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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jan 3, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 32, No. 1.

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Question Corner

By Editor

1755.—Questions on Tithing.
Two correspondents write as follows:
1. Cane seed, 16 bushels @ 1.25 $20.00 Planting, 15.00 Cutting, raking, shocking, 15.00 Hauling and stacking, 20.00 Total, $70.00 Value of the cane about 80.00 Cost of growing cane about $70.00 Our profit on the cane, if sold, would be $10.00. Do we pay tithe on the value of the cane, $80.00, or on the profit, $10.00? Or should we pay tithe on the cane?
2. We have ten cows, from which we make about two thousand pounds of butter per annum. The cane we raise is fed to the cows. The value of our butter is, say, $500.00. The cost of producing it is as follows: Cane, $70.00 Pasturage, 84.00 Other feed stuff, 48.00 Total, $202.00 The profit on our butter is, say, $298.00. Do we tithe the butter at $500.00, or at $298.00?
3. We raise eight or ten calves per annum. The value of the calves at birth is, Heifers, $25.00 Bulls, 1.50 Should we pay tithe on them at time of birth, or when yearlings, less the expense of raising?
4. We sell chickens and eggs to the value of $180.00, and expend $90.00 to feed the chickens. What do we pay tithe upon, the gross sales or the increase?
1. When the cane is fed to the cows it is tithed in the butter, and should not be tithed as a separate product. If it were sold the tithe should be on more than ten dollars unless all the expense is hired. In all the Word of God a man's labor is not counted out of the amount to be tithed. If outside expense is incurred that is another matter. The man that is hired is to take the portion he receives and pay tithe on that; the Lord does not ask it twice. If the planting, cutting, raking, hauling, etc., were done by yourself, your tithe would be on the product, if the cane were sold.
Your tithe on the butter would be $500.00 less the expense of producing it, outside of your own labor. If the $202.00 is expense paid to others, which they in duty to the Lord should tithe, you would pay tithe on the $298.00, but your own labor should not be deducted as expense.
4. As to the calves, the tithe should be paid when they are sold, less actual expense outside of your own labor. If the calves are to be tithed they should be tithed when a year old, or at any rate at a regular time every year.