2.') 2 liOAKD OF AGRICULTURE. 



crop as a rule will keep better before than after housing. Before 

 husking we draw to the barns. The stooks are easily opened or bent 

 over and the centre hill cut. A one horse team with a long wagon 

 and short stakes is the most economical arrangement. The work 

 of husking can be done in a large part by women and chihlren, with 

 stronger hands to crib the corn and mow the stover. 



Thus we have hastily gone through with tlie different processes of 

 cultivation and of harvesting the crop. Now we will review, mak- 

 ing estimates of expense by items. I might give you actual figures, 

 results of experiments on my own farm, but they might not be con- 

 clusive, as 3'ou could not probably obtain the same results on your 

 farm, and very likely 1 might not again on my own. I would sa}', 

 however, that the figures I shall give will not vary materiall}' from 

 'the cost of production of crops for several years. 



The plowing of such land as I have described, and in large fields, 

 may be done for 81.7.5 per acre, as a man and pair of horses without 

 any driver can easily turn two acres per day. The first harrowing, 

 if sod land, will cost fifty cents ; spreading fertilizer, 35 cents — as with 

 my machine I spread five tons on ten acres with one horse in one day. 

 This includes carting fertilizer to fiield by another team. Harrowing 

 in fertilizer with smoothing harrow, 25 cents ; marking, 25 cents ; 

 planting, 30 cents ; seed, 20 cents ; harrowing immediatel}' after 

 planting, 25 cents ; expense of crow lines and labor, 20 cents ; 

 planting over, 15 cents ; thinning out, 50 cents ; harrowing four 

 times more, at 25 cents each, $1.00 ; horse hoeing for four weeks, 

 once each week, at 35 cents, $1.40 ; stooking, two men one day, at 

 ^1.50, S3. 00 ; carting to barn, Si. 00; husking, cribbing and mow- 

 ing stover, 10 cents per bushel, for 50 bushels, $5.00. Such an acre 

 of land would be worth, I judge, in your State (it certainly would in 

 mine) $50. Interest on this amount at 5 per cent, $2.60 ; taxes at 

 1 per cent, 50 cents. Fences you will not need, as 3'ou will not want 

 to pasture it, and no one else has anv right. Now, I believe we 

 have all the items but the plant food — the exhaustion of the soil. 

 We have said something about the application of certain fertilizers, 

 but what has that to do with the expense of this crop. How are we 

 to tell whether our land is in a better or poorer condition than before 

 we gi'ew the crop? Again, do we know how much plant food has 

 actually been drawn from these applications? and how much from 

 stores left from former applications, and from the natural fertility of 

 the soil ? Would it not be a wiser course to charge the crop with 



