84 MASSACHUSETTS AGEICULTUEE. 



Perhaps half a day's labor of horse and mau is as correct an 

 assumption for the average practice as any I can make. 



d. The labor of planting is stated at two days by one com- 

 petitor. As the others are silent on this point, I will make 

 an estimate of the time, by comparing the cost of planting 

 with the wages of labor. Subtracting fifty cents from the 

 "cost of seed and planting," in eighteen cases, between the 

 years 1865 and 1870, I find the average cost of planting is 

 stated at $3.09. The average rate of agricultural wages in 

 Massachusetts, in 1866, is given at $38.94, without board, by 

 the year. This is about $1.50 a day. Dividing the average cost 

 of planting, $3.09, by the average value of a day's labor, $1.50, 

 and the resulting two da^^s corroborates the statement given. 



e. Farmers differ greatly in the care given to the growing 

 crop, and their practices vary. Some use the plough and cul- 

 tivator almost entirely ; many the hoe exclusively ; but the 

 majority combine the two. From thirty-nine reports made 

 since 1860, I find the average number of "cultivations" to be 

 2.4, and of "hoeings" 2.3. As to the time occupied in cul- 

 tivating, I find but one statement — one day for horse, man 

 and boy, per acre. The expense of cultivating is given in one 

 case since 1865, at $1.75 per acre. Of hoeing, the expense 

 given, the average of three reports, since 1865, also, is $2.93. 

 This makes the cost of cultivation a little^ over $5.00 per acre, 

 or reducing to time, about three days of man and one of horse 

 labor. The usual allowance of half a day for cultivating and 

 one day for hoeing on the average, when multiplied by the 

 average number as given above, gives nearly equivalent results. 



/. The labor in harvesting is not given in any case, and it 

 difi'ers in its method. Some cut out the top-stalks, while 

 others are content to cut the whole plant together. The 

 labor of cutting stalks is placed at four days by one, and the 

 same time as occupied in hoeing by two. The average would 

 be about two and one-third days. With this digression, I 

 proceed to the deduction of the labor, by the cost given of 

 harvesting. Twelve reports since 1865 give as an average 

 $8.28 an acre. Dividing this by $1.50, the average wages, 

 and five and one-half days is the product. It would seem as if 

 horse-labor had not been charged at its full value in these cases. 



g. The cost of husking is estimated at three cents a bushel 



