[ CHAPTER I.]
FARMING AS A BUSINESS.
“Farming is a poor business,” said the Deacon. “Take the corn crop. Thirty bushels per acre is a fair average, worth, at 75 cents per bushel, $22.50. If we reckon that, for each bushel of corn, we get 100 lbs. of stalks, this would be a ton and a half per acre, worth at $5 per ton $7.50.”
Total receipts per acre for corn crop | $30 00 | ||
| Expenses. | Preparing the land for the crop | $5 00 | |
Planting and seed | 1 50 | ||
Cultivating, three times, twice in a row both ways | 5 00 | ||
Hoeing twice | 3 00 | ||
Cutting up the corn | 1 50 | ||
Husking and drawing in the corn | 4 00 | ||
Drawing in the stalks, etc. | 1 00 | ||
Shelling, and drawing to market | 2 00 | ||
| Total cost of the crop | $23 00 | ||
| Profit per acre | $7 00 | ||
“And from this,” said the Deacon, “we have to deduct interest on land and taxes. I tell you, farming is a poor business.”
“Yes,” I replied, “poor farming is a very poor business. But good farming, if we have good prices, is as good a business as I want, and withal as pleasant. A good farmer raises 75 bushels of corn per acre, instead of 30. He would get for his crop,
| including stalks | $75 00 | ||
| Expenses. | Preparing land for the crop | $5 00 | |
Planting and seed | 1 50 | ||
| Cultivating | 5 00 | ||
| Hoeing | 3 00 | ||
Cutting up the corn | 1 50 | ||
Husking and drawing | 10 00 | ||
Drawing in the stalks | 3 00 | ||
Shelling, etc. | 6 00 | ||
| $35 00 | |||
| Profit per acre | $40 00 | ||
Take another case, which actually occurred in this neighborhood. The Judge is a good farmer, and particularly successful in raising potatoes and selling them at a good price to hotels and private families. He cultivates very thoroughly, plants in hills, and puts a handful of ashes, plaster, and hen-manure, on the hill.
In 1873, his crop of Peachblows was at the rate of 208 bushels per acre. Of these, 200 bushels were sold at 60 cents per bushel. There were 8 bushels of small potatoes, worth say 12½ cents per bushel, to feed out to stock.