96 



sales were $436. My conclusion is that when the " gude wife " is a good dairy- woman 

 butter-iuaking is very profitable, but when hired men manage the dairy it is poor 

 business. 



Massachusetts. — Franlcl'm : Hay and grazing; some say tobacco, but in a long race 

 I doubt it. Plymouth : Our principal branch grass and hay, but our most profitable 

 crops are vegetables and small fruits. Strawberries are found to afford more profit in 

 this county than tobacco in the Connecticut Valley. Berkshire: Has become the 

 staple crop, owing probably to the high price of labor. In raising and curing grass 

 all, or nearly all, the outlay for extra labor is limited to haying-time. When the crop 

 is secured the outlay ceases until the next hay season. Meadows are now kept up 

 more by top-dressing than formerly, and of course less plowing and less labor are called 

 for. The market for hay is good at all seasons at remunerative prices and ready cash. 



Connecticut.— :\eic London : Since September 1, 1873, hay has been selling for $28 

 to $30 per ton, and at that price farmers can make more by raising hay for market 

 than any other produce. Next to hay is the potato-crop. Some farmers who planted 

 their jiotatoes early sold the crop as high as $3 per bushel, and from that down to .f 1. 

 Of farm-stock, sheep have paid the best the past year on the capital iuvested. 



New York. — Seneca : From 15 acres, first cutting, I gathered without damage 41 two- 

 horse loads of hay, consisting of small red clover, Alsike clover, and timothy. I think 

 the hay would weigh at this time 40 tous. Eight loads, estimated at 8 tons, in one 

 mow, recently sold at $15 per ton in the mow. Forty tons at $15 per ton equals $600 ; 

 cost of cutting and storing, $2 per ton ; net profit, $.520 ; value of second cutting, after 

 thrashing out the seed, which ofi'sets all expenses, $40 ; net profit per acre, $37.33. 

 Rockland : Gathered in fine order, at comparatively small outlay, and sold within the 

 country for $30 to $35 per ton. Fulton : Particularly so where farmers sold soon after 

 harvesting, when hay netted them from .$22 to $26 per ton. 



Pennsylvania. — Cambria : Cannot compete with the West in growing grain even for 

 our own home market. Good cultivators lose no opportunity to buy manure to top- 

 dress their meadows, many of which are seldom if ever cultivated. Lehii/h : The aver- 

 age yield is If tons jier acre, with a ready market at the numerous furnaces, iron-ore 

 l)its, and slate quaiTies, at an average price of $25. 



Virginia. — Henrico : The production of forage in its various forms, hay and grass 



edominating in amount. Within the last three years the amount of forage grown in 

 the county has been greatly increased — perliaps more than doubled. Three or four 

 years ago it was not uncommon to see baled hay from the city brought from the North 

 or West, being hauled into the country to be consumed by farmers on farms that, 

 devoted to grass, would produce nearly an average of two tous of hay to the acre. 

 Now, a day seldom passes that we do not see wagon-load after wagon-load of baled hay 

 going into the city, till we begin to wonder where it* all comes from. And yet it is 

 more profitable to grow winter-oats for forage than hay. Winter-oats will average a 

 product of over 2 tons of forage to the acre ; 4 tons to the acre are not uucommon, and 

 more than that has been grown on every acre of a twenty-acre field. 



Georgia. — Burton : One and a half to three tons per acre, at a cost of about $6 for 

 saving and marketing ; getting the hay at 25 cents per 100 pounds. Nothing else pays 

 so well. 



Arkansas. — Yell : The German millet hay in the bottom-lands ; three tous per acre 

 have been the average, worth $30 per ton in the stack on the grouud. Cost of pro- 

 ducing, $13 per acre; clear profit, $77. 



Tennessee. — Carter: Clover and other hay-crops. The clover averaged two 

 tons per acre, worth $10 per ton; cost of getting it ready for market not more than 

 $8 per acre ; profit per acre, $12. Nothing else did as well in proportion to outlay. 

 Su7nner : The greater part of this was produced from Hungarian grass. Some of our 

 farmers sowed as much as one hundred acres, producing two tons per acre, and worth in 

 stack or rick, $14 ; making a net profit of $18 per acre. Bedford : Our meadows pro- 

 duced about two tons per acre, worth $15 per ton, and less labor required to raise it 

 than any other crop. Ohion : One of my neighbors on thii'ty acres raised eighty tons 

 of hay; paid out, besides the labor of himself, some .$21 for expenses. The eighty 

 tons, at $20, are worth $1,600. Others have similar results. Greene : Each year brings 

 more conviction that more hay and grass, and less growing of grain, add to the profits 

 of our farming. Giles : Worth $20 to $22 per ton. 



West Virginia. — Wayne: Timothy for hay principally raised and the most profita- 

 ble. The value per acre of corn, wheat, and oats, when harvested, was from $8 to $25; 

 the amount of timothy was about 2 tons to the acre, and the price being $17 per ton, 

 or more than $34 per acre, and the cost of culture much less than the other crops. 

 Mineral: A good crop of hay will produce 2 tons to the acre, and worth at least ^25 

 per ton, or $50 per acre. Corn, average crop to the acre, 35 bushels, at 60 cents per 

 bushel, $21 ; oats, 35 bushels to acre, at 70 cents per bushel, $24.50 ; wheat, an aver- 

 age crop 15 bushels to the acre, at $1.25 per bushel, $22.50. From this showing, it is 

 evident hay is the most valuable. . 



Kentucky. — Laurel ; Twenty acres in meadow yielded 30 tons of good hay, and 



