COST OF A CROP OF CORN. 83 



3. The cost of labor, cCc. The labor required on the corn- 

 crop I find as follows : — a, Mauuriug ; b, Ploughing ; c, Har- 

 rowing ; d, Marking and Planting ; e, Cultivating and Hoe- 

 ing,; /', Harvesting ; g, Husking. 



a. The average of eighty-six returns gives the amount of 

 manure necessary to produce a crop of eighty-one bushels per 

 acre as 28 loads, or seven cords. One return gives the labor 

 of manuring with 24 loads, and planting as 40 hours' labor of 

 man and 16 hours of horse. I shall therefore call the labor 

 of manuring the acre as two days of man and horse. To show 

 the difficulty of ascertaining this matter from the reports, I 

 will state that two farmers in one society, in a statement made 

 the same year, estimate the expense of moving a cord of man- 

 ure as at 30 cents and 95 cents respectively. 



I wish it to be understood here, that it is not the extra ex- 

 ertion applied to a crop which determines the actual cost, but 

 the labor which is applied in the daily course of the farmer, 

 working under the usual stimulus and not for a specified 

 premium ; nor is the expense of working a field adjoining the 

 barn a criterion of the cost of working another field more dis- 

 tant from the farm-buildings. I find by an estimate of an 

 engineer that a man can simply move with a shovel from 15 

 to 18 cubic yards of loose earth a day. Another estimates 

 the number of trips^made by a one-horse cart per day, — dis- 

 tance of transport 2,000 feet, or about two-fifths of a mile, — 

 at 25 loads of eight cubic feet to a load, allowing four minutes 

 for loading and dumping each tiip. It is not unreasonable to 

 suppose then that the farmer cannot load and move and spread 

 on an average more than d^ cords a day. 



b. Many farmers plough twice for their corn. Two state- 

 ments give one and a half days as the time occupied. As the 

 Agricultural Report of Maine is more full on this point, I con- 

 sult that and find the average of eight statements to be 14 

 acres in 29 days. It seems, however, if we compare the cost 

 of ploughing, which is frequently given, with the price of 

 labor, that the Massachusetts farmer ploughs about one day, 

 on the average, to prepare his acre for his corn. 



c. The time occupied in harrowing differs with the practice 

 of each farmer. Some believe in reducing the land to a fine 

 tilth, while others are content with bringing the soil level. 



