Live Stock Breeders' Association. 



115 



and phosphoric acid, and 15 cents per lb. for nitrogen. Another 

 point I should mention is labor, for in this table I have included 

 only the time actually put in on these crops which will average 

 about 120 days. I have not included the remaining 180 work days 

 of the year ; that is, I have allowed the farmer wages for himself, 

 his hand and his teams for only two-fifths of the time. One other 

 point we should not forget, is that the yields and prices are taken 

 from the most prosperous decade in American history — 1897-1906. 

 Now, if any period could show the average Missouri farmer to be 

 prosperous, it should be this period. With these points in our 

 mind, let us now run over the figures of this chart, and see what 

 results we get. 



TOTAL CO.ST OF FOUR FARM CROPS. 



We have seen from these figures that the present method of 

 calculating the cost of farm products includes only two items of 

 expense — investment and labor ; but the new problem and necessity 

 of maintaining soil fertility, and our inability under any known 

 process to do so without the purchase of mineral fertilizer, compel 

 us at once to change our method of calculation, and to include also 

 the fertility lost by growing a crop. This is, so far as I know, the 

 only rational method. It is also, I may add, the method of common- 

 sense and business necessity. It is a method that should meet with 



