COST OF PRODUCTION 209 



An investigation conducted by the Agricultural Experiment Sta- 

 tion of Missouri* found the cost per acre of producing corn to be 

 $13.52. This represents accurate costs taken from 357 acres. 



TABLE NO. 45 



SHOWING COST OF PRODUCING CORN. (Missouri) 



Cost Per cent 



Items per acre of total cost 



Man labor $3,074 22.7 



Horse labor 3.596 26.9 



Seed .275 2.0 



Equipment 1.021 7.6 



Use of land — taxes, interest and upkeep 5.164 38.2 



Manure .392 2.9 



Total $13,522 100 



Of the total cost of producing the crop ($13.52 per acre) 49.6 per 

 cent, or practically one-half, is charged to labor; and 38 per cent of 

 the total is taxes, and upkeep usually termed "use of land." 



As a result of this same investigation, covering a large acreage, the 

 labor requirement of the different field operations in caring for the 

 corn crop was computed. This is given in the following table : 



TABLE NO. 46 



SHOWING LABOR REQUIREMENT OF FIELD OPERATIONS 



Total Man-hours Horse-hours 



Operation acres per acre per acre 



Discing 1187.0 1.48 5.33 



Plowing 1227.8 3.76 9.51 



Harrowing 1423.4 1.12 3.12 



Planting corn 1082.3 1.40 2.21 



Cultivating 1750.7 2.36 4.32 



Harvesting corn 412.0 5.29 7.10 



Filling silo 56.0 8.78 8.43 



Storing grain 173.0 2.68 3.59b 



The foregoing table gives the number of hours labor for both man 

 and horse for each operation. In the following table the labor re- 

 quirement is classified and recorded in three divisions: preparation 

 and planting, cultivating and harvesting. 



♦Missouri Bulletin No. 125. 



b — Hauling corn from field to barn. 



