IMH 74:4 356

"Chronicles of Upper Burnet" (1)

Monday, December 13th.

The sun shone part of the time and the slow thaw conntinued though it froze slightly last night. We
put in the day from seven o clock (nearly) till night, gathering corn in Cal Curtis s contract. We got
in about 70 bushels, one load without the side-boards on one with them on, and about 25 bushels
in the afternoon. The yield is about half what it usually is. John Kivett came down where we were
a few moments in the afterrnoon, errand if he had any not made known. Will Bain84 was down a
few moments after school to inform me of his proposed spelling match to-morrow night

Teaching Notes: Corn prices in the 1880 era were around $.43/bushel (a bushel of "ear corn is
72 pounds and a bushel of shelled corn is 56 pounds at 15.5% moisture). I recall a reading a
story about the "Great Depression" of the 1930's where a farmer laid a dime on the table and
said, "you can't carry the corn that this dime will buy." It was the era of nickel corn and ten cent hogs.
Here is an interesting report in PDF about the price of corn in Iowa in the 1880s. Corn price today
(February, 2008) are around $5/bushel for this coming Fall delivery.