254 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



The price of stover will vary in different localities. Such as I 

 have described is worth two-thirds price of good hay. I am selling 

 it at my barn the present month for $12 per ton. As to the amount 

 I have the results of 116 experiments, also I have weighed the stover 

 from a bushel of corn many times myself, and while there is a wide 

 range of difference in different experiments, yet I believe a fair aver- 

 age is one ton of stover for twenty-five bushels of corn. 



Thus it will be seen we grow our corn for thirtj'-two cents per 

 bushel or a little more than one-half the market value. Without 

 doubt, many farmers present own farms of sufficient fertilit}' to pro- 

 duce all the corn they consume without the purchasing of any fertilizer, 

 and if the crop was fed upon the farm 3'our farms would be increas- 

 ing in fertility by the cultivation. Again, you own your acres and 

 there is no interest to pa}', and the taxes are to be paid whether you 

 cultivate them or not. Your own family and farm help could husk 

 man}' bushels during the late fall and winter months without addi- 

 tional expense. Further, on many farms there would be no neces- 

 sity for additional teams and very little more farm machinery needed 

 if the corn was raised upon the farm. In such instances, by far the 

 larger part of the cost would be averted, thus bringing the corn at 

 an extremel}' low figure. Let me say to 3'ou, brother farmers, to the 

 young men, there are mines of gold in the fields of Maine. You 

 need not go far away into the western wilds and delve under the 

 mountains for golden treasures. Rather dig for them under the old 

 ancestral trees and by the hearthstone of the fathers. 



