The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1911-01-20
Tests Show Dairymens Cannot =. : ]. ...'..... Z
Afford to Keep Poor Cows

The United States department o1
q agriculture has issued a warning thai
dairy farming is. not as profitable
as It was some years ago. The price
OF hay and other feed has advanced
between 100 and 300 per cent while
the price of butter and milk has not
gone up beyond so per cent.
twenty years ago hay cost $6 to
S0 ton, and bran about the same.
At that time butter sold for ap-
proximately 20 cents a pound, on the
average, that being what the farmer
got for it. Now hay sells for SIS
to $40 a ton. and bran at $32, while
butter brings about 80 cents pound
The department experts for sew
eral years have been making study
OF dairy farms, and some Of the re
suits of the study are now being an
nounced. A large number of these
farms, it is said blythe experts, are
actually running behind. ou
% A conspicuous example of what is
called fair profit is furnished BY a
dairy farm in Michigan. Books care
fully kept by the agricultural de-
partment from the data supplied by
the farmer indicate that each COW
gives him profit of SIT a year.
There are fifty-eight cows in his herd.
1t costs him S98 year, for each COW,
and the gross income from each is
$115. 3aBa fl4gtIsuln
b The Office of farm management in
the department headed.by Prof. Will
liam j. Spillman, has records for a
large number of dairy farms scatter
ed throughout number Of the
states. but none Of them. makes as
good a record as the farm in Mich
gan just referred to-. a .
This Office has recently made sur
vey in New Hampshire, including
1l8 dairy farms. Fifty-seven of
these paid 5 per cent on the farmer
investment and it is figured out tha,
if he could have had the same advan.
tage Of cheap living elsewhere, he
would have been much better off il
he had put his investment out at in.
terest and done no work himself
Sixty-one Of the New Hampshire
farms paid an average of 5 per cent
on the investment and gave. the
farmer $608 for his own labor and
ability as manager. On'the average
the proprietors earned s per cent in.
terest and received $256 year fol
their own management and work
These latter figures from the New
Hampshire survey indicate the entire
results of the farm operations. The
figures for the Michigan farm how
ever, take into account only the
herd. The farm as whole is credit
ed with the food which it furnished
to the cow, and the food is charged
at current rates. This will probably
make the Michigan farm show {
good profit on field crops, for it is
we'll managed, But the division
pei mits a acomplete separation of the
dairying operations and a determi.
nation of whether it was really pro
fitable for the farmer to keep herd
The charges against each COW in
clude the value Of the food, which
was about $52 a head; labor about
S25; interest on the cows value ane
depreciation; barn rent for the room
COW occupied; her share in contribut
ing to the breeding herd; mainten-
ance Of the dairy equipment; the val
ue of having the cow on the farm
for the sake. of the fertilizer. Nov
strangely enough, in, the case of the
Michigan farm, the profit resolves it.
self into the last item. 70 = q 4 aa-
The fact is evident that dairyine
in the United States is depressed BY
one element that must forever stanC
in, the way to block the dairymer
from success, says, New York writ
err. That element is the small, yiele
COW, and the steer that costs $40 tx
$50 a yearato keep and returns hel
owner $25 to $35for milk. antHif
Manylfa milk producer, with {
herd of thirty such cows, represent
7 ing an investment Of 81 ,O0O or 81 !,
200, is losing money regularly, anc
tltsff .,aGxiiilnfa 30 1iinsajf s1fS Il
Mrs. Martha 4. Mdrar aaul iss,ias