Newark post., 1910-03-09
Timely Words To Farmers

Timely Words To Farmers
(The Oxford News gives the follow
ing on the Milk Question. Conditions
are, about the same here. We print the
article in full)
WHAT. YOUR COWS COST. -
There has been vast amount OF
stuff commonly called "hot air. ci-cu-
lating among the farmers and dairy
men during the past week. Every
morning they hold an impromptu
meeting on the street corners and talk
about the best method of kicking the
seat Of George Abbotts trousers until
he pays them two or three dollars a
hundred for milk. But with all their
talk not one of them has brought for
ward any real figures showing just how
near a dairy comes to paying a man
for keeping it. The News, however, is
able to present these figures in regard
to one farmer and they are enough to
convince that farmer at least, that he
is losing money. The remainder OF
| them merely guess at the cost and
don't know whether they are making
money or not They prefer to think
they are not, just so they have some
thing to kick about.
John Pyle, operating the Howard
Yerkes farm near Barnsley. does not
| think anything about it; he knows that
he has kick coming. From the 18th
OF January to the 10th OF February, he
weighed every bit of feed he gave to
his nine cows, with the following re-
suit:
334S lbs. of cob meal. or AZ bu.
So lbs. OF corn at Soc bu. $40. .4S
Grinding at oc hushel. =. .ss-.-a.oI
1885 lbs of bran at ST. 40 cwt... 1888
4IS bundles OF cornfodder at &c
bundle 1912
Total cost of feed. ........... .$7574
Now Mr.. Pyle's milk check for 4356
lbs. OF milk at $I.7I netted him just
$7449, SO that when he came to balance
up he found that he had fed his cows
just $I25 worth more feed than he had
received for his milk.
But this is not all. 1t took him
about three hours a day to attend to
the cows, including the driving to the
creamery, etc. This, at ten cents an
hour including the wear and tear on
the horse, wagon and harness, made
thirty cents a day, or $3.50 for the
month. This put him $Io45 to the bad
If his cows were worth $40 each, then
the interest on the Investment would
be about $I.75 each month, and as
COW can only milk for about twelve
years, the depreciation in value of the
stock is at least $2.oo a month Tack
this $3.75 on to his loss and he is out
about $I42o
These are figures and figures do not
lie, SO that John is able to give facts
to the milk shippers while the other
people can only give surmises. If
the others would take the plan adopted
by Mr.. Pyle the price of milk would
go up in three days and if the shippers
could not afford it, as they probably
cannot, them they would raise the price
on the city consumer, which is what
really ought to be done anyway.
The News has been pushing this
campaign for the calculation of cost
for some time, but this is the first set
of figures we have received. If any
other farmers have any to offer we
would be glad to hear from them.
What we want are facts and when Mr..
Abbott has the facts, he will undoubt-
edly pay attention to them If he does
not, then the farmers can put off their
dairies and feed cattle or hogs. The
city consumer cannot expect to receive
milk at less than cost when the farmer
has to bear the loss. All that should
be demanded is a reasonable profit.
both for the dairyman and the shipper
and this profit must be paid by the man
who buys the milk.