ts did themselves proud. Sam said he gathered
from fourteen to twenty eggs a day from each pen of forty, which is
better than forty per cent. We sold nearly eighteen hundred dozen eggs
during this quarter, for $553. The butter account showed nearly
twenty-eight hundred pounds sold, which brought $894, and the sale of
eleven calves brought $180. These sales closed the credit side of our
ledger for the year.

Apples $337.00
Calves 130.00
Cockerels 215.00
1785 doz. eggs 553.00
2790 lb. butter 894.00
283 hogs 2702.00
--------
Total $4831.00

In making up the expense account of that year and the previous one, I
found that I should be able in future to say with a good deal of
exactness what the gross amount would be, without much figuring. The
interest account would steadily decrease, I hoped, while the wage
account would increase as steadily until it approached $5500; that year
it was $4662. Each man who had been on the farm more than six months
received $18 more that year than he did the year before, and this
increase would continue until the maximum wage of $40 a month was
reached; but while some would stay long enough to earn the maximum,
others would drop out, and new men would begin work at $20 a month. I
felt safe, therefore, in fixing $5500 as the maximum wage limit of any
year. Time has proven the correctness of this estimate, for $5372 is the
most I have paid for wages during the seven years since this experiment
was inaugurated.

The food purchased for cows, hogs, and hens may also be definitely
estimated. It costs about $30 a year for each cow, $1 for each hog, and
thirty cents for each hen. Everything else comes from the land, and is
covered by such fixed charges as interest, wages, taxes, insurance,
repairs, and replenishments. The food for the colony at Four Oaks,
usually bought at wholesale, doesn't cost more than $5 a month per
capita. This seems small to a man who is in the habit of paying cash for
everything that enters his doors; but it amply provides for comforts and
even for luxuries, not only for the household, but also for the stranger
within the gates. In the city, where water and ice cost money and the
daily purchase of food is taxed by three or four middlemen, one cannot
realize the factory farmer's independence of tradesmen. I do not mean
that this sum will furnish terrapin and champagne, but