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Show COST OF GROWING W.H5AT. : ':; Annln MIIUt S -U-.tf S. nvoiS sum (nil H Nuu-.m) im I !.:!:, V. !.,. N.'DIO Of our H'ric:,ir;, ; cow -moo-are still rtt it (Us. i-o.r ; hc'hh--rvo I problem of tha eo.-t of a, -"laa a 1;l-'.--1 l eat. Thatthcdi , ic m ai h tv.profit-s tv.profit-s 13 instanced by the thrr.n s .u-u by various wheat raisers, ami ihe item of i ro-t enumerated show that no fixed' j amount can be named as the e osi of raisin:; rais-in:; a bushel of wheat even in the re-I re-I e; rifted bounds of one state. One farmer m Benton county, h:d., gives seventy-.wo seventy-.wo cents per bushel as the cost figured lroiu his account book, with every detail itemized. Another farmer gives his experience, ex-perience, showing that C6; cents is a fair cost price of producing a bushel of wiieat and getting it to the .station. Another An-other farmer in the same state puts the cost at forty cents, and he figures five dollars per acre rent as part of the expense, ex-pense, while the man who itemized the cost at seventy-two cents included only three dollars per acre as rent. Still another an-other Indiana farmer gives the result on three fields of five, fourteen and twenty acres as costing, respectively, twenty-eight, twenty-eight, forty-nine and fifty-four . cents. Stfll another gives iSl J cents as a fair cost of raising wheat in his part of the state. The point that strikes a reader of the various estimates which are given by the practical men as to the cost of farming operations is their wide diversity. If one man can raise wheat for 31 cents per bushel the farmer who spends seventy-two seventy-two cents is woefully extravagant or extravagantly ex-travagantly wrong. But another thing to bo noted is that some figure on a basis that would surprise most business men. They include the rent of the land which they own, pay themselves wages or their work and include this as part of the cost. Five dollars rent on ground worth, say Cfty dollars per acre, is 10 per cent. Thia is not depreciation, as might be argued in case of a factory or mill, but rent. The whole question simmered downeeems to bo whether a man can rent land at 10 per cent., hire all the work done, raise wheat and make money. Probably not; at least in states where land is valuable. But it makes a difference what the yield is j made by good fanning or chantes to be by the happening of a good year. Certain it is that no man can name a cost at which his neighbor can produce wheat. The figures already given show that oiie man figures out a comfortable profit where another scores a loss to the producer. Here and There. Statistics show that there is an increase in-crease of sheep in all the northern states. The average production of wheat for 1891, as reported to the department at Washington, was 15 1-3 bushels per acre. These statistics are furnished by the agricultural department at Washington as representing the aggregate production of cereals for 1891: Corn, 2,060,154,000 bushels; value, $336,439,228. Wheat, eilSO.OOO bushels; value, $.513,472,711. Oats, 736,394,000 bushels; value, $232,-312,267.. $232,-312,267.. At the late annual meeting of the American Forestry association these officers were elected: President, William Alvord, San Francisco; treasurer, Henry M. Fisher, Philadelphia; recording secretary. sec-retary. Dr. Eggleston, Washington; corresponding cor-responding secretary, Edward Bowers, Washington; vice presidents from the levcral states were re-elected, with few ban-res. |