378 
Wisconsin - State Agricultural Society. 
Threshing fifteen bushels, (labor, teams, and board, 12 cents).$1 SO 
Cleaning and hauling wheat six miles to market, 6 cents. 90 
Interest, 10 per cent., on land and improvements pro rata per acre, worth 
$40.00.. .... 4 00 
Total cost of wheat per acre, say $1.00 per bushel. 14 95 
To this add one-thirtieth of the working portion of a man’s life, 
and the damage done to the soil by extracting indispensable con¬ 
stituents of fertility or productiveness, which must be restored, 
under serious penalties for neglect, and where is the profit of wheat- 
culture? Wisconsin, Minnesota, and northern Iowa, send through 
Milwaukee alone, about thirty millions of dollars worth of wheat 
annually, at a loss. 
The expenses of a farm are not materially different, whether lit¬ 
tle or much is harvested. The cost of preparing the ground, seed¬ 
ing and cultivating it are the same for a poor as a good crop. The 
expense of harvesting a light crop may be less than that of a large 
one, but in other respects, the expenses are the same. In some in¬ 
stances it is more expensive to cultivate and harvest a mean crop 
than to raise and gather a good one. In regard to stock-raising, 
it is far more expensive to raise a poor animal than one of excel¬ 
lence. But we will consider the wheat crop in its better results as 
determining the value of the land devoted to its culture. If it costs 
about one dollar to raise a bushel of wheat when the crop averages 
from thirteen to fifteen bushels per acre, and no profit or loss is the 
result, except damage to soil, it must be apparent that a crop of 
twenty bushels per acre will yield a net profit of say six dollars, 
which is equivalent to a dividend or profit of eight per cent, per an¬ 
num, on sixty dollars which is the cash value of the land per acre. 
If the crop can be carried up to twenty-six bushels per acre, when 
wheat is worth one dollar per bushel, the actual net profit of twelve 
dollars per acre will be equivalent to a dividend of ten per cent, per 
annum, on one hundred and twenty dollars per acre. The enter¬ 
prising and exemplary farmer who properly raises sheep, cattle, and 
horses, to the full capacity of one-lialf of his farm, and applies 
their manure to the enrichment of the whole farm, will be likely to 
realize the benefits expressed in the calculation made on the basis 
of making land yield a net income of eight per cent, clear profit on 
the half of the farm devoted to grain-culture, and possibly, may 
