For the first six months the cow gave, on an average, sixteen quarts a day, fourteen of which were sold to persons who came for it, thereby saving all trouble and cost of delivery. Two quarts were kept for the family.
For the next four months the sales were twelve quarts a day. Feed for the cow cost one dollar a week, besides hay and corn-stalks.
The cow was bought late in July, and by the first of August the milk trade was well established. After ten months' experience the boys made up a statement to show to their father when he returned from a trip to Europe.
| CREDIT | |
| 1,200 doz. corn at 20 cts. a doz. | $240.00 |
| Stalks | 20.00 |
| Milk, 184 days, 14 qts. at 8 cts. a qt. | 206.08 |
| Milk, 120 days, 12 qts. at 8 cts. a qt. | 115.20 |
| ———— | |
| $581.28 | |
| DEBIT | |
| 1 cow, $60.00; 1 ton hay, $18.00; feed, $40.00 | $118.00 |
| ———— | |
| Profit, cash on hand | $463.28 |
| Value of 1 cow | 60.00 |
| ———— | |
| Total assets | $523.28 |
Nelson S. Stone
RAISING PIGS
When I was nine years old I laid the foundation of my college fund. My grandmother had a flock of twenty or thirty geese which were kept for the pillows and feather beds they filled. Great was my delight when grandma told me that she would give me a pig if I would help her pick the geese. Helping her would have been reward enough, for I was a great grandma girl, but the ambition of my childhood was to own a pig. Did not my elder brother now own a beautiful mare and colt, and had he not started with a pig?
Wednesday was the day set for plucking the geese and all my leisure on Monday and Tuesday was spent in building a pen. Plenty of material from which to construct this edifice was found about the place. I wisely located it at the back of the henhouse which left me only three sides to build. One corner was roofed with the best boards I could find, for I didn't wish my precious pig to suffer from sunstroke or have his bed transformed into a mud-hole when it rained.
When the geese were picked to the last feather they could spare, I went with grandmother to select my pig from the litter of sucklings now ready to begin taking their food from the trough. She generously allowed me my choice, and if I did not get the pick of the bunch it was not her fault. I wonder how a girl of nine succeeded in transporting a lusty pig the three quarters of a mile between grandmother's house and ours. I should not like to undertake it now, but my confidence in my ability to do what I wanted done in those days was unlimited. A piece of rope, a stout cudgel, a pair of strong, young arms, and a high disregard of appearances sustained me. I got my treasure home and into his pen—no mean triumph even as viewed by my elder brother who had passed by the pig stage and even the calf stage and entered into the exalted realm of horse ownership.