232 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



rests over the beads of the fanners of the whole Northwest can only 

 be cleared away by the establishment of cheese and butter factories, 

 or some line of cattle husbandry." 



This seems to be suflicient evidence that the farmers of the State 

 of Maine can compete with the West in wheat growing even with 

 the poorest paying crop they raise. 



The next crop we will compare is the corn crop. I will not be ao 

 unfair as to compare the State of Maine's corn crop with the State 

 of Minnesota, when only the southern sections are adapted to this 

 crop, with an average yield of only 20 bushels ; or even Dakota with 

 its 18 bushels average yield, but will take a crop right in the midst of 

 the great corn belt, Kansas, if you please, with its bountiful average 

 yield of 35 bushels per acre. Now, when the Maine farmer rides 

 through a solid corn-field 400 miles in breadth and nobody knows how 

 long, he will find himself off his base again. But I intend to figure 

 this just as it is, let it come as it will, for or against us. 



In conversation with a gentleman, he remarked, ''You had better 

 sell your farm for just what it will bring and come to Kansas, the 

 banner corn-growing State." "Why," he says, "you can make more 

 money in one year in Kansas than you can in Maine in five. Why, 

 I was born in old Kennebec County and can well recollect how farm- 

 ing was done thirt}' years ago." 



"It was a rock here, a stump there, cutting bushes, building brush 

 fence, knocking around all winter in the cold." "Oh," he says, "I 

 know all about the State of Maine ; it is not worth living in as com- 

 pared with Kansas." Thinking the gentleman was putting things 

 rather stiong, and mistrusting that he was a real estate agent instead 

 of a farmer, I asked him if he would please tell me how large a farm 

 I would have to own in Kansas and devote it to corn-growing to re- 

 ceive $2000 profit after all expenses pertaining to the farm were paid. 

 After figuring for a while he replied 1000 acres. How do you get 

 the answer? Well, he savs, last year the average yield was 40 bushels 

 per acre ; corn was worth upon the farm 15 cents per bushel ; it cost 

 10 cents per bushel to raise it; this is $4 per acre to raise it. Six 

 dollars per acre the crop is vd^orth, leaving two dollars profit per 

 acre. This would require a nice farm of 1000 acres. I consulted 

 the official report and found the average yield was correct, the price 

 per bushel was all right, but found no data to prove that an acre of 

 corn could be raised for $4. But we will grant it. Now, I am well 

 aware that to plow an acre of land, free from stones, harrow it, plant 



