102 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



present valuation of land in farms ($18.93 per acre for 1870, bj- the 

 census,) and hundreds of millions are at the command of our busi- 

 ness. But the first start, the gaining of confidence for our business, 

 must first be established. 



There are in agriculture, as ever3-where, men without business 

 energy. Men of resolves but not of action, who have uo confi- 

 dence in their business, nor business in them ; who are in a condition 

 of semi-bankruptcy ; who have all the 3-ear to figure their expendi- 

 tures down to their small incomes, working when the}' feel like it. 

 The freedom, and certaint}- of corn bread and pork, makes farming 

 attractive to such men. Sheer necessity will keep such farmers, 

 following by imitation, a generation in the rear. To all others, the 

 question of capital is the smallest " lion in the way," and inherited 

 methods the largest. Given, 50 acres of plow land, now producing 

 35 tons of hay ; 2^ acres corn, 100 bushels shelled corn, and five 

 tons stover; 1 acre potatoes, 100 bushels; and 125 bushels of oats 

 and barley, worth in the barn $450. In the spring put ^our manure 

 over 7 acres in place of 3^ acres, and add 250 to 300 lbs. dissolved 

 bone-black, and 100 to 125 lbs. muriate of potash, costing $6.90 to 

 $8.37 to the acre, for G acres corn, and 125 lbs. each dissolved 

 bone-black and muriate potash, to 1 acre potatoes, costing $5.29 ; 

 total cost. 84 G to 855. You will now get 50 bushels shelled corn 

 per acre or 300 bushels, 15 tons of stover, and 150 bushels of pota- 

 toes, but 2^ tons of hay less. Your excess crop will cost but little 

 more in labor, 30U having become full or part owner of a coru- 

 planter, horse-hoe and hiller, for corn and potatoes ; Thomas smooth- 

 ing harrow, and disc harrow, whose total cost is but $75 or $100, if 

 planter is two rowed. Value of excess crop over previous j'ear with 

 corn at 65 cents, potatoes, 40 cents, and corn fodder $6 per ton, 

 less 2J tons of hay at $10 per ton, $187.75. This will more than 

 pa}' for tools and fertilizer. During the summer you will want to 

 feed $100 Avorth of middlings to pigs that will return the money in 

 the fall. If you have capital or credit enough, the excess fodder 

 grown will want to be fed, and a ton or two of cotton-seed meal fed 

 with the corn fodder and straw, after the clover ha}' has given out, 

 that should go with it. If capital is lacking then a part of the grain 

 could be sold, but you will not probably be forced to this. The 

 second year you will have very much more manure and better than 

 before, and can break ten acres, using chemicals as before, and also 

 on the grain ground, making seventeen acres to fertilize. Twenty 



