ISGO. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



227 



York, at the present day, that it actually costs 

 more than 6 to S cents per bushel to shell and 

 market corn, and it need not be done in the night, 

 eitlur, as some of your correspondents suggest. I 

 do not pretend to say that Mr. Pinkham did not 

 expend $47 on an acre of corn. I presume he did, 

 and also that others have done the same thing — 

 but it is my opinion that any farmer that expends 

 $47 on an acre of corn, with ten loads of manure 

 on the land, must either have very poor land or 

 be a very poor farmer, if he realizes only 30 bush- 

 els of corn and $7 wortli of other stuff. 



If farmers are continually going behind-hand, 

 as he says, why do not more of them have to 

 abandon the business ? Why do we not hear of 

 more of them becoming insolvent ? I will ven- 

 ture the assertion that for every farmer tliat be- 

 comes bankrupt, there arc five in the mercantile 

 •profession, which Mr. Pinkham seems to think is 

 a short and easy road to wealth. 



The past season I have raised three acres of 

 corn, and instead of its running me in debt, I have 

 made it a profitable crop, notwithstanding ]Mr. P.'s 

 assertion that there is no profit in farming ; to 

 prove my position I will give my figures taken 

 from a regular account kept Avith the crop, omit- 

 ting dates. The account is no guess-work, but 

 the actual cost of every thing except the labor, 

 which I have charged at $1 per day — whereas it 

 only cost me a little more than half that amount, 

 as I paid $21 per month for my hired man, and 

 he boarded himself; and if any doubt exists as to 

 the accuracy of the account, the affidavits of myself 

 and hired man can be had to substantiate it. 



I have charged only half of the manure to this 

 crop, for it does not belong to it. My account 

 was kept with the whole three acres, but I will 

 take one-third of that, so as to bring it dow;i to 

 one acre. 



ONE ACRE OF CORX. Dr. 



To 1 man and 1 team of horses 1 day plowing $3,00 



To 1 m;in and 1 team of horses Iday drawing manure 3,00 



To J of 15 loads of manure 7,50 



To 1 man ^ day spreading manure and harrowing' 1,00 



To" " A day marking ~. 1,00 



To" " 1 day planting, $1, seed and plaster, 37A cts. .. .lJ37i 



To" " .^ day cultivating T 1,00' 



To" " Idayhoeing 1,00 



To" " idayplowing 1.00 



To" " Idayhilling ^ 1,00 



To" " 1 J day cutting up at the hill arid binding 1,50 



To " " 4 days husking and cribliing 4,00 



To 2 men ^ day drawing fodder, pumpkins, and other 



work 3,00 



To plaster and putting it on SO 



To interest, taxes, wear and tear of tools, &c 4,00 



To shelling and marketing, at 8 cts. per bushel 3,.36 



$37,54 



ONE ACRE OF CORN. Cr. 



By 42 bushels of corn, at $1,03 $43,26 



By fodder sold 5,00 



By 3 loads of pumpkins, at $1 3,00 



By 4 bushels ears soft corn, at 25 cts 1,00 



$52,20 



I make the total cost of one acre of corn to be 

 $37,54, instead of $47, and the receipts for the 

 same $52,26, leaving $14,72, which I call profit. 

 The number of days' manual labor bestowed on 

 the crop, 17^, and the number of days' team labor, 

 4 days ; and allowing a day with a team to be 

 worth two of a man, making 25^ days' work nec- 

 essary to cultivate an acre of corn. Deduct from 

 the cost of the whole the worth of the fodder, 

 pumpkins and soft corn, and I have $28,54 as the 

 cost of 42 bushels of corn, or a trifle less than 68 



cents per bushel, leaving 35 cents as something, 

 whether it is profit or not. 



If a merchant buys a piece of cloth for $1 per 

 yard, and sells it for $1,25, he calls the 25 cents 

 profit, (that is, if the $1 covers all expenses of 

 transportation, &c.,) and if it is so, Avhy is not my 

 35 cents on a bushel, profit also ? True, I do not 

 always make 35 cents a bushel on my corn crop, 

 but I never yet have failed to make something 

 clear. Mr. P. says, in his opinion no man can 

 take a farm, go on, and in time pay for it, without 

 outside help. I know of several that have done so, 

 myself among the number. I have raised this year 

 two acres of flax, on which I have made $23 per 

 acre, over and above all cost, and if desirable, I 

 will give the account with that crop at some fu- 

 ture time. Mr. P. says one of two things is evi- 

 dent, that the farmer cither gets no per cent, on 

 his capital, or no pay for his labor. 



If I allow $1 per day for every day's work I 

 do on my corn crop, and pay in the same propor- 

 tion for team labor, and have $14,72 left, I would 

 like to know what that is but a certain per cent, 

 on the capital invested in my farm ? 



Oak Hill, AL Y., 1860. Investigator. 



For the Netp Enslund Farmer. 



COOKING FOOD FOR STOCK— "WILI, 

 IT PAY? 



In the range of my agricultural reading, I find 

 a record of but a few experiments to answer the 

 above question, and I meet but few farmers able 

 to answer it. Of those who have conducted ex- 

 periments, the results of Avhich go to show that it 

 will pay, I find the following : 



Cassius M. Clay states that after trial, he has 

 found that one bushel of dry corn would make five 

 pounds, ten ounces of pork. One bushel of boiled 

 corn, fourteen pounds, ten ounces, and one bush- 

 el of boiled meal made in one instance sLxteen 

 pounds, seven ounces, and in another, nearly 

 eighteen pounds of pork, or, in other words, when 

 pork is eight cents per pound, dry corn is worth 

 forty-five cents ; boiled corn $1,15^, and boiled 

 meal $l,31i to $1,44 cents per bushel. 



Mr. S. H. Clay, of Bourbon county, Ky., says 

 that he has found, by careful experiment, that 

 pork made by feeding raw corn at fifty-six cents 

 per bushel, cost nine cents per pound ; that made 

 by feeding boiled corn cost four cents per pound, 

 while that made by boiled meal cost three cents 

 per pound. 



Hon. H. L. Ellsworth, once Commissioner 

 of Patents, says that it is a fact established by 

 long experimenting, that corn ground and cooked 

 is 150 per cent, better for fattening cattle and 

 hogs, than corn as it is usually fed at the West. 



If the conclusions arrived at by these experi- 

 ments are correct, farmers who feed their grain or 

 meal raw, are losing badly by such a course. 



It has seemed surprising to me, that our State 

 Agricultural Societies have not taken up this sub- 

 ject more generally, and offered liberal premiums 

 for experiments in feeding cooked and uncooked 

 food to cattle and swnie. If the value of grain for 

 feeding is increased by cooking one-half the 

 amount that the experiments referred to would 

 indicate, most certainly our farmers ought to know 

 it, and practice accordingly. 



