Some Minor Farm Crops. 
161 
The cost per lb. on 15 acres yielding 22,400 
1912, works out as follows : — 
lb. grown in 
Seed beds ........ 
•60 of a penny 
Farmyard manure and spreading .... 
•74 
?? 
Preparation of land ...... 
•33 
V 
Shelter beds and sundry work .... 
•36 
?? 
Artificial manures ....... 
POO 
)) 
Planting ......... 
•12 
11 
Cultivation ........ 
•57 
)) 
Suckering and topping ...... 
•12 
11 
Harvesting ........ 
1-09 
11 
Rent, rates and taxes ...... 
•30 
11 
5-23 
pence 
523 pence per lb. equals 32 1 . 10s. 10^/. per acre. 
These charges are exceptionally high owing to the very wet 
summer. 
Mr. G. H. Garrad, of Wye College, in his leaflet “ The 
Growing of Tobacco for Nicotine Extraction,” gives the cost as 
27 l. 2s. 6d. per acre, and the cost in Germany, according to the 
Journal of the Board of Agriculture for November, 1913, is 
-given at 271. 2s. 
There is, in addition to this, the cost of re-handling. This, 
owing to inexperience and what may be termed initial 
expenses, was very costly, coming out at over 3 d. per lb. for 
the first year. In America, it is done at about Id. per lb., and 
this, allowing a yield of 1,500 lb. to the acre, would w T ork out 
at Ql. 5s. per acre. Naturally, as the acreage increases the 
charge for re-handling per pound should decrease in like 
proportion. 
The whole of the 1912 crop was sold at an average of 6d. 
per lb. 
In the above figures no allowance is made for depreciation, 
but as tobacco growing in this country is quite a new venture 
it is very difficult to rightly apportion this charge. At Red- 
fields, the re-handling sheds have been built at a cost of 
1,500Z., and they are sufficiently large and fully equipped to 
re-handle one hundred acres of tobacco. 
When fully at work, therefore, the depreciation on the 
buildings and interest on the capital would work out at 150 1. 
per year. This on 100,000 lb. of tobacco, which is a moderate 
estimate for a hundred acre crop, would show a charge for 
depreciation, &c., of about one third of a penny per lb. 
Probably as time goes on the penny allowance for re-handling 
would cover this item. 
So far, tobacco at Redfields has not been grown in rotation. 
It has been proved that it will certainly grow five or six years 
in succession on the same land, though it will probably be 
VOL. 74. G 
