90 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



upon the exact araount which should be charged. If we 

 should call this labor 20 cents per horse per hour, as some 

 claim we should, it would add but $2.31 an acre to our cost 

 as given. Were it not for the principle underlying the ques- 

 tion of how to report a crop, I should leave the matter here 

 with the larger figure, for there is no disposition to lower the 

 cost of our crop, but rather to obtain for ourselves the exact 

 cost, and if we must err we would prefer to err in charging 

 the crop more in preference to less than its deserts. 



I hold the cost to the farmer is not the letting price of a 

 horse, but the cost of keeping a horse. It is not his business 

 to take the risks of a livery stable, and let his animals, and 

 therefore he should not charge his horse labor to himself at 

 those rates which are regulated by principles which are far 

 from those which govern the use of a horse on a farm. The 

 farmer looks to his farm for his profit, and uses the horse. 

 The livery man gains his living from the letting of his horses, 

 and the principles which would regulate the charges are unlike. 

 The true cost of horse labor to the farmer is the interest on 

 the first cost of his horse, an annual depreciation account, wear 

 and tear of harnesses, teams, implements, etc., depreciation 

 account of the same, care, and the cost of the food consumed. 

 The credit to this account is the manure made and the services 

 rendered. 



If we take the army ration of the United States in 1861 as 

 a standard for the food consumed, we have 14 pounds of hay 

 ,and 9 pounds of oats, corn, or barley. With hay at $25 

 per ton, and corn at 84 cents a bushel, this represents a cost 

 of $2.17 a week. Although this is a war ration, I am dis- 

 posed to believe that it is rather below the cost of keeping 

 large team-horses during the hardest of farm-work, as during 

 the ploughing season, harvest, etc. ; yet perhaps this sum 

 would represent a true average cost for the keeping of the 

 average farm-horse during an average year. For convenience 

 of computation, and in order to not underestimate, we will 

 call the cost $2.25 per week. 



Let us assume that the horse cost originally $300, and 

 that the interest account is $21 per year ; that the horse 

 will last ten years, and the depreciation account to be $30 

 yearly. We will also suppose that the cost of the harnesses, 



