Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 172, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 July 1914 — VALUE OF ALFALFA AND ACRE OF CORN [ARTICLE]

VALUE OF ALFALFA AND ACRE OF CORN

Placing Valuation of Two and One-Half Times on Former Seems to Be About Right. A comparison of the value of the average acre of alfalfa with the average acre of corn brings some interesting figures to light. An enthusiastic alfalfa raiser claims that one acre of alfalfa is worth two and a half acres of com. This looks like a rather large estimate but a little work with a pad and pencil shows that the enthusiast has not overdrawn the comparison to any great extent. Forty bushels of corn to the acre is i a rather generous estimate, and an ' average price of 60 cents per bushel is good. Figuring it this way the crop will be worth $24. Giving the stalks a valuation of $1 we can say that the entire product of the .acre of com amounted to $25. An ordinary acre of alfalfa in an ordinary season should produce three and a half tons of good hay at the least, and a good average price would be $16.50 per ton. Thus the alfalfa crop will be worth $57.50. The alfalfa will be already planted for the next year, and the crop taken off will leave the soil in a better condition than it found it. The crop will have been produced at about one-third the labor cost of the'com, and wUI return to the 801 l much more manorial value than the com if both are fed on the farm. The corn will have taken from the fortuity of the soU and the loss wUI eventually have to be made up by growing alfalfa or some other legume. Placing a valuation of two and one-half times as much op alfalfa as com does not seem to be far wrong.