26 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



" tillage is manure " is true, the farmer is wise who so arranges 

 his crops that the tillage can be most thorough. I say that he 

 who tills less land can have it richer. This is plain for two 

 reasons with more land in grass he can keep more stock and 

 save more manure, and he can also grow sod to turn under, which 

 is the best and cheapest manure in the world, and produces the 

 best mechanical effect on the soil. 



Third The cost of grain per bushel is decreased in the exact 

 ratio that the yield per acre is increased. Suppose we take 

 twelve dollars as the average cost of producing an acre of wheat 

 or corn, this sum to cover rent of land, preparation of soil, plant- 

 ing, cultivating, and harvesting. A crop of wheat averaging 

 twelve bushels per acre will cost one dollar per bushel. Twenty 

 bushels will bring the cost down to sixty cents per bushel, and 

 thirty bushels per acre will cost but forty cents per bushel. 

 Thirty, bushels of corn to the acre will cost forty cents per 

 bushel; forty tmshels per acre will cost thirty cents per bushel, 

 and sixty bushels will cost but twenty cents per bushel. You 

 may think my estimate of twelve dollars per acre incorrect, but 

 take any other amount you please, and it will not change the 

 principle. Now, the surest way on many farms to double the 

 yield per acre, and so reduce the cost per bushel, would be to 

 reduce the acres under cultivation one-half. The land not in 

 grain would be producing grass or clover, and the soil filling 

 with roots to decay and furnish humus to the plants to follow 

 after. 



This matter of decreasing the acres under cultivation and 

 increasing the yield per acre, and at the same time keeping 

 down expenses, is so important that I wish to present it in still 

 another light. Let us suppose two farmers starting in life on 

 adjoining farms of equal quality, each of which has eighty acres 

 of tillable land. One of them, possessed with the prevailing idea 

 that he must cultivate a large breadth, begins with two teams, 

 and plows from fifty to sixty acres each year. Let us make an 

 estimate of the additional expense that this extra team will 

 involve during a term of ten years. We will call the team and 

 harness three hundred dollars to start with, and as the team 



