50 The Condition of the Western Farmer. [328 



to obtain records showing the prices which grains have 

 brought in the local markets, but Table V. gives the average 

 prices for corn and wheat and oats in Chicago for each year 

 since 1872. 



In attempting to estimate, on the basis of the preceding 

 table of prices, the profits which the farmer has been able to 

 make on his grain, we should next have to take into account 

 the cost of raising the grain and the cost of transporting it to 

 market; and though we shall be unable to discuss this mat- 

 ter in detail here, a few facts bearing on the subject may not 

 be out of place. 



The cost of raising corn in Nebraska has been investigated 

 by the Nebraska Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics, 

 and in its report for 1891-92 the estimates of some six or 

 seven hundred farmers are given, which make the average 

 cost of the production of corn per acre to be $6.40, and there- 

 fore, figuring forty bushels of corn to the acre, the cost per 

 bushel would be 16 cents. The method of this estimate is, 

 however, faulty, in that the cost of husking and cribbing is 

 estimated by the acre and not by the bushel, as it should 

 be, and thus the size of the crop is entangled from the start 

 with the cost per acre. Leaving out these items of husking 

 and cribbing, the average cost per acre shown by the report is 

 $4.90. From this latter figure, the cost per bushel should be 

 estimated according to the size of the crop, and then an 

 addition made to cover cost of husking and cribbing. More- 

 over, the figures given in the report do not include cost of 

 hauling to market, which is for the farmers of Harrison town- 

 ship from one to two cents a bushel. The cost to the farmers 

 we are considering of corn delivered by them at the market- 

 place cannot be estimated under from eighteen to twenty 

 cents per bushel for a fairly good year, that is when the crop 

 averages from thirty-five to forty bushels to the acre. 



The report of the Bureau indicates that the cost of raising 

 corn in the eastern counties is greater than in the western 

 counties of the state. The reasons suggested for this are 

 that the item of interest on the investment in the land in the 



