Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1883-11-24
Maine as an Agricultural State.

Maine as an Agricultural State.
II corn can be raised in Maine for from
| fifty-five to eighty cents per bushel by our
own labor in our own fields, remarks an
exchange, we submit that it is better to
produce our own corn than it is to pay
another party seventy.five cents a bushel
cash to raise it for us. When it is con-
sidered that western corn is not worth so
much. bushel for bushel, as home raised.
the difference is largely in favor of the
home article.
But we have known the cost of produc-
ton reported as low as sventeen cents per
bushel. A few years since, Bangor
man reported the cost at twenty-three
cents per bushel. We have seen it re-
ported as costing forty cents bushel
but these should be regarded as excep-
tional cases.
There is no doubt we can raise our own
corn and, in a large portion of the State,
cheaper than it can be purchased. With
in few years, a new interest in this SUBJ
iect has been awakened among our farm
ers who are beginning to better UNDER
stand the importance OF home productions.
This has been brought about through the
Grangers. farmers clubs and agricultural
papers. This matter has been presented
at greater length than was anticipated for
the purpose of inducing our farmers to
depend upon their own fields for this
crop. 1t is no experiment. Corn is GER
tainly one of the surest and safest crops
Maine farmers can raise. and when they
| become satisfied it is a profitable one,
western corn will seek another market.
Another most important crop. and one
| which is too much neglected by Maine
| farmers, is that OF wheat. there was a
! time when the weevil made such havoc in
wheat-heads as to make the crop almost a
| failure, and sometimes entirely so. Farm
ers became discouraged and nearly aban-
doned wheat raising and so came to de-
pend upon the west for flour also. This
pest seemed to like our climate, or our
| wheat, or both, and prolonged his visit
through a great many years and so we
kept sending to the west and north for
-four. And 50 we keep sending, more from
the force of habit contracted in those un.
favorable years, than from the necessity
to do so. The weevil has now 80 nearly
| disappeared, that a fair crop of wheat
may be considered almost certain when
other conditions are favorable.
All through tnese uuIaVOTaOle seasons
we continued to SOW wheat. 1t is true, q
good yield was not always harvested, not
always a fair one. There has not been a
year in more than thirty five when we
have not had field of wheat; and, on
the whole, it stands among the most pro.
fitable of farm productions. When it re-
turns good yield, there is no general
crop more profitable. In the years Of
1876 and 1877. our yield of this cereal
| was exceptionally extra. In the latter
year, the detailed amount of expenditures
per acre, including thirty per cent. Of
| dressing. was twenty-seven dollars (27.) J
The wheat was sold for seed at prices
ranging from s1.50 to Sl.80 per bushel
The straw was sold at eight dollars ($S.) }
per ton. The profit was very large, reach
ing well up to 80 per cent on the cost.
This was exceptional, and we can hardly
expect to do it again. No year since has
the yield been so heavy. Yet we shall
continue to raise wheat. not simply for
the profit there may be in 1t, but also for
the purpose of supplying our family with
homemade -four and saving q money ex
pense of s75 year.