10 THE PRINCIPLES OF 



of agriculture if he could not at once describe a process, and 

 allot a proper position to every man or horse occupied in the 

 proceeding. 



Costs again offer an excellent field for teaching, as may be 

 exemplified by such instances as an elaborate and well drawn 

 up statement as to the cost of maintaining a farm-horse for 

 one year. Such calculations are most useful. The case cited 

 for example lies at the very foundation of the costs of tillage, 

 and of the cost of producing a bushel or an acre of wheat. 

 We all know the interest which attaches itself to the cost 

 of production, especially in these days of foreign competition, 

 when estimates are constantly placed before us in the news- 

 papers showing how cheaply the Canadian farmer, the Indian 

 ryot, or the Russian peasant can raise a quarter of wheat, and 

 how easily they can displace us in our own markets. State- 

 ments will also from time to time appear more or less inexact 

 and misleading as to the cost of producing wheat in this 

 country. Such calculations must be based partly upon 

 materials which can be absolutely valued, as for example the 

 cost of seed, or the cost of manual labour in reaping ; but it 

 is not so easy to affix proper value to such acts as that of 

 ploughing, harrowing, or any other operation in which horse 

 labour as well as manual labour is employed. The cost of 

 maintaining a horse lies at the foundation of all estimates, 

 not only as to the cost of growing wheat, but as to the cost 

 of conducting farming operations, and it would be well worthy 

 of the attention of an agricultural teacher that his pupils 

 should be able to prescribe such dietaries for horses at all 

 periods of the year, and to attach prices so as to enable 

 them to come to a conclusion as to the cost of food, and after 

 that to add the cost of shoeing, harness, risk, interest on 

 money, depreciation, &c., and so arrive at the cost of 

 maintenance for a year. Afterwards by an exercise of judg- 

 ment as to the number of working days in the year, to come 



