86 PRACTICAL CORN CULTURE 
and hauled to the farm it should be bought at prices low 
enough to enable the farmer to make good wages for his 
trouble in hauling, aside from its value in building up the 
land. 
In most parts of the Corn Belt proper, manure from city 
stock yards can be purchased for as low as $1.00 per ton, 
freight prepaid to the farmer’s nearest station. Jf the manure 
is of fair quality and as many as four loads can be hauled 
per man and team in one day we consider it a good purchase 
with corn selling at sixty cents per bushel. Where wood 
shavings are used for bedding and the manure is of poor 
quality, it is doubtful whether it would pay to handle it 
at the above price. 
The best and cheapest manure is usually that obtained in 
the small towns of the Corn Belt. For several years past we 
have hauled annually, from eight hundred to one thousand 
tons of manure from the town of Mason City. We haul from 
one to two tons at a load and give in exchange straw for 
bedding. A considerable part of our land joins Mason City 
on the south so that the hauls are short. One man with a 
one hundred and twenty bushel spreader averages from six 
to eight tons per day, depending on the roads and condition 
of manure. We fully realize that in getting manure at the 
above prices we are taking advantage of an opportunity 
that does not lie at every farmer’s door. Mason City is 
surrounded by a very fertile country and for this reason 
the manure is not appreciated locally like it will be twenty 
years hence. The town customers who supply us with this 
manure seem to care less for the straw they receive for bed- 
ding than the fact that we call regularly for the manure. 
If any farmer wants a dependable supply of manure from 
town stables it is necessary to be prepared to haul at all 
seasons of the year when the roads will permit. No longer 
than ten years ago it was necessary to inforce town ordi- 
