206 INDIAN CORN. 



fifteen bushels. The stalks, according to the ratio be- 

 fore given, would amount to three-fifths of a ton, 

 which, at six dollars * per ton, would be three dollars 

 and sixty cents. We should then have the following 

 result : 



Total expense of one acre $12 00 



Deduct value of stalks 3 60 



Cost of fifteen bushels of Grain $8 40 



which makes the cost per bushel fifty-six cents. 



This estimate includes only those items of expense 

 that are unavoidable. The other usual expenses of 

 corn-culture, including harrowing, cross-ploughing, 

 after-tillage, manure, etc., are all optional. Now here, 

 in these optional expenses, is precisely where the profit 

 lies. 



The farmer has in this case paid out twelve dol- 

 lars to bring his acre up to the point where production 

 begins. After that, every dollar judiciously added 

 goes straight to the mark, and tells powerfully on the 

 yield. The outlay of twelve dollars he is compelled 

 to incur, before he realizes a single kernel, and 

 whether he gets five bushels or fifty. The other ex- 

 penses are discretionary and variable, and what is 

 most important the crop varies with them, and can 

 only be increased by increasing them, or some part 

 of them. 



* This is much too low for the true value of good stalks ; but as 

 there are always some farmers who insist on computing their stover at 

 half its real worth, it is perhaps as well to adapt the illustration to 

 then- standard. 



