, THE DAIRY. 239 



churned fresh from the cows, the quantity of butter 

 will of course be greater ; but we have never made 

 it in that way, and have no authentic information 

 by which the difference, and, of course, the profits, 

 can be correctly estimated. 



Various estimates have been made of the expense 

 of getting in a crop of wheat or com ; but, where 

 wheat is put in after a summer fallow, as is usually the 

 case, the expense of ploughing, harrowing, seed, 

 interest, wear of implements and land, cannot be 

 estimated at less than ten dollars per acre. Ad- 

 mitting the average crop of wheat to be twenty 

 bushels per acre, Avhich must, taking the whole, be 

 considered liberal, and a profit of ten dollars per 

 acre, wheat at one dollar per bushel, which may be 

 considered the average price, will be the result. It 

 would be easy to make out a list of the items of ex- 

 pense and profit, but there can be no necessity for it 

 here, as every wheat-grower can make the calcula- 

 tion for himself, if he needs to be convinced that the 

 above estimate is not far from the truth. If the 

 crop to be compared is corn, estimates made with 

 great care by Judge Buel, by Clark, and others, 

 show that in ordinary' cases the expense of a crop, 

 including labour, seed, use of land, &c., is at least 

 fifteen dollars per acre. The profits of a corn-crop 

 are more variable in our latitude than most others, 

 sometimes running very high, and at others being 

 literally nothing ; and we believe that, if the aver- 

 age estimate of profit on an acre of corn is put the 

 same as wheat, it is as high as the experience of the 

 farming community will justify. 



If the above calculations are correct, then the dif- 

 ference in profit per acre between the dairyman and 

 the wheat-grower is not so much in favour of the 

 latter as has been generally supposed. It may, how- 

 ever, be said, that the practice of disposing of his 

 cows by the dairj-man after the season is closed, 

 would in the end be suicidal to the business if gen- 



