vm T VYYTTT Published Weekly by The Bural Publishing Co., 
' 333 W. 30th St., New York. Price One Dollar a Year 
Sound Advice 
NEW YORK, ,TL O 
1924 
Entered as Second-Class Matter 
Office at New York, N. Y.. undor 
26, 1879. at the Post 
Act of March 3. 1879. 
NO. 4799 
to a 
<? 
VS 
-to-the-Lander 
I a in 45 years of age, have a wife and five children ; 
the youngest .is five and the oldest is 18 years. I was 
born on a farm, but have been working as a baker since 
I was 14 years old, except about a year and a half 
handling a team of horses, making sidewalk, cutting 
some hay and raising a few acres of potatoes for my 
uncle. Now my eyes are failing me, working on the 
oven, and I wish to go on a farm. As you see I have 
not much practical experience, but have been reading 
Tiie R. N.-Y. for about 15 years, and think now by 
applying that which I have been reading, I ought to 
make good. 
I have the intention of buying a 300-acre farm in 
Delaware Co., N. Y. with 75 head of cattle, for $10,000, 
on which I could pay down $5,000, which is all I have, 
and the rest on mortgage. IIow much more help would 
1 need to run the farm? I have one boy of 14 and 
another 18 (but he is not very strong) and myself to 
work. My wife does not know anything about farm¬ 
ing. and the girls are too small. A friend advised me 
to take a good large farm of about 300 acres Avith 
buildings and farm machinery but no stock, turn it 
into a chicken farm, hire help to raise grain for fowls, 
feeding the roughage to sheep and other stock. If 
farm could be bought cheap enough, say $5,000 or $6,- 
000. with about $100 taxes, would it pay? P. p. 
Connecticut. 
I TEMIZED EXPENSE'S.—Should P. P. put $5,000 
cash into a 300-acre fa fun with 75 head of cattle, 
the farm equipped and in fair shape, at a total price 
of $1(5,000, he would have to give a bond and mort¬ 
gage of $11,000. That is, provided the $5,000 was 
sufficient to satisfy the owner for the personal prop¬ 
erty. P. P. would undoubtedly get about 60 milk 
cows, one or two bulls, and the rest young stock or 
heifers, and a team or two of horses, the usual 
local hay harvesting machinery, plow, harrow, nec¬ 
essary wagons, and sleighs. The 00 cows would do 
well under his management and with present prices 
should bring him in $6,500 annually. We will sup¬ 
pose that that would be his all and only income. 
On a 300-acre farm let us just itemize some of the 
absolute expenses, annually: 
Fire insurance (about) .$ 30 
Crain bill or feed bill . 2.000 
Interest on mortgage at 5 per cent ($11,000) ... 550 
Payment on principal (about) . 500 
Taxes (about) .... 250 
Extra help . 1,400 
Miscellaneous expenses . 300 
Total expenses .$5,030 
Income . 6,500 
Difference .$1,470 
This means that P. P. would have to raise a great 
many edibles to stretch $1,470 between a couple of 
healthy-eating hired men, himself, a wife and five 
children, and also provide clothing for his family, 
to say nothing about any number of extra ex¬ 
penses that might pop up—sick cows, sick horses, 
sick children, poor health, breakage, wear and tear, 
etc. The chances are against him. 
POOR ADVICE.—P. P.’s “friend” advises him 
wrongly, absolutely. If P. Ik has his heart set on 
a chicken farm he would better buy a chicken farm 
already equipped and doing business. You cannot 
turn a dairy farm or any other kind of a farm into 
a profitable chicken farm over night, and too, 
chicken farming requires skill and gray matter also, 
which are usually acquired by hard work and prac¬ 
tical experience. 
DIVERSIFIED FARMING—I am not an advo¬ 
cate of “diversified” farming. However, I should 
advise P. P. to go at farming in that way. First 
of all, I should advise him to let his $5,000 lie in 
some good bank or stay' invested where it is for a 
couple of years. Then I should advise him to pick 
the locality where he thinks he would like to settle. 
Then, due to present labor conditions, try to obtain 
a job or position with some good farmer in that or 
near that locality. His purpose should be to learn 
all he can about farming, conditions, methods and 
habits of the people in that locality; learn the 
things that go toward making a good farm, soil, 
water, equipment, pastures, meadows, w r ood supply, 
and all other resources. Let him give up one year 
to this purpose, disregarding wages altogether. Then 
his family, too, will have a chance to become ac¬ 
climated, hardened, countrified, strengthened. His 
wife will have a chance to learn how to can meat, 
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Bare Fashion, a Good Specimen of the Milking Shorthorn Breed. See Page 897 
