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.
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