St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-07-05

of seed wheat depends on where the seed
wheat is. If it be on slip of paper held
IN SOME BROKERS HAND
in the wheat pit of the Chicago board of
trade it may be worth 80 cents at noon and
90 at a quarter past. If the lottery tickets
are to be drawn in May, it may be worth a
couple of cents less than if they are to be
drawn June 1. But on Mr.. Dalrymple's
farm the average value of a bushel is %
cents and fraction, so that at one and five
eghths bushels TO the acre, it costs S1.50
for seed wheat, or if the yield be sixteen
bushels TO the acre, as much as can be
bought for cents, mills and a fraction is
enough seed wheat for buShel at the har-
vest.
Two men with proper seeding machines
and horses can, on an average day, with no
breaks in the machinery. put in fifteen
acres of wheat. They get as wages 81
each and it costs SO cents each for their
board, giving as the total cost So. This
brings the price of seeding an acre to 20 cents.
or 114cents bushel on the befOre-named
average yield. When the crop is once i'm.
everybody gets a period of rest until harvest
time, and with the exception of the general
wearing out of the soil and the anxiety of
the proprietor when storms and and cyclones
come, there is no expense. These latter
are not taken into the account, for
the proprietor of the bonanza farm says he
never waits for it to rain, but lets every
thing go ON as usual until the first drops
come. When it comes harvest time there
are several items of expense. The Irvine
TO BIND AN ACRE
of wheat costs 20 cents, or two-thirds as
much as the wages of the man who plows
the ground. And in this connection it
might be suggested that in binding the
wheat from thirty thousand-acre farm a
considerable piece of string would be used
up. The grain must be shocked after
bound. Four men with machinery can cut
and shock in a day about twelve and two
thirds acres. and on the basis computed
above this gives the cost of these two OPP
erationS as 81 cents per acre, or with the
Irvine 75 cents. No allowance is made
here for the delays caused by breaks in the
reapers, though on most farms ii is
said that an average of some hours
must be thrown off for this. Mr.. Dalrym-
pie said on this point he could shave down
some the coming year over pastsyears, max
ing something of a saving on Irvine and
something Oh the general cost Of handling
the machine-enOugh perhaps to make
difference of few cents to the acre, or a
lew mills on a buShel.
WHEN IT COMES TO THREsHING
about five cents is added TO the cost of a
bushel of wheat This operation, which
takes the least time, is the largest in eX
pense of any one article outside of the
original cost. and it will be noticed
that this rule follows through the
entire process. The following computation
is the one employed to establish the cost of
threshing. Thirty men with a steam
thresher can thresh in day, on an average,
the wheat that grows on 100 acres of land.
Threshers command 81 a day and board,
and consequently with board at 30 cents
day, the expense of the thirty will be SIS a
day. But they cannot work every minute,
little breaks must occur, and allowing for
this extra time, 50 was allowed, making $50
as the minimum cost at which 100 acres can
be threshed. This gives so cents as the
cost per acre, or a nickel a buShel.
OF course the cost of hauling depends
entirely on the distance from the thresher
to the railway station. On the Dalrymple
farm the average distance is one and TWO
third miles, and at forty bushels to the load
the cost of this operation is three-fourthS of
a cent a mile, or 20 cents for hauling the
sixteen bushels to the acre. Added 20 the
above items the bonanza farmer says there
will be an expense for
GENERAL REPAIRS
to the amount of 10 cents TO the acre,
five-eighths of cent a bushel, which,
though slight, cuts considerable figure on
a 30, O00-acre farm or i'm the wheat pit at
Chicago. The care of stock when idle is
placed at a net of % cents per acre. twill
be remembered that these estimates have
been made without taking into ac-
count the machinery and stock on
the farm, but these are nevertheless
function of the cost of getting the wheat
This was placed at SO an acre, and if they
will last with good repairs for ten years it
gives 81 as the cost per year, or 6 cents
added to the value of the golden grain.
Moreover, the land cost say Sd an acre and
the interest on this at e per cent. is Is cents,
or 1 IS cents on the No. l hard. Now,
Dalrymple's figures stop here, with the
grain on the cars. and the various items of
its cost may be summed up in the following
concise form: