HARVESTING AND STORING THE CORN CROP 257 



is more profitable than maintaining expensive machinery 

 for the purpose. In fact, where farm labor is not excep- 

 tionally high harvesting even larger areas by hand is al- 

 most as cheap as harvesting by machinery. The advan- 

 tage of the machine is that it enables the operation to 

 be completed in a shorter time. 



311. Comparative cost of harvesting by different 

 methods. — Zintheo ^ has made a study of the com- 

 parative cost of harvesting corn by different methods. 

 The following data were obtained from the corn-belt where 

 an average yield of 44 bushels to the acre was being secured: 



Table 26. Cost op Harvesting by Different Methods - 

 Average data for harvesting by hand 



Cost of implement $ 1.00 



Acres one man harvests per day 1 .47 



Cost of cutting and shocking 1 .60 an acre 



Average data for harvesting with sled harvester 



Cost of implement $5 to $50 



Acres two men and one horse harvest per day 4.67 



Cost of cutting and shocking 1 . 18 an acre 



Average data for harvesting with corn binder 



Cost of implement $125.00 



Acres cut per day by one man and three horses .... 7 .73 



Acres shocked per day, one man 3.31 



Cost of cutting and shocking 1 . 50 an acre 



Cost per bushel of picking and husking corn 



Cents 



By hand from field. . ! 3.5 



Team for cribbing 1 . 



By hand from shock 5.3 



Team for cribbing -79 



By com picker from field 4.1 



By huskers and shredder from shock. 4.5 



' U. S. Dep't of Agr., Office of Exp. Sta., Bui. 173. 



