1871. 



NEW ENGLAND FAKMER. 



271 



nation. No two sections of our country are 

 alike in their adaptability to the production of 

 the various textile plants, grains, grasses, 

 fruits, vegetables, &c., &c. Our home mar- 

 kets are unlike, also, in many of their require- 

 ments. The immediate vicinity of our cities 

 are expected to furnish those cities with the 

 vegetables, milk, &c., they consume; but how 

 very few, if any, are thus supplied. Various 

 causes combine to prevent it, which it is use- 

 less to enumerate here, because we propose to 

 look at the markets as we find them, and see 

 if we cannot with profit to ourselves limit our 

 production to a few leading articles that may 

 be with safety relied upon by reason of the 

 too great cost of transporting them great dis- 

 tances. 



In ordinary farming, the Indian com crop 

 is regarded as one of the most profitable and 

 one not to be omitted in our rotations. I ad- 

 mit to having advocated its culture here in 

 past years. Circumstances, however, have 

 greatly changed in respect to the cost and 

 value of labor and the relative value of other 

 products, which in a measure, come into com- 

 petition with it. We cannot grow it success- 

 fully without heavy manuring and a large out- 

 lay of labor. We often see reports of crops 

 of corn, and the various items of cost given 

 in its production going the rounds of our agri- 

 cultuaral publications. Some of them show a 

 very good margin on the right side. It is 

 very curious as well as lamentable to see such 

 discrepancy in the items of cost of production 

 often amounting to one hundred per cent. 

 There must be a mistake somewhere. 



If we resort to our own experience to find 

 out where this mistake is we come to the con- 

 clusion that most of the estimates are under 

 the real cost. Many farmers appear to fear 

 bringing every item of cost into their account 

 of outlay for producing a crop. This is a 

 very unwise course for us to pursue. To de- 

 termine whether our business is paying us in 

 all its various crops or products, a most care- 

 ful estimate of every item of cost is neces- 

 sary. To illustrate my meaning, I will give 

 the method I pursued for many years with an 

 acre of land I planted with onions. The farm 

 was valued at one hundred dollars an acre. 

 The acre for onions, two hundred dollars, as 

 it was a choice piece. Interest on it, twelve 

 dollars ; a per centage for depreciation of 

 buildings and tools ; the market value of all ma- 

 nure used each year ; the cost of seed ; every 

 hour's labor and board, adding a per cent, 

 for rainy weather, when men were not worth 

 as much as on fair wether, — in fact I charged 

 every item at its full cost. The result was, I 

 knew exactly what my crop cost me a bushel 

 when it was delivered. Now I think if we 

 bring tliis rigid test as to cost to bear upon 

 most of our crops we shall find them tekel. 



Let us look at the cost of producing corn at 

 the West, based on what I know to be facts. 

 It is, or was a few years since, expected that 



one man with a pair of horses, and a boy to 

 drop the corn when not planted with a ma- 

 chine, would put in from thirty-five to forty 

 acres, care for and harvest it, besides lending 

 a hand at grain and hay harvest. I knew a 

 farmer that in 1863 did this on his own place, 

 and the forty acres were kept as clean of weeds 

 as any farm I saw in our own State. The 

 yield was over forty bushels to the acre. Now 

 put this man's corn on to the railroad (which 

 is near him) and bring it to Boston, over a 

 thousand miles, at the present cost of trans- 

 portation, and we have it in competition with 

 ours which has cost us so much more than his 

 as to give him a good profit if sold at the cost 

 of our own. 



The same appears to be true of potatoes. 

 ]\Iaine sends into this State large quantities of 

 them at less cost and of better quality than 

 our own. These two articles are the most re- 

 lied upon for profit by our farmers, unless we 

 include our hay and cows, which is not advi- 

 sable to do as they are rapidly becoming spe- 

 cialties in some of our own towns for fur- 

 nishing milk for butter, cheese and condens- 

 ing factories, much to the detriment of the 

 productive capacity of the farms if any reli- 

 ance can be placed on the reports of those re- 

 garded as authority in the matter. It is not 

 so much the fact that we have to encounter 

 sharp competition and be discouraged by it, 

 as to see if we cannot so direct our etJfbrts 

 that they shall eventuate in larger profits than 

 if we adhered to our present practice of many 

 baskets for our eggs. 



Look over the report of the market for the 

 past week and see if we cannot learn some- 

 thing from it that will instruct us, especially if 

 we find that the present market quotations ar» 

 very similar to those of the past ten years, so 

 far as the relative value of the same descrip- 

 tion of products are concerned. Y/ith the ex- 

 ception of hay, grain, and meats, during the 

 war and immediately subseq.uent to it, rela- 

 tive prices have been qujte uniform. Since 

 the war, or within two years past, grain and 

 meats have resumed their relative place with 

 other commodities. Hay and straw have not, 

 — more especially the lasts. Why this is so 

 becomes an interesting question for those who 

 do or can produce them. 



It is in this direction I think we are called 

 upon to discriminate, if in any.. If these ar- 

 ticles are higher relatively than our other pro- 

 ducts and are likely to be so in the future,, 

 ought they not to have a more prominent 

 place in our production ? The consumpfeiou 

 and use of them in our cities and villages have 

 greatly increased, while their production has 

 diminished. The consequence is the price of 

 them has gone up and our supplies are sup- 

 plemented from abroad. 



Your quotations for country hay the past 

 week was $1.65 per 100 pounds and straw 

 $1.00 to $1.50; New York straw at $1.80' 

 and $2.00 per 100 pounds. ' The New York 



