ks, @ $3.58 107.40
30 tons timothy-hay, @ $6.43 192.90
30 tons clover-hay, @ $9.64 289.20
14 tons oats (1,500 bush.), @ $7.70 107.80
24 tons corn (800 bushels), @ $6.65 159.60
---------
Total 213 tons $1,092.40

"This is the value of the manure _on the land_. Assuming that there are
600 loads, and that the labor of cleaning out the stables, piling,
carting, and spreading the manure is worth 30 cents per load, or $180,
we have $912.40 as the net value of the manure.

"Now, your 250-acre farm _might_ be so managed that this amount of
manure annually applied would soon greatly increase its fertility. But
you do not think you can afford to summer-fallow, and you want to raise
thirty or forty acres of potatoes every year."

"I propose to do so," he replied. "Situated as I am, close to a good
shipping station, no crop pays me better. My potatoes this year have
averaged me over $100 per acre."

"Very good. But it is perfectly clear to my mind that sooner or later,
you must either farm slower or feed higher. And in your case, situated
close to a village where you can get plenty of help, and with a good
shipping station near by, you had better adopt the latter plan. You must
feed higher, and make richer manure. You now feed out 213 tons of stuff,
and make 600 loads of manure, worth $912.40. By feeding out _one third_,
or 71 tons more, you can _more than double_ the value of the manure.

50 tons of bran or mill-feed would give manure worth $ 729.50
21 tons decorticated cotton-seed cake 585.06
---------
$1,314.56

"Buy and feed out this amount of bran and cake, and you would have 800
loads of manure, worth _on the land_ $2,226.96, or, estimating as before
that it cost 30 cents a load to handle it, its net value would be
$1,986.96."

I am well aware that comparatively few farmers in this section can
afford to adopt this plan of enriching their land. We want better stock.
I do not know where I could buy a lot of steers that it would pay to
fatten in the winter. Those farmers who raise good grade Shorthorn or
Devon cattle are not the men to sell them half-fat at low rates. They
can fatten them as well as I can. For some time to