Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1868 [PAGE 304]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

292

traetg of it, principally by the residents of towns and villages, until last fall, when & law to that effect was again submitted to the vote of the people, with a proviso, that in any election precinct in which the law would receive a majority of votes, it should be in force. In this way some of the election precincts have adopted the law, which went in force on the first of March, 1863; while in other and adjoining precincts the law has been defeated. It is to be seen how it will operate. 19. Capital, per acre, required for good farming ? E. Pierce.—About $40 to $50 at present rates of fencing. Without having to fence more than was required for his own stock, $20 to $30 per acre. Basis of calculation, a farm of 160 acres. One could farm with a much smaller capital, but I estimated the cost of stock, etc. C. E. Barney.—As to the capital required for good farming, $12 per acre would be very desirable—some brains, and the ability to apply them to the soil, would be indispensable. A. Rankin.—It costs about $10 per acre for good farming here; that is, for grain. Root crops cost more. I last year spent $41 on an acre of potatoes, and got 241 bushels, which I sold for $1 per bushel. G. W. Minier.—$,10 per acre is none too much. G. W. Vavglian.—It costs at least $5 or $6 per acre to farm land as it should be, exclusive of manures. J). Gove.—With our mixed husbandry it takes about $10 per acre per annum, to pay all expenses. J. G. Swann.—$6 per acre. E. A. BieM.—I have 160 acres ; 40 cleared, and have $10,000 invested (besides cost of land), and twice that amount would be more profitable. J. Balsiger.—I think that for good farming an available capital of nearly the same amount as the value of the land, would not be too much, though this depends on whether the land is already in cultivation, good order, etc. G. C. Eisenmeyer.—Good farming land in this section of St. Clair county, is worth from $80 to $115 per acre. I know of no farm cultivated by hired labor owners, who have not sufficient force within their own families to cultivate their farms, find it to their interest, since wages are so high, to lease out their farms to tenants, receiving one-third of the crop as rent. Land is in great demand at this rate, and hired labor is generally employed only in harvest time. For these reasons it is diflBcult to make an estimate of *he capital required for good farming.