Norwich bulletin., 1911-09-02
A COMMON SORT OF cow-A COMMON WAY OF FIGURING

(Written Specially For the Bulletin.)
I've talked, several times about the
curious way in which farmers often
mischarge themselves in their ac-'
counts with their farms. A striking
example has recently come under my
eye in the letter of a Minnesota farm
er who is defending the dairy
championing it as q protlt producer,
He tells. the story OF his COW
Blossom" He does not pretend that
she is anything extra as cow:-Just
a fair Jersey grade who gives "eight
quarts of nice milk a day eve will
all agree that this is not an epoch
making flow) Well he states that
last year was "2.190 quarts of milk,
worth, at four cents IL quart, $3.50.
Then he goes on; She furnished zoo
pounds of butter worth an average of
Is cents a pound, or $40. Also she
has a calf which the writer says lis
worth $40 to me, making a total in
come from the COW. so far this year,
Of s152.60."
The out go to secure this has been
him 20 quarts of sweet corn seed
which he planted and this kept her
in fodder all the next year Her
pasture costs nothing as my land
lord doesn't charge for pasture
The moral of this mans argument,
If it has any.-seems to be that any
body can make $152.60 a year from
d common sort of COW.
l can't help wondering whether
everybody could get 20 quarts of
sweet corn given them. por cow, for
seed. and land enough to plant it, and
pasturage enough for the open season,
all for nothing. And, of course, some
sort of shelter for the slower and
some sort of stable for the beast, all
tax-free and insurance-free and re-
pairs-free.
l also wonder just how he managed
to get $50 pounds of butter from his
cow, and yet sell the milk,-12,190
quar- ts"-at four cents a quart That
strikes dairymen here in the effete
east" as a bit high for skim milk.
And,-where did he get the milk to
raise a $40 calf on, after he had
skinned all the cream off the moth
er's yield to make 250 pounds of but
ter. and then sold all the milk at four
cents quart?
This man is undoubtedly honest He
thinks he made over $3.50 last year,
from his grade Jersey, and that any
one else can do as well The Min
nesota farm editor to whom he sent
his letter seems to agree with him,
for the editor prints the letter under
the alluring caption Making his
Farm Pay" Yet, if Mr.. Man had
been compelled to furnish his own
pasture and his own fences and his
own barn, and hadn't been able to
credit himself with the milk twice
over,--once as butter and once as
milk.--he might not have found the
baIancesheet SO pleasant.
It's one of the things you know I've
kept han1mering at for d long time
as often as L thought you would stand
for it,-this matter of farm charges
Il r.11fT
keep any accounts at all. We keep
some change" on the clock shelf and
some bills in the old wallet. When
we sell something we add the money
to the stock: when we need some
thing we buy tiff there's money
enough on hand to pay for it. Some
times we have quite a little 'wad,
and sometimes the exchequer is
fororn emptiness. Those of US who
live that way simply consider the
money we take as income and tAe
money we .spend as outgo. and let it
go at that We don't need set of
books to tell us that we've only thirty
nine cents and a postage STAMP on
hand. The clock-shelf tells us that.
whenever. we look at it.
Others of US try to keep an eiabo-
rate set of books, quite as detailed
and intricate as those which are the
pride of some bookkeeper in big
store. We work all day and then
devote our evenings and often parts
of the real night to posting our
books" Not being trained and skill
ed bookkeepers most of us who try
that get things into a. snightily tansl
ed up mess. sooner or later. The
books and the actual cash on hand
won't agree,-won't come within four
dollars of agreeing, and we can't
make them. Then, if there's more
cash than the books show there ought
to be, we have to take out the surplus
and put it in the other breeches pocA
ct and wait a chance to smuggze it
back, some way where it won't con-
fuse the books again. If there's a
tage,-which is more ikely.--we
charge it to profit and loss and
start a new column with an even
balance.