608 
THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
April 18, 
COST OF RAISING COLTS AND DAIRY 
STOCK. 
B rents A’s farm, devoted chiefly to 
dairying, and by lease “covenants” to pay 
A "one-half of all crops and products of 
said farm.” A furnished 11 cows and B 
nine, the increase of said cattle to be 
owned by A and B “each one-half thereof 
and the profits of said cattle and the in¬ 
come therefrom during the said term to be 
divided equally.” B is “to furnish the nec¬ 
essary teams, wagons and farming tools, 
and the said teams kept upon the farm 
under this agreement are to be fed out of 
the undivided hay and grain.” B has ten¬ 
anted farm on this lease for three years, 
March 1, 1912, and during this time has, 
without A’s knowledge or permission by the 
lease, kept brood mares and raised five 
colts, on pasture, undivided hay and grain 
as necessary teams, instead of using that 
farm produce to increasing dairy herd; in 
fact A has fewer cows now than when B 
took farm. These conditions A found when, 
after 2y a years’ absence West, he returned 
last Fall to erect an additional barn. A 
employs B to do all the hauling on the 
barn job he could, for which he charges 
A 40 cents per hour, although A furnishes 
one-half team's feed, which price thus set 
was highly satisfactory to outside teams 
employed. During late Fall months A was 
at farm the two brood mares were not in 
harness, although B’s leisure man could have 
profitably used a team at farm work or on 
barn hauling. Also an emergency arose 
in the farm work naturally calling one of 
the mares to harness, but neither came; 
which facts show the mares’ chief duty to 
be raising colts and to count even one of 
them with the necessary teams amply credits 
them for what farm work they both did. 
A and B have agreed to settle this mat¬ 
ter on the basis of the value of the young 
dairy stock that could have been raised on 
the feed consumed in producing the colts; 
and to get at the matter impartially agreed 
to ask The R. N.-Y. to answer the follow¬ 
ing questions: 
1. How does the cost of raising colts 
(aside from service fees) compare with the 
cost of raising young dairy stock of cor¬ 
responding ages, where not much work is 
got from the mares; the colts and mares 
well kept, pastured but otherwise stall- 
fed on hay and grain? 
2. What, in Western New York, is the 
value of—or what should one expect to 
have to pay on March 1, 1912, for a com¬ 
ing yearling, for a coming two-year-old 
and for a coming-three-year old, heifers 
and voung cows of well-kept dairy stock 
raised from good fair grade cows bred to 
a good registered bull? header. 
As to the cost of raising a colt, I 
can hardly see how a colt can be raised 
profitably by an otherwise idle mare, in 
the dairy section of New York State. 
Not one colt in 10 will be worth the 
market price of the food that the mare 
and colt have eaten up to the time the 
colt is a year old. The profit in raising 
colts on dairy farms, consists in plan¬ 
ning to have the colt come in the Fall 
after the most of the work of the dairy 
farm is done, and thus give the mare 
the job of raising a colt when she would 
otherwise be idle, and eating up a good 
share of the profits of her Summer’s 
work. It is worth about $75 to keep 
a mare for a year. So, if two mares 
are kept to do the work of one horse, 
we have $37.50 to charge up to the colt 
to start with. If the colt comes in the 
Spring, we will charge him nothing for 
feed until say November, when he must 
be fed hay and grain for about 200 
days, and he will eat a ton of hay and 
25 bushels of oats, or other grain to 
that amount. This will make the colt 
cost at least $70 at a year old. After 
this he can be kept for about $50 a 
year until he is three years old. About 
the only gain that I can see in raising 
our own horses is the fact that we can 
raise the class of horse that we want 
to use, and the horse we raise will be 
acclimated. When we buy a green 
western horse, we should not ask too 
much of him the first year. I would 
as soon have a native three-year-old as 
a western four-year-old, everything else 
being equal. . . . 
Neither is there much profit in raising 
dairy heifers. A two-year-old will cost 
about $50 to raise, and that is about 
what she will bring on an average. But, 
like the horses, I would rather take the 
chances with the heifers of my own 
raising than to go out and pick them 
up as I could find them. Another ad¬ 
vantage in raising young cattle is that 
if only milkers were kept, too much 
help would be required at milking time, 
and they could not be profitably em¬ 
ployed through the rest of the day at 
all seasons of the year. A and B can 
best settle this question between them¬ 
selves. But if I were going to say any¬ 
thing about it, I would advise A not to 
be too hard on B in adjusting the mat¬ 
ter. Taking farms at halves is not one 
of the get-rich-quick games at the best, 
and only about 25 per cent of the men 
who follow it receive ordinary hired- 
man wages for the year. In my county 
about 27 per cent of the farms are rent¬ 
ed, which is a greater percentage than it 
should be. J. grant morse. 
If the calf or heifer is fed as it should 
be, there will be very little difference 
between the cost of maintaining it up 
to two years old, and a colt properly 
fed at the same age; from that time 
on the heifer should at least pay her 
way. Unless the colt is of the draft 
breeds—when he may do more work— 
he will be an increasing bill of expense. 
If the mares do nothing but raise 
colts, their keep should be paid for. If 
the}'- run in pasture during the Summer 
about $75 a year I should consider a 
fair sum for their maintenance. This 
year, with hay at $20 a ton, it would 
be worth from $10 to $15 more. A 
well-raised yearling, from good cows 
and a registered bull, should be well 
worth on March 1, 1912, $30; a two- 
year-old, $60, and one three years old 
$75. The two-year-old will eat more 
forage than the yearling, but the latter 
must have more milk and much more 
labor expended on it. 
EDWARD VAN ALSTYNE. 
The cost of raising colts is slightly 
more than the cost of raising young 
cattle figured on a basis of pounds live 
weight. I have no data from our ex¬ 
perience here which would give us any 
clue to the cost of raising colts. There 
is so much guesswork concerning the 
cost of farm crops and live stock that 
one does not like to give estimates. The 
second question is pretty nearly as hard. 
Yearling heifers are worth anywhere 
from $20 to $50, two-year-olds from 
$30 to $60, and three-year-olds from $40 
to $70. One would have to see the stock 
and know something about prices in 
that locality before passing judgment. 
St. Lawrence Co., N. Y. h. e. cook. 
Sheep and Goats. 
I notice in a recent issue reference to 
Connecticut trouble with dogs among sheep. 
I have owned a small herd of about 500 
head at a time, and learned my business 
in the saddle, often in rain and cold, and 
will say positively that a few good sturdy 
goats in a flock of sheep (wether goats will 
do) will keep the ordinary stray dog away. 
The sheep might be a quarter mile away, 
but when they see the dog they will go full 
tilt and get behind the goats. Only draw¬ 
back is that they keep the sheep in the 
brush, as goats do not like grass and the 
sheep stay with them. H. B. G. 
James Island, S. C. 
It. N.-l r .—We have had several reports 
from parties who claimed that dogs broke 
in and killed the goats as well as the sheep. 
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RAKE" 
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JtkaJL^jrtrt Dtfitn CbM Bel)* 
DIRIGO SILOS 
ARE QUALITY SILOS 
THROUGH AND THROUGH 
Air-tight doors—highest grade lum¬ 
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STEVENS TANK & TOWER CO.. Auburn, Maine 
A Valuable Book 
on Silage 
and the Building of 
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(Yours for the Asking) 
We’ll gladly send 
this book of nearly 90 
pages of practical 
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Sent you without charge. 
COMPANY 
UNIVERSAL P cement D 
CHICAGO PITTSBURGH MINNEAPOLIS 
72 West Adams St. Frick Building Security Bank Building 
Annual Output 48,000,000 Sacks 
The Old Silo Troubles Banished—no more hoop¬ 
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NATIONAL FIRE PROOFING COMPANY 
Agricultural Department L 
University Block, Syracuse, N. Y. 
S I Ij 
WEEDSPORT PATENT FRONT AND 
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TWO STYLES 
Hemlock. Spruce. Norway Pine. White 
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Write for Catalog—Box 83. 
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Weedsport, N. Y. 
HARDER 
The“Quality” 
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Why buy a tub when you can get a Silo? Why 
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Box 1 1 , Cobleskill, N. Y. 
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wROSSSILO 
The value of ensilage, for dairy or 
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Profit by our experience and build . 
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inyii * • • i . « 
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