.35 .35
Cultivation 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00
Plant food 1.02 1.53 2.04 .71
Husking 1.25 1.87 2.50 .88
Marketing 1.00 1.50 2.00 .70
----- ----- ------ -----
Cost per acre $6.92 $8.55 $10.19 $5.94
Cost per bushel .14 .11 .10 .17

The average yield per acre in Illinois for 12 years preceding date of
this estimate was 35 bushels per acre; the average price per bushel
during the same period was 32 cents.

LABOR COST OF PRODUCING A BUSHEL OF
GRAIN

Not counting rent of land or interest on capital invested in
equipment, nor depreciation of soil fertility, it has been shown that
under favorable conditions, the labor cost of growing and harvesting
an acre of wheat or oats may be as low as $4.50, and that of maize as
low as $5 per acre. Assuming the average labor cost of producing an
acre of wheat or oats at $5.50 and of maize at $6 per acre, and taking
the average yields per acre for a series of years to be 13.8 for
wheat, 30.9 bushels for oats and 24.9 bushels for maize, the average
labor cost per bushel will be: Wheat, 40 cents; oats, 17-1/2 cents;
and maize, 28 cents.

The data given in this chapter are to be accepted as suggestive rather
than as determinative. The chief purpose in presenting them is to
place before the young farmer an appreciation of some of the problems
involved in the production of the chief and basic agricultural
commodities. The young farmer's success will be modified by the role
which they occupy in his farming system and by his ability to adjust
them to the economic conditions in which he may find himself placed. A
thorough understanding of the principle underlying the data submitted
will go far toward enabling him to make this adjustment, although none
of the illustrations given may have been obtained under conditions
identical to his own.

CHAPTER XIV

THE PLACE OF INTENSIVE
FARMING

The doctrine of the survival of the most fit applies equally to the
field of biology and to the field of economics. The general introduction
of vegetables and fruits into the human dietary has, by banishing the
loathsome diseases of the Middle Ages, greatly increased human
efficiency. It follows tha