THE COST OF CORN GROWING 65 



mate allows nothing for interest on capital or deprecia- 

 tion, and rent is put at i8s 8d an acre.^ 



Another calculation, based on a six-course rotation — 

 fallows, oats, wheat, seeds, wheat, barley — and allowing 

 interest and depreciation at 15s an acre, gives the cost 

 of growing the corn crops at £j is lO^d on the six 

 years, and the loss on the six years taking wheat at 25s, 

 barley at 30s, and oats at 20s, is put at 17s iid, an acre.^ 



On a four-course system, the cost of the corn crops is 

 found to be £6 i8s 3d, and the loss, at 25s for wheat 

 and 30s for barley, is put at ^i os 4^d an acre.^ 



In both cases rent is put at 26s an acre. 



On medium soil in South Lincolnshire, a six-course 

 system gives cost of corn crops at £j 5 s 6d an acre. The 

 low prices of 1894 make the loss no less than £2 os 3d 

 per acre, though this land is very productive (wheat, 

 \\ ; barley, 5 ; oats, 7 quarters). Rent is put at 26s, 

 and interest and depreciation at 15s per acre. 



On fair light land, the four-course gives the two corn 

 crops at £Z, and the loss at £2 os 6d, taking rent at i6s 

 and 1894 prices for wheat and barley. 



It is to be noted in all these estimates that the straw is 

 supposed to be consumed. In most instances, if the 

 straw were sold off, a small margin of profit would be 

 found, and the land would retain its fertility if the full 

 manurial equivalents were returned, which can of course 

 be done much more cheaply at recent prices than by 

 using all the straw at home. In 1893 oat straw was 

 sold in Lincolnshire at £l 5s, and wheat straw at about 

 £df a ton. 



• The accounts of Mr Prout's farm in Herts, where the 

 system of continuous corn growing and sale of straw, 

 with return of artificial manures, has been followed for 

 many years, with undiminished productiveness of the 

 soil, give a fair measure of the margin of profit thus 

 obtainable on hea\y land well farmed.* 



The cost of growing an acre of wheat, taking rent at 



' Wilson Fox. Lincoln, Appendix, A. 8 — A., p. 142. 



- Ibid. App. A. 8— B., pp. 143-4. ' Ibid, p. 145. 



* Spencer, Aylesbury, and Herts, p. 11. 



£ 



