COST OF A CROP OF CORN. 



85 



by one, five cents by another, while a third gives four days' 

 labor to 97 bushels of corn. This would be about six cents a 

 bushel. As I consider these statements to refer to merchant- 

 able corn, the average is about five cents, and reduced to 

 labor would be about 2.7 days. 



4. Interest and tax account. It is evident that the cultiva- 

 tion of an acre of land by the ordinary farmer, involves the 

 outlay of a large sum in tools, barn room, stock for manure, 

 and a dwelling for himself. Even fences and ditches gener- 

 ally help that one acre, and in reckoning the cost of a crop, 

 it is requisite to divide the whole capital of the farm by the 

 number of acres inclosed, and charge the dividend as the 

 value of the acre cultivated, for the interest and tax. Unless 

 this be done, the land must be charged with rent, and rent 

 should mean profit, which the farmer saves to himself by cul- 

 tivating himself. 



By the ordinary mode of procedure, the acre is supposed 

 to receive no benefit from fencing, and the crop no benefit of 

 the previous manures used. Guess-work has taken the place 

 of system. A winner of a prize for raising and reporting 

 a large and cheap crop, distrusts his own result, and will 

 not cultivate for farm profit what he claims to be profita- 

 ble, when competing for a premium. The interest and tax 

 account with a premium acre can never be given, so that 

 premium crops can be justly compared, until a uniform sys- 

 tem of valuation is decided upon. A difierence of valuation 

 of ten dollars an acre, makes about a cent a bushel difference 

 in the cost of our crop. 



Let us now tabulate the results reached, and gather the 

 hypothetical crop. 



Eight quarts seed-corn, at 80 cts. per bushel, 

 Manure removed by the crop, 



a. Carting and spreading dung, — 2 days, man and horse,* 



b. Ploughing, one day, man and 2 horses, . 



c. Harrowing, ^ day, man and horse, 



d. Planting, 2 days, 



e. Cultivation, 3 days man, 1 day horse, . 

 /. Harvesting, 5^ days, .... 

 g. Husking, 2.7 days, 



4. Interest and taxes, say .... 



Total cost of the acre, 



* Calling horse half value of man,— labor f 1.50 per day. 



$79 19 



