PROFITS IN AGRICULTURE 879 



the summer runs from $2.00 a day and board up to $8.00 a day and 

 board, this last for the machinist operating the engines. I should 

 not be afraid to wager that there is not a wheat farm of 200 acres 

 in the West which has not been at some time $2,000 in debt for machine 

 expenses for the season. I think of certain farms where the season's 

 financing amounted to $30,000 of debt before a strand of wheat had 

 been cut. 



Cost of seed, of labor, and of machinery from the planting of the 

 seed to the harvesting of the crop is now put at $7.00 to $8.00 per acre. 

 Supposing a man has seeded a i,ooo-acre field. He stands $7,000 

 out of pocket. Now, because the Western wheat lands are nearly all 

 uplands they are subject to chill nights. In August come the early 

 autumn night frosts. If the frost does not touch your i,ooo-acre 

 field, you stand, with wheat at $1.00 a bushel, to get $30 to $40 per 

 acre. That means a tidy sum from 1,000 acres of wheat after only 

 $7,000 of expenses have been paid. In August, therefore, your big 

 wheat farmer suffers what can only be described as a sweat of agony. 

 He may be living in a tar-papered shanty. His wife may be wearing 

 a hat more honored for its age than its style. Whether he can pay his 

 debts, whether the mortgage will be foreclosed, whether he can build 

 a house and educate the "kids" and buy a motor and take the vaca- 

 tion that he badly needs all depends on the fickle jade called Fate 

 from August to September. No Wall Street broker hanging by the 

 margin of an eyebrow to ruin or fortune ever knew more of a gambler's 

 agonies than the Western wheat farmer jn a year when a wet spring 

 has delayed seeding. 



NOTE. Wheat is by no means the only agricultural venture about 

 which this story of farmers' speculation might be told. The cattle- 

 feeder takes long chances in the hope of making large gains. The 

 southern truck-grower may stake his all on a big acreage of tomatoes 

 or onions, the Westerner plunges in fruit, sugar-beets, or cantaloupes. 

 EDITOR. 



C. Evidence of Profits in Farming 



286. "PROFITS" ON NEW YORK FARMS 1 

 BY G. F. WARREN 



The average capital on 615 farms operated by their owners in 

 Tompkins County, New York, was $5,527. The average receipts for 

 the year April i, 1907, to April i, 1908, were $1,146. The average 

 farm expenses were $389. 



' Adapted from Bulletin 295, Cornell Experiment Station, pp. 39S~98. 



