36 HISTORY OF THE WHEEL AND ALLIANCE. 



by the following statistics given by another Illinois 

 fanner: 



"Chas. F. Mills, secretary and statistican for the 

 State Board of Agriculture, is a worker of ability, and in 

 volume 22, page 271, Agricultural Reports, I find a table 

 of figures, headed corn the leading crop in Illinois, con- 

 taining more bushels, and representing more value than all 

 other tillage crops combined. This table gives the average 

 yield per acre, bushels produced, price per bushel, total 

 value, cost of producing an acre, and then columns for 

 loss or profit on producing cost of crop. The table 

 includes each year from 1860 to 1885. The cost of pro- 

 ducing an acre of corn, Mr. Mills gives at $10.50, and 

 this amount, he informs me, includes rental of land and 

 taxes, and I believe this amount to be a fair average cost 

 for producing an acre. We find, then, the corn crop was 

 produced 



For year 1882, at a loss of $1,273,57.1. 



For year 1883, at a loss of 8,621,440 



For year 1884, at a loss of 11,780,557 



For year 1885, at a loss of 10,831,701 



For year 1886, at a loss of 19,870,259 



Total loss in five years .... $52,377,528 

 And two-thirds of the farms that made this loss are mort- 

 gaged. Can these mortgages be paid? Does farming in 

 Illinois pay? Turning to page 259, same report, I find 

 corn, wheat, oats and rye were all grown at a loss for the 

 year 1884. Hay, barley and Irish potatoes alone showing 

 a profit above cost of production. These facts being true, 

 and they are sustained by good authority, is it not true, 

 then, that farming in Illinois does not pay? And in that 

 fact alone we find the reason why people are leaving the 

 farm. u Whither are we drifting," and can we continue 

 to thus blindly drift in safety? 



