The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1886-09-04
COST OE CROPS.
its Redustion the Leading Requisite of
the Present Day.

instances-onef farmer can produce corn
or wheat at from 10 to so per cent. less
than his neighbor, it is easy to see that
one will prosper and the other fail in
his business. | adopted the rule sew
eral years ago of keeping an account
with my leading crops (wheat, corn and
potatoes), and was strongly impressed
with the fact that the cost per bushel
as the yield decreased per acre in
creased. There are some factors of cost
that can not be changed materially for
example, interest on the money invested
in the land, seed and the ordinary OPP
erations of blowing and planting, and
these will be about the same whether
we raise ten or thirty bushels of wheat
to the acre, or twenty-five or seventy
five bushels of corn. Now if we take
$40 an acre as the smallest sum that
will pay ground rent, seed and labor,
| for growing a crop of corn or wheat up
to the time of harvest, it will be seen
that at the lowest yields named the
| farmer must receive 81 q bushel for
wheat and 40 cents for corn to get
barely paid for his work and invest
ment, and then look to the straw and
cornstalks to pay him for harvesting
the crop. If-as during the last year
the average prices of these crops are
| from 10 to % per cent below what |
have named, then life becomes a strug-
| gle with debt to the farmer who pro-
duces the minimum crops, The most
carefully prepared statistics taken by
both National and State authority show
that the corn crop Of the United States
averages but little above thirty bushels
| per acre, and the wheat above twelve
| bushels
Conceding those figures to be nearly
| accurate, and remembering that a largo
per cent of farmers produce on an av-
| erage from 80 to 100 per cent above
| them, we are forced to the conclusion
that an equally large per cent. grow
crops below these averages, and find
no profit whatever in their business,
but merely subsSt by practcing an
economy that is almost niggardly Now
| believe it possible on many farms to
reduce the cost Of production Of all pro-
duets to some degree and some Of them
so much as one-haf, and will try to
show how | think it can be done. The
first thing should say to many farm
ers would be: reduce the area of land
under cultivation. 1t is the besetting
| sin among our Western farmers to
cultivate too much land; LOCO BUSH
! els of corn from twenty acres must
! e ,,,g,g-s4.- To-, tL,p 10,
grown on thirty acres of the same farm;
and the farmer who can raise 500 bush
els Of wheat on twenty acres will realize
good profit, while his neighbor who
sows from thirty-iive to fifty acr to get
the same amount will run behind. Now
these highest averages that | have
named are easily within reach of most
farmers and can be eXcelIed by many.
| do not say that the farmer who has
been growing poor crops can at once
change his system so as to increase
thrm- 10 This extent, but | do believe
there are few farms where the average
yields are now at the minimum on
which they could not be increased so
per cent. in less than ten years One
hopeful feature of this plan of farming
a smaller area and farming it more
thoroughly,is that it is one which must
improve the land, while the plan Of
keeping the largest part of the farm
under the pillow necessarily GNhaustS it,
| have tried during thirty years the
plan of keeping up the soil by buying
manure at the village and also by the
purchase of commercial fertilizers, but
some years ago abandoned them both
as too expensive, and determined that
the farm must be elf-perpetuating to
the extent of producing its own fertiliz-
ers, and | have been greatly pleased
with the results Now the system of
farming which reduces the area under
cultivation enables one to do this in two
ways; tirst-and the cheapest and best
by growing crops which fcrtilize; and,
second, by raising stock to consume the
straw, hay and grain, and give a large
amount of manure. Under the system
which | practice on my little farm Of
ninety acres we grow from ten to twenty
acres of clover every year, which IS
neither cut nor pastured, utallowcd to
make all the growth it will from har-
/ NtNl hlllll NOll NNlNllNl anu AllNll -
: plowed down. Itusually make growth
equal to that in the following June on
fields that are paStured closely in the
autumn, as is the almost universal prac.
tee of farmers in this locality. and after
a careful comparison of its effect upon
the soil | estimate its fcrtiliZing value
to average about Sl2 per acre, (which
mean that it is worth to the crops as
much as a dressing of stable manure
would be which would cost me Sl2, il
bought and drawn from the village two
miles distant Lest this article become
too long, | will condense into sentence
, the means by which we are to increase
our yield, and thus reduce the cost o.
I production; l. Decrease the area under
cultivation. 2. Folowa rotation which
will put all the land in clover once in
two or three years 3. Keep good stool
to consume the crops grown, 4. Make
, the preparation of seed-bed and the cUl
tivation of all crops thorough. Vald
L. BrOWR, 40 " T. Tribune.
A .DOst-mOrtarl examination int