98 



Cost of Production of an Acre of Wheat in Tunisia. 



Total cost of producing and marketing one acre of wheat 3 



Thus, then, according to the compiler of this estimate, with labor at from 

 Is. 2d. to 2s., it costs the French landowner 3 an acre to prcduce and market 

 an acre of wheat ; and he adds that a yield of ISJbush. of wheat, at 4s. 4d. 

 a bushel, barely covers out of pocket expenses. It is hardly worth while 

 criticising this estimate, so copious in the details of some operations, so 

 meagre in information concerning others. It might otherwise be pointed 

 out that several important items appear to have been overlooked, such as 

 superphosphate, which elsewhere the same writer strongly recommends at 

 the rate of 2Jcwts. to the acre, the cost of seed distribution, &c, 



This estimate, however, if at all representative of general Tunisian practice, 

 gives us a very fair insight into what is thought to be good preparation of 

 the land for wheat. In the spring of the year, when presumably the bulk 

 of the feed has been fed down, we see a plough team of six bullocks, in charge 

 of a ploughman and a driver, tearing up the land at the rate of little over 

 half an acre a day. For the power and labor engaged this is, indeed, slow 

 work ; and we must infer therefore single-plough work, and great depth of 

 ploughing at that. No further provision appears to be made for later treat- 

 ment of the land, until it is ploughed a second time in summer with a team 

 of four bullocks, under sole guidance of the ploughman, and this time at the 

 rate of about five-sixths of an acre a day ; evidently, therefore, still slow 

 single-furrow work. It would appear that after this summer ploughing the 

 land is left in the rough loose state until seeding time, when it is ploughed a 

 third time at the rate of five-sixths of an acre a day. In the circumstances 

 we need have no further reason to wonder that at seed time land so treated 

 should be found too rough for the drill ; indeed, to our mode of thinking, it 

 must be a matter of considerable surprise that land tilled on the lines indicated 

 can ever be made to carry a payable crop of wheat, excepting perhaps in 

 the most favorable of seasons. One can understand, too, that at times the 



