436 NORFOLK SOCIETY. 



lands in other parts of the county, it being eligible for build- 

 ing lots, in one of the most attractive places for a rural resi- 

 dence, near to the city. The wages of labor and the cost of 

 manure were, also, it is probable, higher than are generally 

 paid. So that an equal quantity of grain and straw might, in 

 many places, have yielded a larger profit ; a profit, too, which 

 would not be liable to much diminution by any diflerence in 

 the comparative value of those articles there. 



It is stated, in the last report of this society, that wheat was 

 grown in this county in 1851, by an intelligent and thriving, 

 practical farmer, at a cost of about ^23 21 per acre, yielding 

 21|^ bushels of grain, valued at §29 10. But to this value of 

 the grain, should have been added the value of the straw, 

 which could not be less than ^10, making the total value of 

 the crop, §39 10, and the net profit, §15 89 per acre. If we 

 estimate the grain at the price paid for that grown at Milton, 

 it would be worth §38 38 ; and if the straw also be rated at a 

 like proportional quantity and value, it would be worth §34 

 28. Making the total value of the crop §73 56 per acre, and 

 the net profit of cultivation §50 35 per acre. 



In Ohio, a wheat-growing State, the average crop for the 

 same period of time, is represented to have been 20 bushels per 

 acre ; the cost of cultivation, including interest on the value of 

 the land, §8 ; the value of the grain, 78 cts. per bushel, and 

 of the straw, §3 acre; leaving a net profit of §10 60 per 

 acre. In Indiana and Illinois, the average crop and cost of 

 cultivation were the same as in Ohio ; but the value of the 

 grain was 3 cts. less per bushel ; leaving a net profit of only 

 §8 per acre. 



We need not, however, go into any comparison between the 

 cost and profit of this crop in this State, and in more produc- 

 tive sections of the country. We have instances enough at 

 hand, presented in the reports of our own agricultural societies, 

 for the last year, to prove that wheat may be grown as easily, 

 and with as sure and profitable results in Massachusetts?, as in 

 Ohio ; in Norfolk County, as in the valley of the Scioto or 

 Miami. The Essex Society gives an account in the last an- 

 nual report, of a crop of wheat grown in that county, and upon 

 a soil, too, not the most favorable to this grain, which yielded 

 39 bushels per acre. Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden So- 



