Tuesday, February 4, 2014

D.G. Bond of Chowan County Answers Question 'Does It Pay to Raise Corn?' 1908

“Cost of Corn Production” letter to the editor in The Southern Planter, February, 1908

I look for the Southern Planter with great interest, as I get so much valuable information from it. I am a small farmer and want to answer a gentleman’s question in the November number, “Does It Pay to Raise Corn?” I will give him my experience: I rented three acres of sandy land at $3 per acre--$9. I put eight tubs (which is a kerosene barrel cut in half) of fish offal to the acre that cost 25 cents per tub--$8. The work cost $6.80. Total, $23.80. I gathered 22 barrels of corn, for which I could have gotten $3 per barrel--$66—and 3,200 pounds of good fodder, at $1 per hundred, $32. Total, $98. I made clear $74.20 in a rainy season. In a good year I would have gotten 10 barrels per acre. At this rate it surely pays to raise corn.


D.G. Bond, Chowan County, N.C.

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