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i f • T vvrT fr Published Weekly by The Rural Publishing Co.. 
> 01. iiAAV J 1 I. 333 \v. 30th St.. New York. Price One Dollar a Year. 
NI'IW YORK. JULY 5. 1019. 
Entered as Second-Class Matter, June 2fi, 1870. at the Tost 
Office at N'ew York. V. Y.. under tlie Act of March 3. 1870. 
No. 4.141. 
The Cost of Some Farm Crops 
Figured On Central Michigan Conditions 
P RACTICAL EDUCATION.—Most men hesitate 
to refer to things that happened 40 years ago. 
It wax nearly that, however, when several young 
men were digging in a ditch on the farm of the 
Michigan Agricultural College. At that time th^ 
college enforced what it called a “labor system." and 
every student was expected to work at least three 
hours a day on the farm. We were paid eight cents 
an hour for ordinary work, but now and then some 
special job would come 
upfor which It! cents an 
hour was paid. A full 
system of tile drainage 
was under construc¬ 
tion. and the work 
was clone (from run¬ 
ning the original levels 
to putting in and cov¬ 
ering the tile) by stu¬ 
dent labor, under c ? - 
reetion of tlie profes¬ 
sors and farm mana¬ 
ger. We did this work 
as a part of our col¬ 
lege course, and it was 
always a source <>f 
great satisfaction tor 
any of us to go back 
to the college and find 
our old drains still 
running freely. As 
they dug in the ditch, 
it was natural that 
tlie students should 
discuss what were then 
the great things of a 
lifetime. That meant 
how they happened t<> 
he at college, and 
what they expected to 
do after they finished. 
Some remarkable 
stories of the way stu¬ 
dents were financed in 
those da y s w e re 
br ou g h t out i u 
that, ditch. T remem¬ 
ber that one boy told 
how his father had 
put aside a Chester 
White sow. The pigs 
from two litters a yea r 
were kept by them¬ 
selves and sold, the 
money to be applied to 
the hoy’s education. 
This income, w i t h 
what he earned at 
teaching school during 
the Winter, had 
financed him through 
two years. Others had 
similar stories of the 
savings and industries at home which were putting 
them through college. 
FINANCING THE COLLEGE COURSE.—One of 
the hoys told how his father each year had taken 
a 10-acre field of wheat to provide for the boy’s 
education, and this income, with the school teaching, 
was paying for the job. This boy went home during 
vacation, or on special leave, to help harvest the 
grain, and lie was generally on deck to help (it the 
Fun in the Field at IIarrest Time. Fift. 29.1 
ground and drill in the seed. At that time most of 
the farmers of Michigan felt that the competition 
in Western wheat was getting too strong for them, 
and it was not thought at that time that Michigan 
would excel as a wheat State in the future. To show 
how strangely things swing around, that boy. who 
was depending on the the wheat for his education, 
was not satisfied to go back to his father's farm as 
soon as he graduated, lie became a lawyer, business 
man, something of a 
politician, and reached 
high success in each 
calling. Then, finally, 
as happens to many 
men of that kind, he 
felt a desire to run a 
farm, to own a piece 
of land. 
FARM COSTS.—It 
is not likely that his 
old experience down 
in the ditch had great 
influence upon him in 
that decision, but lie 
bought a farm in Gra¬ 
tiot County. Michigan, 
and went at its devel¬ 
opment in the same 
thorough way in which 
he would have handled 
a big business or a 
large manufacturing 
enterprise.- Such men 
ought to know the cost 
of doing tilings, and 
when they apply tlie 
principles of business 
to a farming opera¬ 
tion we ought to get a 
clear idea of about 
what things cost them. 
So now we have a 
sta tement rega riling 
this farm from Win. 
A. Bahlke, who was 
the boy in the ditch, 
and is now the farmer. 
The following figures 
show his cost of pro- 
■d living beans, sugar 
beets and wheat. The 
farm is a good one, 
and has been thor¬ 
oughly under-drained 
and fitted at consider¬ 
able cost. Therefore 
the figures of rental 
value ought to he 
added to the actual 
cost of producing the 
crop. Mr. ?. a hike 
says that uuder-drain- 
age is the secret of 
