86 PRACTICAL CORN CULTURE 



and hauled to the farm it should be bought at prices low 

 enough to enable the farmer to make good wages for his 

 trouble in hauling, aside from its value in building up the 

 land. 



In most parts of the Corn Belt proper, manure from city 

 stock yards can be purchased for as low as $1.00 per ton, 

 freight prepaid to the farmer's nearest station. If the manure 

 is of fair quality and as many as four loads can be hauled 

 per man and team in one day we consider it a good purchase 

 with corn selling at sixty cents per bushel. "Where wood 

 shavings are used for bedding and the manure is of poor 

 quality, it is doubtful whether it would pay to handle it 

 at the above price. 



The best and cheapest manure is usually that obtained in 

 the small towns of the Corn Belt. For several years past we 

 have hauled annually, from eight hundred to one thousand 

 tons of manure from the town of Mason City. We haul from 

 one to two tons at a load and give in exchange straw for 

 bedding. A considerable part of our land joins Mason City 

 on the south so that the hauls are short. One man with a 

 one hundred and twenty bushel spreader averages from six 

 to eight tons per day, depending on the roads and condition 

 of manure. "We fully realize that in getting manure at the 

 above prices we are taking advantage of an opportunity 

 that does not lie at every farmer's door. Mason City is 

 surrounded by a very fertile country and for this reason 

 the manure is not appreciated locally like it will be twenty 

 years hence. The town customers who supply us with this 

 manure seem to care less for the straw they receive for bed- 

 ding than the fact that we call regularly for the manure. 

 If any farmer wants a dependable supply of manure from 

 town stables it is necessary to be prepared to haul at all 

 seasons of the year when the roads will permit. No longer 

 than ten years ago it was necessary to inforce town ordi- 



