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CHAPTER XV. 



Proper Standard for Valuing Tillage Operations The Cost of Maintaining a 

 Farm Horse The Cost of Tillages The Cost of Growing a Crop of Wheat 

 after Clover Small Margin of Profit from Wheat Growing. 



I HAVE hitherto treated in great measure of the soil, its 

 origin, its composition, its varieties, and the methods by which 

 it may be improved both in texture and in composition. We 

 next passed on to the consideration of ordinary tillage opera- 

 tions, and afterwards, to the rotation of crops ; and lastly, we 

 considered the important subject of laying land down in 

 permanent pasturage. I have in this last chapter to give a 

 little attention to the subject of cost and realization. These 

 are very important subjects in connection with agriculture 

 and especially so at the present day, when we are frequently 

 treated with estimates of cost in the daily press, in order to 

 show the great difficulties under which English agriculturists 

 are labouring. No doubt we stand at a very considerable dis- 

 advantage with regard to cost of production when we contrast 

 our expenses with those incurred by the Indian cultivator, or 

 the non-rent-paying American farmer. At the same time, 

 there is reason for thinking that the estimates of the cost 

 of producing a wheat crop in this country are often ex- 

 aggerated. They are too often based upon a set of figures 

 which have been adopted by agents or valuers, with the 



