COST OF GROWING CORN 



297 



deducted the value of the stover, according to the 

 character of the season, ranging from $1.46 per ton in 

 1896, a season of very cheap hay, to $5 per ton in 1894, 

 the year of great drouth and deficient hay crop. The 

 figures do not include any allowance for either rent of 

 land or interest on the permanent investment. It is 

 interesting to note the close relation between the aver- 

 age cost per bushel for the ten years, and the average 

 cost of 12.9 cents presented in the American Agricul- 

 turist investigation which is reviewed at length later. 



COST OF GROWING CORN ON STANDARD CATTLE COMPANY 

 FARM, AMES, NEBRASKA 



AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST AND ORANGE JUDD FARMER 

 ESTIMATE OF COST 



In 1897 these journals published a series of- arti- 

 cles upon the cost of growing corn based upon data 

 furnished by growers who had kept detailed records 

 of all items of cost connected with their crop in 1896. 

 Up to that time, no systematic and scientific effort to 

 determine on any large scale the cost of production of 

 any staple farm crop had ever been made, and most 

 erroneous estimates of this cost were currently ac- 

 cepted. The method adopted to secure the necessary 



