4 



THE ILLINOIS FAEMEK. 



JAir. 



Don't Sell Corn. 



Farmers of Champaign county, and readers of 

 the Patriot, I cannot keep still any longer, I have 

 stood back now for ^the last two years, seeing 

 you in a manner giving your produce away, such 

 as corn and potatoes; mostly the farmers have 

 had to pay from twelve to iifteen cents more per 

 pound on coffee, than they had to pay two years 

 ago, half a dollar more on a pound of tea, seven 

 and eight cents more on muslins and calicoes and 

 nearly two prices for everything they have to 

 buy. But when they come to hauling away 

 their grain and other produce they have to sell 

 it for one third of what it is worth; they have 

 been selling corn for eighteen and twenty cents 

 when it was actually worth from twenty to 

 twenty-five cents per bushels. I say gentlemen, 

 it is a public shame the way the farmers have 

 been swindled this year; the corn wont aver- 

 age more than half a crop and there will be 

 foreign demands for large quantities of corn, 

 and if this war should end before next June, 

 corn would be a big price. I say to the farmers, 

 hold to your corn, don't take less than twenty- 

 five cents for a bushel of it. So nothing more 

 A word to the wise is sufficient. — Patriot ( Ur- 

 hana.) 



— Now with all due deference to Mr. Patriot, 

 we think the above in very bad taste. Farmers 

 must sell ; they cannot, as a general thing, hold 

 their produce for a long time, nor is it right that 

 they should. There are times when it is not ad- 

 visable to sell, but that is the exception, not the 

 rule. The great fault with the farmers of Cham- 

 paign and other central counties, as well as in 

 Egypt, is selling to the wrong persons. Far- 

 mers should shell their own corn, ship it them- 

 selves to Chicago, Cincinnati or St. Louis, and 

 have it sold on their own account. In the 

 northern part of the State it is managed better, 

 and the profit that the middle men are after goes 

 into the farmers own pocket. Corn is now sel- 

 ling at eighteen cents at this point : in Chicago 

 it is worth thirty-two cents ; the freight is eight 

 cents, shelling corn one centjnettTalue of shelled 

 corn twenty-three cents ; total thirty-two cents. 

 A difference of five cents that goes to the ware- 

 house man for the use of his house and for shel- 

 ling and advancing the money, and for his time 

 in buying — a very pretty, yet not a remarkably 

 large profit, if it was necessary to have him and 

 his establishment, but of that we are not so pos- 

 itive. 



In buying in the ear, he takes seventy pounds 

 of ear corn. When well cured this will make : 



Cobs 9 lbs. 



Waste 3 lbs. 



Corn .68 lbs 



Total 70 lbs. 



To shell corn on the farm is worth 2 cents. 



2 pounds com, say ^ cent. 



9 pounds cobs, for fuel 1 « 



Saved in hauling ^ « 



Total 2 cents. 



Thus the farmer is paid for shelling in saving 

 two pounds of corn to the bushel ; in 900 pounds 

 of cobs to the hundred bushel, which is equal to 

 half a cord of wood, or half a ton of coal, and 

 saving of hauling that amount to the depot, which 

 with the least makes half a load on every hun- 

 dred bushels, rating the loads at forty bushels 

 each. 



We can thus see that the farmer voluntarily 

 pays to the warehouse man five cents, the whole 

 of which he could save if he chose to do so. 

 Few farmers have less than a car load of 320 

 bushels. This would make eigh*^ loads, and a 

 few farmers clubbing together would haul it in 

 one day. When prices are low the farmer must 

 study how to make the most of it. His holding 

 on will not better the matter, for if he keeps on 

 producing he would soon overstock the market. 

 The warehouse men and grain buyers have near- 

 ly disappeared along the lines of the northern 

 roads, and the farmers ship to market direct on 

 their own account, and we see no reason why the 

 same system would not work well in all other 

 parts of the State. We invariably ship the pro- 

 ducts of our farm and have it sold on commission 

 without the aid of any warehouse other than the 

 depot. It is not always we have a car load, but 

 then we either club with our neighbors or sub- 

 mit to the extra freight, and have always made 

 money by it. — Ed. 



«•> 



Tobacco Growing in McLean County. — We 

 would give anything but our last mint drop 

 (saved for seed) to know the amount of "the 

 weed" grown in this county the past season. 

 Among the larger patches about we hear of one 

 of some twenty acres, by Messrs. Hoard and 

 Vreeland, another of nine acres, grown by Mr. 



, another of seven by Wm. Schaffer, one 



of nearly three by F. K, Phoenix — all of whom 

 seem highly pleased at the yield and remunera- 

 tive prospects on their tobacco. From what lit- 

 tle we can learn of the yield and prices, the con- 

 trast between wheat and tobacco crops this year 

 is very largely in favor of the latter, and we 

 cannot help regretting that our farmers did not 

 put in many hundreds or even thousands of acres 

 of tobacco last spring. W'll they not this winter 

 post themselves up, and see if it is not best to 

 take hold in good season and shape next year. 



«■ > 



B^^Recollect that good stabling is of incalcu- 

 lable advantage to stock. 



