172 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



nearly returned plus the natural production of soil that in a 

 series of years, at a fair compensation for increased fertility 

 of soil, the figures may stand as representing the cost in 

 fertility for a bushel of corn. 



What will it cost to ship a bushel of corn from the west 

 here ? — The tax that the western farmer pays to railroads for 

 the opportunity to sell in our markets. From Chicago to 

 Boston for July, or for the cheapest rates for the year, twenty- 

 two cents per hundred pounds is paid for corn. From Kansas 

 City or Omaha or from western points where corn shipments 

 are now the heaviest to Chicago, another twenty cents per 

 hundred pounds, making a cost per bushel of twenty-three 

 and one-half cents, or three and one-half cents more than 

 the cost of chemicals for a bushel of corn. When we pur- 

 chase chemicals our farms are growing richer and the western 

 farms are growing poorer, — growing easier for us and 

 harder for them. 



As some may make the criticism that Kansas City is a 

 point too far west from which to calculate freight rates, I 

 may reply that the rates given are over great trunk lines for 

 large quantities. The great bulk of shippers of corn live 

 on lateral and local lines and sometimes on sub-lateral lines, 

 and behind these lines is for the great bulk of shippers the 

 cost of delivery by teams. The same calculations will be 

 found true for other crop products of the farm. 



In a less measure they are found true for meat products ; 

 and yet I contend that meat products are likely to become 

 more prominent in New England than they have been, for the 

 reason that prices will probably be Ijctter in the future, and 

 because we are about to learn that we can produce crops by 

 the use of machinery, chemical and yard manures combined, 

 cheaper than we have been aware of. It is our function to-day 

 to generalize more than to specialize, yet an illustration will 

 serve to redeem our suggestion from unmeasured contempt 

 by those who have long abandoned the hope that New Eng- 

 land will again raise meat crops. 



The sulky plough will turn an acre of ground for $1.25; 

 the sulky harrow will fit it for sixty cents ; a two-rowed 

 corn planter will plant it for twenty-five cents. Ten dollars 

 will furnish the chemicals for four tons of air-dried fodder 



