210 WHAT I KNOW OF FARMING. 



Most farmers fail to keep accounts with their 

 several fields and crops ; yet what could be more in- 

 structive than these? Here are ten acres of Corn, 

 with a yield of 20 to 40 bushels per acre a like area 

 and like yield of Oats ; a smaller or larger of Rye, 

 Buckwheat, or Beans, as the case may be. If the 

 produce is sold, most farmers know how much it 

 brings ; but how many know how much it cost ? 

 Say the Corn brings 75 cents per bushel, and the Oats 

 50 cents : was either or both produced at a profit ? 

 If so, at what profit? Here is a farmer who has 

 grown from 100 to 300 bushels of Corn per annum 

 for the last 20 years ; ought he not to know by this 

 time what Corn costs him in the average, and whether 

 it could or could not with profit give place to some- 

 thing else ? Most farmers grow some crops at a 

 profit, others at a loss ; ought they not to know, after 

 an experience of five or ten years, what crops have 

 put money into their pockets, and what have made 

 them poorer for the growing ? 



Of course, there is complication and some degree 

 of uncertainty in all such account-keeping ; for every 

 one is aware that some crops take more from the soil 

 than others, and so leave it in a worse condition for 

 those that are to follow, and that some exact large 

 reinforcements of fertilizers, whereof a part only is 

 fairly chargeable to the first ensuing product, while a 

 large share inures to the subsequent harvests. Each 

 must judge for himself how much is to be credited 

 for such improvement, and how much charged 



