Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-12-10
A Cash Crop.

A cash crop is what the farmer desires
more than anything else, and crop too
that can be turned readily for cash with
little handling, which d. es not have to be
stored TIL winter and then MAJ keted max
ing double and handling and hauling, and
for which the cash comes right back
quickly. One great 'out" in the growing
of crops is the labor and cost of market
ing. The hay, of which Maine farmers
sell so largely, must be hauled into the
barn, pressed, and again hauled. often a
long distance, TO market. The apples
must be sorted and barreled, and ii not
sold IN fall, stored in the cellar, re packed,
and then hauled to the station or town
mar ket. Potatoes unless hauled at once
TO a starch factory as they are in Aroos-
took county, must be stored in the cellar,
and when sold toward spring on an appre
tiated maj ket must be again sorted, ham
died and carted to station or other market.
But the same processes are true with most
all our farm crops. 1t is this extra work
which eats up the profits.
With Maine farmers as with farmers
everywhere, the business OF dairying
where the creamery system is practiced,
affords as much freedom from this trouble
and cost of transportation, as any branch
of farming. In the neighborhood of
creameries, the farmer has only to milk his
cows, set his milk and deliver the cream to
the -gatherer twice week, At the
end of the month he receives the money
for the butter which his cream had yield
ed, by the inch or space" system, and
he has had no expense OF marketing.
The cream is cash crop. 1t is better TO
put hay into good cows and sell the
cream, than to store, press, handle and
transport the hay TO distant
market. The best market for
hay is in the farmers own barn, his
cows if they are good ones-the best
customers. The creamery system should
be encouraged where it has got fooihold !;
and where there are no creameres, the
farmers in every good grazing section of
our State should endeavor to invite the
introduction of such an establishment as
sure way Of creating a good home
market. or in other words of bringing
ready cash to the farmers door for the
crops which he grows. and the labor which
he sells.
II Sweet corn is one of the best cash crops
grown by the farmers of Maine 1t is
true some losses and discouragements
have come to farmers in past years
through the failure of companies or in
dividuals operating packing factories, but
it is now believed that all the firms and
companies doing business in this line in
Maine are solid and honorable, and the
business was never on more secure basis
than now. Indeed, by the new system of
operating these factories the farmer gets
his pay every day for the corn which he
hauls to the factory. That is to say, he
obtains his cash one day for the corn de-
lived on the preceding day. BY this
method of payment-whch is practiced
we believe, bv all the corn factory
managers farmer can lose only the de-
livery of one day, even if factory should
suspend In the midst of packing opera
tons. Factory managers have been led
to adopt this plan of payment IN con-
sequence of the losses sustained by farmers
in the past through the failure OF packers.
In 1886 there were fifty-seven corn
factories in operation in different sections
of Maine, all of them, we believe, west
of the Kennebec valley. The average
number of acres of corn grown tor each
factory may be quite accurately
stated at one hundred and fifty, thus giving
a total of $3.50 acres of sweet corn grown
by Maine farmers, in the last year. The
product of an acre OF sweet corn varies
greatly. In favorable years fifteen hum
bred cans per acre is regarded as good
average yield; but there are recorded
crops of two thousand cans an acre, and q
few instances of even three thousand cans.
How the better farming which yields these
last named amounts pays over the low
farming which yields only the former, is
the difference between $4,000 per acre,
the average price, and $l05 90 the excep-
tional price paid the farmers. per acre.
for their crop. The past autumn over
four hundred thousand dollars were paid
the farmers Of this State. for the sweet
corn grown for canning purposes. The