Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1889-02-28
COST OF .wHEAT-RA,slNo.

Ansoreseing Information Obtained q
| Northern Dakota and Manitoba.
just what it costs to raise bushel
OF wheat on fresh prairie soil is very
elastic figure. depending very much
upon the season. quality of SOIL and
the way you set about it. l know
cases In which the figures range, for
work only. from fifteen cents to 81 &C
a bushel. Some land owners find il
most profitable to contract with push
ing man having say three or four sons
all pulling oneoway and working with
VIII. and l think it good W ay for
all parties. I give examples of this
method from two points nearly three
hundred miles distant from each 9TH
err. and perhaps some one else may
contribute his share. In a country
where. within a year or two. we may
look for 100000, 900 bushels of the
best hard wheat in the world, such
details are of more than local interest
The first example is from Dickey
County, d. T., and is nothing special
as to yield, in fact, know much bet-
ter results that way, though in this
mans case the absence of frost and
the Old Hutch boom have made him
for this season an exceptionally fortu-
nate example. Samuel Glover says:
came here in the spring of 1885. The first
season hired !, 800 acres broken and backset,
the next season $50 acres, and the next 100 acres
more. Until this year have had almost all
NJ ia nd cd ali ID foe hroo III
ing and back-setting, and leased it for one-half
the grain at the threshing machine. ! fur
nished seed and paid half of the threshing, the
renter doing all the work.
The last year farmed $40 acres in wheat
near Glover. near Dlckev County, with the fol-
lowing result: Received $50 bushels wheat
from go acres which have sold as follows:
1850 bushels No. 1 Hard, at Sl.15. s1ae5s.5O;
387 bushels No. 1'Northern at &1.08, 81, 133. Is;
884 bushels No. Northern at &1.OO, 1884 90;
Total, 81S, IS Cost of production inclu d.
ing seed and hauling, s427800; net profit ala.
99666; average net per acre, s15.33.
large portion of the land farmed on shares
yielded as well as the above. have had 800
acres cropped three years, $50 acres two years.
and 100 acres one year, and my profits from
farming this land have been more than twice
the cost Of the land, and all Improvements in.
Guiding breaking and backsetting. Much Of
this land was poorly titled and did not pay as
well as il it had been properly farmed. Many
Of my neighbors can show better results per
acre than do.
My next example is from the Por tage
Plains, the very choicest wheat land
in Manitoba and nearly three hundred
mikes due north of Dickey. This land
is nearly fiat, never luxurlant vegeta-
ton. but full of mineral plant food,
scarcely ever touched by frost in
twenty years. 1t does not readily run
to weeds and is full of staying power.
Messrs. Campbell, who on this land
have raised the very high average of
thirty bushels per acre for five years
in succession, finding they were too
much engrossed in grain buying to at
tend properly to their crops, have
hired their next seasons crop to a
good working farmer who with his
family of grown-up sons is a model
man for q new country. The land is
all fall plowed in good shape and the
seed supplied. The contract is. for
twenty-five and half cents per
bushel and the work included is SOW
ing, narrowing, harvesting, threshing
and delivering grain at the elevator.
say three or four miles distant.
This, think. a fairly good price for
the renter, and with an average crop |
he will come out well, as he can start |
Immediately after seeding to breaking
on his own account, and will have
every hour of his working time |
profitably employed The ease Of
working and proximate certainty of
good crop are strong points in his
favor, while the land owner from one
crop will collect the price he paid for
the land few years ago. As have
already written, this is the sunny side
Of wheat farming The man who has
raised five hundred or one thousand
n ovroc ~ NJ <n h,,ry, nnw fak0