584 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 31 
BUSINESS FARMING IN CONNECTICUT. 
CLOSE FIGURING ON A DAIRY FARM. 
A Picture of Deserted Farms. 
As things are at the present time, the farmer has 
more to learn from the business man than from either 
the politician on the one side, or the scientific in¬ 
vestigator on the other, although he will do well to 
keep an eye on both of the latter. A business man 
would not buy three acres of land to do work which 
he could do with one ; yet the farmer does it. Of 
every three acres of the average farm, one will not 
pay its expenses for an indefinite time in the future ; 
and of the other two, one, by intensive cultivation, 
could be made to raise all that two will be expected 
to produce by average methods. Neither is it good 
business to cover land with buildings so costly that, 
with the land thrown in, the outlay cannot be re¬ 
covered. All this is too well known to waste time 
upon. 
I lately enioyed a visit to the well-known Beach 
Farm, near Hartford. This farm is in charge of Mr. 
C. E. Beach, son of the proprietor, and of Mr. F. H. 
Stadtmueller. The farm has been made self-support¬ 
ing, and the surplus is invested in permanent improve¬ 
ments, such as draining and the like. 
Mr. S. took me up into a water tower upon the 
premises, which commanded a broad view of the sur¬ 
rounding country. It was a beautiful summer after¬ 
noon, and an ideal rural picture with farms and farm 
buildings spread out as far as the eye could reach in 
all directions. But pictures are superficial. A tone 
of sadness shades the background of this one. The 
young men have been leaving these farms to clerk it 
in the Hartford stores, and the young woman, too, 
has been leaning on the gate with wistful eye towards 
some city flat. Many of these farms have shrunk 
their income below the profit point, and a mortgage 
or an uncomfortable pinching has been worrying the 
lives of the mature residents. As we looked over the 
scene, I suggested this to Mr. Stadtmueller. 
“ Yes,” he said, glancing over miles of rolling, cul¬ 
tivated acres, “ it is too true. These farms do not 
produce 50 per cent of their capacity ” He then called 
my attention to a broad belt on the southwestern 
slope of the city covering many acres. “ Ten years 
ago, when I came here, there was scarcely a house in 
that area.” It appeared before us covered with well- 
built wooden houses, typical of the outskirts of our 
smaller American cities. The late census of Hartford 
shows a gain of over 14,000 since 1890. 
“ There is no rail milk in Hartford yet, but it will 
soon be here. It has come to New Haven and Bridge¬ 
port. Milk is not our best hold. Our soil is a good 
loam over a deep layer of gravel on trap rock. It is 
a good truck soil. Truck farming and fruit growing, 
reinforced by dairying, are to be our future depend¬ 
ence,” said Mr. S. 
If this section will increase its production the pos¬ 
sible 50 per cent, the older people would find them¬ 
selves upon a comfortable basis, and it is hoped that 
the bicycle and the trolley will supply the missing 
social link for the rising generation. It may take 
25 years to evolve these things, but it should be done 
in 10. 
How the Farm Accounts Are Kept. 
There are figures that lie and figures that tell the 
truth. Mr. S. is engaged in making a collection of 
the latter variety. The Beach Farm, which com¬ 
prises 350 acres of owned and leased land, with from 
100 to 125 head of cattle, 8 to 10 horses, and a large 
foi’ce of men, requires a good system of accounts. Mr. 
S. took me into the office, whose sides are lined with 
books of agricultural reference, farm plans, maps, 
specimens of farm plants, a safe, a telephone, and all 
the appliances of a business office. A complete sys¬ 
tem of double-entry bookkeeping is employed, and 
monthly balance sheets present the whole business of 
the farm and cost averages which increase in value as 
they increase in number. 
Each workman takes out with him in the morning 
a slip on which are printed the various headings on 
which labor may be expended. At the top is the date, 
then: “ Stock, Young Stock, Swine, Teams, Wood, 
Garden, Hay, Potatoes, Fruit, Roads and Fences, 
Corn, Rye and Wheat, Mangels, Rent, Soiling, Tur¬ 
nips, Ensilage, Fertilizer, Tools, etc., Ice, Pastures, 
Mill, Sundries.” This card he turns in at night with 
the number of hours of work which he has done dur¬ 
ing the day placed against its proper heading. By 
going over these slips, the superintendent can tell 
what each man has been doing, and after correcting 
them, they are entered upon the time book. The time 
book is journalized and from this entries are made 
upon a specially prepared ledger made wide enough 
for itemizing. This presents a full history of the 
farm operations. Their fiscal year begins January 1, 
although a natural farm fiscal year begins April 1. 
There is more time for inventory iD winter than in 
April. The inventory on hay, for example, is taken 
by measurements of the mows. By experiment, the 
amount fed per head per month has been ascertained, 
and each month, dairy, young stock, horses, pro¬ 
prietor’s private stable, etc., have been debited with 
hay actually used, and the hay account credited accord¬ 
ingly. Hay is debited cartage from barn to barn, the 
summer expenses of making the crop, such fertilizers 
as are bought for the grass, interest, taxes, etc. No 
account has been opened with the farm manure, as 
their system of farming has returned the manure to 
crops fed back to the animals producing it. But there 
are slips in this omission, as when hay or straw is sold 
for cash. Mr. S. said that as they developed their 
system, they would probably open an account with 
farm manure. But to come back to the hay, they 
estimate the loads of hay put into the barns to equal 
2,250 pounds when taken out to feed or sell. The 
animals are charged $10 per ton for hay By practic¬ 
ing careful estimates of the loads, and by sometimes 
weighing a load, Mr. S. has been able to come very 
close to the amount of hay put into the barn, so that 
the difference between what has been put in and that 
taken out, plus the inventory of the mows January 1, 
tally very closely, and he finds no difficulty in adjust¬ 
ing the difference. 
The animals of the farm are divided into stock, 
young stock, swine and teams. By the system of 
bookkeeping described above, some important ques¬ 
tions regarding the cost of farm animals are being 
worked out in a practical way. 
Something About the Cattle. 
They are milking from 50 to 60 cows now. In one 
stable are 31 registered Jerseys, who gave on the day 
I was there, 461 pounds of milk, an average of 15 
pounds. In the other stable of Guernseys and Ayr- 
shires, 24 cows gave 271 pounds of milk, an average 
of 11 pounds. But five of the cows in this latter stable 
were dry, and some in the former. The yearly aver¬ 
age of their cows runs between 3,500 and 9,000 pounds. 
The Babcock test credits their thoroughbreds with 
five per cent butter fat, and the grades 4.25 per cent. 
No grain is fed in summer. They have good pasture, 
and at the time I was there, were fed 40 pounds of 
green oats and peas in the stable at night. They are 
turned out in the morning immediately after milking, 
with no feed in the stable. The stable of the Jerseys 
was a spacious, light and airy basement, well white¬ 
washed. They whitewash with a force pump. The 
cows wore halters and were snapped to rings sliding 
on a vertical pole. There were no mangers. The 
cattle faced a 12-foot feeding alley, having a cement 
floor. A hollow for grain and water was made in the 
cement. There were no partitions between the cows’ 
heads when the ties were first put in, but the neces¬ 
sity of partitions was soon learned. Not washing to 
obstruct the freedom of feeding and cleaning the 
mangers, they put in a partition only 12 inches wide, 
and find this width sufficient to insure each cow her 
share of the food. This width of feeding floor gave 
plenty of room, and was easily cleaned. A team 
could be driven through if necessary. The stalls 
were 3 feet 3 inches in width, and 4 feet 10 inches 
from the face of the tie to the drop. A six-foot walk 
extended behind the cows. 
In the other barn were a select herd of some 45 
Guernseys and Ayrshires, grade and thoroughbred. 
This stable was an older one and unsatisfactory. The 
cows were clustered in short rows opening upon a 
side alley, and fastened by straps around the necks to 
an endless chain some 10 feet long, passing up and 
down on either side of the cow’s neck, and running 
over two small pulleys above and two below. These 
ties had proved cumbersome, and the cows did not 
keep clean. They were fed in deep mangers, which 
were inconvenient for cleaning. This stable is to be 
torn out and refitted with swinging stanchions. 
The Beach Farm has begun a bottled milk trade in 
Hartford. They run the surplus milk through a but¬ 
ter extractor, and sell sweet-cream butter for 35 cents 
per pound. This department of the business has not 
been running long enough to furnish figures of general 
interest, but the thoroughness bestowed upon its 
organization, promises results beneficial to both pro¬ 
ducer and consumer. 
What They Feed; Some Figures. 
Oats and peas are an important crop on this farm 
for summer feeding. When sown early, the yield 
averages eight green tons. Later sow 7 n run down to 
five tons. Oats and peas, and barley and peas do bet¬ 
ter sown in April or early May, than when sown in 
July or August for late feeding. Mangels are also 
raised for cow feed, but are considered an expensive 
crop, both in labor and in the fertilizer required, and 
in their exhaustive effect upon the land. They try 
to raise 30 tons per acre, or a little over. 
“To insure such a crop,” Mr. S. says, “ land must 
be in exceedingly good tilth, both as to fertilization 
and physical soil conditions, and the stand of plants 
very even. We fertilize for mangels with 15 tons per 
acre of stable manure, 100 pounds of muriate of pot¬ 
ash, and 250 pounds of bone. Our oats and peas are 
manured with 15 tons of stable manure per acre, or 
else follow on land previously heavily fertilized for 
other crops, when no manure is supplied to the oats 
and peas.” 
They seed down to grass by sowing the grass seed 
in the corn at the last cultivation, and then going 
through with a light tooth cultivator or harrow. 
“How much seed do you use per acre ? ” 
“ If the crop is designed for selling hay, we use pure 
Timothy only, 20 pounds per acre. If for our home 
use, 4 pounds of clover, 4 pounds of hulled Red-top, 
and 14 pounds of Timothy.” 
“ What has your bookkeeping taught you regard¬ 
ing the cost of keeping a cow ? ” 
“ At present prices, the cost of feed per year per 
cow having a capacity of 300 pounds of butter per 
annum, should not exceed 10 cents per day in order 
to make a profit.” 
“ What have you learned regarding the cost of rais¬ 
ing your heifers ? ” 
“ Under the present condition of the market for 
dairy products, butter especially, each year's growth 
of a heifer to the time of calving, should not exceed 
$18. Of course these figures apply to our local mar¬ 
kets, and might not apply to a wide extent of ter¬ 
ritory. Regarding heifers, this average includes com¬ 
pensation for all disappointments—that is, for such 
animals as are kept until two or three years old, and 
are then sold for beef because we cannot breed them.” 
Mr. Stadtmueller figures the life of a farm team at 
15 years ; these are horses, not mules. Rather long- 
lived horses, it would seem. Wear and tear on their 
present teams has been figured at five per cent com¬ 
pound interest on $200. On account of the drop in 
the horse market, the price will be reduced to $150 at 
the next computation. An easier, but cruder and, 
perhaps, less accurate method of computing the de¬ 
preciation of animals and machinery, is to deduct 10 
per cent simple interest annually. This exhausts the 
base in 10 years, and my respect for Mr. Stadtmueller’s 
mathematical attainments would prevent my asking 
what happens to the team then ; still it has sim¬ 
plicity to recommend it. His monthly balance sheet 
for April, 1895, showed a cost of 11 cents per hour per 
horse. This does not include harness or wagons. 
These are put into the tool account. e. c. birge. 
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To Start Grass on Thin Land. 
Jt. S. L., Washington , D. C .—I have 25 or 30 acres of land which 
must be seeded to tame grasses, as the wild have entirely dis¬ 
placed the other. What is the best course to pursue to accom¬ 
plish this end ? My soil is thin, being broken down gneiss, which 
gives a light, micaceous soil that, when under water, becomes a 
quicksand. In the center of one field is a knoll, the whole of 
which is rotten rock. Here and there on the farm are ridges of 
quartz, the original gneiss holding it having decomposed. I can 
grow good grass provided I solidify it with stock in the early 
spring. The light soil will not puddle back after winter frosts, as 
do my native soils in Ohio ; as a consequence, if I do not ram it 
back by some means, wild grasses, etc., invariably crowd out the 
tame I purpose hereafter to use a heavy roller in the spring. 
ANSWERED BY PROF. I. P. ROBERTS. 
Since this land appears to be too light to hold 
grasses, the two objects to be sought, after plowing 
it, are, the setting free of plant food, and the solidifi¬ 
cation of the ground. I am not certain in what time 
of year it would be best to sow the grass as far south 
as Washington. I think the practice usually observed 
in the neighborhood of the land will be found satis¬ 
factory, although usually grasses are sown too late in 
both spring and fall for best results. The land should 
be plowed from one to two months before it is pro¬ 
posed to seed it. The time between plowing and seed¬ 
ing should be spent in harrowing and cultivating the 
ground ; as the time for seeding approaches, the roller 
should be used frequently, and the surface kept light 
and friable for not more than an inch deep. A Breed’s 
weeder should do this, I judge, in the most satis¬ 
factory way, far better than the ordinary harrows 
which run very much deeper. 
It will be seen that the aim is to get the body of the 
land well pounded down. 1 judge from the communi¬ 
cation that it is entirely too loose for best results, 
and in order to promote capillarity, retard evapora¬ 
tion, and form a good seed bed, the immediate surface 
should be kept loose and light. If there is danger 
that the seeds will not germinate after they are sown, 
then roll so that the water will rise, not to within an 
inch of the surface, as it will do if left unrolled, but 
