Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 141 
W e measure the yield of our small grain because it is generally 
threshed for us by the bushel, but we seldom place different varie¬ 
ties under the same circumstances of cultivation in order to fully 
test their comparative merits; still we are generally better in formed 
as to these things with our small grains than we are with our In¬ 
dian corn. 
I am confident that I have known men to plant inferior varieties 
year after year, when they could have changed their seed with but lit¬ 
tle more trouble than the asking. Men will express strong prefer¬ 
ences for one variety above another, with no good reason for it, and 
without once bringing th * matter to the actual test of experiment. 
There is an idea prevalent in the matter of corn, which I would 
like to have effectually exploded, and that is, that a large cob and long 
kernels are necessarily desirable. If we were buying it in the ear we 
might prefer such corn, but in selling, it would be against us. Prac¬ 
tically, the large cob will require a larger crib, and this wifh the in¬ 
creased labor of husking, is the full measure of its disadvantages. 
These experiments with corn are easily tried, but to be valuable 
must be tested with accuracy. It will not do to guess at the result. 
We raise nearly 550,000 acres of corn annually in our state, and a 
variation in the yield of one bushel to the acre materially affeefs 
the revenues of the state. I tried an experiment of this kind the 
past summer, and have found a difference of yield amounting to 
eight bushels per acre, and a difference of four bushels in varieties 
largely cultivated. I propose to continue them until I am satisfied 
that I have the variety best adapted to my own circumstances. 
There are very important facts bearing upon our business which 
can only be learned by reading statistics. These tables make ex¬ 
ceedingly dry reading but they cannot be overlooked by intelligent 
men. A thorough acquaintance with them will show us that prices 
are governed by laws scarcely less immutable than those which 
govern the stars. 
Our own failure in wheat proves to be of no great importance to 
the world at large. There are but three principal factors affecting 
prices. Supply, demand and transportation. The cost of produc¬ 
tion has nothing to do with it. If this cost is so great as to render 
production unprofitable, the only remedy is, to discontinue it. 
Transportation is the only factor which can be reached by legis¬ 
lation. Unobstructed competition is the sure road to cheap trans- 
