27 



BULLETIN OF 



Massachusetts Boakd of Agricuuure. 



CORN AS A GRAIN CROP IN MASSACHUSETTS. 



By Prof. Wm. P. Brooks, Director, Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station. 



It is the purpose of this article to consider this crop almost exclu- 

 sively from the standpoint of grain production, though occasional 

 reference to suitability for ensilage has been made. 



Indian corn is in many respects the most important crop of the 

 United States. It is produced here in much greater quantity than in 

 all the rest of the world put together. Several times within recent 

 years the total crop has exceeded two and one-half billion bushels. 

 This is at the rate of about 35 bushels for each man, woman and child 

 in the country. The crop fuids many uses ; but by far the larger por- 

 tion is employed as stock food, and the manufacture of starch, glucose, 

 whiskey and alcohol consumes in the aggregate enormous quantities. 

 There is not a State or a Territory in the Union in which corn is not 

 grown, but its cultivation is largely concentrated in the great States 

 of the Mississippi valley. Corn, however, always has been and is now 

 an important crop in Massachusetts. The average product per acre 

 in the United States as a whole during the five years 1901 to 1905 

 inclusive was about 25 bushels. In Massachusetts the average product 

 during the same period was about 34 bushels; and, while Massachu- 

 setts is not generally looked upon as a great corn State, it is significant 

 that it is exceeded in average product by but very few States, and in 

 the value of product per acre by only one, — Connecticut. These 

 facts do not, of course, prove that corn growing is more profitable in 

 Massachusetts than in other States, for the costs of production may 

 be and probably are greater than in the States of the middle west. 

 There can be no doubt, however, that corn can be produced at a profit 

 in Massachusetts, for the average price per bushel is far higher than 

 in most parts of the country. In 1905 the average farm prices of corn 

 were as follows: in the United States as a whole, $0,288; in Iowa, 

 $0.34; in Illinois, $0.38; in Indiana, $0.38; in Massachusetts, $0 . 70. 

 We must, of course, use fertilizers more largely in Massachusetts than 

 in the States named; but even in these States the soils are gradually 

 becoming less fertile, and the use of fertilizers, in small amounts at 

 least, is becoming general. On many soils in Massachusetts an aver- 

 age expenditure of about $20 per acre for fertilizers will insure an 

 annual product at the rate of from 60 to 70 bushels. This is at the 

 rate of only about $0.30 per bushel for corn produced, but in Massa- 

 chusetts the stover is worth much more as forage than in the States 

 which have just been named. On many Massachusetts farms the 



