Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 July 1876 — Ignorance in Farming. [ARTICLE]

Ignorance in Farming.

One of the greatest drawbacks to successful farming is the presence of the unknown quantity —ignorance of the exact condition of tilings, in value, weight and measure, concerning our products. We often produce at a loss, Ail account with each crop would decide the matter. If, after a few trials, it costs more to produce than a crop will sell for, its cultivation should be abandoned. Many continue to produce from year to year at a loss, aimply from the want of a little calculation. The unknown quantity in weight and measure subjects us to great loss m buying and selling. A stack of hay came to my notice recently. The seller estimated that it would weigh a ton and a half. The buyer preferred to buy by weight. It weighed 1,850 pounds—quite a difference in favor rtf die buyer. There is no doubt that a great deal of hay changes hands every year on a basis no nearer the truth than this. Loss enough is soon made in this way to put in and maintain a hayscale, even in a small neighborhood. The same thing is true in regard to live stock. Dealers can judge much more accurately than farmers, and are much less liable to be cheated. Farmers are much more liable to fail in buying than in selling. If we pay too much in buying, it makes an up-hill business all the way through.

This is one great cause why many fail to make anything in feeding and handling stock. From considerable experience in weighing stock for othiera, I have found that the greater part fall short In weight from the estimate.of the owners; some come very far short. Not more titan five per cent, ’exceeds die estimates. Horses estimated at 1,100 pounds generally weigh about 1,000, Loaas of hay called a ton quite often weigh only 1,200 or 1,500 pounds. Those who estimate the number of tons by the number of loads are often veiy much deceived, and in’selling think they have been cheated, because the scales failed to show as much as they expected. Weighing will remedy this. The pound' avoirdupois is a known quantity; after ascertaining the exact number, we are in a condition to go forward without making mistakes in our calculations. Another unknown quantity is in failure to know the number of acres under cultivation. A farm which had been taken up when the country was new, and occupied by five successive generations of the same family, had a twenty-acre lot. On the death of the first member of the family the farm was sold. The twenty-acre lot contained but fourteen acres by actual measurement. Here were five generations of heroic workers deceived in the amount of work actually done, all the while supposing that they . were cultivating six acres more than there really was. If the yield came up to what the increased acreage should produce, it did not matter so much. But the probability is that they were as far from the truth in the yield as in the acreage. I once bought a tract of salt marsh said to contain six acres. The surveyor made less than four acres, much to the disgust of the seller, and to the detriment of the reputation of persons who' had gained a local fnotoriety for big days’ work done thereon. Traditional “big days’ work” often owe their existence more to some errors in calculation than to the amount of work really done. There is uncertainty enough attending the business of farming, from unfavorable seasons, and causes over which we have no control. without being subjected tp loss in those we can remedy. We suffer loss from buying and paying for what we do not get; by selling what we do not get pay for, and in many other ways in which the unknown quantity affects us unfavorably. We should endeavor, where it is in’ our power, to eliminate it from our business.—Cor. Country Gentleman.