272 BOABD OF AGRICULTURE. 



upon those vast and fertile prairies has become immense, — 

 almost beyond computation. 



I should like to give a very few figures from the census 

 report already referred to, but not more than, I hope, you 

 will be able to remember. 



The corn crop of our own State in 1879 was, in round 

 numbers, seventeen hundred thousand bushels (to be exact, 

 1,797,768), while the crop of the United States was seven- 

 teen hundred million bushels (exactly 1,754,591,676). 

 Recollect, Massachusetts seventeen hundred thousand bush- 

 els ; the United States seventeen hundred million bushels ! 



But the human mind fails to grasp adequately that im- 

 mense quantity of corn. Let us load it on cars, 500 

 bushels to the car, and we find that more than three and a 

 half million cars will be required for its transportation, 

 making a train long enough to extend quite around the 

 earth, without allowing any room for locomotives. Think 

 of that, and then doubt, if you can, that our country can 

 furnish the world with corn. 



Is any one ready to say it does not pay to raise corn ? Then 

 I will ask what crop can the farmer raise that will pay any 

 better? Of course I am speaking of general farming, not 

 market gardening. When corn is worth, say, sixty cents 

 per bushel, and even when it is as low as fifty cents, I think 

 it can be raised at as good a profit, provided your land is 

 suitable, as almost any other crop. I do not feel satisfied 

 with less than seventy bushels of shelled corn per acre, 

 which gives a return of from $35 to $42 per acre. And it 

 should not be forgotten or overlooked in the calculation of 

 the profits, that the stover will pay the cost of cultivation. 



Then there is another thing to be considered : there is no 

 better way of working a piece of land that is to be enriched 

 and prepared for grass bearing. The liberal fertilizing and 

 the clean culture which are so essential in securing a good 

 crop of corn will leave the land in the best possible condi- 

 tion to be seeded down to grass, — which is the ultimate 

 object of the average farmer in this section, — for it must be 

 conceded that to bring our lands into condition to produce 

 large crops of grass is the most desirable thing to accom- 

 plish ; at any rate, that is the belief of the farmers generally 



