THE JOURNAL 



OF THE 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Vol. XV. No. 10. 



JANUARY, 1909, 



EXPENSES OF CORN HARVESTING. 

 K. J. J. Mackenzie. 



Lecturer on Agriculture, Cambridge University. 



The beginning of the twentieth century finds the profits on 

 corn-growing so low that the producer must examine with 

 the greatest care the various systems under which it is grown 

 in order to reduce the cost of production to a minimum. For 

 this purpose reliable and accurately ascertained data are 

 required, but unfortunately nothing of the sort seems to be 

 available. When writing of the sickle or scythe, authors of 

 a past generation had at least long experience to guide them, 

 whereas as regards the working of the binder and elevator — 

 comparatively new-born implements, and very much more 

 complicated — practically all information is wanting. The 

 harvest of 1905, therefore, was spent by the present writer 

 on a corn farm, or rather two farms thrown into one, in East 

 Anglia, for the purpose of gathering such information as was 

 possible in so short a time. There were 300 acres of wheat 

 and barley and a small acreage of oats harvested, but unless 

 otherwise specified the deductions drawn from these observa- 

 tions apply to wheat and barley only. The particulars 

 ascertained can only be regarded as a preliminary effort, and 

 though the work is slow and tedious, it is hoped more data 

 may in the future be gathered by other observers in different 

 localities and from different methods. Every care was taken 

 to record things happening under normal conditions. Farm 

 hands will at first move faster when being timed or even 



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