Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1875-09-03
Excessive Crops-DO They Payl

Mr. Conrad Wilson in the Rural New
Yorker, treating this question, justly says:
1t is true, in farming as in other matters,
that large result is occasionally obtained at
a needless or unwise expense, perhaps even
at positive loss aud this fact, though it is
clearly only an exception TO a general rule
at once disturbs and bewilders the timid,
hali-hearted farmer, who Immediately infers
that maximum crop means a loss OF money,
as if occasional mistakes or exceptional cases
Of imprudence or extravaganza are sufficient
to outweigh the uniform experience Of the
most intelligent farmers Yet this is the
kind Of reasoning by which small crops are
defended, and by which farmers are tau ght
to believe that large yield per acre is to be
regarded, not merely with suspicion, but with
positive alarm, as if something full of danger
and TO be avoided.
The truth in this matter seems to be that
these unprogressive farmers do not rightly
discriminate between the cost Of a crop per
acre and the cost per bushel and this is the
pivotal mistake Of their theory. They do
not realize that to increase the expense per
acre tends to diminish, and in very many
cases does diminish the cost per bushe.
Their delusion is that every dollar saved in
the expense Of each acre of corn or wheat or
potatoes is so much added to the final pro fit,
whereas the very reverse is often true.
The Hon Harris Lewis of Herkimer Co,
y. Y :, raised A tons of beets per acre, at
cost OF less then five and one-half cents per
hushel, or a little over Sl.70 per ton. against
a market value Of sl7 per ton. At this
price the cash product per acre would be
S74S. Deducting from this the cost of the
acre 1873, il leaves S670 as the net profit.
Now, If there is any doubt as to whether this
profit is due to the yield or to something else
i is easily tested Suppose the product of
the acre had been IL tons, instead Of 44 !;
then the cost, If reduced in the same ratio,
would be slQ.AO per acre. In that case the
profit would have been sl6S.50, instead of
s670. That is to say, by thus economising
in the cost per acre, Mr. Lewis would have
saved S5S.5l. apd in the final result would
have lost S50l 80 which, after dedueting the
amount saved, would show net loss Of Sab
Mr. James Brode, of N. Y, as stated in
one Of the reports Of the agricultural depart
meut, raised crop Of turnips at a cost Of
two cents and seven mills per bushe. The
product was nearly 900 bushels per acre,
and the crop, Of course, paid very hand
somely, but the profit was clearly due to the
amount Of the yield,
A product Of clover is reported by Major
LeBleux, of North Carolina, at the rate of
nearly five tons per acre, of which the aver
age cost for two years was $3.50 per ton,
against market value of $50.
Mr. Alfred Rose, of Penn Yam, n. Y II,
raised potatoes during the last year at the
rate Of about 600 bushels per acre, OF which
the cost was nine and one.iourth cents per
bushel.
A carrot crop Of over 1000 bushels per
acre is reported from Wisconsin, by j.. L..
Fairchild, Of which the cost was six cents
per bushel.
Corn fodder has been reported in the
Country Gentleman at 2j tons per acre, and
at cost Of 45i cents per ton.
The corn crop Of Luther Smith, of Che
mung Go, N. Y, gave product Of q BUSH
els of ears. Ga this crop, after deduOtiug
expenses, taking the market value Of the corn
at so cents per bushel aud the stalks at 3 10
a ton, the profit would be s7l.85 on the
grain and S87.l5 on the stalks, making Il
total for the acre of Sl0S50.
From examples like these Of maximum
crops, and from countless others of similar
character continually reported, it is easy to
see, not only that large yields per acre are a
source of profit in farming, but that the rate
per cent on the investment, in nearly all
such cases, is unusually large In either of
the instances cited above the margin is moi
less than several hundred per cent.