82 



VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



Increase or 



Acreage. 1903. 1904. decrease. 



St. Albans 400 acres 350 acres —12.5% 



Essex Junction 050 acres 875 acres -|-34.6% 



Waterbury 155 acres 225 acres -|-45 % 



Northfield * 250 acres 



Windsor 500 acres 500 acres 



Westminster 650 acres 650 acres 



Brattleboro 300 acres 400 acres -1-33.3% 



Total 2655 acres 3250 acres 



Percent, increase for 1904, 22.4. 



*Not operated on account of unfavorable season. 



The contracted area for 1904, 3,250 acres, is over 20 per cent, in excess 

 of the actual acreage of the preceding year. 



Purchase price of vegetables by the canners. — The prices paid by the 

 operators for corn varies considerably in the different sections of the 

 State, owing to diverse methods of purchase which are in vogue. The 

 corn is contracted to the operator of the northern factories at so 

 much per ton for ears broken from the stalks, while at the more south- 

 ern plants the purchase price is based upon a ton of husked ears from 

 which the butts and tips have been removed. The 1904 prices were: 

 St. Albans, $9; Essex Junction and Waterbury, $8.50; Northfield, $8; 

 Windsor, Westminster and Brattleboro, $14. The shrinkage incident to 

 the removal of husks, butts and tips not being known, it is impossible to 

 compare the prices paid at the three southeastern factories with those 

 paid at the northern ones. The slight variation in prices between the 

 four northern factories may be due in part to the varieties of corn grown 

 at each of the canneries. 



Five dollars a ton is paid for squash and pumpkins and fifty cents a 

 bushel of thirty pounds for beans. 



Yield per acre and money value. — In favorable seasons the acre yield 

 of unhusked ears is from 3-6 tons, and of husked ears from 2-3^ 

 tons. From 5-8 tons is a fair average for squash and pumpkins and 

 from 1-2 tons of beans. The larger yields are only secured on land of 

 good fertility and tilth. These crops bring, at the prices mentioned 

 above, from $24 to $56 per acre for corn, $25 to $40 for squash and 

 pumpkin, and for beans, $33 to $66. The stover forms an added asset 

 in the growth of the corn crop. 



In such unfavorable seasons as those of 1902 and 1903, when as low as 

 one ton of unhusked ears were reported an acre, the profit to the grower 

 dwindles almost or quite to the vanishing point. 



The farmers seem to grow at present more particularly the several 

 Country Gentleman and Crosby varieties. The industry is in almost 

 every case simply a side issue to other and more general lines of 

 farming. Owing to the recent poor corn years many farmers who have 

 grown this crop for the canneries are skeptical as to profit, while others 

 withhold judgment. In those localities where the industry has been 

 longest established consensus of opinion is that it is in the long 

 run and at present prices a fairly profitably venture to grow corn tor 

 the cannery. The stover is commonly ensiled (often with other corn), 

 made into dry fodder or used as a soiling crop. The husks and cobs are 

 fed to cows when fresh, to swine when sour, or are ensiled. 



