them. 
The principal reason that this class of farmers can continue to 
produce dairy products at an apparent loss, as shown by cost ac- 
counts, is that in connection with the profitable production and mar- 
keting of crops the cows consume by-products and low-grade ma- 
terials, and also use land as pasture that otherwise would be wasted. 
Moreover, the manure recovered is beneficial in further crop pro- 
duction. The quantity of such feedable materials that otherwise 
might largely be wasted if not fed to live stock, is in great measure 
determined by the location of the farm in reference to markets. 
That is, what may be a by-product on a farm several miles from a 
railroad station or a city market may be a readily salable product 
on a farm close to market. Different cropping systems yield different 
quantities of these feedable materials. For example, a cropping 
system of potatoes, beans, wheat, and hay will yield less feedable 
by-products than corn, oats, wheat, and hay. Regardless of the 
quantity of these materials produced on diversified farms, the fact 
is that unless such materials are consumed and made into manure by 
live stock such would, in many cases, be a total waste. In practice, 
therefore, it is not a question of charging this feed on such farms at 
$3, or $5 or $7 per ton, as must of course be done in cost accounting, 
but of utilizing otherwise valueless material in such a way that it will 
return something. The problem of these farmers is to make use of 
this roughage on the farm and to convert it into a product which has 
a ready market. These farmers have found that one of the best 
ways of doing this is by feeding it to dairy cows. 
