Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-03-11
or labor and so much for household OK

I
about either income or expenses. There
are enough things that we are obliged
to guess at in this world without run
ming our cost accounts by guess work
There are some unpleasant features
about this, | will admit. 1t is a very
disagreeable thing sometimes for man
to have record where his wife can 90
and figure up the amount Of money she
gets out of the business. When, as is
sometimes the case, that amount hap
pens to be less than has been expended
for tobacco, or fast horse or some long
legged, slab-sided, pedigreed public nui-
sance of hunter dog, it is apt to bring
about family crisis in which the lord
of the manor docs not shine with his
accustomed luster. Still, the good over
balances the evil and if we farmers could
be induced to invest a little more cash
in the comfort of our wives it is barely
possible that it might even reduce the
cost of most important product of the
farm. Special accounts should be kept
with the different crops to determine
their cost and profit, and the farmer
who would get on should never finch
from the results of those accounts. In
making up records of this kinds the
labor of the farmer himself should have
its place. 1t is quite common thing
for farmer who performs more labor
than any ordinary man to throw out his
own work from every account, as if it
had no value and no effect upon the
cost of a crop. 1t is not practicable for
every farmer to keep these special ac-
counts, but there will be no excuse in
this world or the next for not keeping a
simple cash account.
In getting at the question of raising
crops cheaply, it is pretty safe to lay
down the principle that large crops cost
less than small ones. There are ex-
ceptions to this principle. Some of
the great butter cows, producing 20 lbs.
a week and more, by their enormous
consumption of food and the required,
make product which sells for less than
it costs. Extra large crops of fruit
sometimes weaken the lives of plants,
vines and trees, and so fail to pay, while
the extra fat steer of the showing oft
en- brings less profit than an average an
imal; but all these are exceptional cases
and do not disprove the rule. To obtain
these large crops requires plenty of
thinking, some work and all the manure
which can be produced, begged or bought.
Now, what will thinking do toward max
ing the crop? Why, it's tendency
would be in the first place to make the
farmer acquainted with his own farm,
his tastes and capacity. The farmer
who thinks for himself will not try to
raise wheat upon sand nor sorghum up
on clay; he will not put an orchard in a
valley or cornfeld on hilltop; he will
not raise anything because his father
did or his neighbors do, but will raise
such crops as suit his soil, his location
and himself. BY this most natural
method he easily gets all the helps
which plain nature gives in reducing the
cost and increasing the amount of crops
Many farms cost annually more than
they produce on account of what Mr.
Terry, of Ohio, calls leakages. Some
of these appear on the surface of a
cash account; many of them do not. Mr.
Terry aimed center shot at me,
know, and many other Wisconsin farm.
ers, when he denounced that kind OF
management which permits the liquic
manure of the farm to run to waste II
is the best part of the manure. 1t con
tains the elements for which the soil i,
always hungry. To emphasize this fac
further, | quote an analysis published
in Hoard's Dairyman of Jan. /, 1886
In 900 Ms. Solids LIQUIDS.
Nitrogen. 5n IFS
F FStsidi acid ssss 1871 TO-
These are elements vitality valuable il
producing meat, milk and grain. Liqui,
manures, holding their elements in SO
luton, ready to be taken up By plants
of course act as soon as applied, Will
solid manure is slower although NOR
lasting in its effects. Many Easter
} dairymen have water-tight drains be
meath the trenches of their COW barn
which connect with large cisterns wher
the liquid is diluted with an equa
amount of water, pumped into large
broad tired watering carts and thel
sprinkled upon the land This practic
is followed in England to some extent
1t is almost universal in Japan, wher
thorough and cheap culture of the sol
is a necessity for great population
Some of us here in the West try t.
reach this matter by using quantities o
sawdust, straw or hay as absorbents, blu
it is only partial stoppage of the leak
The money value per cow of this liqui'
: manure has been variously estimated a
from SO to $25 year-an item o
some Importance in tipping the farm
scales in the direction of profit. Ihav,
never known farmer who lost none,
in buying manure or in hiring labor t,
handle it. Fair wheat land in Wiscon
SIN which has been cropped without ma
nure for years will not ordinarily pro
duee twelve bushels per acre. TIL,
highly cultivated and well MANFRED lane
upon the University farm at Madison
seldom yields less than forty bushels
per acre and has frequently gone abov,
fifty. BY these methods the cost of al
acre product of wheat would be as fol
lows respectively:
MOL No.
Flowing. -...... ....,..Si .25 Sl.25
, SOWING ........., Commune 30 .65
Seed ...-.-.................1 10 f.70
, Peapng and binding. f.5O $50
| Shocking .................. rs l.25
Threshng ................ 10 AGO
oeIilnS ...... .+...,s..,.... l. W LOO
IL loads OF manure 800
Total. ................ s7.2S Si6.95
Makes cost IS per bnshel. so.sa SOC
The unmanured acre produces II