316 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



sward, such as 'would require two yoke of oxen to 

 plow, the corn would be likely to receive still less 

 benefit from the manure, in which case, the chief 

 fertilizing efi'ect of the manure would be seen in 

 the crops that follow the corn. 



In the matter of harvesting, a fine saving can 

 be made in his items of cost, the common price 

 per acre for cutting up corn at the roots, and 

 stooking, in these parts, being one dollar, though 

 sometimes a dollar and a quarter to a dollar and 

 a half is paid for cutting vei-y stout corn — a sav- 

 ing of 2.5 to 50 per cent., on P.'s cost of merely 

 topping the corn, or cutting the stalks. Some 

 men will cut up and stook from one to two acres 

 of corn a day, depending upon its size ; by the 

 way, quite a gain over the old method of to])ping 

 the stalk and picking the corn. Two dollars is 

 ample renumcration for husking ; and in regard 

 to shelling, I will mention that I was one of three 

 men Avho shelled in one day, the present year, 

 corn that measured one hundred and twenty bush- 

 els after it was shelled and winnowed — in ten 

 hours' time — at a cost of not more than three dol- 

 lars, or seventy-five cents for thirty bushels ; and 

 as to marketing, it may l)e sold when at town on 

 other business, in part at least, and delivered at 

 any distance less than ten miles, for two dollars. 

 So, in fact, Avithout going further into particulars, 

 I find there maybe ordinarily — I do not intend to 

 adopt the minimum extreme in my prices — a sav- 

 ing of ten dollars in cultivating the crop, and five 

 dollars off' from the manure, reduces the charge of 

 expenses from forty-seven dollars to thirty-two 

 dollars, giving five dollars clear profits on the acre 

 of corn, or a return of sixteen per cent, on the 

 capital invested, after deducting for interest, taxes, 

 rents, &c., in short, all that is chargeable to the 

 crop, and allowing two yoke of oxen to plow the 

 ground, which is not the general custom, and 

 adds to the expense. 



The planting may be done by hand at a cost of 

 seventy-five cents an acre, or with a corn-planter, 

 by horse power, at even less expense, when some 

 fertilizer maybe dropped in the hill, with only the 

 r.dditional cost of the fertilizer, instead of two 

 dollars and a half, as Mr. P. has it, which would 

 still lessen the cost of the crop, and makes the 

 l)rofit on the capital employed equal 22.5 percent. 

 Ill short, he seems to have taken a rather stubborn 

 piece of soil, and adopted (what would be consid- 

 ered intliis section) an expensive mode of cultiva- 

 tion, though he remarks that "it will be seen that 

 we have cultivated our crop in the most prudent 

 and economical manner." 



A farmer living but a few miles from here, is 

 reported to have recently stated that he had raised 

 the present year an acre of corn at a cost, in la- 

 bor, of ten dollars and fifty cents, and had once 

 raised seven hundred bushels of corn on fourteen 

 acres of land, manured broad-cast. The cost of 

 raising the premium corn crops that are reported 

 in Agricultural Transactions, that generally range 

 from seventy-five to one hundred bushels to the 

 acre, and where the land is manured heavily, is 

 generally but little more than thirty dollars per 

 acre, and sometimes a little less than thirty. 



And here let me add a statement concerning 

 the cost of raising a crop of corn on some of the 

 plain lands of Massachusetts, which are of easy 

 culture, ajid generally cultivated without manure, 

 aceordinc to the nhilosophv vour correspondent 



recommends in the remarks that follow his state- 

 ment of the expense of corn xaising, (top of sec- 

 ond column on page 563.) 



ONE Acre of Corn. Dk. 



Plowing and harrowing $2,50 



Planting and seeding 75 



Hoeing twice 3,00 



Cnttiug up and stooking 1,00 



Carting, husking, stacking fodder, &c 3,00 



Shelling, delivering to market, &e 1,75 



Interest on land, taxes, &c., &c 1,50 — $13,50 



Value op Same. 



Twenty bushels of corn $20,00 



Fodder, &c 5,00— $25,00 



Net profit $11,50 



instead of sinking ten dollars (or 21.5 per cent, 

 on the capital invested,) as a dead loss, as in Mr. 

 Pinkham's statement. And he further remarked 

 that, in his opinion, "there are but comparatively 

 few acres of corn planted in this State, but what 

 run the owner in debt more than this has !" and 

 adds, in all gravity, "what is true in regard 

 to this crop is true of most others ; only much 

 more so, (?) for aside from the hay crop, the corn 

 is the most reliable, as it is the most important 

 upon the farm." IIow, then, in the name of com- 

 mon sense, is it that hundreds and thousands of 

 farmers in New England, and in this State, even, 

 whose only income is from their farm products, 

 manage to get along a whole life-time Avithout be- 

 coming bankrupts ? Indeed, if P.'s statements 

 are correct, farming is a rcmarhahly disastrous 

 business, and any man who will follow it, must be 

 remarkabh/ stupid ! I fear that, after all, the facts 

 are against friend P., for if such a state of things 

 obtains in his vicinity, the case cannot be gener- 

 al. And I can assure him that hundreds of bush- 

 els of corn are raised in this section of the State, 

 at a cost not exceeding the above, and which often 

 not the cultivator a higher per cent, of profi.t. 

 Fifty bushels per acre have been taken from these 

 soils, without manure, when first subdued from 

 their natural state. 



In regard to the net profits on the corn crop, 

 where manure is applied, I will refer Mr. Pink- 

 ham, and the reader, to agricultural reports on 

 premium crops of corn, where the per cent, of 

 profit is given as high as fifty to one hundred, 

 Avhich, if these are not fair premises to judge from, 

 at least show what the farmer may do by judicious 

 management. 



I find a paragraph in the address of Gov. Wash- 

 burn, delivered in 1858, before the Middlesex 

 South Agricultural Society, which may well be 

 quoted in this connection. He says : 



"Farming has always seemed to me to be like 

 theories in political economy. You may take 

 your slate and pencil, and sit down and cipher 

 yourself into a good income, or no income at all ; 

 you can demonstrate beyond contradiction, that 

 the country is going directly to ruin, by too high 

 or too low a tariff, just according to the data you 

 assume at the start. And yet, in the face of these 

 calculations, the country goes on prospering, and 

 the farmer finds himself better off at the end of 

 the year than at the beginning, though ruined, be- 

 yond retrieve, by figures which, it is said, 'do not 

 lie.' " 



All farmers, I am sure, do not always realize 

 as good pay as first rate mechanics, who can com- 

 mand great wages and steady employment through- 



