I sold in December something more than four hundred cockerels, which brought $215.  The apples from the old trees were good that year, but not so abundant as the year before, and they brought $337,—­$2.25 per tree.  The hens laid few eggs in October and November, though they resumed work in December; but the pullets 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 I do not understand that terrapin and champagne are necessary to comfort, health, or happiness.