Newark post., 1911-07-26
SPECIAL INTEREST
TO FARMERS

Llont1-s help from the hired man.
Figuring board at $3.50 per week,
the total expenses of the hired !,
man will be $I47. This will make
the labor cost SI,I47 year. Add
ing the yeauly expense of the
working and fixed capital brings
the total yearly expenses up to
S3,24o.
Now let us return to the other
side of the ledger and see what
gross returns this farmer will be
able to get from his quarter-sec-
ton. Take it for granted that he
is following up-to-date methods
and has an approved rotation O:
corn, oats, and clover. Grant also |
that his farm has been tiled and |
cleared until every acre is tillable.
The roads take four acres of his
10 and the buildings at least two
more. He will have each year "
acres Of corn, 38 I-2 of oats, and |
3S 12 Of clover. With such a ro-
tation his crops should be rather
better than the average. With a
good season his corn will go per-
haps 90 bushels to the acre, his
oats 40, and his hay I-2 tons.
When his crops are garnered
he will have 1920 bushels of corn,
I,54o bushels of oats, and 90 tons
Of clover hay. The corn will bring
so cents ushel, if his neighbors
have not raised too good a crop,
in which case overproduction and
prosperity will force him to accept
considerably lower price. This
was the case, last year, forcing the
farm price down to 80 cents. But
call it 50 cents, which is nearer the
average for the past few years.
The oats will bring IS cents and
the hay So ton. This will bring
him a total income of S3,717. Out
OF this must be taken about $500
for horse feed, leaving S3,4I7 for
grain and hay actually sold. This
leaves profit of less than $500 to
invest in permanent improvements
or to apply on the mortgage. Does
not look like such overwhelming
prosperity, does it,
1t takes the farmer three years
at that rate to save enough to buy
a mail-order automobile. That
| ST. 900 that we allowed him for his
own labor looks pretty slim after
it has fed and clothed and educat-
ed a healthy family of boys and
girls. There is not much of it left
at the end OF year OF luxur!es or
travel. Remember, too, that the
crop yields we have taken are con-
siderably above the average. The
average farmer does not have that
S2oo profit. He does not have
that $1,000 salary to buy clothes
and food and books for his family.
! The farmers books, if he keeps
any, may show an actual loss, tor
the farmer seldom figures any
cash value for his own time or that
Of his boys. Neither does he fig
ure interest on his own money,
which is invested in land or in
horses and machinery. A good
many times the farmers returns
on the money invested in his land
are nearer two than five per cent.
There is another phase on the
farmers glimmering prosperity
that we have not yet mentioned,
the fertility of the soil. Every bu-
shell of corn sold takes with it IS
cents worth of fertility; every bu-
shell Of oats 1913 cents worth. Clo-
yer fixes some of the nitrogen Of
the air and leaves it for the sue
ceeding crops. Under favorable
conditions this may equal in value
the mineral elements removed in
the hay. That S3,265 worth Of
grain and hav sold from the QUAR-
ter-section farm takes with it Soo7
worth OF fertility, after deducting
the value of the nitrogen that the
clover crop gathers from the air.
SOIL FERTILITY.
In the prairie States, where the
fertility of the rich, black soil
seems well-nigh inexhaustible, this
has been taken as negligible fac
tor. Only during the last few
years have diminishing crop yields
warned the farmers that they can
not forever take away without put
ting something back. The farmer
has not been counting the wasted
fertility as part OF his annual ex-
, pense. There were too few profits
, in proportion to the expenses at
IL