DORSETT'S TREATISE
ON
AGRICULTURE,
IN ALL ITS VARIOUS BRANCHES,
FROM
THIRTY YEARS' PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE.
BY FOLSOMI DORSETT.
CHICAG 0:
Rou.Ds & JAMES, STEAM BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS.
1S67.
a 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by
FOLSOM DORSETT,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Northern
District of Illinois.
. 
TO TIIE
FARMERS' TOWNSHIP CLUB ORGANIZATION,
FOR THE
nf a mnore Irtof VtFicrf,
THIS BOOK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED,
BY YOUR FRIEND,
FOLSOM DORSETT.  
ER1RATA.
Hog Culture......................................... Page 68
Distribution of Time,..............................  " 226
Supplemiient-'Making Pure Butter,"............. 217
For "tffectio," read   ffliction,".............. 57
For " affect," read " effect,.......................'  66
For'that should breeding in and in be tolexa     ted," read'that breeding in and in should
not be tolerated,"........................... "   90
For "the best elements," read "the best laws,"  " 93
For "from," read "foul........................ " 99
The lanes are niot fenced in round the Model
Farm............................................. 157  
V.
INDEX.
Apple Culture......................................................................................... 171
Barn and Sheds for Stoc               k...................................................................15
Barley Culture........................................................................................ 104
Buckwheat............................................................................................... 147
Broom Corn........................................... 17S
Cattle Raising.................................................................................... 1.3S
Clover...................................................................................................... 119
Dairy Butter......................................................................................... 123
" Cheese........................................................................................... 14t
Fruits, other, necessary to cultiva t    e..................................................... 205
Geese and Ducks..................................................................................... 15
Grape Culture...........................................................  193
Home and its Surroundings................................................................... 9
Hlay Culture............................................................................................ 63
Horses......................................................................................... 8
Hedges for Fences.................................................................................. 16
Indian Corn............................................................................................ 24
M u l e s........................................................................................................ 100
Model Fa rm........................................................................................... 157
Oat C      ulture............................................................................................. 83
Omissions and Items worthy of n     ote................................................... 224
Potatoes.........  9.....................................92
Pea Culture............................................................................................109
Poultry-Chickens................................................................................. 149
" -Turkeys................................................................................... 
Peach Culture........................................................................................... 181
Pear, Cultivation of the........................................................................... 212
Rye Culture............................................................................................. 72
Raspberry Culture................................................................................. 200
Sheep Cu         lture.......................................................................................... 75
Strawberry Culture.................................................................................. 188
Sorghum Culture................................................................................... 209
Township Organization...................................................................... 21
Timothy Culture.................................................................................... 113
Vegetable and Fruit Garden..............................1................................... 7
Wheat Culture......................................................................................... 43 
vi.
PREFACE'.
The design of this work is to furnish a comprehensive
treatise on Agriculture, as deduced from an experience of
thirty years cultivating the soil, ten years in Maine, and
twenty in Central Illinois, and a residence of ten years in
Chicago, where I have been familiar with the quality and
condition of the produce of the West, as it has come forward
to Chicago for a market. And while I am pleased to say
there was much sold for good prices, being of good quality,
I regret to say there was more of the medium and poorer
qualities, sold, to pay the producer but little or no profit.
It is true the elements might have injured some of this
produce to lessen the prices.
Under these existing features, as to grades, qualities and
condition, the produce coming to market, from the same
locality of soils and climate, my mind was drawn to take
issue on the subject of the good, medium, and pure culture
of the soil,, producing the results I have witnessed on the
sale of these products, both animal and vegetable, grown in
the West.
After much reflection upon this important subject, and
having an inborn desire to see the farmers have more uniformity in their prosperity from their labors, I resolved to
write out my views and sentiments, from the stand point of
my practical labors'on agriculture, and the knowledge by
theory, of the physical and chemical laws of animals and
plants, with their relations so inseparably existing; and so
perfectly harmonious are their transmutations performed by
0 
vii.
the inscrutable wisdom of an all wise Creator, were these
rich bountiful provisions made for the support of His people.
And the more faithfully will the farmers bend their minds
to learn these great living truths, the more certain will
prosperity attend their labors to secure larger rAwards for
their  better husbandry.   Under  the  guiding  rule that
animals and plants must equally have food from nature's
g,reat store house, man being endowed with the highest
type of wisdom on earth, is specially required to see that
neither shall suffer for great want, while under his immediate
care and protection. And all other pursuits of life will be
stimulated to higher action, in all their needful labors, so
essential to happiness.
In conclusion, I would most respectfully add, that if the
principal features laid down in this work, are sought after,
and adopted by the farmers, as a rule of action, in the culture
of their animals and plants, I feel sanguine to say the results
will prove to be less in amount of labor, more in wealth,
and a larger degree of health, which are the essential stimulants to elevate humanity to a higher source of happiness.
And finally, may the author indulge the hope, that this
book may receive a fair and impartial perusal by the farmers
of the West, omitting all the imperfections therein contained. Believing it is from the hand that hath striven hard
upward through the rugged paths of life, devoted to agriculture, as it was thirty years ago, on the prairies of
Illinois, where in many places the Indian trails showed
evidence of recent occupation.
With these desultory remarks, I cheerfully submit it in a
special manner, to the cultivators of the soil.
Your Friend,
FOLSOM DORSETT.' 
I 
THE FARMER'S GUIDE.
CHAPTER I.
HOME AND ITS SURROUNDINGS.
0  word, in the language of civilization, has so
_ many endearing ties as that of home.  Within
its boundaries are rest from toil and oppressive
cares of life, tender sympathy and sheltering love, and
implicit confidence as found no where else on earth.
There is a charm in the word home which calls up
memories from the long buried past, that fill the mind
with all that is pure and enduring in our lives, and we
live over again, in imagination, the happy scenes of
childhood, so full of joy, so free from care.
What sweet and hallowed associations cluster round
the home circle. There we find the father's care, the
mother's love, and the brothers' and sisters' affection.
The storms of life may beat upon us, while out in the
world battling with its cares, and perplexities; but, if
we have a home, it is to us a city of refuge; where our
wearied limbs and aching hearts can find rest and
tranquility.   Well we may exclaim, what dear and
sacred places they are! and how kind in our Heavenly
Father to implant in our breast such a love for them.
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
But my friends who cultivate the soil; in order to
make your homes replete with the comforts of wealth,
beauty and health, special pains should be taken in
laying out five acres of ground, more or less, surround  ing your house, so arranged to give you a vegetable
garden affording all the rich vegetables so healthful
and necessary for your family-then the balance of
this ground suitably and tastefully divided for your
small fruits in berries, with plums, peaches, pears,
crab apples, and your substantial fruit, the orchard of
apples, and last though not least, there should be laid
off first, ground fronting your house as a lawn in terspersed with your flowers, evergreens, and such
ornamental trees as your family may desire; of course
you will have the tasty walks necessary for beauty and
comfort.   This should all be enclosed with  a neat
substantial fence, with the front beautified to correspond
with the rich view your house must have, when you
have your surroundings growing onward to a higher
state of perfection.
Hence it is, we shall see with these rich flowers and
ornamental trees, with these high scented perfumes
being wafted by every breeze, so well designed. to
energize and stimulate the farmers to cultivate their
lands and do all their husbandry in the best possible
manner, showing the utility in cultivating the fields
well, then all will join hands with beautifying and
advancing their home grounds.
The next object under consideration, for the farmer
to have, is a good ventilated cellar, if not under his
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
whole house, under a part of it at least, so at all times
of the year, he can have a place for vegetables; if
your ground is level, raise your house three feet, put
an embankment round it, windows in the cellar, giving
free ventilation of pure air, so all necessary tohealth.
No house in our country should be permitted to rest on
the ground, thereby endangering the life of its inhabitants. Friends, this is no idle talk, to gratify curiosity;
it is a reality, and worthy of your highest consideration, especially in the summer season, when vegetable
and animal matter is under a hasty decomposition, to
say the least about it, when stagnant, it ndust create
disease. Hence the importance of ventilation where
people are sleeping. A word to the wise is sufficient
on this subject.
Economy, in saving the floor joist from rotting,
should induce all to raise their houses from the ground,
say nothing of more urgent requirements.
As there are many forms and fashions in building
houses, and many inconvenient for the room taken up,
I hope it may not seem out of place for me to give my
views on a farmer's house.
As I have said before, utility and beauty should at
all times go together; or, in other words, taste and
labor saving conveniences should be strictly adhered to,
and the best plans after much reflection should be
adopted.  It would be well to consult the wife's feelings in regard to some of the rooms and pantrys, for
after the house is completed, it cannot be so well
attended to.  You will please to notice my plans for
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
two houses, which I have attached to my model farm,
which I desire all who are intending to build houses,
to make an examination as to size, form and division
of rooms, to give comfort and ease, so desirable to all
having to do in the farmer's house.  
The small house is constructed for a small family,
with small means, and situated so that a front can be
put up any time, forming by the addition a neat
sizeable house as though all were put up at one time.
When you are building, it is just as cheap to build
with an eye single to symmetry of form  and taste,
as otherwise, and whenever you may wish to sell, you
can-always get well paid fcr your good judgment; so
with all you may do on your farm. All I have to say
further in regard to the improvements, is a good sized
dining-room, with kitchen, well, and cistern of rain
water, and bath room should be constructed as I have
represented, and the bath house, let me say to all far mers, that no family living deserve and require bathing
so often as him who has to do with cultivating the soil,
and the sooner you add this to your homestead, the
sooner and more certain by this bathing will you be
cleansed, and your flesh will breathe free, to put all the
functions of the body in a healthy condition, so essential to insure good health.
Now the out-houses, beginning with wood-house.
No one will deny the utility of this, when in a cold,
sleeting, drifting snow storm, or without the snow, will
for one day want to live without it. A part of this
wood-house divided, will serve for your work shop for
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
doing any repairs that often happen to farm utensils,
every farmer wants his work room, with plenty of
good seasoned wood on hand to make these repairs,
without going miles to get these trifling jobs dOine and here is the place for all your tools, when not in
special use. I need not dwell on this point, for it is
apparent to all, that all tools should be under cover.
The privy is a small habitation, full of many comforts
which my pen is not able to express; only have the
passage-ways made pleasant, so that life is not endangered by the voyage to it.
The smoke-house requires care in its construction,
the bars to hang the meat upon should not be placed
too low, ten feet will answer. The oven should be
made with brick, laid open, so as to let the smoke
through freely and keep back the heat. Brick or
stone are the best for this purpose.   For the house
you also want brick or stone,-or if wood, line the
walls with blue clay;  this will be warm in winter and
cool in summer.   Two small windows are necessary
for ventilation; by having the house dark, you can
keep your meat through the warm weather, by having
smoke put in twice a week, leaving the windows open
a little when you have the smoke in.
On reflection I think the farmers who have not these
buildings erected, to set them in a line and connect
them, when making the smoke house, tool and work
shop, and house with kettle to cook food for the hogs,
having all these buildings adjoining, and serve as a
fence on the line of the rest of your back yard, from
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FARMER S GUIDE.
your house towards your barn; this with your hog pens
next to your barn-yard, would serve well to break off
the wind while passing to your barn, so available in
winter time. These improvements you Can make, as
time and means will permit.
14 
FARMER'S GUIDE.
CHAPTER II.
BARN AND SHEDS FOR STOCK.
These buildings should be made, in size and extent,
to correspond with the size of your farm, and the stock
you intend keeping. Base your farm one hundred and
sixty acres-I would build the barn fifty by thirty-six
feet-stable on one side for horses, ground mow for
hay on the other side, and over the floor and horses I
would have for hay, and all the rye and oats in bundles, for cutting up for food for your horses and calves.
Then on the outside of the barn, by the ground
mow side, you should have a shed to hold your special
stock of steers you are fattening, with you bull, cows
and calves, having a partition from your other stock;
your yard should be large enough to feed one hundred
head of cattle, with a tight fence high enough to make
the back of a shed, you should have around your yard,
excepting gate-ways; these sheds should be roofed
over, and boarded in front, so as to let stock pass
under, but for cold sleeting storms, sections should
be made, to close up this front, at any time by sliding
these sections long to form an entire front; by this means
you can separate your stock whenever you desire to
-so essential with your cows when coming in, and all
other needful changes you so often may want to make.
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
Oh! how much suffering I have seen by farmers not
having the facilities to give aid and comfort to cows,
calves and other stock in time of need.  If there are
any malicious animals in your yard that are dangerous to injure other cattle, put them in prison so they
can do no damage; these measures should be adopted
and carried out, taking out these cross malignant cattle,
and the balance you can put into pens free from doing
any harm; these duties you owe to yourself as a matter of economy, and a higher duty you have to protect
your domestic animals that are under your care, to see
they are kept from the tortures and wounds that give
so much pain where much loss and even death is the
result, by these too often neglects, occasioned by the
ommission of the farmers. All that is wanted, is a due
weight of wise reflection to make your homes and surroundings valuable in wealth, full of rich comforts of
health and blessings, that would meet the admiration
of all other social business of life, and especially those
residing in cities where those rich treasures cannot so
cheaply be afforded.
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
CHAPTER III.
VEGETABLE AND FRUIT GARDENS.
The amount of rich vegetables and fruits that can
be cultivated and grown upon five acres of land,
surrounding the farmer's home, has seldom if ever been
fully comprehended as to quality and quantity. The
cause of this great and lamentable neglect, I will in
kindness assign to others, what I am reluctantly obliged
to take myself, while cultivating the soil. Thus it was
then, and it is so with the farmers now, evidently for
the want of an energetic, reflecting mind, to arouse
them up to a true sense of their best interests, afford ing such rich comforts in health and prosperity, to
their families. And now let me cheerfully ask, who
will be the first in the farming districts of the west, to
take measures to carry out the plans I have recommended in this essay —so essential to the farmers, and
conferring rich blessings to all branches of industry,
by furnishing fresh' vegetables and fruits, thereby
laying just claims upon them, for a renewed vigorous
taxation of their mind and muscle, that will produce a
larger amount of manufactured wares so as to equalize
the benefits arising from the better cultivation of the
soil of our country. Advance these two great life
17 
FARMER'S GUIDE.
sustaining interests, and civilization will have taken a
long march forward to a higher sphere of action.
Well may the farmers feel proud and elevated, when
they are cultivating their gardens of vegetables, fruits
and flowers, that so beautifully surround their dwellings, for they are performing the same Heaven-born,
laudable duties, that our first parents were commissioned to perform in that hallowed spot, the Garden
of Eden, by the great all wise Creator, who was
pleased to dedicate it with that ever memorable name,
Paradise-fresh from their Creator-Father. We can
faintly imagine the glow of splendor and radiant
beauty, that must have pervaded that ever memorable
time when nature was fresh in her newness of existence.
What hallowed ground. But my friends, with all
these rich blessings so freely bestowed upon our first
parents, I would kindly ask the question, if the cultivators of the soil of our country, in a temporal sense
at least, have not blessings equally as great, and should
we not feel thankful to the same all wise and beneficent
Parent, for casting our lives in such a land, full of all
the natural resources that mind and muscle can
desire. Let them diligently work together, and'the
prosperity of our country none are able to appreciate
its future greatness, for which we should ever feel
grateful, and take every pains to make our gardens
smile and fairly groan with burdens of rich vegetables
and fruits, thereby fulfilling the just requirements of
all who cultivate the soil as a profession.
On this train of thought my mind is called to the
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
fact, that the farmers can have with very little extra
expense, vegetables from one month to six weeks
earlier by making a hot bed in the fall, by digging out
a trench, say twenty to forty feet long, five feet wide
by twenty  inches deep, -then  take  fresh manures,
fill it nearly full, and cover this over with six inches of
the mixture of this soil; if a sandy clay loam, tile
better. Put up a bulk head at the north side and
ends of this bed, with boards four feet high to shelter
it from the winds. Before hard freezing, cover it over
with straw two feet deep. At the January thaw, take
off the straw and let it have some rain or melted snow
on it; then return the straw again, and let it remain
on the bed until the first of March, when you can
remove it altogether. Take a bushel of lime, mix it
with a bushel of old manure, and pulverize this with
the top soil on your hot bed. It would be well to
incline it to the south a little.
The  seeds most  desirable to plant are the Early
Kidney  Potatoes,  early  Peas  and  Beans,  choice
Tomatoes,' Sweet Corn, Crook Neck Squash, and
Sweet Potato. These all can be successfully propagated by planting them in rows, three inches apart.
Plant the Potatoes six inches apart. This bed should
be protected by glass costing ten cents per foot, and to
those who can afford it, it will pay the best interest on
the same amount invested. As soon as the weather
will permit in the spring, have your beds made in your
garden, where you should, the fall before, have put on
six inches deep of horse, cattle, and hog manure, and
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
then pulverize aid subsoil down sixteen inches, turning
this manure under, having the soil well mixed and
thoroughly pulverized. Then take your plants from
the hot bed, and set them carefully out. With proper
tending, you will have the pleasure of'having some of
those vegetables by the middle of May. When you
transplant, take a knife to cut the dirt.   The expense
of this hot bed arrangement will take one day's labor
to dig the trenchl, put the manure in, and cover it over,
and two days to take up plants and set them out.
If you have a twenty feet bed, the glass will cost
ten dollars, and will last you  a life-time, and every
year you can have your hot bed, with the luxuries of
early vegetables, at a cost the first year of only twienty
dollars, and after that a yearly expense of five dollars.
What  family would refuse this amount  for the rich
vegetables, so early in the season, when they arc so
much needed.  And what farmer in the west, wieho is
blest with a family, will neglect to prepare his garden in the fall, by subsoiling it down sixteen inches,
after having spread on six inches of manurc.  Refiect
for a moment that the manure is to be well stirred u
with sixteen inches of soil, so you need have no fcars
of its being too rich.  Onr acre of land cultivated as
I  have  recommended,  will produce three hundred
dollars in vegetables, and your family will be more
healthy throughout the year.   May the farmers look at
it in a right light, and go forward to obtain the results
that will follow the labors I have suggested on garden
culture
20 
FARMER'S GUIDE.
CHAPTER IV.
TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATIONS.
Township organization for agriculture should be
adopted, for the advancement of a more perfect knowledge in cultivating the soil of our country.,
It is true the County and State Agricultural
Societies have done much in many respects to advance
the interests of agriculture.
But with all their assiduous labors so faithfully
bestowed, it must seem on mature reflection, that the
true object in view, and sought after, can never be
obtained, as constituted by the County and State
Societies at this present time,  from the  fact, the
farmers contesting for the best quality and quantities
of grains, do generally live at a distance from each
other.
ITence, the impossibility of their having an equal
chance in regard to the elements, that must and do
favor one more than the other at certain times, for
these cogent reasons, a fair estimation of the true
culture of the soil cannot be successfully arrived at.
Hence, I am, by much reflection persuaded that the
only way a true test can ever be ascertained, what
soils are able to bear, and by actual demonstrations
21
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
thoroughly made by farmers, living side by side,
having the same soil, climate, showers, droughts and
all incidental ills and favors that may arise'during
the season, standing now to all alpearances upon
a fair footing.  Must come the sure test with these
two  farmers, and  so on  with others  in the same
situation through the country, to make their trial tests
in cultivating their wheat, corn, &c., in ways by stipulation, or by their own volition, keeping a true record
of all manures, labor, depth of plowing, kind and
condition of the soil, kind of seed, wlhen sown and
what manner of cultivation &c., and how secured from
the weather.
Fellow farmers of our country and especially in the
west, where I have cultivated the soil a long time,
don't this seem to be the most available way and means
to find out the highest resources of the soil, with the
smallest amount of labor and money expended which
is the highest aim of all industry under the tuition of
our countries best instruction.
IHence, farmers adopt the organization system, by
choosing a Chairman and Secretary-selecting a good
board of referees for adjusting all matters of interest
that may arise, conferring a spirit of assimilation to
bring out, by your laudable exertions in cultivating
your farms under the most favorable circumstances,
for the promotion of their united interest of cultivating
the soil, on a practical scientific basis, under the
auspices of your new organization by townships.
Who will respond and compete at the County and
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
State Fairs, taking the best samples as awarded by your
own  board of referees, in your grains, fruits and
animals, manifesting a liberal spirit to imitate those
that have succeeded in the towns by their best culture
of what was assigned them for competition, having all
strictly done, to advance the great cause of your noble
profession.
In conclusian, let me advise you to procure the best
works on agriculture, emanating from a practical
experience and scientific investigation on the physical
and chemical laws of animals and plants, tlhat you may
learn to supply the proper food, that in their nature
they will require and demand for their full constitutional growth.
Farmers of the west, I submit these remarks for
your most candid and worthy consideration, hoping
from your mature reflection, you will find favor in the
plans of township organization for the special purpose
that it will insure you greater rewards from your meritorious labors in tilling the soil of our country, from
whence all its primary prosperity must flow.
* 23
I 
FARMER'S GUIDE.
CHAPTER V.
INDIAN CORN
Is the greatest material product  cultivated in our
country, and has double the rich supporting qualities
for fattening all animals, and especially hogs, than
any other grain in proportion to the cost of cultivation.
WAVell did the justly celebrated horticulturalist Linowus,
give it the true botanical name from the Greek word
zoa, which signifies to live; and this reminds me of the
advice that an old settler gave me, when I first came
to the State of Illinois, who said to me, raise plenty of
corn, for all can live on it, which I have found to be
measurably true; and well has our all wise beneficent
Creator, made a wide range of latitude for the possible
cultivation of the rich oily product, for we find it
growing in the low vallies of the Amazon, South
America and on the plains of Mexico, and, so on up to
the higher latitude of the Canadas.
But no where in this wide range of country, can we
find as much land having the available climate and
natural richness of soils for sustaining and maturing so
large in quantity, and sound in quality, as in the
Western States, where we find by the agricultural
report at Washington, that over four hundred millions
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
of bushels of corn was produced in nine western states,
by common cultivation in 1864, begining with Illinois,
138,356,135; Ohio, 68,202,641; Indiana, 74,284,363;
Iowa, 55,261,240; Missouri, 36,635,011; Michigan,
11,088,801; Wisconsin, 10,087,053; Youhg Minnesota,
4,674,329, and Young Kansas, 4,673,081. This was
sold at an average of one dollar per bushel.
Deep plowing, say twelve inches, can be done with
high post plows, on our prairie soil. By taking a
lighter land you can plow one and a half acres per day;
if not this way, sub soil your ground, making light
work for two teams; let your tall horse or mule, or
even oxen, go in the furrow to balance your double
trees.
Now friends, you have your soil twelve inches deep,
with all the offal plowed well under, and you are all
ready to plant your corn, this being the crop we are
now treating upon. But there has come a heavy rain,
and the water stands all over in a muck, so you cannot
plant for several days.  But look here, have we not
plowed our ground twelve inches deep? True. We
will go out and see, and sure enough this deep plowing
has let the surplus water down, and we can plant tomorrow, and so we do, and it works splendidly. This
certainly is an advantage for planting. But is this all
for our deep plowing; no indeed, there is better yet.
And to those who may not realize the fact, I will tell
them that in the months of July and August and even
until it has made its growth, to my knowledge, for the
past thirty years, the corn suffers very much, and at
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
times and places it is almost a failure, as we can see by
the low average reported, all for the want of deep
plowing —and this twelve inches with proper tending,
will save your corn, from the fact that thi  loose soil
below the roots where the moisture lies at the bottom
of this plowing, and the roots by the laws of nature
will draw this moisture made rich by the vegetable
matter you plowed under last fall, small stubble-or in
the spring as it is unfortunately done by many farmers.
Some may say we don't get any benefit from what
we have plowed under, it is so deep. Let me say that
these dry months will surely bring it all up, for the
sun attracts it very much by the roots of the plant.
There is a mistaken idea about the roots of plants.
They will grow down much deeper if the soil is plowed
to let them grow, and I know that it is essential to all
plants, and most with the luxuriant corn, that has to
make a full crop fifteen thousand pounds of vegetable
substance, consisting of starch, sugar, oil and woody
fibre, and all from the production of fifty to one huldred bush'els of the rich golden corn.
In this same report from Washington, we also find
in the twenty-one loyal states, there was a production
of five hundred and thirty million bushels of corn from
seventeen millions of acres, making an average of thirty
bushels per acre, and I am sorry to find that our nine
western states, only made a fraction over twenty-nine
bushels per acre, and in 1863 on account of the drought,
only an average of twenty-three bushels per acre in the
west.
26 
FARMER'S GUIDE.
How shall this be increased on an average to fifty
bushels per acre in the western states? From my
experience  and  study into  the  natural  inorganic
elements of the soil, and the constituent organic
food plants must have furnished to the soil, where
plants are cultivated, in order to ensure a full harvest.
Under these considerations I would imperatively
recommend to the farmers of the west to adopt the
following rules and strictly adhere to them:
First-Make a division of your land in proportion to
the quantities of the kind you want to cultivate, specially
reserving one piece to seed with clover, as a legal
tender to regulate and supply the balances that your
other plants require from time to time; your better
judgment should dictate which crop you will plant first,
but always bear in mind if you cultivate wheat, it should
follow clover, supplying the rich food in time so essential to insure a full harvest. Then you should plow
your ground twelve inches deep, turning under all
vegetable matter left on the field after harvest, and all
the manures arising from your stock-always put
your manure  on your corn and meadow  lands, and
by this course of culture, your wheat, oats and rye
will find strength to hold their own.
Now some farmers, may think this deep plowing
would be unnecessary-to all such, I would briefly say
why it is essential, and hope I shall be able to convince
them that it is the only sure way they have to gather a
good sound harvest, having the quantity that true
culture will merit.
0*
27 
FARMER'S GUIDE.
It would be well for the farmers of our country, and
especially of the west, to take a fair comprehensive
view of the corn culture; the relation it bears to the
wealth of our country under all its multipled forms of
consumption, of which I will here mention some of the
most prominent, viz:
The superior qualities it has for fattening our
animals (for food,) and especially the hundreds of millions of bushels consumed yearly on the hog and beef
product, so rich in substance that no other vegetable
product can ever be raised to take its place.
Then the important attachments it has by a large
number of the human family, for its rich farina
puddings, more delicate in looks and taste than any
farinaceous flours, and who will not eat the pure corn
cake, or the meal when well mixed with rye, making
such delicious bread and so excellent, containing all
the anti-dyspeptic qualities, which should warrant a
large consumption throughout our entire country.
Then again there are large quantities manufactured
into starch, that no other material can be found so
available to make the article so cheaply for its
goodness.
Then too, we see quite a large quantity taken and
manufactured for chemical purposes, which are essential and necessary, and a blessing to mankind.
And now last, and I am sorry not least, a very large
amount of this rich life sustaining food, as bread for
man, and all other consistent beneficial purposes is
taken and manufactured into whisky, which by its
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
cheapness, being made near where the corn is produced
will increase the consumption in many localities, so
that misery and vice will more or less abound from the
bitter effects of cheap whisky; and I have only to say,
I wish the people of our country would look at this
matter in its true light, and those engaged in this
branch of industrial labor, would rise up as one man,
and firmly, and irrevocably say, that henceforth we
will not make any more whisky to be used to destroy
the mind and happiness of our own kindred and fellow
beings.
The exhaustive po-,-ers of the corn product on the soil
is extensive, and every farmer should know the effect
it has upon the soil, that they may be able to supply
the organic elements as food to insure a full product.
In the commencement of this work, I have made a
Sew succinct remarks in relation to the constituent
organic elements, necessary to be in soils, so with
proper cultivation the farmers have a grounded right
to expect a good crop.
Now friends, I know you want to raise at least fifty
bushels of corn per acre, and from my own experience,
you oughit to cultivate your rich land to raise eighty
to one hundred bushels per acre, but set it at fiftyand when your corn is full in the milk, you have about
ten thousand pounds of substance per acre on your
grounds, consisting nearly half each of carbon and
oxygen-with the balance of hydrogen and nitrogen
-being the organic elements of the plants, with a
small trace of inorganic as mineral, equal to the
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
amount if the whole were burned up, and nothing but
the ashes were left.
You will notice, that this ten thousand pounds of
corn substance, has been cultivated and raised out of
the ground, with its splendid green' foliage, with its
rich fruits, hanging so firm and stately, will soon turn to
its golden harvest, to reward the farmers of our country.
Reflect for a moment, that this is the proceeds from
eight pounds of seed, and well may the farmers have
an earnest desire, to know how the soil can be cultivated to insure this large amount of product for the
least labor expended.
And my practical experience, reflections and
studies on the physical laws of animals and plants
-tells me in sentiments that cannot be controverted, that the soil after the two first crops, must have
all the vegetable offal, with all the manures from every
source,  returned  back  to the  soil,  cultivated  and
plowed under twelve inches, well harrowed and pulverized, that the soil may have the power and ability
to receive and distribute all the rains, dews, air, heat
and light, elements of strength and food from nature's
bountiful store-house, all to stay, protect and nourish
her seed intended for the farmer.
BENEFITS OF DEEP PLOWING.
From the most scientific investigations made, we
have the evident fact, that the soil should be plowed
twelve inches deep, and thoroughly pulverized especially for raising corn, that requires strong rich mellow
I
30 
FARMER'S GUIDE.
soil, made so by all available means of turning under
all the vegetable substances and never suffer any to be
burned up under any circumstances-with all.the
manures that can be furnished to give life and viger to
the constitutional elements of the soil.
The importance of deep plowing is manifested in
the spring, when heavy rains are frequent, after you
have planted, with this deep culture, the surplus water
will sink below your seed, and rest if not run off
on the base of your plowing, until the plants will
need it when the top soil becomes dry. 
WAVith this twelve inches of mellow soil, ready to
receive the seed by its friable porous condition, all the
rains, dews, light and heat, must send the corn plant
forward through July and August with strength and
substance that must insure a large harvest, that will
exceed the fifty bushels per acre, and with fair prospects of eighty.  But in order to realize these rich
results, the farmer must adhere to these suggestions,
and carry them all forward, take the utmost care in
securing your seed corn, and this year will require
extra pains, for much of the corn raised this year will
not answer for seed, having lost its germinating qualities; I would recommend the farmers to take a sample
of the seed they intend to plant, and put some soil into
a box and have it stand in a suitable place, warm
enough to have the seed sprout, and if it don't come
readily, you can experiment until you find the right
kind, this will save you great loss and trouble by having
to replant.
31 
FARMER'S GUIDE.
You will see in my remarks on procuring good
seeds, the stress I put on seed corn.   I will only
repeat here the fact, that more importance is attached
to the propagating and saving pure sound seeds, in a
proper healthy manner, ready when seed time comes,
that yout have an undoubted assurance that your seeds
are full of germinating life, is an unfailing special
duty that rests upon the farmers, and I have full confidence, that all who will read this Essay, will comply
with the instructions I have given on securing pure
ripe seeds.
The preferable way of planting is by machines,
especially if the soil is pulverized, for it lays the seed
togethler at one depth, pressing the soil gently so the
seed will feel the soil at once, and if in a dry time, the
machine is far the best, also preventing the birds and
squirrels from taking up the seed, and it leaves the
ground( well to cultivate, being little depressed, so that
the harr ow can throw a little mellow earth around the
corn, to cover up the young weeds.  I would put a
light, lm long-tooth harrow in a double V, so as
to expand or contract as you may desire.
In this mellow soil, I would use the fine double
Cultivator, taking one row at a time for the first after
the harrow,, and perhaps the second will do as well,
and if you have no other, the third time you can use
the same molds in a single frame, with means to extend
the breadth, or contract, as required.
I would leave my last culture around the corn
dishing, that when the showers come in the Summer,
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
through the months of July and August, when the
plants need their strongest nourishing food, and
the water from these showers, caught up by these
small basins which you have made around the
plants, enabling the roots, by the deep pulverized
condition of the soil, to drink freely of that rich
lactescent organic fluid, that comes to sustain and give
life and vigor to the famishing plants, and by means
of the farmer's better cultivation in preparing his soil,
with all the abilities that scientific investigations are
being furnished to the cultivators of the soil, setting
aside all prejudices, and earnestly holding converse with
nature and her undeviating laws,. bending a willing
mind to grasp all the blessings that must flow from
the results of having pure seed, deep mellow soil,
with all the organic substances that can be made
from the stock, and every pound of offal vegetable
matter created on the farm, should be returned to the
soil, and a rich harvest must follow.
I now come to the time when corn should be harvested. There are two ways this is done. By husking
and cribing, and cutting it up and shocking in the field.
Economy tells me to husk the corn and have it safely
taken care from all possible chances of getting wet.
Oh, what an improvident, heedless, and miserable
loss there is in the West, by not having proper
care taken to secure all the produce the farmers have
labored so assiduously to raise. I have seen farmers
lose one thousand dollars on a crop of three thousand
bushels, when one hundred dollars would have made
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
him good, permanent cribs, from which a bushel of
grain would not be wasted,  and  which would last
twenty years. 
The best grain house for safety, economy of labor and
expense, is what I have recommended in my model
farm arrangements, and from this position of loading
in and out grain so free from much labor. I would
build such a house as soon as time and means would
permit. You can load up your teams over night ready
for an early start to market, and then you can in all
kinds of weather prepare your grain fgr stock, by
grinding and steaming what you may want for stock.
There you can have a good place for all your seeds,
kept in their pure state, ready at all times for special
use. The utility of this grain house is so glaringly
apparent to common sense, when once developed, theft
I feel assured that all farmers that have none, will
do so when they have given it their true reflection.
This can be put up in sections, as your wants and
means require.
Now for saving your seed corn while you are
husking. Take the baskets into t+he field with you,
and all the stout, prominent, well ripened ears, that
show evidence of an early growth, take these off
with a few husks on them, then tie up when your boys
have time in the stormy days, and hang them up in
a warm place for winter, so that the germ shall not
in any way receive the least injury; reflect for a
moment; the germ in a grain of corn is not larger
than a small grain of flax-seed, and is imbedded in the
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
moist part of the berry; hence the great care in
securing the firmest seed, and keep it in a dry place,
where the frost cannot affect it, and no fears of a
failure from the seed. I always took my seed from
the middle of the cob, by shelling off the ends, the
corn being more perfect.
There are two kinds of coin, the yellow and the
white, and from these two there is a mixture of all
colors, and for feeding stock of course just as good,
and the largest crop I ever raised was of this kind.
For stock feeding, I should plant this kind, watching
the result as to the yield with the purer kinds.
No plants will hybridize as successfully as the corn,
from its favorable position, and a very fruitful change
will be made in one year, and I recommend experimental propagation of the different kinds in your small
fields set apart for the propagation of seeds, for their
more perfect excellence.
The pure white corn brings the best price for bread,
and for manufacturing into starch. Some farmers
delay harvesting their corn, until the freezing rains
and snows come, costing double the amount of labor
and suffering by frosted hands. It should be gathered
in October and November, that the boys may be ready
for school, an important item for their future welfare.
Friends, I have dwelt on this subject longer than
I intended, but when I know that it is our country's
greatest product, requiring much care and reflection
by those who have it to raise, I feel that I cannot say
too much in favor of the soil being made rich in all
35 
FARMER'S GUIDE.
the substances that can possibly be obtained, and should
be made deep and mellow, that the organs of the corn
plant may receive all the strength from the soil that
this culture can impart, so the farmers shall be richly
rewarded for the extra pains they have taken, through
the entire culture and saving of their farm products,
so that when they have made out a true account showing the extra expense and the increase of production,
it will give high encouragement for their future progress in the same line of action.
Under the better modes of husbandry, there is an
inherent dignity in the occupation, that all should feel
proud and full of emulation, discarding all disquietude and humiliation for the sun burnt complexion, or
the dusty clothing for a season you may have to wear.
For we have the gracious satisfaction of knowing it
was the first special labor the Almighty enjoined upon
mankind, and we know it is the foundation stepping stone for all other pursuits of life, giving aid
and comfort to all branches of industry.
Being clothed with lasting blessings, that will carry
the mind onward and upward, to that high eminence,
affording rich pleasures in cultivating the vegetables,
fruits and flowers, blending beauty and utility together,
so energizing and healthful to bring out the better
elements of mankind, that will prove a tower of
strength in all relations of life.
These rcmarks I cheerfully submit to your candid
and liberal consideration, hoping by due reflection you
will have a desire to make a fair experimental trial, on
36 
FARMER'S GUIDE.
the plans I have suggested, bearing in mind that corn
cannot grow to make a full crop, without deep strong
soil that will feed the plant from the time of its sprouting until it has put on its golden dress, showing it has
all the excellent qualities and quantity that superior
cultivation would warrant.
37 
FARMER'S GUIDE.
ClHAPTERI VI.
CATTLE RAISING.
The entire number of cattle in the twenty loyal
States in 1865, was twelve million eight hundred and
twenty-one thousand seven hundred and forty-one. Of
this number there were four millions and.upwards of
cattle and oxen, and something over three millions of
cows in the nine Western States, and a decrease of one
million in all the States since 1864.
This has its origin from  the heavy demands  to
supply, the army having taken a large number of
cows away for beef, has and will stop the increase for
several years to come. Hence, under all these existing facts, in regard to the falling off by such a large
number of cattle in our country, it behooves the farmers
of the west, the fountain-head of stock production, to
take a fair comprehensive survey of all the available
ground, for the purpose of bringing up an increase in
number, and a large increase of weight and quality, so
much needed in dollars, and for the reputation of the
stock breeders of the west, where they have the best
country on the top of our globe for raising stock.
Farmers of the west, I desire to have some candid
talk with you on that important subject, controlling as
it does more capital than any food product in our
38 
FARMER'S GUIDE.
country, and having myself been a raiser of stock for
twenty years in Illinois, preceeding the last ten.
Having been a close observer for ten years in. Chicago of the condition of cattle brought here for market,
knowing too the difference in value between a fat steer
and an ordinary one, and the cause of this difference,
I sensibly feel the need of farmers taking a higher
stand on the plan of stock growing in the West.
When I look back thirty years ago, and follow my
mind onward ten years, we can offer some little palliation for those raising stock at that time, wlho neglected
their high moral duty, say nothing about their pecuniary interests, that was wasted so heedlessly in those
gloomy years, from 1837 to 1847. For in that time I
sold pork dressed for one cent per lb. and carriage
twenty miles, and finding no market for beef at home,
I shipped in barrels to New Orleans, and on return of
sales I had to pay over charges on the entire shipment
for freight, storage and commissions.   Which  would
seem to blunt the sensibilities of our moral natures,
that would ivarrant some feeble excuse for our neglects
on taking care of our domestic animals at that time.
But my friends, when you have been getting from six
to twelve cents per pound for beef and pork the past
five years, it really seems-say nothing about any other
feeling but the pocket -that all stock the farmer has,
and especially beef, which is most effected by poor
feeding and care, that you would with such high
prices, feel stimulated to put on the last pound, and take
the best possible care of your cattle from the time they
39 
-FARMER'S GUIDE.
are born until the time they are old enough for market.
True, we have in the west many good cattle breeders, that send cattle to market that cannot be beaten
in the world. But when we know there aie a large
number in the west raising cattle, but don't seem to
have the care and pride so needful to warrant them to
obtain these higher prices at the markets, and consequently have to lose twenty to forty dollars per head
on their steers, which is grevious to themselves, and a
discredit to the stock growing interests of the west.
Although not cultivating the soil for the past ten
years, nevertheless, my mind has been uniformly true
to the success and prosperity of the farmers of our
country and especially of the west; and residing in
Chicago, the great stock market of the country, being
engaged the most of the time in the produce business,
it is evident that my feelings and sight would be drawn
to the condition of the products that have come to this
market for the past ten years. And I am sorry to say
no branch of the farmers industry has suffered so much
as that of cattle; and now let me kindly ask every
farmer in the west, why is this so? and what must be
done to remedy the great evil that pervades quite a
large portion of the west?
Having an inborn interest to see the cultivators of
the soil prosper in all their labors in the most effectual
manner, I will with my feeble pen, tell you from all
the experience and observations I have had, what
should be your course of action in order to accomplish
these rich results.
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
The first duty the farmer has in raising stock, if in
the summer, is to have plenty of good green food and
water for his cattle, that is, rich prairie or tame grass,
and be sure to have plenty of good water-I don't
mean this thick muddy wat.er, andlittle of that-I mean
the running brook, or from the wells that can and must
be made if you don't want your cattle to suffer, as
many most horribly do, through the months of August
and September for the want of water and food. The
farmers should have plenty of wells in common on the
prairies for their stock, saving the poor thirsting creatures from driving off miles to get water, and often
disappointed at that. Although not human, they are
your domestic animals, subject to innate sufferings for
the want of food and water same as the human species.
Don't the farmers keep these animals for the rich food
they so abundantly furnish you? Even if you furnish
the cows with good pure water and plenty of sweet rich
food, they will supply you with the greatest luxuries in
the rich milk, cream, and the greatest of all, that high
flavored yelloi butter, being made rich in sugar and
other essential properties from the pure sweet water;
and the food should be from the rich grasses; and
when they become exhausted in their season, have on
hand, the best of all, the sown corn that you can give
daily to your cows, which is the true secret of having
good full grown fat stock. It is an unmistakable fact
that nothing of the animal kind that you don't require
to labor, should ever lose a pound of flesh for the want of
good care and plenty of food. This is wanted freora
41 
FARMER'S GUIDE.
the farmers, and none can fail to see it, if he will take
one stormy day when the mind is at rest, and give
his mature reflection on the subject, and the.favorable
effects of your care and attention paid to your cattle
through the summer, will incite you onward to the
utmost care through the bleak winter storms so fatal
to a large loss by shrinkage, occasioncd by short feed
and the exposure to the sleeting, freezing rains that
come during winter, without shelter on the prairies,
must create a great loss and even death to many valuable creatures if they could have had proper care; and
I know to my regret the truth of this last assertion, for
I increased my stock one winter and did not enlarge
my sheltering capacity to cover them all, and the most
severe sleeting, freezing storm came, the last of Febuary, and the steers drove out the cows from the
shelter, and I lost three valuable cows, and more were
injured: that was a fatal storm for Illinois.
Having somewhat experienced these fatal scenes in
the early times of my farming, I feel the more sensitive
to have'the farmers make ample room to give protection for all their stock, and this can only be done.by a
will and determination to have these things all in
readiness. For the safety of your entire stock, it is better to have little to much than not enough, for you will
soon want all you have and need more; it is a good sign
to see farmers always ahead on room and food for their
animals,
If a farmer has various grades of cattle, from calves
up, he should have three apartments-one for his
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
grown steers and oxen, one for his cows and spring
calves, and one for his yearlings and two-year-olds.
This will save much trouble and loss by preserving the
weaker from the tyranny of the stronger, wounds often
being inflicted where they are all together. If you have
any malicious animals which want to be continually
fighting, have a small place to put these by themselves
until they can be quiet.   We have all seen the evil
arising from the neglect of this practice, and have suffered thereby.
For economy and utility, I recommend troughs, for
feeding all cattle according to their size. By this plan
they will save and eat all; whereas if you put the food
on the ground, and especially in a wet time, one half
will be lost.   In each trough there should also be
placed a small salt box.
Farmers who have a start in raising cattle and hogs,
should provide themselves with feed grinding machines,
which can be readily obtained. These will pay all expenses the first year.   All grains should be ground
for full feeding or fattening cattle, saving as it does,
one third the food, besides putting on fat much faster.
If your stock are from the calf up, you want a ton of
hay or good corn fodder, cut up, or a ton of good oat or
barley straw, well saved in good ricks, that you can cut
with your cutters, and at times take a barrel and
make  some  brine and sprinkle it over your straw
and hay as you feed it out in dry weather. I think one
ton of this will keep your cattle on an average for the
winter, but it is a good plan to leave some to spare.
43 
FARMER'S GUIDE.
0, what a pleasure to the farmer who has his stock
all under good shelter, where the winds cannot come
through the yard fences, as we often see in' the coun try, creating much suffering among your cattle, and
severe loss to yourselves.
It is the duty of every farming township, especially
those under the Organization Culture, to establish
rules by consent to restrain all seed animals from run ning at large, from the fact that many worthless ani mals of the cattle and hog species are in the Spring
straying over the entire farming  districts.   Often
these scrubs will make a cross on the best breeds, des troying the effects of having better stock. No farmer
would object to such a just and feasible law, advancing
the interests of all who are raising stock.   I would
that farmers who are not able to own the best breeding bulls, club together and purchase such as they
may want to serve their cows, and in a few years, any
of these farmers will be able to have their own if they
desire. Carry this essential measure out throughout
the West, and in five years twenty-five per cent. will
be added to the value of the cattle, besides the improvemrent in their constitutional qualities to sustain
them onward to a higher state of perfection.   These
important features should sink deep in the minds of
the farmers of the West, that will impel'them to make
the trial. It is available, and none should doubt the
rich results that would follow such an enterprise.
Much importance is attached to the care you give your
young stock up to the time of their being two years
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
old.   For if they become stunted during that time,
they can never overcome it, and just in proportion will
their weight and quality be cut short.  Hence the
utmost care is requisite to see that they have plenty
of the right kind of food, and warm shelter in winter to
keep them growing in bone and flesh. For increasing
the bone, which is of the most importance, I would
feed them with ground oats, barley or rye. These
contain fibrous matter that will enlarge the bones,
so essential to all animal natures.
If farmers wish to be successful in cultivating their
soil, they should as fast as they get their farms open,
commence raising stock; it is a lasting source of wealth.
If you are in any of the western states, you should
raise some cattle, if the corn don't grow as large, you
are in a fine location'for the dairy; you should have
choice cows and raise some stock, and make all the
choice butter you can. These cattle materially enrich
your soil from the manures they will make, which is
essential to keep your soil supplied with rich food for
your succeeding crops.
Certainly the farm looks more cheerful with cattle
on it; how pleasant to the sight, and warm to the
feeling to see more or less cattle attached to the farm,
and with proper care and attention they will pay a
large interest from the investment, but without you
have a taste for cattle, and will not take good care of
them from the start, you had better let them alone.
Every farmer raising stock should according to his
capacity make arrangements to fatten so many head
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
every year, if they are four years old tney should weigh
sixteen hundred, but to do this they must have been
tended well during these four years, in having plenty
of good grazing and well salted in the summer, and
strong feed in the winter, so if you have only a few of
them they will always, under any state of the market,
bring you a good price.
It is an evident prevailing fact that cannot be disputed, that the connection between the cultivation of
the soil and breeding and rearing stock, are inseparable.  Hence the great important interest of farmers
should be to study their climate, soil and taste for the
kind of stock they would like to raise; and for the sake
of success, he should raise that kind that will be the
most profitable in the end. Under these facts, he must
reconcile his desires with the facilities he has before
him, and devote his best energies to produce the rich
results of cultivating his lands with products in vegetable and animal, that will yield the largest profits for
the most judicious amount of labor rendered. Hence
it would seem advisable for the farmers of the Northern
part of Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the Northern half of Iowa, to raise sheep, horses, and as far
as possible cattle, through the influence and large
income from the dairy, having the natural advantages of climate, soil and water, which the cows
must have to make good butter and cheese, you
will notice more fully in my essay on the dairy. And
there are some localities in the other Western states,
that are adapted to the dairy business.
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FARMER'S GUIDE
But when you settle on these rich level prairies and
timber, you should devote your energies to raising
neat cattle most exclusively, for these rich soils, if
cultivated on a subsoil basis, will produce one hundred
bushels of corn per acre and two or three tons off Timothy to the acre, and clover as a legal tender to the
success of good farming.   Who can doubt, with good
stock and proper care, but those who have taste for the
stock growing business, will make fortunes from the
capital invested.
Farmers in proportion to their farms and facilities
for growing stock, should set apart such a number as
the age will permit, and put them under the best keeping, especially the last year, that will make them first
class beeves, and put them into market when they are
needed for their better qualities. Even if your farm and
means are small, a half dozen of choice fat steers will
bring you from six to nine hundred dollars; to those
who may think this a large estimate, can be witnessed
at the Chicago market frequently, and these results are
obtained on all well developed cattle, with good care
taken from the first until they are four years old, and
they cost no more than cattle that don't bring more
than one half that money; for when a creature is full
tended he cannot consume as much food. And why will
not farmers in general adopt this method of raising
their stock, so to increase largely the weight of their
pockets, and having the reputation of doing full justice
to their domestic animals, so requisite to elevate
upward all who will clothe themselves with the true
47 
FARMER'S GUIDE.
knowledge of cultivating the soil, and raising their stock
in accordance with the laws of nature.
Exemplifying the great living truths, tha,t just in
proportion will you take care of your stock in all that
will give aid to strengthen the vital systeim of your animals in proper food, pure water and shelter, and the
physical and chemical laws at all times, most urgently
require; and so with all the vegetable plants, the soil
must be supplied with the proper organic food that
their natural constitution require to give them their true
growth, full of rich vitality, which,by the wisdom
of man all animals adapted to his wants, will all
humanity be benefited, and the husbandman who has
accomplished these high duties will receive his lasting
rewards.
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
CHAPTER VII. 
WHEAT CULTURE.
The wheat plant has the largest consumption by the
human family in bread, than any other cereal grain,
and much time and labor has been expended by the
most scientific minds in all agricultural countries, in
searching out by chemical analysis the composition of
soils most available in their natural state, and with
much care in adjusting the essential crganic constituent substances soils must have as food, in order to
insure a good crop of wheat.
I can look back with feelings of regret when I was
cultivating the soil of Illinois at the careless and indifferent manner we tended the soil for wheat culture,
and the ignorance that prevailed among the farmers,
throughout the west, in not securing their grain immemediately after harvest, instead of leaving it in the
shock, exposed to rains and bleaching sun, destroying
the qualities of the grain for seed or good bread.  It
is true there has been improvements made by some in
the wheat culture, but there are vast improvements to be
carried out in preparing the soil with the elements
necessary to give strength and vigor to the plant, to
iisure a good harvest.  Therefore rotation of plants in
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
their most available order, and deep cultivation of the
soil, for all purposes, I make a speciality, to insure
successful farming.   By this rotation of culture, you
have continually an acquisition, by the riqli strength
you have from the clover to fallow down as often as
you think beneficial.   And here let me say, that by
your regular changing, you renew your soil with food,
and by plowing under all the vegetable substances
on your land as soon as your grain is off, you rotain
much that would be lost if suffered to lay over until
spring. Hence, it is of the utmost importance to the
farmers, to adopt this plan of cultivating their farms
as soon as possible, that they may have their rewards
for their better culture.
When we know there are fifteen hundred pounds of
wheat and three thousand pounds of straw from an
acre, it must be apparent to every reflecting farmer,
that the soil producing this amount of vegetable substance, must have exhausted a large portion of its
organic elements that it had on hand, and what it
received from the dews and rains while growing. And
further reflection will convince those cultivating the
'loil, that they must make an equivalent deposit if they
expect their drafts to be honored by their mother
earth in the next twelve months. And how are they to
do this without they return all the offal arising from
the straw being made into manure or spread in its raw
state over some of the land and ploughed under in the
fall; the stubble of all the cereals should be turned
under as soon as possible; it costs no more in the end.
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
In my remarks on rearing cattle, I make a special
statement that no farmer can prosper well without
keeping some animal stock; and I think it is a'duty
they owe to themselves, and to the prosperity of the
country, to cultivate that kind to which their soil and
climate is best adapted to secure success in the
keeping of stock.
The rotation of crops is a simple undertaking; but
to give the plants their true relative position when you
make these changes, requires care and discretion to
have each kind follow that which will -render the
strongest support for all the plants you desire to cultivate on your farm in rotation. Hience, if you want to
raise wheat, corn, oats and rye, which are the most
substantial crops cultivated, I would commence my
rotation crops by sowing clover with the fall wheat, or
in the spring with wheat or oats; or you can sow it in
the fall or spring with rye.   Now those  who  will
adopt this clover culture in part for fertilizing the soil,
will find it the best legal tender instituted, paying the
largest interest; and no farmer should refuse to invest.
If you seed down clover in the Fall, I would prefer.a
rye or an oat lay, and plow it well under, ten inches
deep. If you cannot obtain seed of summer rye, you
can sow spring wheat or oats, and harrow your ground
well, and then sow fourteen pounds of clover seed
to the acre and take a fine brush and put it in
well. If in a dry time, roll it down well. If wheat,
put on two bushels, if oats, put on four bushels per
acre.  Richi soil will bear heavy seeding, the crop will
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
ripen up the sooner and be less liable to fall down.
Sow as early as possible; in the Fall, take what
land you have had in oats or rye, and plow it
up, turning the stubble under about ten inches, and
harrow it well before seeding. Drill your wheat in,
then sow your clover seed, and with your roller compress the soil; and if you have any high ground on
the piece, after the ground has frozen up hard, put on
some coarse straw manure, which and serve to protect
the crop from too hard freezing, and enrich the soil,
feed the grain and clover plants, and thereby ensure
a good crop.
By crossing three kinds of grain, say wheat, corn
and oats, or change the wheat or oats for rye, you will
have a clover lay every year after three years, to turn
over, making your soil full of new mold, which with a
judicious management in saving and applying all the
manures, in the most needful places, keeping all the
stock you can fatten well at the youngest age, the
mind's eye must be weak indeed that cannot see the
great changes that will follow the farmers who adopt
this course of cultivating their farms, strictly on the
rotation and deep plowing principle, using every available means to make all the manures you can to
enrich the soil.
The selection of seed-Winter or Spring-as your
soil most requires, is an object that farmers should
attentively look at, seeking after that seed which is full
of life and strength as capable of producing the most
excellent wheat, having all the rich elements of starch,
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
sugar and gluten, that must enhance the value for
flouring purposes. In this procedure lies the profits of
raising wheat.
Drilling wheat is far preferable to broad-cast sowing,
placing the grain at a regular depth, all having the
same covering, being well secured against freezing out,
as the soil is continually working into the drilled
furrows, thereby protecting the roots, so vital to the
plants' existence, through the winter; whereas by the
broad-cast seeding, a considerable portion of the seed
is hardly covered and in such an exposed condition as
to leave it in danger of destruction, or crippled so that
the plant, from the want of nourishment, will stool out
one foot high, and the product of such, in a shrunk
condition, will lower the value of your crop ten to
twenty cents per bushel. Hence the great importance
of drilling wheat, for profit and reputation of good
culture.
The several kinds I am most familiar with are
the White Winter Blue Stem, will hold its white complexion andYairness in the southern half of Illinois, part
of Indiana and Ohio, all of Kentucky and quite a large
part of Missouri, also in much of the dry burr oak
openings of Michigan; the May White Winter, is a
strong hardy wheat, making excellent flour and is
earnestly sought after by the millers, and can be well
cultivated in any soil or climate suitable for producing
White Winter wheat. I would recommend this wheat
to growers, as it ripens up in June, saving the dangers
of rust so fatal at times in some localities, and on this
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
accoiun wheat in all the Western States should be sown
from the 10th to the 12th of September, having a good
start, and if a late warm fall and your wheat is having
a luxuriant growth, put on your calves and let them
take off some of the top blades, as too -much'growth in
the fall will in a warm wet spring be liable to scald
the roots; in that case after the heavy freezing is over,
put on a light harrow and scratch off the the dead covering and it will have new life and vigor at once, and
will hasten the plant forward so essential for an early
harvest.
Any farmer who don't feel sure to make this trial in
full, I would advise him to try some, and by this
experiment he will learn the facts as they are, and
by this find out much that will enrich his pockets
and save many hard days labor.
There is a new White Winter wheat called the Tapahannock, and is held to be a choice hardy wheat. I
have no personal knowledge of its superior qualities.
It is raised in Southern Illinois, and I would advise
farmers to try it. There is also a Red May Wheat,
both winter and spring, sound and will grow where all
the red wheats will, and is being cultivated quite extensively throughout the west.
So far as I am acquainted, and from all I can learn
from the cultivators and millers for the spring qualities,
I will mention the justly celebrated Rio Grande when
found in its purity, will grow well on soil that has
a full share of lime and other constituents that will
support the plants, as their nature require until harvest.
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The miller can make choice flour from such wheat, full
of starch and glutenous properties, and is very desirable
for family use.  Oh! how much importance there is in
the farmers raising pure seed, and with care and little
pains taken in sowing such, and keeping it pure
from all mixture when they thresh their grain. All that
is wanting in this matter is active reflection and a will
to carry their sober second thoughts out to have pure
seed; and all such tending efforts will add much
wealth and comfort to the farmer who adopts this mode
of culture.
There is also the Tea Wheat, having high' claims for
its rich producing qualities, and the millers are anxious
to procure it as being full of the rich qualities that
make good flour. When grown from pure seed it will
always rank among the first of spring wheats, and I
strongly recommend this wheat to the farmers of the
west; and should, from its large size, have on strong
land, two bushels to the acre, which will aid an early
harvest.
Then the next seed I am most familiar with by cultivation is the Soft Shell Siberian, very fair, bright red,
and in many places entirely run out by its mixture,
which can be reclaimed by propagation.   It is true
the stem is tender, but with two bushels of seed
on the acre on good dry land from a clover lay, thirty
to forty bushels per acre may be raised, and will sell
well in any market if it is pure Siberian.
In the Western states, I know from observation, the
farmers have in their long culture of corn and wheat,
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
without any change or rest, often burnt up the stubbles,
preventing any visible organic substance returning to
the soil, so essential to give life and strength to the
next crop.   By this practice we see the lamentable
results of twelve bushels to the acre; and this state of
things is certain to continue as long as the farmers
adhere to their old stereotyped habits of culture, and
they cannot hope to make any improvements in raising
the average on the product of wheat, so beneficial to
themselves and the whole people.
Now in all kindness let me say to you, what I know
by all the facts of practical experience, observation
and study-do contend with all the power my mind is
able to bear-to press home these important facts to
the farmers-that they may hold converse with their
better judgment, in their quiet moments of reflection,
that will excite their physical powers, and join in one
united voice with their fellow farmers in their townships, and form clubs, with a chairman and secretary,
and go to work immediately and open a discussion for
the promulgation and substitution of a perpetual, wellregulated, established system of planting and sowing
by rotation of all the ieading plants they desire to cultivate, from the most efficient knowledge of what their
soil and climate is by nature best adapted to grow.
Then, with these rotations of crops, after two years,
by cultivation of the clover, after the product of
grain, furnishing the strong elements of lime, and other
constituents, drawing and extracting from the elements
or air and water, much of the lactescent fluids that
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abound in the composition of animals and plants, which
must be returned to the soil.
The more I study over the culture and products
of our country, and especially the west where I am
most familiar, the more I see the necessity of the
farmers taking more efficient and higher viewvs in the
culture of wheat, that the country may witness a higher
average than was made in the year of 1864,
For we find in the reports from  Washington, the
the low average of twelve bushels to the acre, from this
take one and a half bushels for seed, and wy have ten
and a half bushels left per acre as an increase, with this
state of facts I know from my own experience, taking all
the expenses of culture one half of the cultivators must
have lost money on their wheat culture for that year.
Now my friends let me say to you that I am well
aware that there is some farmers who understand how
to cultivate wheat, but without any disrespect, where
there is one who does, there are twenty who do not, and
the evidence of this low average warrants this conclusion; I kno* the rust, the most fatal and to some
extent, unavoidable fatal affection that can happen
it. And some land is put into wheat that is too
poor and destitute of life to support the weakest
plant cultivated, much less to sustain the most requiring and difficult plant known  to farmers.   I am
truly astonished to see wheat sown upon such soil when
labor is entirely lost to the worthy laborer who should
look more to his interest and lift the credit of raising
wheat to a high standard.
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
Now, what is wanted most to obviate these unavoidable results, is one united effort and an uprising of the
farmers to a sense of their just duties, in wheat culture,
that they may know that it requires a deep mellow soil
of sand and clay loam supplied with the organic
vegetable elements substituted by all possible means
the farmer has, in returning all offal vegetation in
whatever form to the soil before plowing the same, and
at all times as fast as it accumulates, to save wastage
by the exposure to evaporation. Then with a judicious management of your rotations of crops as I
have before stated, and strict care to have the pure
seeds, who can doubt the results of this mode of cultivating wheat.   And who will doubt the fact that an
average of twenty bushels per acre can be grown in the
nine Western states, which in 1864, returned one hundred and twenty-three millions of bushels of wheat,
grown on ten millions of acres of land, making a fraction over twelve bushels per acre.
And who, I repeat again, can doubt that, with improved culture, twenty bushels per acre can be raised,
which will add to these nine Western states as follows:
Estimated account of wheat grown in nine Western
states, say in 1869, when the farmers will be prepared
to raise twenty bushels per acre on ten millions of acres
of land, producing a total of two hundred millions of
bushels. Deduct a hundred and twenty-three millions
as the product of 1864, and we have a total increase
in the production of seventy-seven millions of bushels
for 1869.
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
This can be demonstrated.   In fact, with proper
care and exertion by the farmer, without much extra
labor, only attend to all the features that I have laid
down, in restoring the soil to full vigorous strength,
with food that is afforded to the farmers for, fhis special
purpose, so as to give effect to all their labors, and attend ing faithfully to all the requirements as they may arise
from time to time.
When your wheat is ready for harvest, make all
preparation to have it put up as soon as possible. Do
not stop at a little expense in employing plenty of
hands, which you can almost always find in the towns
and villages in the country.
Reaping and heading are both good in their place.
For the early harvest, the reaper is preferable, because
if the crop is a little green, you can save it well in the
shock, while the header must wait until your grain is
fully ripe, so as you can save it in the stack. For
wheat that is dead ripe, they render excellent service,
and farmers raising large quantities of wheat, should
have them in -their neighborhood ready for their last
harvesting. Utility and economy should dictate this.
Always get the best machines in the country; they
can be readily found in the West. I don't see many
of the ten-feet reapers I cut my grain with.   I could
average twenty acres per day.   They were the best in
the country at that time.
Much importance rests upon the farmers in having
their grain stacked or ricked. Ricking I think is the
best, because you can put more into the ricks, and more
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safely secured from the weather; after three days good
weather I would put a team stacking grain, and every
day you do this, you have so much secured from the
bleaching rains that happen, and well do I remember
leaving my grain out, sixty acres of choice White
Winter, and the rain set in and I lost one half my crop
by its growing, I am sorry to say I was not alone, and I
see many farmers continue the same practice. Now farm ers you can see at once this is a very important item,
for you have expended much labor and money on your
grain, in fact all you can spend, but to take care of it;
hence no farmer should let it remain in the field one
day after it is ready to put up, don't stop to go fishing
or hunting until you have your grain, and especially
wheat secure.
Now friends before closing this subject on wheat
culture, let me suggest to you a plan for successfully
saving your grain at all times in the rick, first get some
pine boards as long as you may want to cut in two, so
they will be as long as the roof of your ricks are deep,
and get'some two-by-six joist and make sections in
length to suit your taste on the side of your rick. by
nailing boards on to the joist, and then put on a good
batting to make them water tight, by having at the
connection of these sections a batting to lap over on
the other, so water cannot get through; have these
made already to use when you commence ricking, that
if a shower overtakes you before you finish a rick,
you have a complete shelter for your wheat, by having
a few braces ready made out of joist to hold the roof,
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that you can put up a temporary shelter over your
grain for the night, so that in the morning your
rick of wheat as it is partially finished, is perfectly
dry, affording much pleasure by not having to take off
the wet wheat, as you and I have done, many times, if
you are an old farmer.
You will see the use of hooks and staples to hold
these sections at the  top  and  bottom.    To  keep
all the water out of the ridge pole, you can make a
cap out of two boards, that will surely prevent any
water from getting on your wheat.
It is essential to make your wheat saving complete,
to have your beds for laying your grain on raised up
from the damp ground one foot, by having blocks enough
set on the ground to hold your flooring for your wheat;
reflection will prompt you to do this, and save more
than it cost you the first year, and the poultry will
live on the waste grain that may drop in your stack
yard.  The fruits of this little expense are rich and
(good many in hill) as the farmer would say, first when
you come to thresh your grain sooner or later, instead
of having to pitch off much that is bleached and partly
rotten all over the roof of your ricks, say nothing, as I
have had wet holes down through them and more
or less spoiled, and the worst of it, many rotten grains
remain unavoidably in the wheat that you have to lose,
on selling, from five to twenty cents per bushel.
Now these are not all the benefits and blessings that
these sections of shedding will render you, for when
you have done threshing your grain, which is often the
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case before winter sets in, you can most carefully
remove them to your stock yard, where you can place
them on a frame which you should have in readiness to
shelter your calves and cows from the entry blasts,
and keep them warm. Humanity and economy require
this at your hands.
In addition to this, to make your grain in the rick,
either reaped or headed, safe, I have conceived a plan
which is very feasible, and in all cases, should be
adopted. It is simply to make some slat tubings
twelve inches square, and place theft through the
ricks as close as may seem advisable, running them
crosswise, or it may seem wise to run one twelve inches
square lengthwise. These tubings must possess facilities for drying, and prevent the grain in a damp time
from being musty, which is so often the case in wet
weather. When the wind is dry, shut up the opposite
side of the tubing, and the wind penetrating through
the ricks, it must prove beneficial to the wheat. The
experinment is worth trying, and I hope the farmers of
the West will give my remarks on wheat culture,
although somewhat lengthy, an impartial reading, and
give the leading suggestions a fair experimental trial,
hoping they may fulfil their most sanguine expectations,
so that a larger harvest may reward their extra labors
adding more honor to agriculture in the West,
causing it to take a march forward toward that high
position where the strongest hopes of our country are
sure to dwell.
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FAR.IER'S GUIDE.
CHAPTER VII1.'
HOG CULTURE.
From the statistics of 1865, we find there were in
the twenty-one loyal states thirteen millions, seventy
thousand, eight hundred and eighty-seven hegs, being
a decrease from 1864 of three millions seventy-seven
thousand eight hundred and twenty-five, and out of
this number in the twenty-one states, there was raised
in nine western states nine millions, one hundred and
eighty-three thousand, seven hundred and seventy-two,
which clearly shows that the west is the most available
place for raising stock, and especially hogs and cattle;
but my friends, when we see such a decrease in number
in 1865, it will be for the farmers to ask themselves
how they will make up this decrease in number and
increase in weight and quality so desirable.
From my experience and observations, I think there
is no one product in proportion to the capital invested,
that a greater improvement can be made than on
the hog product of our country-and of course I mean
the west.
The first thing the farmers have to do to realize this
result, is to improve their breeds, and in doing that,
they will have a desire to take better care of them; the
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best breeds in our country at this time is the Chester
County Whites, the Suffolk and the Berkshire, they all
have good qualities for making heavy pork; when I was
farming I raised the imported Berkshire and Leicestershire, by crossing them, and raised fine large hogs from
them, and could make them weigh from four to five
hundred pounds at fifteen to eighteen months old.
The Chester White and Suffolk have fattening qualities over any breeds, possessing the capacity to put on
more weight at a given age than any yet before the
farmers. But from my observation, I think the Berkshire pork has more solidity than any I have seen, and
I would recommend a cross of the Chester White and
Suffolk with the Berkshire; and I think they would do
well together by continually changing them.   There
should be a cross either in the male or female going
forward yearly, which is the only way farmers can
keep up their breeds.   Large farmers can keep the
different kinds, while small farmers can exchange or
purchase, so as to keep their stock in the right order
for producing the most meat.
The best way for keeping and feeding hogs in the
West is known and practised only by very few farmers,
and they seem to be confined to certain neighborhoods.
I am surprised that the better grades of stock, and
better ways of taking care of it, are not more universally chosen and adopted.
From my own experience and observation of the hogs
as they come to Chicago market, and notice their age,
and see the great difference there is in their weight and
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
fatness, I am convinced that many neglect to adopt the
right plan for feeding hogs; and to those who sell their
hogs in such a condition, and have not adopted the
better plan, I would kindly say-try the oxperiment.
Build your hog pen large enough to hold all your
hogs and pigs, so that when the cold, sleety, freezing
weather comes on in the fall, you will have them comfortable to fatten, and your stock hogs and breeding
sows so situated as to thrive and grow onward in size
rapidly.
To do well, you want four partition pens  one for
your fattening hogs, one for your breeding sows, one
for your stock hogs, and one for your second size hogs
which you desire to fatten for the spring market.
This plan, if you are raising many hogs, will pay you
well.
There are many plans of building hog pens, and
some may think any way will do. I acted somewhat
upon that idea when I first came West, to be in the
fashion; but.I found that hogs needed care and comfort, as they did in Maine, if I expected to make any
thing by them.   Good hog pens can be made with
shed roof, twelve to fourteen feet wide, five or six feet
high in front, and three and a half feet in the rear, and
as large as you may desire for all your hogs.  Have
your pen raised up one foot from the ground to keep
rats out; have floor joists two by six inches; studding
two by four; tight weather boarding to keep out the
rain and snow. Leaking pens create a wetness if suffered to remain in the pen, will give hogs the mange,
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and otherwise affect their healthy growth. Eight hogs
need a sixteen feet pen for fattening. Your pens for
breeding, to give room, should be five feet wide to hold
one, which is essential while they are bearing their
young. Your stock hogs during the winter should be
separated according to size, in pens from ten to fifteen,
which will prevent their fighting, and give them a
chance to do well, by each having his own share of the
food with the same room.
There should be slide doors in the rear side to let
hogs out, and at the top of this slide it Wll be well to
have narrow windows, and at the other front where you
feed have also slide windows, that you may close up or
leave open as to the weather, to give plenty of ventilation, so essential to all animal life, even the hog that
furnish such fine bacon, delicious hams and pure white
lard, that no other animal can furnish you. These
pens should incline to the front to keep the wet at the
trought, and one end of each pen should be assigned
for the hogs to use in, and they will occupy it when
needed that you can remove at leisure; any farmer can
see the utility of this; there should be a low guard put
down in your pens to hold the litter where the hogs
sleep.
This pen will cost fifty to sixty cents all complete
per lineal foot, and the experiment of having such a
pen over the wasteful habit of feeding on the wet
frozen ground, will pay the cost of building the first
year, and those who don't quite see it in that light, let
me kindly remind them of the facts as they have exist
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
ed for the past thirty years more or less, to my certain
knowledge in the west, that instead of these dry pens
in the fall and winter to shelter and feed hogs in, they
have been suffered as a general thing o hale their
pens by a water run, to fatten their hogs in, and in the
fore part of the fall when the rains fill up the creek it
seems to do very well, but when freezing time comes, I
have seen corn thrown into these pens, and the hogs
while trying to eat the corn would get well coated
with mud frozen on their limbs.
To correct their stomachs, which at times become
debilitated and diseased for the want of proper food,
and right here, I would ask any farmer of fair reflection, or medical man, if they don't think all this
so-called hog cholera and trichenia has not been occasioned, and had their origin from the severe exposure
of the hogs, in not having suitable food, water and
shelter, and wehave cause to know that these animals,
many of them, have suffered severely in the distillery
pens, having pothing to eat but the offal slops at times,
from poor miserable rotten corn, and remaining in those
pens exposed to the hot sun would seem to be impossible that they could live, and then taking the exposure
of keeping them in pens all winter without shelter,
freezing at times even unto death, and no proper food
nor medicine to stop and check the disease these extreme sufferings would inflict upon them all, would
warrant the probability of such animals having somothing that would resemble cholera and the trichenia,
that a number of medical men took council over a.year
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
ago, which I am happy to learn no further investigation has been required from them on the subject as far
as the trichenia is concerned, I have no apprehension
that they will be needed any more. Hence my advise
to the farmers is, to have their hog-pens,'and give
them plenty of food, and in the spring sow peas and
oats together, as I have directed in another place, and
keep no more than what you can feed full from the time
they are weaned until they are ready for market, and
the result will pay richly for all the extra trouble and
expense of building hog-pens, and other labpr rendered.
And I have seen these poor dumb animals that make
such clean white food for the human family, not being
able t( get half what they needed and they would all go
to their place of sleeping in this condition in the fence
corner, often times without any cover on them, and
they would pile up and the largest and strongest would
over-lay many others, causing much distress on the
smallest and even death, that would make loss enough
in one week to build such pens as I have recommended,
say nothing of the moral obligation man is under to
protect his domestic animals, he holds by right of
subjugation.
Now in addition to pens for comfort I come to the
better plans and means for feeding behogs, that I know
from my own experience, that by these pens, and
having food ground and steamed in kettles, and plenty
given regular three times per day, will soon as it is
eaten, go into active service to put on flesh, if the
right breed of hogs, two pounds per day, and not take
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any more grain in the end. This is the true way for
keeping and fattening hogs, and the sooner all the
farmers adopt them, the better it will be for themselves,
and more wealth to the country., 
For fattening hogs, one bushel of ground corn, well
steamed into the substance of pudding with a little salt
stirred in after being cooked will feed seven hogs, and
give them at the same time some liquid slop made from
oats or barley mashed up, and have it stand until it is
a little sour, will add much to the appetite and secure
strong vigorous growth, with plenty of bituminous
coal or charcoal kept in their pens that they can eat
daily as they may want.
Much caution is required to take proper care of
sows while breeding. A sow that is one year old when
she has her first litter in the spring, will bear another
in September, making part of your stock hogs fourteen
and seventeen to eighteen months old, which is a good
age, and if well tended, they will weigh from four to
five hundred pounds each, and perhaps more.
As soon as your pigs are six weeks old, wean them
and put them in pens by themselves; give them first
boiled milk with a small quantity of corn and rye meal
with a little salt in it.  If they get the scours, take
crust of bread, burn and pulverize it and put it into
their food; this will set them right.  Feed them three
times a day, and do not give them too much at a time,
Wash them well once a week, and increase the quantity
of their food gradually. Near the time that your sown
will have pigs, give them a little meat to quiet their
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carniverous appetite so voracious at that time.
Watch the growth of the vigorous and most prominent pigs, both male and female, and when they are
weaned, put them in pens by themselves, and sell
them to those who need them to improve the stock of
the country.   It is just as cheap to keep the best as
the poorest.   All the pigs you don't want for seed,
alter them one week after you wean them. I would
wash the breeding sows occasionally with soap suds,
using a coarse brush with a handle on it.  This'will
give life and good health to them to rear their young,
adding much to your interest as a stock grower.
In one year, if farmers will adopt this plan in taking
care of their hogs, we shall, on the nine millions of
hogs, if the farmers will have as many, in the nine
Western states in 1868, making an increase of fifty
pounds per hog, would give a gain of twenty-two
millions and five hundred dollars, which would be a fine
increase. I base this conclusion upon facts under my
own observation and experience, and feel assured if
my suggestions are carried out as per programme, they
will be fully realized by every farmer in proportion to
the number of his hogs. Try the experiment in your
township organizations, and prove the assurance that
the result will be accomplished.
My motto is, never let any stock go back for one
day, if they are in good health, for want of plenty of
food. Espouse this principle and rigidly carry it out,
and success and prosperity must attend all your efforts
in cultivating your soil and rearing your stock. If
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your means are small, your progress will be rapid, and
in a few years, with the blessings of good health, you
will be registered one of the benefactors of your
country. And may you be the witness to prove my
prediction. 
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CHAPTER IX.
RYE CULTURE.
This grain is not fully appreciated by the farmers of
the west, especially those raising stock for the dairy.
There is no grain cultivated affording so much nutritious
pasturage as the rye. You can sow it on' your oat lay
the first of August, one and a half bushels per acre,
and the first of September you can turn your calves on
it, and you can see them grow, and by the middle of
September you can let your milch cows on it, and you
can see them increase in milk, and choice butter will be
the result.
We would advise the farmers having stock, to
put it in their corn just as soon as it is ripe in the fall,
with a fine tooth cultivator, and as soon as you have
your first piece of corn harvested, put your cattle in
that field and they will have the richest food that can
be supplied to animals, and as soon as the flush of the
corn is eaten off they will have the rye to graze on in
the winter, when the ground is dry and hard; never
suffer your stock in the fields when the ground is soft,
by this, your soil will loose much of its organic substance by disturbing the quiet rest nature designed it
should have through one half the year.
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In my last years of cultivating the soil, I could not
do without my large rye field, and the rich pleasure I
had in seeing my young stock and cows feed on that
rye is not erased from my mind yet, and those who
have tried it will bear evidence to the fact I" have
stated. This in your corn stubble you can plow under
in the spring, affording extra food for your next crop
of oats or spring wheat with your clover which would
be the best lay you could have for it; all this food for
your cattle with only the cost of the rye and sowing, it
is the most hardy plant the farmer has to cultivate.  I
never have seen a crop of rye frozen out.'
Rye will do well in Northern latitudes, including the
middle and Western states.   The best soil is a dry
sandy loam, and all friable soils; but for family use, it
should grow on a sandy soil, where lime more or less
exists. From such a soil you can obtain the quality
that will furnish the rich meal which is so essential to
mix with your pure white or yellow corn, to make that
justly celebrated rye and Indian bread, that New England people can lay to without feelings of regret.
And the more this bread is used as food for the
human family, the fewer dyspeptic, chronic, diseased
subjects we  shall have in our country.   Hence  I
strongly recommend the culture of rye, and believe it
is possessed of all the advantages attributed to it, and
for all purposes is equal to any of the cereal grains.
The time for cutting is when the berry is full in the
dough, making the flour whiter and the straw affording
substance for chopping up to mix with grain for horses
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and cattle, when mashed up, serving to accumulate the
rich manures that farmers must have on their soil in
some way yearly to keep up that state of culture that
will produce a full harvest of all plants the farmer may
want to grow.  
These remarks on the culture of rye, I hope the
farmers that have not had the practical experience of
the utility of this crop, will make a trial as I have
directed, with all their better judgment, and I am sure
the result will give full satisfaction, add to your wealth,
and the rich blessings it will afford to those who have
not the means to raise it, being devoted to other occupations of life, will say you have done well for us.
And we will advise you to keep on doing so.
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CHAPTER X.
SHEEP CULTURE.
We find by the reports for 1865, there were in twentyone Northern and Western States, twenty-eight millions
six hundred and forty-seven thousand, two hundred and
sixty-nine sheep, being an increase of four -millions,
three hundred thousand, eight hundred and seventyeight sheep over 1864.
But with this increase, the demand for wool is good,
and especially the long wools for warp in satinet
cloths for which cotton was used before the war
and there are a number of enterprising manufacturers
in Massachusetts who have commenced the manufacture
of worsted dress goods, worsted braids, and other
trimmings, which require wool having a long fibre. Not
being able to find it in our country, they have had to go
to Canada to purchase, at sixty-five to seventy cents
per pound, currency.
These long wools are sought after in Europe as well
as in our country, from the fact that they can comb long
wool by machinery, making these wools greatly in
demand, while we have plenty of the finer grades.
Hence the importance of making strong exertions to
raise the long wool sheep, such as the Leicester,
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Yorkshire and the Cotswold. The wool from these
sheep comes in competition by making fabrics of the
imitation of the Alpaca, and no doubt will continue. In
addition to this, the production of mutton and lambs
which at the present time of scarcity of neat cattle
will enhance the value of these larger grades of sheep,
and I know the meat from these sheep and lambs is
better flavored, and with the abundance of rich food we
have in the west, would make these grades very valua ble for their fleece, being elastic and good length, from
the plenty of strong feeding, and the carcase dressed
would weigh one hundred pounds; and I appeal to the
western farmer as evidence to the fact that the lambs
have a thrifty growth, and make excellent healthy meat
for summer use, especially after the green pea makes its
appearance.
Therefore these three important points-wool, mutton
and lambs-which has rendered sheep culture so very
valuable to the English farmer, with great profits to
their manufacturers, giving them a large and almost
exclusive control of the entire market of the world, for
the manufacture of the imitation Alpaca dress goods,
which can be made quite as remunerative in this country, as the trial has abundantly proven.
In reference to the profits of the Cotswold and
Leicester, I quote a statement made by Mr. G. C. Rice,
of Conn., to the Agricultural committee, of seven lambs
dropped the 1st of February 1865, and sold them to
the butcher on the 15th of May for $42.75 cents, and he
sold three of them for stock for $22; and these five that
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were dropped later, he sold in the middle of July for
$24 24; these were the produce of nine ewes. iHe
also sold seventy and a half pounds of wool for 40
cents per pound unwashed, $28 20. Total $118 19.
This with the cheapness of food in the west would
have paid equally as well if not more by shipping it to
eastern states.
My experience in raising sheep at an early day in
the state of Maine, when all farmers raised more or less,
I can vividly recall the pleasant scenes of sheep washing
in those clear brooks, with nothing to disturb but the
limber speckled trout taking their flight from us. And
when I reflect also on the quiet manner in which I
could lay them on the bench and take their fleeces off
without even a murmur, I am not surprised at the rich
emblematical comparison of the poet, as to their
remarkable innocence.   And under all circumstances,
if the farmer has dry table lands, and any taste for
sheep culture, he should invest in long wool sheep, as
they are hardy and easily kept. Sheep however require
particular care —more so than any other animal;  for
whenever the sheep is suffered to grow poor in the winter, very serious loss is manifested in the wool being
more brash and less in weight. The true policy to be
adopted by all farmers having sheep, few or many, is
to have a dry yard or yards for them through all the
stormy sleety weather, and sheds constructed with an
open space of two feet, if large, and one foot if small
at the top and center of the roof, and open at the sides
just so as the sheep can pass in and out freely.. This
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will give ventilation, which they must have to be
healthy.   It is important during the bleak storms
which so frequently happen in the winter time, to have
feeding troughs running through the miidle of these
sheds, facing each other, with a center board serving
as a back to the troughs; but in strictly dry weather,
always feed them in the open air.
Special care should be taken to provide plenty of
sweet short grass in summer, with water, and frequently
salted, and so on through the winter and spring.
During the time which embraces the lambing season,
is the most critical, and more importance is attached than at any other period; and the one month
while they are bringing forth their lambs, is of more
consequence than all the other eleven.   For just in
proportion as the farmer gives his strict attention to
his breeding stock during that time, so will be his
profits at the end of the year.   I repeat again, that
sheep must have good feed and care throughout the
year, and instead of losing, as I have seen in the
month of March, from sleet, snow and storms,
over one hundred lambs and several sheep, aH for
the want of good warm shelter, this would have been a
most profitable increase. Sheep, being exposed to cold
sleeting winds, the water freezing on their backs, soon
become chilled, great suffering and often death, being
the result; and if they do live, the wool, more or less,
will drop off. If there is one animal more than another
which the farmer should have special feelings for, it is
the gentle sheep, when bearing her young in the spring.
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For go into that yard which has no shelter, in the
morning, after a cold freezing night, and see some of
the lambs dead and others whichwcannot get up, anrd
look at the patient mothers hovering over. them and
doing all they can to save them, but often to no purpose. Sheep can stand dry weather well, but they are
the poorest animal to stand the cold, sleety, freezing rains that often come in February and March.
Hence, look out for good shelter, and with proper care
and full attention throughout the entire year, no one
can doubt that these twenty-eight millions df sheep
would produce in wool and flesh, one dollar per head
more-an item worth looking at by every farmer.
I am in favor of having corn and oats, or rye half
each mashed up by the crusher, and given daily a half
pint to the stock sheep each, and the wethers, and the
ewes not bearing, should be put in pens by themselves,
and full fed for spring sales when meats are most
wanted, between hay and grass.
Put into the. bottom of your feeding boxes some pure
tar in the winter season, and let your sheep eat their
food from the same box,; the carbonic gas arising
from the tar will keep them free from disease. Feed
them now and then, with oats in the bundles, cut up
with a straw cutter. This is healthy food and as cheap
as any to feed breeding sheep, and three times per
week they should have turnips, Mangel-Wurzel are the
best; cut them in fine pieces.
The ewes should have assigned them before their
time of lambing, a yard, with all the comforts their
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special situation demands, with a small yard for a
nursery to take care of the sickly and fractious if there
should be any;  I remember  well when a  boy,  of
suckling the lambs to their mother; whey their bag
cake bathe them well, and they hardly ever fail
to do well, one of the boys or men should have this
duty to perform, and with his patient care much loss
wIl be saved.
These cares and special duties to nurse the young of
all your breeding animals is the true secret to the primary success of stock raising, and the. farmers who
appreciate and realize these facts, the heavier his
pockets will weigh with green backs, say nothing about
the gold that create so many foolish excitements.
It is well known that the rebellion has given an impetus to the sheep growing business; but notwithstanding this, there is no surplus on hand, and with
the rapid increase of population, both domestic and
foreign, we have no fears of an over stock. But the
most important points to look at now, are the kinds
and qualities which are best to raise, especially at the
present time, from the nature of the facts as they now
exist in our own country and England with regard to
the demand for long wools. I would advise those who
hlave not a full supply of sheep, to purchase the Cotswold and Leicester sheep; and I think it would be well
to make a cross with the Southdown and Merino by
the Cotswold and Leicester, thereby producing a substance of wool for the great material wear of our country. My impression is that the warps will continue to
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be made from our long wools for the present, and for
several years, largely so.
I notice from the premium list of the State of
Illinois, that Messrs. Brown & Reynolds, of Bates,
Sangamon Co., Illinois, has fine specimens of firstclass sheep that can be obtained for breeders. Also
Samuel P. Boardman, of Lincoln, Logan Co., has a
very choice lot of breeding sheep, and their quality
would do well to improve on. And I also notice that
Mr. I. Grant, of Davenport, Iowa, has some Cotswold
bucks that the farmers would do well to purchase for
crossing with other grades.
It would be well if persons having the Cotswold and
Leicester in the Western States and desire to sell them,
to make known the facts through the papers, and I
have no doubt they would find ready sale; I also see
from the premium list that Canada West was largely
represented with Cotswold and Leicester sheep, having
breeding qualities, they quite extensively raise those
breeds, and they are reaping large rewards from the
fact that eastern manufacturers want that kind for
their fabrics.
I should think farmers having the means, and are in
the sheep growing business, would do well to take the
breeders of these long wool, and furnish the demands
that are so much needed, and to any person who has a
taste and a liking for sheep raising would make a good
profitable   investment   by  purchasing  largely  of
these Cotswold and other long wool sheep, having the
most available qualities for the imitation of Alpaca and
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other goods that manufacturers have such heavy
demands for, and from the best information I can
obtain from my friends in the east, will still continue.
With these remarks on sheep culture, I will close by
saying to those who have not taken specials pains with
their sheep, if they will but follow out the instructions
I have given, in my common way, I feel assured they
will be benefited by so doing, and to those who are taken
the proper care that is needed, I can only say go
onward, and you must enrich yourself, and help to
strengthen the cords that hold the frame work of our
country's ship of State, that is now being put into.
commission for a long and successful voyage.
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
CHAPTER XI.
OAT CULTURE.
This product is cultivated mostly for horse food, but
the large amount of straw that it bears per acre, and
the light draft it makes upon the soil in proportion to
the large quantity of food, in all its materiaLforms, it
can furnish back to the soil, would seem to warrant a
larger culture in the western states.
In the twenty-one states in 1864, there were one
hundred and twenty-six millions of bushels arised.
Pennsylvania produced the largest quantity-thirtyseven millions; New York next-thirty-five millions;
and Illinois next, twenty-five millions.
Now the rebellion is over, I tnink there will be some
increased demand in the Southern States, which should
stimulate the farmers of the West to sow more in
future. The greatest danger in the cultivation of oats
is their tendency to fall down from heavy winds, the
straw being tender, when they are full in the milk.
The best soil for oats is a dry rich soil, in order to
raise a large crop. You can get a fair crop on poorer
soil; but if you have a dry soil of a limey nature, you
can have it quite rich, and have no danger of their
growing too rank, if you will sow four bushels of seed
per acre. This full seeding will take up the rich soil,
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and being so thick, they will ripen up sooner than if
sowed with less seed.
The barley oat is the best seed, being heavy. The
black oat mixed with the white do well, as they are
stronger; I would recommend half black and half
white.   I would plough my  ground  deep for oats,
harrow them in well. The low ground on my farm I
would put into timothy, so as not to have any wet land
to cultivate for grain. How many acres do you think
there are in the West of these wet low runs that are
under cultivation, and which the farmers,plow up every
spring in their wet condition, with water and mud up
to the horses' knees, and then sown and planted for a
rich crop of weeds; but if the grain comes up, it
falls down, if oats, and if wheat, it either falls down or
is ruined by the rust.
Oats are generally sown on top of the soil, and if
rich, will do very well, but much of the vegetable matter
lying on the soil will perish, and thus millions of acres
of strong rich land is suffered, to my certain knowledge
for thirty years in the west, to be cultivated with grain,
and lost after so much unpleasant labor in plowing,
planting and sowing, and trying to harvest some little
grain with many weeds.
I have no doubt but there is in the nine western
states, that I located my subject upon, one millions of
acres of such rich moist land, trifled with in the manner I have described, which if you put into grass would
produce two millions of tons of rich hay at ten dollars
per ton, would be twenty millions of dollars more to
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the farmers, say nothing about all that miserable labor
of running your reaper, trying to cut some of the poor
grain, and at times breaking your machines by so-doing,
and the filthy luck you farmers are always under.
Friends, look at this in its true light,'and I think
you will come to the conclusion that all such places you
have on your farm, you will put them down to meadow,
and then you will have clear work before you, and your
farms will put on a new dress, changing the aspect of
the whole farm, freed from patches, so fruitful to
seed your farm with weeds. But now you have it in
grass, and when the soil is hard in the winter your
cattle will delight to feed on the grasses that will grow
so strong.
These remarks emanate from my own practical experience and observations throughout the west, and in
conclusion let me say to you, make up your minds at
once and'leave these pieces out when you plow in the
spring, and when the ground becomes dry enough in
June, take your team and plow them up well, and in
September harrow them well, then sow your seed
thick, the ground will bear much seed, and when I pass
your farm I shall be well pleased to call and see you,
and your improved farming, by cultivating your rich
heavy lands into grasses.
P.S. I should remark peradventure, if your oats
fall down so that you cannot harvest them all, you have
your moveable fences, and you can turn your hogs on
them, and they will prudently save them all, and your
self from any loss-the true secret of wise farming.
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
CHAPTER XII.
HORSES.
Volumes have been written, and can be written on
the great available qualities, and rich benefits derived
from the various labors of the horse, and no country in
the world for the same time has more cause to revere
the patient labors in all places required of this animal
than America.
From the fact of our wide extended country, when
canal nor rail roads were in existence, then it was the
horse done the labors of packing and hauling man and
his material goods over the country, and who even
went in the month of February from Illinois to New
York by stage in 1840, making ten miles per day
at times through Indiania and Ohio, must appreciate the
fortitude of the horse, say nothing about the great
endurance manifested by hauling produce to market
over the praries, without roads, thirty years ago in the
west at certain times in the year; and I don't think I
misplace the sentiment of the farmers, when I say they
do hold the noble kind enduring animal under stronger
attachments, than any others they have under their
subjection.
And hence it becomes necessary that the farmers
should take the special matter into their own hands,
and every township should have their own available
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well trained seed horse, having the qualities of size,
form, muscle, action and durability, that a cross on
your best brood mares would produce a good strain of
horses, having weight and strength enough that  pair
of them would move along, turning up twelve inches
deep of the soil at the rate of one and a half acres per
day, this can be done with such a team with a high
beam plow, and save the trouble of subsoiling in order
for general culture; in all respects the strong heavy
horses are preferable and will haul much more produce
to market, and the extra labor they will do in'one year
will more than pay the difference in the cost.
Let the farmers look at this in what light they may,
the sooner they adopt the measures, the sooner they
will save much labor to themselves and money for their
pockets-two important items, and worthy their profound consideration.   There is no denying the fact
that farmers want good strong solid horses on their
farms, so that they can do their work effectually. If
you have light horses, change them if possible for larger,
with persons who want teams for light work.
There cannot be any plausible excuse for working
small horses on farms if others can be had; and for
this available point, commence at once and cross on
large horses.   It is the height of pleasure to work
behind a good pair of horses, that can do your work
well and always keep in good order, so cheering to
those who like good fat horses.
The most substantial breeding horses for farmers are
those that have stood the tests for all work, and whose
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stock has a durability of standing hard labor, is the Morgan, of Vermont, of which there are many in the west.
Farmers would do well to club together and procure one
of these animals to cross their best mares, or some
other well known strain that will produce the right
kind of horses for farming purposes.
Now that railroads are so handy, farmers don't have
so much road labor as they did, when their produce
had to be hauled from twenty to forty miles. They
have also better means for raising colts.   Farmers
raising colts should keep their mares 6n the farm as
much as possible, and when they wish to wean their
colts, they should have a good lot for them to run in,
feeding them with slops of bran and corn meal;
this will increase their growth; and they should be
constantly supplied with plenty of food until they are
ready to have the harness on them.   It is wrong to
think colts can brush along any how, and live on what
they can pick up after the cattle. They should never
be in the yards with cattle; they are liable to get
hooked in the winter; they want yards in the winter,
kept dry and warm.   There is no animal that-the
farmer has, that requires more care, with warm shelter
and plenty of good food for the first two years, to
develope bone and muscle and get all the size possible,
the only way stock of any kind can be raised to pay
well. All it wants is for the farmers to practice what
they know, and the fruits of their farm, in stock and
fine colts and horses, will follow; and their other products, under the same influence, will all conspire to
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
cheer the farmer on to grasp all the better features of
husbandry; so his accumulating wealth will place him
in that position which all humanity are earnestly s,eeking and trying for-ease and comfort to enjoy life. as the
special rewards of his faithful labors.
The best way to feed horses that labor harm constantly, is with oats and corn ground in equal parts,
made moist with water sufficient to give it a pliable substance for eating. In the summer prepare it in the
morning for the day- adding a little salt; and once
a week put in some powdered resin.   Twice a year
horses should have their sheath washed out with warm
water, soap and lard; this is very essential to those in
years, preventing disease and even death.   A  little
alum, powdered, is good to give now and then, keeping their kidneys and water channel clear and regular.
When horses are eating grass in the summer time,
they are troubled with bots in some cases. When this
happens you will always know by the horse being in
pain, and he will bite his sides.   The most efficient
remedy I have tried, was to make him swallow a warm
chicken's inwards, and in an hour after drench him
with salts, which will give relief.   No  doubt  many
know this and other remedies; but if it meets the eye
of any who have not tried such, it will serve their
purpose.
Much care is required to see that horses don't drink
much.   When heated in warm weather, very injurious
and at times fatal consequences ensue, from the sudden
stoppage of the circulation of the blood and air vessels,
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and when no passage can be effected, they must die.
All it wants is caution from those having horses to take
care, and know their business, and faithfully per form it, so as to avoid the evils that oftern arise from
carelessness.
At the agricultural fairs in the prairie states of the
west can be seen for exhibition horses, of native growth,
from the bloods of the best strained horses of our own
as well as foreign countries, and are worthy to stand
upon any soil, and elicit praise and emulation from
the best judges of good stock. Not only is this the
case, but liberal enterprising men have been stimulated,
for the like of good horses, to pour out their money
without stint, to procure out the strength for all work,
and the speed and style for carriage horses. Having the
true scientific cast to cross with our best mares -which
is going forward to enable the farmers, if they are disposed to lay out little money and take the proper pains,
which is absolutely required to improve their own stock
on sizes that will in a few years supply the farmers
with teams, that will richly reward them in every sense
that language can place it. It is a well known fart,
and should be on the minds of all farmers, that should
breeding in and in be tolerated beyond the second year,
it deteriorates the constitutional health, and diminishes
the bones and muscles, that with all these points engrafted upon all your stock, without rigid care is taken
to have plenty of the best kind of food, and pure water
adapted to the wants of the several kinds of animals
you are raising, your efforts to grow good stock will be
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in vain. And in just proportion as you manifest this in
your labors, will success, that you seem to be seeking
after, attend  you.   May  you  sensibly  realize  my
remarks on horse culture, that they shall prove to your
lasting advantage.
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
CHAPTER XIII. -
POTATO CULTURE.
The potato plant requires more care in the choice
of soil, and management of culture than any other root
vegetable grown in our country for family use, and
I would rather give up all other root crops than be
deprived of the rich mealy potato.
And never was this fact more forcibly demonstrated
than it was, I think, in 1851, when the potato crop, in
many parts of the United States, was destroyed by
what was called the potato rot. I can well recollect
the great displeasure that rested upon the families in
Central Illinois at that time, and with what reluctance
I gave up for a time that rich esculent vegetable; and
at times since, the people have suffered more or less
from the miserable disease of the potato.
It is time the potato disease should cease in our
country, and from all the information I can obtain
from the farmers in regard to their culture, and the
close observation I have taken as they come to market,
with a thorough study of the physical laws of animals
'ind plants in reference to these facts, and the possibility of plants becoming sickly and diseased as well as
animals, I have constantly sought to learn the cause
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and its effect, and, if possible, find a remedy to mitigate
the potato disease.
In reference to diseases of plants, and especially the
potato, I would respectfully say to the farmers, the
sooner they reconcile the facts in their own minds that
plants are subject to, and have alimentary sufferings in
their natural sphere of existence as well as animals;
and, I regret to say, for the want of that true knowledge by the farmers they suffer great loss to themselves, and occasion much disease and death to many
vegetable plants, so disastrous to their own interests
and the whole human familv. Hence, it is your bounden
duty to look into the inorganic structure of the soils,
that you may be able to discriminate the true organic
elements of plants so as to assign the seeds to soils
most affiliating in their natural wants and desires, so
that by proper care and good management you can
furnish your soil with all necessary food in kinds that
will bring forward the plants to a full sound harvest.
I learn from the best elements known to man, that
the constituent organic elements of the potato contain
seventy-five per cent. of its entire weight in water, and
the balance consisting largely of starch, with some
sugar, albumen and gluten, making up the twenty-five
per cent., showing conclusively that this plant should
always be cultivated on dry, sandy, loamy soil, that
will keep the plants growing in the most solid manner
possible, and as near to the light and warmth of the
sun as they can possibly be cultivated. And from my
own experience, and all the knowledge I have obtained
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from other sources, that potatoes should be planted on
thorough dry mellow soil, plowed twelve inches deep,
after being made rich with fresh, horse or cattle manures,
spread on the ground thickly and plowed in, and then
harrowed well, then take your large scouring shovel
plow, and run a deep furrow three and one half feet
apart each way, and this will throw the rich earth into a
square hill, being raised up, and on the top of this soil
plant your potatoes, two pieces with two or three
sprouts to each piece in the hill, and as near as six
inches apart, and the flesh side down if possible; then
take your hoe and cover them over three inches deep,
at the same time taking pains to form a good round
hill, leaving the top over the potatoes twelve inches,
and some dishing to hold little water for the potatoes.
By this form of the hill you have it so the warmth of
the sun and air can strike on your potatoes, that must
facilitate them in growing rapidly-for light and heat,
with a reasonable -degree of moisture, in and round the
roots, with the soil being mellow and rich under the plants,
the tubers so very impotant will have plenty of room,
and having plenty of food, must make a large harvest.
Hence, I entreat the farmers to make a change in
their culture of potatoes as I have represented-of
course I only mean those who have not adopted the
better way to raise what they want for their own useand that will be an experiment to test the change you
will make in their cultivation, but what you do let it
be well done, and you will have the benefits of what
will arise from the new mode of culture.
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Much care should be taken to secure pure seed from
those that are raised in dry soil, and are every way
sound, for if they have any signs of being diseased
don't plant them-better not raise any.
The best that have come to the Chicago parket this
season are the Peach Blows, they have grown on dry soil
and are sound at this time, (January,) and some of the
Neshannocks that were raised on dry soil are sound, and
many of the largest Peach Blows are hollow. They
must have been grown on moist rich land, which will
make the potato large, spongy and rotten at the heart.
My advise to farmers who have not dry soil, dither on
level or high ground not to raise any, you had better
buy what you want. Your soil will raise corn, grass
and of course stock.
The Shaker Russet is a fine potato, but it is only
whea they have been cultivated on the right soil, but
of these three kinds for a large crop, I would recommend the Peach Blow, knowing the seed had grown on
dry soil, and a few of the other kinds, to test their
qualities.
Then you want a few of the Early Shaw and the
Early York to plant in your garden, when by a
little extra labor, as I have suggested in my remarks
on garden culture, you can have potatoes in June.
The best time for planting potatoes in the Western
States for keeping, is when the moon is full in May, or
if you don't want to, (plant them in the moon,) say
from the 10th to the last of May, and if you hav them on
dry soil they will ripen before the frost can injure them.
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If you have them on high grounct, I would leave
them there as long as you dare from the rains and
freezing weather, and when you dig them, put them
on your barn floor ori under cover, and spread them
out and let them have the air; I would however spread
a little dry straw over them. By this means you can
keep your potatoes cool and dry; keep them this way
until you have to put them into your cellar, and through
the winter keep them as cool as you can in moderate
weather. I know by experience this is the true way
to keep potatoes in a most healthy condition, so as
to have them sound for spring consumsption. In my
essay for the effectual propagation and preservation of
all kinds of seeds I make mention, the importance of
the better culture of the potato, which by its unwise
culture has brought disease upon them, which must be
eradicated if possible-it is the' farmers whole duty to
make an effort.
I have seen a statement to-day, setting forth facts
that Mr. A. W. Harrison of Philadelphia, has for several years been propagating the potato plant, and by
report has succeeded in bringing out two kinds-one
early and one late-which from representation-is a
very superior potato and should be thoroughly tried.
There is no mistake, the only way plants can be kept
up in their purity, is by experimental propagation in
all the available plants cultivated for food.
I notice the. mode of Mr. Harrison's culture on the
potato. In part it is different from mine in regard to
planting; he recommends planting into the furrow
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eight inches deep, and at the crossing of these furrows
drop the largest potato whole, and cover them up to
a level surface, being eight inches, and in the culture
keep them level. However strongly I recommend all
other plants to be cultivated on that principle, only in
the last tending. Plants should in dry soil hold the
soil highest at a little distance from the plant, so in
dry weather in July and August, they will secure little
water from the showers so nourishing at these times.
But to plant a whole potato where a large number of
sprouts would spring up at one place, would under my
practice bring forth too many vines, and too many
small potatoes from having them clustered together,
which I cannot conceive to be right. While my experience tells me to plant that large potato at least in
two hills if not three, and plant them on a raised surface on dry land, on top the original soil, and covered
over by the soil thrown up, making a broad hill to hold
the potatoes, and retain moisture enough in the soil by
having the hill at the top at least eighteen inches, and
some dishing -o hold water from the showers, so essential to the plants when setting for potatoes, and whep
they first show leaves hoe the weeds out, and add little
soil if necessary to keep the hill high and full, and
when you see them begin to bud give them a thorough
hoeing by killing all the weeds, and keep the hill full
and dishing, and if you have spread on green manure
the previous fall, and plowed it under twelve to fifteen
inches, and then in the spring put on some old door
yard manure, and cross plow that under and make it
.. m.... ~.
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mellow by the harrow, and plant as I have directed, I
feel assured you will get a good crop of potatoes.
But as I have said before to farmers, if they. have or
see any different way which would seem to be better,
they can surely find out by planting the same potatoes
on the same kind of land, and made the same as to
manure, lime and ashes, but different in the ways of
planting and tending, and also different in the quantity
of seed, and also the different kinds of seed; and it is
apparent to all that the farmers will raise some good
potatoes by these experiments.
These remarks are made from long practical experience of thirty years, and the best crop I ever raised
was after this culture, and when you count the labor
on the old plan, it don't take much more time, and the
result will satisfy all who want to raise good sound
potatoes. Reflect, and look at the old plan of plowing
furrows and drilling in the potatoes, and then taking
same plow and cover them up as I have seen, ten inches
deep, where the heat nor the light of the sun can hardly
reach the plant, and often have I seen water standing
in the furrow when the ground was level, after the
rains, causing the water to stand on the potatoes
Can any one doubt the fact, but that such culture
will more or less produce diseased potatoes, when they
have to grow in such a watery element as this, knowing from the fact that the plant in its nat-ural state,
grown in good dry soil contains seventy-five per cent.
of water; knowing this fact, and planting your seed in
soil which from its locality must be more or less wet, and
*...*.*..
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must as a natural consequence imbibe a large surplus of
water, which by the constitution of the potato, will
greatly enhance the danger of the entire crop becwming diseased even unto destruction and total loss.
These facts will seem apparent to the farmers when
they have given this subject its due weight of reflection,
understanding the important truths that the Almightty
in his all wisdom for the blessings of mankind, has out
of earth, air and water, formed firom fundamental
elementary bodies, known as Carbon, Oxygen, Ilydrogen and Nitrogin, called gasses, and by their perfect
supreme relations they control and hold under subjection, all animal and vegetable matter, showing that the
farmers should lead their minds to comprehend the
laws by which the operations of nature in the vegetable
kingdom are conducted, acquiring knowledge that will
instruct them to distribute their pure seeds in soil that
will warrant their successful healthy growth, and with
your elaborate efforts made on the true systematical
principles of cultivating plants, may you receive your
rich reward in more abundant harvests, and higher
credit for the laudable exertions you will have mnanifested in elevating the cause of agriculture, thereby
benefiting the entire human family; and may the incentives created in your minds, press you onward to
grasp the rich treasures that are stored up in the more
perfect ways of practical scientific agriculture.
P. S. I see the Harrison potatoes can be had of Mr.
A. H. Hovey of Chicago.
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CHAPTER XIY. -
MULES.
This is an animal I never owned, and the nearest I
ever came to own one, was at a time when a gentleman
proffered to sell me a pair he had before his carriage.
His solicitations being strong, I consented to take and
drive them home, some fifteen miles - and if they
suited me,  I would take them.   It was in warm
weather, when hard work which setting in an open
carriage, was not what I had bargained for, (but as
sure as you live,) I made the hardest most unpleasant
labor I ever peformed, in the space of four hours
going sixteen miles, and consequently I did not
purchase the hybrid animals, and I assure you I never
have had any desire to invest, most especially for a
carriage team.
Hence it is, I have no practical experience in regard
to their culture, other than from observations, which
were quite extended two years since when in Washington, looking at the immense number of mule teams,
taking stores to Grant's army, and of late years they
are being used considerably in the west-and do good
service farming; and from what I have seen of them,
I know they will do well to harrow the soil after it
,,.,."   
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has been plowed deep-from the fact that they are
light, and their feet are small, and better able to walk
through mellow soil.
From their toughness to bear the heat and co]d, and
carry large loads, I should think it would be well for
the farmers to have part of their working teams consist
of mules, and of the largest kind, which do much more
labor, with a trifling more expense.
For those who are plowing their soil deep, and
who intend to, I think it would be advisable to have
mules with the harrow to pulverize the soil, and to lay
off ground for planting, and do all labor on the soil
after broken up.
After having said this much in reference to the utility
and economy for the farmers, to raise this singular
hybrid animal, I will now give a few remarks from the
pen of Mr. J. T. Warden of Springfield, Ohio, viz:
The production of so useful a domestic animal as the
mule, would not be considered complete without some
allusion be made at the outset,' to the origin and
parentage of this hybrid, though everybody is supposed
to be acquainted with the facts of mule breeding-we
yet find a great many who do not-and the precise
meaning of the terms employed. A mule, in scientific
language, means progeny from a cross between two
distinct species, either of animals or of plants, which
specie however, must be very nearly related, or they
will not intermingle. This progeny is generally
unfertile or barren, though there are some exceptions
to this observation in the first generation of hybrids.
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In the case of the horse mule there appear to be but
few instances recorded of fruitful intercourse, and none
beyond the first generation, though in the case of plants
where perhaps the species were less than the reproductions from the first cross. Indeed, this production of
mule hybrids, next to the non-production of any
progeny as the results of attempts at crossing distinct
animals and plants, has been assumed by naturalists to
be conclusive evidence of the existence of distinct
species. In the practical language of the farm and of
the market, the word mule has come to mean the
progeny of the male ass, or jack upon the female horse
or mare, while the word hinny is applied to the product
of the reverse cross of the stallion upon the jenny or
female ass. In these two different hybrids containing
a similar admixture of blood, we find most remarkable
difference of character, which can not be explained
philosophically, but which is often cited as showing the
relative impress of dam and sire upon their progeny.
In the mule we find the general characteristics, such as
the head,' tail, ears, voice, feet, and temper are asinine,
and the males are two or three times as numerous as
the females, while in size the progeny more nearly
resembles the dam; but in the progeny of the stallion on the jenny, the quality of the horse preponderates with diminished size, this latter quality appearing to depend upon the female.
There is a common impression that the mare which
has once been covered by a jack will never again produce a good horse colt, and that she should be kept for
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mule breeding exclusively. This would make it appear
that the male exerts an influence upon the female that
is not confined to her immediate progeny, but is transmitted through her to her future offspring. This principle is admitted as established by some physiologists,
and the following incident is often cited as proof of the
position: a mare that had been covered by a Quagga
or Zebra, and produced a striped mule from that cross,
afterward had colts that was begotten by three different
stallions, each of these horse foals were striped, and
resembled the Quagga in other respects. The same is
said to be the result after breeding a mare to the
jackass. The authority for the above is not given, but
is generally admitted to be correct. Mr. Lydell tells
us that it may be laid down as a general rule, admitting
of very few exceptions among quadrupeds, that the
hybrid progeny is stale, and there seems to be no well
authenticated examples of the continuance of the male
race beyond one generation.
The mule is every way more hardy than the horse,
subject to fewer diseases, more patient, better adapted
to traveling on rugged and trackless surfaces, less
fastidious as to food, and much less expensive in
feeding, more muscular in proportion to its weight,
and usually living and working to double the age.
Some of the finest Jacks in this country for a long
time were of the Maltese breed, the first of which was
sent by LaFayette to General Washington, in the year
of 1787. He was called the first Knight of Malta in
this country, and was highly valued.
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After the death of General Washington eight of
these mules were sold for two hundred and five dollars
a piece. This shows that they were well appreciated
at that early day.                    L
Since the commencement of the rebellion the mule
raising has been more extensive on account of vast
numbers that were used for transportation of army
supplies.
For the production of mules, mares should be selected
having large roomy bodies, on short limbs, and if a
farmer has a taste for raising these animals, and a
good share of patience to use them, they will pay
well, and for part of the labor on the farm they will
perform better than horses, and I hope to see them
more plenty in the West, as an acquisition to the
farmers' interests, for producing a greater amount of
animal labor for the capital invested, thereby more
money is in the hands of the farmers, and all branches
of industry are benefited, and our country made richer.
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CHAPTER XV.
BARLEY CULTURE.
Wvhere wheat, corn and rye can be successfully
cultivated, barley will not be raised for bread, not
having the composition so desirable for that purpose;
but for stock, with the grain being coarscly. ground,
and mixed with chopped hay or straw, it makes
strong feed for horses and cattle-especially for
working stock; and the straw if saved in its pure
state, is valuable for feeding out in cold weather to
young stock, for its healthy, strong, heating qualities,
and if put in ricks when threshed, without being wet,
and salt sprinkled upon it while you are ricking it, you
will find it nearly as good as hay-better than prairie
hay.
The grain is largely sought after for malting, for
ales and lager beer, which seemingly has no end for
that consumption.
For seeding down grass lands in the spring, no better
grain can be found than the barley,-hence, under all
its availablities, I would recommend to a reasonable
extent its culture; it leaves the soil sweet, and is not
severe in taking away the strength of the soil, and a
good lay for seeding down  clover with fall wheat
which will come in on your rotation culture.
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
I would put on two bushels of seed per acre, of the
pure quality. Dry rich loam soil should be plowed ten
inches deep, and well harrowed so that all the seed
may be well covered; much care should He given to
see that it is harvested when the berry is full and
bright, and then it should be ricked up as soon as the
straw is dry enough to keep.
Bright barley brings twenty-five to fifty cents per
bushel more than that suffered to lay in the field and
turn yellow in the berry, and the straw will lose half
its value. 
As I have said before, harvest time should be set
apart and considered of the greatest moment; and all
possible labor, other than harvest should be suspended,
and plenty of strong help engaged to put up the grain
in good time, all safe in stacks or ricks, and no
farmer should consider his harvest over until all was
put up well secured, as I have recommended.
And then the farmers can unitedly join and make
the welkin ring, with joyful songs to welcome harvest
home.
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
CHAPTER XVI. 
BEAN CULTURE.
The bean is the richest vegetable cultivated, and one
of the leguminous pod bearing plants, and more and
better attention should be paid to its culture. The
necessity of the navy and sea faring people have for
this rich plant, should warrant the farmers to procure
the little white navy bean for their seed and plant them,
in dry soil, having fair strength, made mellow by the
harrow.
If free from weeds, plant them three feet in rows,
and two feet apart in the rows, put in three to five
beans in a hill, if the ground is dry plant them two
inches deep. I planted them in hills, three feet each
way, which I think is the best, then you can cultivate
them both ways cleaning out all the weeds, and on the
whole I think the best way.
I have raised sixty bushels per acre of the navy bean;
no plant requires more care about seed than the bean,
from the fact poor seed mixed with good will produce
ripe and green beans, so you have to harvest them
together, consequently you have a poor crop, and you
cannot get half price for them, and your labor is
lost. Hence the importance of having good seed well
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tended, and when ripe pull them and leave them on the
ground in bunches, let them lay one day, turn them
over, if the weather is good thrash them immediately
on the barn floor, having six men, and they will flail
out three hundred bushels in one day; it will not do to
leave them out on the risk of bad weather.
Farmers to make money must comprehend what they
are doing, and have plenty of help on these emergent
occasions, and they will save much time, trouble and
money, so essential to those who cultivate the soil.
I am speaking from experience, and hope all farmers
will look to their own interests, and all they may do
will turn to their entire success; with this, the farmer
cannot do better than to plant a few acres of beans, and
such as you know are pure, and you can always get
the best price.  The best soil is a potato, oat or barley
lay; it would be well to spread on some old hog and
cattle manure after having plowed your ground, and
harrow it in; I advise farmers to give them a trial, I
think the result will be satisfactory.
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CHAPTER XVII. 
PEA CULTURE.
The Pea is also a leguminous plant, full of rich nutritious food for man or beast, containing a full share
of all organic and inorganic substances, that makes
the product strong, and lasting nourishment to animal
life, and will grow well on all rich fairly moist soil.
From my own experience, I strongly recommend
farmers to sow the small Canada pea with black oats,
being the strongest to hold the pea up, for feeding
hogs, by turning them into the field when the pea is
full in the pod. It would be well to try the experiment
of sowing them with seed drill, by division of the alternate drill tube. This plan would insure their strength
in the soil by being covered deep, and would furnish
extra bracing strength with the plants while growing,
so essential to their full value, while being eaten up by
the hogs.   You can arrange your seeding so as to
have them come on at three different times, viz: by the
middle of June, July  and August.   This you can
effect by having a piece near your hog pasture, so
constructed that by a moveable fence, you can, as soon
as your first piece has been eaten up, put them into
your next lot, and turn your lot just left under, and
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sow it with buck wheat and English turnips, giving you
two crops. The buck wheat will pay you well for your
bees, while in blossom, and the grain mashed up, is
excellent for stock.
Farmers that have not fully tried this for hogs, I
earnestly desire them to do so, and by so doing, you
have the best food for your hogs, and especially for the
sows and pigs, which no other plants can afford, and at
a very small expense. I have turned my hogs into a
small lot of peas, and in one week their old coat would
fall off, and new life and thrift would take them along
rapidly for their fall fattening.
Peas are cultivated quite extensively in the Northern States and Canada, and no plant in its green state
will furnish as delicious food for the time they are in that
condition, as the Marrowfat pea, that every fairmer
should cultivate in his garden. This I have spoken
of before.
The most suitable as a standard is the Blue Imperial, $S,00; Early Strawberry, $12,00; Dan O'Rourke,
early, $3,00; White Marrowfat, $4,00; Tom Thumb,
$15,00.
The last named is a very rich small garden pea, and
only grows twelve to fifteen inches high, hence the name
and are much sought for.   They will stand without
bracing up. They are worth sixteen dollars more in
New York City.  I don't know their yielding qualities.
I  strongly  recommend  the farmers  to cultivate
quite a large plot of these peas the first year to get
the seed, and the next year I -wonul  cultivate an acre
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FARMER'S GUIDE..
by experiment in the following manner, first take a lot
near your dwelling of good soil, and in the fall spread
on four large wagon loads of manure to an acre, plow
it under ten inches deep-green manure is the best.
In the spring as soon as the ground is dry, cross
plow and harrow it well, and as soon as it will do, plant
it with the Northern yellow corn, in rows four feet
apart, and in the rows six inches apart. As soon as
this corn is up cultivate it with a harrow, to take up
all the weeds, then take a double cultivator and guage
it two feet apart, this will lay off two rows, one on each
side one foot from the corn, and in these rows drill
your iMarrowfat peas by hand, so as to have them in
the row six inches apart; cover them over with a light
cultivator, and when up, use the light cultivator, dressing
the soil well round the peas and corn.  I have grown
string beans by the side of corn, and make a good substitute for poles.  I see no reason why they will not do
well for Marrowfat peas. I recommend this as an
experiment, and the farmer can try it in his garden
with one short row, and that will show whether it will
pay; if so you can raise seed peas that will bring fifteen
dollars per bushel, paying extra for your trouble.
It seems strange that the farmers living near large
towns, don't plant large quantities of these rich peas
so to have them early, they always bring large prices.
This certainly would pay the small farmers better than
any thing else, for early green food for family use.
The quantity of seed of the small field pea should be,
on rich mellow soil, four bushels to the acre; drilling is
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
far the best way to plant them, placing the seed all of
a depth, having the roots deep in the soil to stay the
plants while growing; they being in rows qnd connected together, must afford bracing strength to keep
them up, so essential to insure a soui ripe harvest.
Friends who are not acquainted with pea culture, try
them in small quantities as an experiment. All peas
planted in rows, should have stays on both sides, to
keep them up when bearing.  Small stakes driven into
the ground, with strips nailed on them, will answer the
purpose.
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
CHAPTER XVIII. 
TIMOTHIY CULTURE.
The hay product of the twenty-one Northern States,.
was second in value to any other, being three hundred and sixty-five millions of dollars.   Corn,was first,
it being valued at five hundred and twenty-seven
millions of dollars in 1864.
From these figures, the farmers of our country can
see the importance attached to the cultivation of the
hay crop, and the best ways and means that should be
adopted to increase this amount from the same number
of acres, and labor expended in its culture.
My first experience in grass culture was in the
State of MIaine, where the farmers thought more of
their haying time than they do out west of their grain
harvest; for hay is their great substantial product.
IIence, at that early day, all the men, and even the
girls, were required to rake hay, and they performed
their labor with a will and good cheer, making the
meadows ring with their cheerful songs.
From all I have learned on grass culture, I would
say to the farmers of the west, take your level lands
for your timothy meadows, so they  will hold  the
manures you put on to them. If you have low lands,
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drain them well, and you have lasting meadows; but
if you have any soil you cannot reclaim for timothy,
put on the red top, and in a few years it will make
good hay.
How many thousands of acres of lehnd there are in
the Western States, at this time, being inclosed by the
farmers, now standing idle and full of weeds, and
propagating seeds to the adjacent lands, and they
never fail to furnish a good supply.
Hence the great importance of having all these waste
places laid down to grasses.   Situated  as they are,
they never will fail to produce a large crop, as they
must catch the wastings from the surrounding lands,
so that all is saved, and changing the features of the
whole farm very effectually.
If you desire to raise a crop of grain, when you
seed down your meadows in the spring, sow them with
barley, leaving the soil in the best condition, having it
well harrowed with a fine tooth harrow, and if dry, I
would roll or brush the field over.   This will put it
in a friable form and condition, so that all the organic
strength in the soil, for the tender roots of the young
plants, will receive food from this judicious process of
pulverizing the soil when planting the seeds.
The great utility of this must seem clear to all farmers-after reflecting, the fact that all lumps from the
size of a hen's egg and upwards, lying on the top of
the soil after sowing your grain, will more or less take
the strength of the soil from the plants, by these lumps
being dried by the sun, losing the substance they would
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have furnished the plants if they had been broken up
when the seed was sown.
The seed, like all other plants, should be well
screened of all impurities. And right here, let me
say to the farmers, from the first piece of timothy you
cultivate, just before you harvest it, take an hour's
time, and go into the best part, and pick out all the
foul seeding weeds you can find, and cradle and save
this for your seed, and if you have more than you
want, sell the balance to your best friend, that he
through his neglect or inability, may have,the rich
favor of sowing pure seed.
My next request to the farmers who are raising
Timothy, is to plow their soil ten inches deep on all
qualities of land, and if on these rich prairies where
the top soil is porous and deep, plow down fifteen inches
with subsoil plow, following after with your common
plow. Do this in the fall with your grain stubble, and
you have a mixture of soil, full of inorganic elements,
such as lime, potash, and other constituents that lie
plentifully in the subsoils of our so called rich alluvial
prairies, in some of the Western States, and especially
central Illinois.
By turning up this sub-soil in the fall, the freezing
puts the soil in an active healthy condition, by uniting
it with the atmospheric gases, diluted with the plastic
soil, having the adhesive qualities so essential to sustain the timothy seed in its state of germination, making
this culture of sub-soiling far preferable, than seeding
on the top porous soils of the rich prairies of the West.
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If you have compost manure to spare, it would be
well to give this soil a top dressing in the spring, giving warmth and strength to the plants of timothy and
grain you have sown with it.
The usual quantity of seed to the acre is eight to ten
quarts, I would put on twelve to fourteen quarts,
affording more and a finer quality of hay; if the soil
is dry I would roll it insuring the seed to take better
root; that will give it a strong growth the first season,
so to stand the winter without freezing out, and before
closing up the ground in the fall put on your roller,
and level the stubble down on the grass plants, aiding
them safely through the winter.
Never suffer any stock on your meadows, nor any
lands, in soft times.  This is the most pernicious habit
the farmers are guilty of in all their commissions on
agriculture, the reasons are obvious, for in the grain
and grass fields it entirely destroys many plants and
cripple more, wheat especially; it brings out the chess
and much small wheat, and the result is it kills out
much, and destroys it from being a good uniform crop,
that the farmers ever feel proud to see, for the special
claims the pockets have on it.
There is one other strong feature in grass culture I
desire to mention, which is much neglected in the WVest,
and may seem of small moment to some farmers at first
sight.
It is looking over your meadows in the spring, finding out the bare spots the insects have eaten, or the
freezing weather has killed out, take some seed, and
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manure, old chip manure is the best, sow your seed,
put on your manure, and put it in with a hoe or spade
if in small patches; but if the seed is badly frozen out
sow it over with seed, and harrow it in well. 
When you have meadows that seem bound down
tight at the roots, when spreading your manure on in
the spring, take your fine tooth harrow, and scratch
it over well, this will take out the dead diseased plants,
and give fresh life and action to the entire field, and
you will harvest a full crop.
If you have a cleatr piece of timothy, that will make
full plump seed, you can do well to save it for seed,
cutting it with a header if you can get it, and thresh it
out at the same time; if you cut it with a cradle you
will have to bind it up and shock it the same as grain,
and stack or put it in the barn.
The proper time to cut timothy, is when the blossom
is dropping and the grain is full and ready to turn, and
all the leaves at yet green; if you have large fields to
cut commence early so as to finish in good time, having
grass cutters to work.   NTow the farmers have great
facilities over the scythe, as the cutter; the reel spreads
it evenly over the ground it grew on, and it cures well
in one quarter of the time.
Timothy grass contains much nutritious sap which
requires thorough curing before putting it in barns or
ricks, but all grass cut in the forenoon should be raked
up and put in cock the same night, and next morning
as soon as the dclew is off, shake it out well, and get that
in the same afternoon if you have good weather. In
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all harvesting, either grain or grass, the farmers need,
and it is essential to have plenty of ready help at their
command, in order to save their harvest in good order,
making hundreds and hundreds of dollars in their
pockets, say nothing of the pleasure they have over the
fact that their grain and hay is safe and well secured,
and you can thresh or feed it at your leisure.
In conclusion, let me say these are the rich fruits of
your wise management in cultivating your farms, on
principles of true economy.
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CHAPTER XVIII..
CLOVER CULTURE.
Much care should be taken to plow the soil ten
inches deep, and having it well pulverized, and the seed
put on with a broad cast machine, or you must take a
still time for sowing it by hand; it is requisite to have
the seed well covered, so the plants can all come up and
take a start at once; if the weather is dry you should
roll it, and in the spring following it will do well to
roll it again, saving much where the frost has thrown
up the roots.
These cares and attentions to your grass, and winter
grains, is the true secret to the success of making
money in farming on that branch of your labors. I lost
a crop of wiirter wheat I think I could have saved, if I
had in time applied the roller to the ground, that would
have pressed the soil down, and closed the roots up, so
as to save the germ  and tender roots.  I strongly
recommend the roller on grains and all new grass fields;
do this as soon as the soil begins to heave up in early
spring.
Much care is required to harvest your clover, saving
it from getting wet; the grass cutter will facilitate the
curing process, as it is evenly strewn on the same ground,
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aiding very much to get it dry to stack the second day.
All hay that has had the sun on it the day of cutting,
should be put into cocks the same night, and tLe next
morning as soon as the dew is off, spread it out with a
good sun, it will do to put up immediately.
I think clover and timothy hay should have a table
one foot from the ground to rest on, saving much loss,
that it would have by laying on the damp soil, that
must more or less destroy the goodness of the hay on
the bottom.  I think economy would prompt thle farmer not having barns to hold their grains and hay, to look
at the nI. eans I have recommended in sa.ving wheat
and should be adapted to secure all grains and hay,
thereby saving much loss from the way it is generally
put up.
Farmers can tell with a few figures how much it will
cost to have these necessary wants, and I feel assured
that one years benefits will more than pay the cost.
I omitted in my statement on wheat culture, to give
the full particulars in the construction of the tubing,
for saving grain which I will give here, thus: Take
four pieces of joist, two by two inches, and as long as
you wish for your ricks, and frame them twelve inches
square, being the size of the tubing, and put on bars
one and a half inches square, with a quarter of an
inch taken off at the ends; put these bars on one foot
apart, wv ndows at each end, to keep out the damp air
when it rains, and with little care to close up the opposite window when the wind blows; you can have the
full force of the air to penetrate through your grain,
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so it will be impossible to retain any dampness in the
ricks.
Complying with these suggestions on the clover cailture, for the purposes I have herein expressed and
follow it up, and no one can doubt your'success and
prosperity in your meritorious labors of cultivating the
rich soils of the WVest, from whence all other branches
of industry must sensibly feel the effects of cur farmers'
husbandry.
This plant is classed among the leguminous podded
plants, and the farmers should render much cecldit, for
its rich food for stock, in a green or dry condition, and
for its strong availabilities of  drawing the organic
constituent elements to the soil as rich food for the
succeeding crop.
Farmers should have the facts in relation to the
essential benefits as a manure substance, impressed
upoi their minds so firmly, that none who have had
lands under cultivation for several years, will be found
to work his soil without a clover lay, plowed under in
June, when in' strong blossom, full grown, for preparing
the soil for a wheat crop, winter or spring, or for
other kinds of grain, that will render the order of
rotation of your different crops.
Who, let me ask, understanding in any sense the
first rudiments of farming, but will exclaim with pride
and joy, at the advancement made by this universal
mode of changing the soil, full of life and vigor, to
give it a rapid growth, to insure a full ripe harvest for
all thev have under cultivation.
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Your clover field will give you two good crops of hay,
and if your soil has been made rich by manures, you
can cut your second crop for the seed, which, if taken
good care of, will pay you well, for seed at wholesale
is worth nine dollars per bushel of sixty pounds.
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CHAPTER XIX.
DAIRY-BUTTER.
The statistics of 1861, represent the entire milk product of the United States for the year of 1860, one
hundred and sixty millions of dollars, having the following consumption:
Amount in its raw state.................. $90,000,000
do    Manufactured into butter,......65,000,000
do    Manufactured into cheese,........5,000,000
TOTAL....................... $160,000,000
This estimate was made when milk was very low,
only one and a half cents per quart at the farmers'
house. But since that time milk has sold for five cents
per quart, which would make the entire product for
1860, five hundred and thirty-three millions of dollars.
And I notice from the statistics of 1864, there was exported from New York, fourteen millions of pounds of
butter, cost price, thirty-eight to sixty cents per pound.
which would, to average the amount, make seven
millions of dollars, and fifty millions pounds of cheeses.
at the average of twenty cents per pound, making the
snug sum of ten millions of dollars from these products
I also notice in the reports of 1864, in the Eastern
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Middle and Western twenty-one States, five millions of
cows; and three millions of this number were in the
nine Western States.  Allowing those in the Western
States to have made their quota of butter and cheese,
and sold in New York at the prices above stated, the
amount for these States would be two hundred  and
sixty-six millions; but the Western States are extensively engaged in raising stock, and it is not expected
they will produce as much of the dairy products as the
Eastern States, having the State of New York at their
head, until the dairy men of the West will select
their cows and cultivate gr'asses, and take hold of the
business with taste and energy to excel the world in
the product of butter and cheese.
By the figures above, we see more than one half the
milk of the United States is consumed in its raw state
as milk, showing strong and conclusive evidence that
we want more cows in the country, and strong and
thorough movements made in the west for making butter and cheese in qualities to bear favorably with the
dairies of' New York
My practical experience in the dairy, and the observations for the past ten years in watching the progress
of making butter and cheese in the northern part of
Illinois, part of Iowa, Wisconsin  and Michigan, warrants the fact that choice butter and cheese can be
made in those States I have mentioned above, on all
rolling land, where the water is running pure, or can
be obtained from wells, and the grasses being sweet on
the elevated lands must insure rich milk, and with a
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
true knowledge of the daiiy business, with all the appliances at hand necessary to handle the milk so it
will give up all the rich elements which it contains mnust
insure success.
With the tried experience I have had' and all the
lights that have shown upon me for thirty years, I will
tell the farmers of the West, and especially those who
have a taste to carry on the dairy business, what I
understand to be the duties that are required to be.
performed, by all who desire to make good butter and
cheese in the West.
In the first place, your soil should have a rolling
inclination, that your grasses will be sweet, affording
pure water by wells, or water running through your
pastures. The pure Ocean salt, the Ashton brand is
the best, being free from lime and other impurities.
MIuch of the western butter is salted with common
salt, which will make the butter have a spongy substance, and the longer it stands, the more certain will
it have to be used for soap grease.
I-aving tried several kinds of fine salt by dissolving
it in water, I find the Ashton the most free from lime
and other mineral substances, that butter must have to
keep well, when six months old. With choice cows,
sweet foodl and pure salt, you have the right materials,
and with proper and judicious management with all
the appliances necessary for the dairy business, fully
carrie(l out, success must be the result.
And  here I will give the composition of Butter,
made by an analysis by the most scientific chemists
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
of the United States and Europe, showing by illustration in one hundred parts, viz:
Casiene, (Cheese,)................................. 4.48
Butter......................................... 3.13
Sugar,...............................................   4.77
Saline matter...................................... 0.60
Water,...............................................87.02
Parts..........................................100.00
This is taken as an average from the many illustrations made by different chemists, which shows most
positively, how important it is to have goQd cows; and
they should have rich nutritious food to increase the
richness of the milk, in order to reduce as much as
possible the quantity of water that so largely exists in
milk.
I know there are many coming from the Eastern
States, in addition to those already here, who understand making butter and cheese. To all such I would
say, that if they want do anything in the dairy line,
and reside on the open prairie, they should plow round
some high' rolling prairie in the fall, near their residence.
This should be done by the farmers in your neighborhood so they can all have the benefits. Then in the
Spring take a piece of this and burn it off early, and
so on by times up to the middle of July. This will
afford your cows rich blue grass food from the native
soil, which by salting your cows often will make good
butter.
In the absence of tame pasture you should have
sown-or  better-drilled corn near by, say half an
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
acre to each cow, that you can feed daily, to your
milch cows, through the fall, when your prairie grass
has failed you. By this management, you can ma,ke
choice butter through the fall, that will pay you well.
By the bye, this corn should be cultivated ht all times,
to feed dairy cows, making the richest food that can be
grown, as it contains more sugar and rich butter
substance, shutting out much water from the milk. I
think half an acre drilled, on rich land, will supply the
cow through the fall, and during the spring months,
when most needed, at the time cows are comipg in for
fresh milking, and the farmers should not fail to raise
it, as no other plant has the rich qualities of food for
dairy cows. Choice feeding and proper care must
ensure good success to all dairymen, while without it,
utter failure must be the bitter consequences.
You have noticed that eighty-seven per cent. of milk
is water, and the balance is for butter and cheese.
Hence, it must be apparent to all, that to make good
butter you must have good pure water for you cows,
and without'you have your tame pastures, and your
cows have to run on the prairies that has no pure
lasting running water, you should have a good well at
your yard, with troughs enough that your cattle can
come to at any time and get water, and if your prairies
are fenced up in your neighborhood, the farmers should
club together and employ a faithful person to herd the
cattle at such places most available for food, and if not
handy to running water have wells enough that will
furnish all the pure water your cattle want.
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
I repeat without fear of contradiction, that this is the
only way you can make money, and be merciful to your
domestic dumb animals, that you know if they could
only speak, would storm your ears with words of joy for
such blessings rendered them.
In the winter your cows should have room and shelter
by themselves at night, so they will not be troubled by
the stock cattle hooking them, and their food should be
once a day, of oats, barley or rye, ground, and some
wheat bran made warm, mixed with this in water, will
assist their labors while bearing their young, essential
to insure good results, this with plenty of good hay and
some roots   The Sugar beet and the Mangold turnip
should be cut up and given twice a week to your cows
during the winter; this will afford the cows  a good
relish to nurture onward the unborn calf.  If you
know near the time when these calves will be dropped,
it would be well to have the cows shut away to themselves so no harm can reach them, that they may do
well.  AWhen you first see the calf, you should assertain
if it has'nursed, and if not, you should assist it to do
so at once, that the bag may not cake, as oftcen the case
with young cows, and if it inclines to swell, put wheat
bran into hot water with some lard and bathe it thoroughly three times per day, at the same time have the
calf help you, this is the most effectual means I ever
found to relieve cows from their pains.
I will suggest that farmers cannot expect to establish
their dairies on a permanent basis, without tame clover
and timothy pastures, so that they may run into the
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white honey suckle clover. which is the sweetest food
for choice butter.
The dairymen will fill their whole duties, only when
they have complied with all the available requisitions
that are incumbent upon them, and will be carried out
by all experienced dairymen, who delight and take
pride in their business.
Hence hlie will have a milk house, for setting his
milk; the best is what he wants, and from experience
and observation,  after having  tried  two  cemented
cellars, under my houses, I found a higher dryer place
was needed, and I made a milk room by taking out
two and a half feet of earth, and roofing it over, with
a door on one end, and a window in the other, with a
fine wire screen on tke door and window to keep out all
insects, with shelves round the sides and through the
center to set the pans on; although this was not made
perfect, it was much better than my deep cellars, and
the cream would come up well, and with thirty cows
would fill a firkin in three days, of choice butter, that
I sold in St. Louis for twenty-five cent per pound, the
same as the best New York dairies.
I would recommend to farmers who are wishing to
make the dairy a permanent business, to build a house
near their dwelling, with a cellar deep enough to work
in, for packing and keeping you butter in good  clean
order ready for market.
The size of this house should be large enough to
meet your future wants. Material should be brick or
stone, with cellar six feet, and the room for setting the
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
milk over the cellar, seven feet, with windows in the
cellar and milk room, for ventilation, which is all
essential to make pure butter.  These rooms should be
whitewashed with lime, with salt in it, twice a year.
Put no paint inside the building.
If you have not the stone or brick, you can build
with wood, by filling in round the milk room with blue
clay, packed in solid.  It will be cool and do very well.
Resting places for your milk pans should consist of
three narrow slats, so that the air can come under the
pans to facilitate the cream in rising,; they should
have room between so as to allow the air to circulate
freely. The pans, tin or earthen, should be a little
flaring, and about fifteen inches at the top. I used
tin, and think they are preferable to earthen as to
cleaning and breakage.    All  the  milking utensils
should be kept in the cleanest and most perfect order,
so that no taint may exist in and about the milk house,
which should have a temperature of fifty to sixty degrees
Fahrenheit, ascertained by a thermometer kept in the
milk room.
If you desire to make butter through the warm
weather, you can do so, by taking proper care with
your milk and cream. I adopted the following means,
and made  it through the hot weather of July  and
August. First, I dug a well twenty feet deep, put a
windlass and rope over it. Every night I would lower the
cream down where it would stand at forty five degrees
Fahrenheit, and give it a good stirring when I put it
there.  If this is not the true temperature for cream,
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FARMER'S GUIDE
make it to suit the climate, that your butter will come
in twenty minutes.
My churn was in the form of a barrel, and as large,
with four stationary floats, and a door on the side, ten
by twelve inches, made to fit well with a clasp to hold
it fast; in the morning early I would take the cream
up when it was cool, and in proper condition for
churning, and in fifteen minutes the boys could churn
forty to fifty pounds of butter in good substance, and
would take it out and put it on the butter table, and
work off the butter milk with a leaver attached to the
table in a few minutes. I put in little salt, and put it
into the butter tub, send it down into the well, let it
hang at 45 degrees Fahrenheit until evening, then take it
out on the table and work it over well, and pack it into
firkins, and when full, I would put on a quart of sweet
brine made out of a little salt petre and dairy salt,
with a little white sugar boiled up and strained, and put
this brine over the butter, set the firkin away, top up,
so the brine can have a chance to saturate down
through the butter; by this process the butter will keep
well and be sweet the next spring, and it is the most
judicious way to pack it. The firkins should be clean,
well seasoned heart staves, neat hickory hoops; have
your firkins tared in weight, then always ready for sale;
keep these firkins of butter in the coolest place in your
cellar.
For small packages-sugar-tree timber sawed into
boards-and have pails to hold from twenty to fifty
pounds, with a cover and bail, would be more safe
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
than crocks; make them flaring, and the butter will
readily slip out, and you can return the pails.
Any person conversant with the dairy business, will
have his mind agitated many times if he notices the
condition in which butter comes to the Chicago market.
HIere at times you can see it in all kinds of vessels,
from the dry goods box to the flour barrel, so on to the
smallest packages of wood and earthen, and in every
conceivable shape and form, with colortom deep yellow
to the white and speckled.
Notwithstanding all this, there is mush good butter
made in the West, and comes to market in good firkins,
crocks and pails, and some sent in balls that were good.
Great credit is due to those who have taken hold of the
dairy business and made such progress. For well do I
remember ten years ago, when I moved  to Chicago
from Central Illinois, in November, I could not find a
jar nor firkin of good Western made butter for sale in
the market, and the merchants told me they had to
get a winter supply from Buffa1o; I purchased a firkin
from Mr. Follansbee, that come from Jefferson County,
New York; I had some farmer friends in the country,
and wanted to purchase firkins, and some dairy salt; I
wanted the Ashton, and I could not find any good
firkins free from sap and seasoned, nor dairy salt,
which surprised me much, when I knew that the Fox
and Rock River country was well adapted for the dairy
business.
But the fact was, the merchants saw the butter
come to market in firkins, that the brine had run
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
through the sap staves and turned black, and salted as
a general thing with barrel salt, highly charged with
lime and totally unfit for butter.
The people as a general thing, thought they could
not make good butter in the West, and consequently
those that could, would not do so, and send it to this
market to be sold the same as common butter. This
prejudice has worn off, and the dairies of Rock and
Fox Rivers-and I may say Northern Illinois, Wisconsin, and parts of Iowa and Michigan, are making
considerable good butter, and quite a large a,mount of
firkin is also shipped to New York.
Now the duties of those making butter in the West,
are simple, when once comprehended and understood.
If you send your butter to market in lumps, let them
be uniform in size, and in an oblong square, weighing
from four to six pounds; they will thus be in good
shape for packing, can be handled neatly and will sell
for good prices. I saw in the market to-day a box of
butter from the country, containing lumps and rolls, in
twelve differeht shapes, and three distinct colors,-the
yellow, (good,) the white, the gray, and some being
spotted-all winter butter.  I ascertained that this
butter was all made in one neighborhood, having of
course the same climate, air, cold and heat, all alike to
contend with. The question may consistently be asked
why this butter, coming from the same locality,
should be so different in quality, color, form and substance, that to sell it upon its merit, the yellow would
bring double what the poor soft, white and spotted
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
would in any market.   The cause of this extreme
difference is apparent to my mind, and I will offer
measures, if adopted and carried out, will plainly show
that all this butter could have been made very nearly
of a uniform yellow color, and about the same in quality,
and all put up neatly in one shape, as I have described
above.
In accordance with my own experience in the dairy
business, and with the true knowledge of the physical
and chemical laws of animals and plants, I shall concede the fact that the yellow butter having a good
sweet flavor, was from milk taken from cows having
plenty of good nutritious food, either with good clover.
and timothy hay cut in the right time, when the jucies
were full in the plants, and the hay was furnished to
these cows, which would give it the rich fresh yellow
color, and of course the sweet sap would make the
sugar which must make good butter. I will add, that
undoubtedly these cows were supplied with some meal
and bran at the same time, which would warrant choice
yellow bdtter.
But this milk, suitable to make good butter, must in
order to do so, have the proper heat and cold at the
time it is put into the pans for rising the cream, so it
will come up in a few hours-the sooner the betterhence the importance of having a thermometer to test
the heat required to make good butter, and the room
where you set your milk in the winter, should be kept
to effect that object, and by care this can be done without trouble.
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
This being the condition of those making the yellow
butter, I must, I am sorry to say, assign the cause of
the white and spotted butter, to the several reasqns,
which are first: the cows must have had very poor
staled unnutritious food, and a poor scanty supply of
water, and suffered to stand in the cold wintery blasts
that must distort the system, causing chills that will
disturb the functions of the animal, through which the
milk fluid must pass, and it is apparent to any reflecting
mind, who can imagine for a moment the awful situation
of the cow, who is daily and nightly exposed to these
severe freezing times, with poor food, that has but little
warming gases in it to sustain the vital life of the
animal, say nothing about furnishing any substance
that would warrant good butter. From such unnatural
treatment to the most sensitive domestic animal the
farmer has in his possession, and with this diseased
substance, called cream, that has been obtained from
cows thus exposed, it would be impossible to make
good butter under the best management, say nothing
about putting this milk away in a cold place, where it
cannot render up the true elements in a proper condition to make good sound butter. It is possible that
cows being supplied with corn full of heating gases
might stand the cold storms, and keep the natural flow
of milk so as to make good butter, still the quantity the
creature must take to support life would leave a small
and some disturbed quantity of milk for butter, that
would not be good. All it wants, is a realization of
these facts as they exist, and the remedy is very simple
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
and easily obtained, for fifty cents cost, will make a
good board shelter to cover each of your cows, and all
your grown cattle, with half the price for your'calves;
this will be an investment of four hundre  per cent
besides the reputation.   I know  that there is not a
farmer in the West, that will give this subject one
hours reflection, but will have these shelters made when
fall comes, demanding them to be constructed.
Farmers must appreciate my sensitive feelings,
expressed on this all important subject, of taking care
of domestic animals, from the fact that Itoo have been
a farmer, who I am sorry to say was not free from all
these neglects, and reflection will tell you vlwhat my
feelings are on taking care of all animals, under the
control of the farmers of our country.
The cows that furnished the milk to make these
different samples of butter, here represented, should
have been tended with good food alike, by having good
tame hay well cured, and corn cut up and well saved,
to feed cows giving milk, and with the same facilities
for rising'the cream as I have described, and all things
nearly so. No one could doubt the fact that the entire
box of butter would have sold for good yellow butter,
and at full prices, thirty-five cents per pound, and I
am sorry to say that such samples are frequently seen
in market, and mixed together, that injures the sale of
the better qualities.
The best and most prominent marks for a good cow,
are short full head, large mild eyes, rather small neck,
deep breast, large body, broad loins, wide hips, full
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spread bag, and teats projecting well to the wiont, with
fine hair and a yellow skin, and color to suit the taste.
With such cows, you must certainly have the pleasure
of sending to market some splendid butter; I say this
from what I know, and feel assured you W'll l,ave the
same results if you adhere to these instructions; if
you should fail in one of them, so particular is the management in detail in making good butter, that you may
not be able to meet your expectations at first, b)ut don't
give it up, try again and you will surely succeed, and
in five years there will be a greater change than there
has been in the last ten, for the farmers will have tame
pastures and meadows more plenty, that will enhance
the assurance of choice butter, being made iin the WVestern States in large quantities and rich in quality, put
up neatly in choice firkins, having the pure dairy salt,
and no person can tell the difference fromn the choice
butter of New York. Thereby setting aside the once
conceded opinions, impressions and prejudices that
good butter could not be made in the West. And in a
few years we' will say to New York, the mother of
States, for making choice butter and cheese, that you
have well instructed your daughters of the West in the
dairy business.
But now you are getting advanced in years, while we
are young and full of life and vigor, having all the
knowledge you can impart to us; we have concluded
to make some higher scientific experiments that will
test the supemrior advantages of making butter from
milk as taken from the cows, and when it should be
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fully tested by our best chemists, to ascertain the true
temperature the milk should have, in order to produce
a more reliable quantity and quality of butter directly
from milk, creating an entire economical change in part
of the dairy business; the temperature must be increased from fifty to sixty-five when made from milk, and
dairymen would do well to give this a fair trial by making some butter from the same quality and quantity
of milk, pack it in the same vessels to see the results,
and these experiments, being made by those who have
the taste and in the dairy business,  extensive enough
to give a full test, thereby rendering evidences that
may prove immense benefits to our country.
Atmospheric churns will be the most available for
making butter directly from milk.
Milk, however it may be used, whether fresh from the
cow for consumption, or made into butter and cheese, is
a product of vast importance, for the luxury it affords to
the human family, and the revenue it gives to our
country, should stimulate those having a taste for the
dairv business, to unite by township, and procure the
best breeds of the male and female from  wherever
they can be obtained, so as to cross with the best
stock  of cows  among  the famers.   And  by this
thorough propagation, would begin a new era in
the dairy business of the West.  Having  their best
tame  pastures of the richest kind,  with these  improved cast of dairy cows, increasing the qualities and
quantities of butter and cheese per cow, so much that
our Eastern dairymen, and even England, and other
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dairy sections of Europe, will have just cause to be
jealous of the exalted progress Western dairymen are
making, to scale the highest round that can be plated
on the standard frame for good butter and cheese.
Now in reference to procuring the best stock for' dairy
purposes, I would say that I copy the following from
the extensive reports made by Charles L. Flint, Secretary of Agriculture, to the Massachusetts Stock
Growers, in regard to the best breeds of cows for
dairy use.
The description of these breeds of cattle are thus
given for dairy purposes: The Jersey, the Ayrshires
and the North Holland, and formerly known  as the
Teeswater of which an importation of a bull and four
cows was made in 1861, constitutes the herd owned by
Winthrop Cheney of Belmont, Mass.
The Holstein cow Texelaar, gave in seven days,
from May 27th to June 2d, 1865, seventy-three pounds
of milk per day.   Her calf, dropped  MAay  15th,
weighed at the birth, one hundred and one pounds,
which shows the superior qualities for dairy purposes,
and good size of stock, as her calf, Van Tromp, bull
two years old, weighs 1,700 pounds, and her heifer calf
Opperdoes 3d, ten months old, weighs 725 pounds, and
the analysis of the milk, made from the four cows, by
Prof. Hayes, shows by the statement, that their milk
possesses nutritive power, and fattening properties to
an extraordinary degree, which would fully warrant
the dairymen of the west to procure a male for crossing with the best cows, and in a few years, an increase
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with other breeds would tell well on the butter and
cheese product. Now comes the Ayrshires and Jerseys.
They have a fine record, showing that nine and one
half quarts of Ayrshire milk makes one pound of
butter, which is very rich. The Jerseys are larger
milkers, but the milk is not so rich.  From  the prices
of these cows and their calves, as I learn from a sale
of Jersey cows and calves, made at the farm of John
Giles, of Conn., that Jersey cows brought $293, on an
average, and calves an average of $85 per head, and
the heifer calves will sell for $50, as soon as they are
dropped. The Ayrshires will sell for nearly as much.
These are reliable facts, and would seem to arouse the
farmers up to a sense of their true interests, and especially those who desire to carry on the dairy business
in the West, as one branch of their cultivating the
soil, which, if properly attended to, will give you rich
results for your worthy labors so nobly rendered.
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CHAPTER XIX.
DAIRY-CHEESE.
Wlhen we contemplate the amount of money that is
invested, and the large quantity of produceo obtained
from this source of husbandry for home consumption
and exportation, it is well to inquire of the dairymen,
whether the results of their labors in the manufacture
of cheese are satisfactory.
When we look at the different qualities of cheese in
market, and the variations of prices, we wonder why it
is these prices vary so much, and the only answer we
can give is in the manufacture, as the milk taken from
the cows is much the same, and should produce the
same kind of cheese, if the same management had been
applied to it.
My experience in making cheese is light compared
with butter, but from the observations I have made in
the State of New York, warrants me to say that all
the utensils used in the cheese room should be well
cleaned, and the dairy room sweet and well ventilated.
The milk is taken to the cheese room and strained
through cloths, so as to take all extraneous matter out,
anid take a little annotto, dissolved in a little water, and
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strain it with the milk, only to give the curd a rich
cream color; the rennet is of much importance, for
unless this is pure and sweet it is impossible.to have
good flavored cheese.
When the milk at the expiration of thirty minutes is
sufficiently coagulated, Which experience alone can determine, a thin wooden knife is used to cut through the
curd to the bottom of the tub each way, leaving it in
squares, then let it stand until the curd settles, and the
whey will be upon the top, then dip this off in a cloth
placed in drainers, leaving the curd in the tub nearly
dry.
Now comes the process of cutting the curd with a
cheese knife, to facilitate the whey to run off, subjecting the curd in the mean time to a light pressure. In
a short time, cut it in quite large pieces, and placing it
in a tub covered over, letting it remain until the next
morning. Then take this, with the curd from the milk
of the previous evening, cut it into small squares with
curd cutter or knife, pour warm water over it, stirring
it well, adding water still warm, till the curd will yield
to pressure without breaking; then dip it into drainers,
and stir it until nearly cold and free from moisture.
It then must be salted with good pure dairy salt, about
two and a half pounds to one hundred pounds of curd.
Wlhen the salt is added, it should be thoroughly
stirred, that it may all be well incorporated, and
when it is cooled sufficiently, lay a cloth in the
hoop, and then your curd, and press it down with
your hands as it is put in, to make it as solid
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as possible.  If you have more than enough for one
cheese, you had better divide and put it into two hoops,
with uniformity of size.
It is then put to press, and pressed gently at first,
increasing the pressure at times for an hour or two, till
sufficiently firm to take out and turn again, changing
the cloth and letting it remain forty-eight hours. Be
sure to take it out once during the time and turn it.
After this, it is ready to be removed to the dairy room,
and dressed with oil made from the whey butter. Then
add a little more annotto, if you like the qolor, and
place it upon the shelf. The cheeses are all turned daily,
and dressed with the oil of butter.
MIuch care is required in handling your cheese when
turning and rubbing them, as at that time they are
tender. The cheese room should be at about fifty to
sixty degrees Fahrenheit, kept free from all insects,
with fine netting screens, having windows and doors to
let in the air.
The curing and taking proper care of the rennet is of
great importance, being the stomach of the calf, and
from those that are fat, the rennet is the best. When
the  calf is killed, it is taken  out,  the  contents
partially emptied, then placed in a deep dish to remain
twenty-four hours. It is then stripped through the
hands, and put on to a plate, and covered over
thickly with pure salt, to remain thirty hours; then
turn and stretch it over a bow, rubbing all the salt
you can upon it, and putting all you can inside.
When it is well dried, the bow is taken off, and it is
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put into a linen bag and laid away where nothing can
touch it.  When it is required for use, put one skin
into two quarts of warm water, rubbing it occasionally.
After soaking twenty-four hours, remove it, and add
two quarts of strong brine to the liquor,  strain the
whole into a vessel that can be covered tight, and keep
it in a cool place, adding salt occasionlly, so there will
always be undissolved salt at the bottom. Hlaving it
prepared in this way, it will keep sweet and always be
ready for use, requiring only half a pint to curdle forty
gallons of milk in as many minutes.
You can ascertain the strength of the rennet by
trial, and use it as required. Rennets improve by age,
and should never be used until one year old if you can
possibly help it.
There is no mistake about it, the dairy business for
making butter and cheese will rapidly increase in the
west, wherever the soil and water is best adapted for
it, and there are many dairymen in the west making
butter and cheese; already there are several cheese
factories started, and more, I learn, will start next
season.
In this manner of making cheese of the milk from
the surrounding farmers, it saves the women some
labor, but, I think, by using up the milkl in this way, it
must enhance the value of butter, and I would advise
those who have the means and a taste for making
butter, having good pure water and grass, to make
butter, as it must bring a good price. I think the
dairymen will see it in that light and improve the op
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
portunity, I mean those who can make good butter,
and there is no doubt of the result as to prices.  I do
not see any reason why there should iiot be butter
factories as well as cheese factories, and those who
thoroughly understand makling butter, and havinng all
the means and appliances at hand to purcel'ase the milk
firom tlhe farmers in the surrounding neighl orlliood at a
fair price, so as to make money to pay for their worthy
labor. This plan looks feasible, and with a spring
carriage having two vessels big enough to hold what
milk you could get up, you could divide the qualities.
Unlder this management, it places all the milk into the
hands of one who is capable, and call afford to supply
hiimsclf with a milk-house, and have all tlhings doec by
thle most scientific rules, for the assurance of making,choice butter.
I truly hope a number  of factories will start in
MIichigan, Nortllhern Illinois, WAisconsiii, and in the
eastern half of Iowla.
All that is wanted, is for those who know how it is
done to procure the best hleart-setasoied firkins, made
neatly, with smooth, trim hickory hoops, and have for
ready sale, some ne-,t boxes made from sug(,,r tree
boards, an inch thick, flaring so as to let the butter out
easily-to have a cover shut over with a moulding
round the top, and a lttle neat padlock to.make them
secure to come to market. The boxes cani be in sizes
to nest up, which would facilitate returning them back
to the country-saving much trouble and loss in breaking jars, that often break in carrying to market.
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
These boxes can be tastefully made, and obtained at
Chicago cheaply, as they can be made by machinery.
When dairymen or merchants want to send butter to
market in warm weather, they should have ice, or when
the grass is sufficiently large, should cut some early in
the morning, and pack round their butter in the wagon
or cars, and it will be in good order when opened.
This will keep the life and substance of the butter unimpared, which is of the utmost importance, to have it
sell for good prices. From all the practical experience
I have had in making butter, I think this can be
carried out profitably by those who will engage in the
manufacture of butter and cheese as I have recommended.
All branches of people in other pursuits of life, who
can depend upon those making butter and cheese, will
feel grateful to those who have taken hold of the enterprise to furnish a more constant supply of these
great luxuries so essential to good living. My ]highest
wishes are that the dairy business will be carried forward to meet the wants of all, returning rich rewards
to those who devote their time and money in such an
important business.
I learn that butter factories are successful in New
York.
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
CHAPTER XX.
BUCKWHEAT CULTURE.
This plant will grow well, and is quite extensively
cultivated, the product in Pennsylvania in 1865, being
five millions of bushels, in New York five millions of
bushels, and in Ohio one million of bushels. It will
do well on all dry, sandy, rich, loamy soil, but will do
very well on poorer soil. Having a light draft on the
strength of soils, and a choice exterminator of weeds,
killing all such noxious things that the lands may be
infested with, even the common thistle.
From my experience and observations I am fully
satisfied that the rich prairie soils of the West, especially those that contain a. deep rich moisture, produce
flour that is black, and not having that rich pleasant
flavor which is produced in lighter sandy soil.
iHence I advise all having such land, not to cultivate
buckwheat. The best lands in the West, as a general
thing, are the light pine lands of Wisconsin, and I
would recommend her farmers to cultivate double what
they do, at any rate on their poorest lands, which,
with a little manuring, will produce from twenty to
thirty bushels per acre.
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
On poor, sandy light soil, it would do well to sow
buckwheat, and when it is full in the blossom, plow it
under as a fertilizer, and let it rest over until next year.
Then in June plow it up, and at the right time sow it
with buckwheat again, making a very good crop.
During the winter the flour has an extensive sale in
all the States, and in those States best adapted to its
successful growth as to quality and quantity, the
farmers will do well to take their poor sandy soils and
make a business of it, procuring choice seeds, grown
on the right soil, so that the inhabitants of the country may know what buckwheat cakes they want, by
paying a fair price for them, that those raising the
choice wheat and ready to sell at a fair price, may
have a chance to exchange.   As far as the buckwheat
is concerned, if my land was not full of sandcl I would
not raise it.
0
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
CHAPTER XXI.
POULTRY-CHICKENS.
Domestic fowls have been raised and eaten as food
since the early days of the history of the world, and
are still held throughout all countries as a luxury for
food, but to have it sustain that estimation, it must be
well tended, with proper food, and have comfortable
resting places, summer and winter. From my own experience, the farmers of the west do not put the true
value and estimation on poultry, and hardly any attention, in any respect, is given them. This is wrongfor if the farmers allow the poultry to live on their
farms, economy and justice should require them to
have plenty of food at all seasons of the year, especially
in the winter. In this light of the subject I will give
my views on feeding, shelter, and all that pertains to
the better care of the poultry yard.
The first thing, the farmer should make up his mind
how many hens, turkeys, geese and ducks he may want,
and if there is a selection to be made, to take what he
wants for his own family through the year; but as he
has to make provision for that many, he can just as
well give little more room, then he can raise three times
as many, and by feeding them well and having them
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
fat, he can always get a good price for-them, especially
early in the fall and late in winter.   With proper
treatment, hens will lay all winter, and the eggs will
always sell at high prices. 
After having made up your mind how many hens
and turkeys you will keep, which are the most sought
for, and of course the most valuable to raise. I will
take as a basis, one hundred hliens, and you want a shed
thirty feet long and twelve feet wide, with ten feet assigned for their sleeping room, which must seem better
than if they were on the fences, in the' trees, or, for
choice, some of them are in the horse stable, resting on
the stalls or on the horses in very cold weather.
Reflection will tell you, this does not pay to have
your poultry take their chances to live through the
winter, having many of them die from exposure. The
best timber for making resting poles are sassafras, fir
and spruce, resting on ledges, so that they can be
taken often and washed with strong soap, to keep off all
insects.  The best plan to put these poles up is to commence on one side and put the first pole two feet from
the ground, and raise the next pole four inches, ant( so
on with each until you have them all up, so that each
tier of birds will be raised so as to afford better ventilation than if they were all on a level. The ground
should be made hard, and two inches of sand should be
kept on it at all times, which will serve well for the
poultry to eat what gravel they may want, and it can
be readily raked so as to take all the manure off-do
this once a week, and have windows, which will serve
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to give free ventilation. These windows should be on
one side near the bottom, and on the other side near
the top, so as to give good ventilation, the wind would
not then strike directly upon the poultry; it would be
well to have these windows long and narrow, with wire
screen to kleep out all insects.  The windows on the
lower part will serve to admit the hens in and out.
The next twenty feet should have a floor five feet from
the ground, the basement of this room, being supplied
with troughs, will do well to feed your hens in, and
over this room should be the nursery-laying iti one half
and setting in the other; between these two rooms,
have an open partition affording ventilation.   Let this
floor be raised from the center to the walls so that they
can be washed out frequently to insure health. In the
rear, connected with this house, you should have an
acre of ground put into-say one quarter to timothy,
one half to oats, sown at different times, so as to make
the food last longer, and the other quarter put into
comnion tomatos, and buckwheat with millet, all being
good food for poultry while green, and when ripe. HIave
this yard made rich to give a large growth; sow the
oats thick, this will give all plenty to eat and a healthy
place to bask in the soil when it is dry. When the
chickens are old enough to follow their mother, partition off a piece of this yard for those having chickens.
The next thing under consideration is the breeding
stock; and the number you want, depends upon how
large your family, and whether you desire to raise any
chickens or eggs for market. If for your own small
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family, twelve hens and two male birds will be sufficient; you must see that the latter agree well together.
It requires much care in selecting fowls. Ihtaving
your stock selected, the next point will be, the breeding.  I would prefer young birds for this purpose, and
would select from the pullets in the Fall, that were well
grown, and take two year old male birds for them.
It is well to introduce new pure breeds into the yard
in succession every two years, so they cannot degenerate.  There is no danger but that hens will do well in
hatching, if they are well fed, and have g'ood coops for
that purpose; size of coop eighteen by twenty-four
inches, closed on all sides except the front; the front
can be made of slats placed close enough together to
keep out rats.  You can have three of these slats put
together so as to raise up, to let the hen out for her
food twice a day, when setting.  Much care should be
taken that they have plenty of pure water, and their
food regular.  Their drinking vessels should also be
kept clean.  It is a good plan to keep some gravel at
the door of the coop, so that they can take what they
want.  The first week the chickens are hatched, fliey
should have bread crumbs soaked in warm milk or
water, and tended carefully. Wheat and corn steamed
are good food for hens and chickens. They should have
good food three times a day in the spring, and through
the summer in proportion to what they have of green
food. Much advantage is gained by having your hens
set early, this will give you good chickens by middle of
June, and if you have any to spare, they will bring a
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
large price. The object of raising poultry is to hltve some
always ready to use as food, they will always be alppreciated; when they are tended well, the chickenus and
capons are good..
In the fall, what male birds you do not want to
keep  over,  you  should  select  them  out and  put
them by themselves, feeding them with coarse ground
meal, steamed, and like soft pudding, with i)plurc wa(ter.
Feed three times per day, early in the morning aiid late
at night; put into their room, every other d(iy, some
pulverized charcoal, to keep them in good ealtall, to
insure which, their trough should be washed out often.
If there is any fighting done to any extent by male
or female, they must be separated into a pen, for
such fowls, by unsteady feeding and exposure to cold
storms, become more or less diseased, and it is hard to
get them up again.  All that is wanting, to hlitv( good
fat poultry, full of health and life, is to have a comfortablle house, kept clean, plenty of good food given
regular and pure water.  Clean out their night soil
twice a week, and feed them through the winter with
some cabbage tops green, a little at a time, and give.
them sound offal meat, cut fine, with boiled or baked
potatoes mixed with meal. Keep lime in their houses
constantly, and you will have no trouble in raising
chickens, and have them always ready for eating   If
the farmers don't use proper care in raising choice
poultry, they will save money to let them alone; for
one-half of the chickens that have come to this market,
were medium, and some very poor.  Many would spoil
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
for want of sale, and had to be thrown away. This was
unfortunate for those raising them, as they could not
have paid any profit.
The farmers for themselves, and,those. living in
cities and towns would be better off, and a great blessing would eventuate to those who are able to purchase
good poultry, if they could obtain them from the
farmers, where all the fruits, vegetables and meats,
whether good or bad, must  be procured.   I truly
hope the farmers will see the remarks I have made, and
those who like to raise choice poultry' will realize
in full what I claim on taking good care of dclomestiic
fowls.
POULTRY-TURKEYS.
The impatient wandering disposition of the turkeys
render them unfit company for other fowls whose habits
do not require so much room. Farmers having calf
pastures can well raise turkeys, as they will do with a
little food for their young during April, May and June,
and as soon as you get your grain off your fields, you
can let them run there, and they will do exceedingly
well in picking up grain and insects, which they relish
and greedily devour.   By feeding them once a day,
you have the assurance of their safe return at night,
and they will keep growing finely through the summer
and fall ready for an early market for your oldest
broods.
Like all other species of animals, care is required to
make good selections for your breeders. Both male and
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female should be full, plump in size, with fine bright
plumage, clean legs. The most hardy are the bronze
in color, with a lively animated action. The hen
breeds when a year old; they are better when two
years old, and will do well at three years. I would
change the male every year with your neighbor, to
keep up strength.  From the first to the middle of
March, they begin to lay, and show signs of this by a
peculiar cry and strutting around with self-importance,
searching in quest of a secret place for incubation;
she should have a nest made for her, and use gentle
means to have her lay in it; the nest should be made
of dry straw, and secluded away from being disturbed;
it would do well, as an inducement to draw her to the
nest, to have a piece of chalk made in the form of an egg,
and put into the nest. The turkey hen is a constant
setter, and very loath to leave her nest even for food;
she should have regular food. After she has finished
laying, it will take four weeks for the chickens to leave
the eggs, and these, like other young fowls, do not require food for several hours, when they feel inclined to
eat, nature directs them how to pick it up; eggs
boiled hard and finely mixed with crumbs of bread are
good, oat meal with water is good. The turkey hen
and chickens, should be housed for a few days:: in fine
weather let them out; should a shower come, they
must be taken care of and put under shelter. This
treatment is required for a few weeks, after which they
can take care of themselves. As they become older,
they require some meal until the harvest fields a,rf
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
clear, then they can fare as well as the old turkeys.
Taking care, and having a pride in them, is the great
and important secret of success in rearing domestic
poultry.  These turkeys furnish much good. food any
time in fall or winter, and especially in the holidays,
and at times they will bring a large price, and a great
luxury to town and city people who have not the facilities to raise them; therefore, interest and duty as a
favor would seem to invite the farmers to cultivate a
goodly number of turkeys.
GEESE AND DUCKS.
Are choice water fowls, and held in high estimation
by some people, and should be reared by all who have
a taste for such fowl, and especially when they have a
small running stream through their pastures, then you
will not have much trouble to raise them, being easily
kept by grazing, as they are both hardy fowls; but
while they are raising their young they should have
food similar to other poultry.   One gander  is enough
for five females, and is very attentive, vigilant and
daring in their defence. They too will hatch in.a
month, and when the goslings are young, they are
tender and want care and the same food as turkies.
WTith all the ducks, the Aylesbury are the best, they
are white and very quiet, and make a rapid growth
plumage unspotted white-and are the most profitable
to raise; I would advise those who desire to raise geese
to raise ducks also, for they require the same nursing
and food, and live peaceably together.
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i4 
FARMER'S GUIDE.
CHAPTER XXII.
MODEL FARM.
I have made a diagram of one hundred and sixty
acres of land designed for cultivation, and from experience and observations I have had on agriculture, I am
persuaded that all farmers as fast as they are able,
should make these improvements near as circumstances will permit.  I have assigned five acres for the
homestead which should have the fruits and garden as
I have recommended in another place, and the two
fields of fifteen acres should be devoted to the propagation of animals and vegetables, and one twenty acres
gently rolling should be selected for the durable pasture,
and one, the. most level on the farm, should be taken
for the lasting timothy meadow, situated so it will
receive the washings from the other fields, so essential'
to furnish the organic food to give it a large growth,
and the balance four fields of twenty acres each,
are assigned to raise the cereal products.   The most
effectual way of cultivating the soil, is by rotation of
crops, having two objects in view, to rest the soil by
following a crop with another, which largely subsists on
different elements, increasing its carbonaceous matter
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
by such crops as will add much to it in rotation, having
both these special objects in view.
It is true, the longer the soil has been cultivated, the
more necessity of a clover lay, and rotation crop culture
so essential to supply the soil with organic food to
insure a full harvest. I have left lanes round the
fields one rod wide, for passing to and from all parts of
the farm, where labor is required to be done.   When
these lanes are all put down to grass, as they should be,
in good order, they will essentially afford a double
benefit, by stopping all the weeds that generally grow
round the fences and turn-rows of the farmi, which keep
them well seeded with noxious weeds, whereas now
they will raise a good crop of hay, at least five tons,
and greatly improve the looks of the farm. With all
the low places cultivated in grass, there will not be one
rod of waste land on the farm.   To make  the farm
complete for water, there should be four wells on it,
one at the house, one at the cattle yard, in connection
with your hog and calf pastures, and one at each junction of your middle center fields, as described in the
model. The center lane should be two rods wide for
turning purposes; these wells should have conducting
spouts to supply stock in four of the adjoining fields,
when  needed;  gutta percha is the  best and most
economical in the end.
These two fields, number two and three, containing
fifteen acres each, should have for commencement a
summer fallow or clover lay, and what is designed for
fall wheat, should have a cross plowing twelve inches
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
deep, well pulverized with a harrow and well drilled in,
and in the spring cross-plow the balance, and on all,
except where the small grains are to be sown, haul on
two cords of old manure to the acre; do this in the
winter, and leave it in piles, and spread it over after
cross-plowing in the spring, and have it well incorporated with the soil by the harrow.
Before sowing any grain, measure off the tracts
assigned for each product, and between your different
grains plant beans, peas and potatoes, so they cannot
intermix.
I have given below what in my judgment would seem
best to cultivate and carry out by experimental culture
in different ways, so to test the most available way that
all plants should be cultivated, and thereby obtaining
the largest profits from the soil under all the labor and
money expended. I here annex in detail a list for cultivation, viz: one acre of pure White Corn; one acre of
pure Yellow Corn; one acre of pure Mixed, to hybridize; one acre of pure White WinterWheat; one acre of
pure Red Winter Wheat; one acre of pure Rio Grande
Spring; one acre of pure Iowa Amber Spring; one
acre of pure of all grades of Winter Wheat; one half
acre best Rye Winter; one half acre best Rye Spring;
one half acre best Barley Oats; one half acre of
all grades of mixed Spring Wheat; one acre of four of
the best grades of potatoes, with my advice to cultivate
the most of them as I have directed in my essay on
potato culture.  There are one and a half acres left to
experiment with any plants you may desire.
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
The true intent and object of these experimental propagating grounds are to bring out, by superior culture,
the stro')g vigorous growth of the several plants which
the  flarmzers generally cultivate,  and when'harvest
comes, take a basket and go to tike field, and with
special care, cut the most ripe, large, prominent heads
of wheat-keeping each kind and name to itself, and
lay them in your lofts to cure; when well seasoned, take
each head and shell off some at each end, then shell the
middle and put them carefully away; you should try to
obtain enoug,h from your first crop to sow an acre of
the different kinds of spring and winter wheats-that
is, if your soil will produce both kinds successfully,
and so on with your different grades of grain.  Take
your bag  and pass through your corn as soon as the
huskls 1)eg,in to open, and those ears that hang down,
weeping for their heavy weight, with their clothing
loose as:d ready to take off; from these careful selections you can procure seed enough for your own use,
and perhaps have some to sell to those who do not
think it necessary to prepare grounds for propagating
pure seed; true, there may be many who are not prepared to make these improvements-to such, you- can
well supply; so you will go through the balance, and
procure the well-developed ripe grains that exhibit a
vigorous growth, treating them in the same way, and
having them well secured in medium warm places,
where severe freezing cannot come to kill the germ,
and none will doubt the rich results that must spring
from such a worthy enterprise.
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
Remember that kind begets kind, and for your wise
labors, you have the assurance that these sayings will
prove true by your laudable efforts.
Fieldl number three is designed for pasture an~d feeding gioutnds for cultivation and improvement of the
better grades of domestic animals, so essential to the
highest interests of the farmers, and extending untold
benefits to all branches  of industry.   Hence,  all
farmers that are able to have these fields set apart for
the special purposes of procuring pure and better seeds
the sooner they resolve to take hold of this Noble lifesustaining enterprise, will their names be inscribed as
benefietors to our country's greater good.
In the economy of nature, and by the fundamental
laws underlying all forms of life, animal as well as
vegetable, that in order to insure the finest issues, the
two should go hand in hand, and whatever the farmer
does for one, interest impels him to do for the other.
Hence, we see at a glance, the imperative obligations
resting upon all that are able to make these propagating improvemnents as fast as time will permit; what
occupation of life can a man more fully gratify his
feelings, than to cultivate the plant and rear the animal
under scientific principles.
With these fifteen acres devoted to stock culture,
under a high state of cultivation, to supply nutritious
grasses for the support of a few choice stock breeders in
cattle, horses, sheep and hogs, to be used for the propagation of the best grades of these four different
leading animals of our country, by a judicious crossing
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
with the best native breeds, must arise new features
in the minds of those who cultivate the-soil.
I will put the question to the farmers of thoWest,
to this effect, viz:  Suppose that five farmers of each
tQwnshlip throughout the country,  sbould adopt this
special mode of improving their seeds in vegetables, so
that by the right culture they can raise one hundred
bushels of corn per acre, fifty bushels of wheat, seventyfive bushels of oats, seventy-five of rye, and five
hundred bushels of potatoes, all under the propagation
of pure seeds, and planted on the farm by rotation of
crops. How long would it take for the balance of the
farmers that have a start, to accomplish the same
results.
As you are not present to give the answer, I will
assume the responsibility to say, that within three
years, every farmer in the West, according to his
means, will have a show of this improved culture on
his own farm, having a clear field before him, stimulated by the influences wrought in their minds, by the
increased products of the soil, will produce an entire
new aspect upon all the labors of life, and the tillers
of the soil will have their physical, intellectual and
mental powers brought up to a more perfect state of
harmony, that their future labors will be lighter, and
their ways more pleasant to perform all the duties of
life, showing clearly that Agriculture is one of the
noblest works of nature, and no farmers in the world
have the advantages to elevate the cause of Agriculture
as those in the West.
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
You will notice in my representation of a model farm,
I have placed the homestead in the center, in all re spects, if the location is most elevated, this wouldl be
the proper place;  but where ever the homestead is
located, the division of the farm can be made just as
advantageous in every respect as though it was in the
center.
To make the line of fencing which I have laid out,
there would be one thousand rods, which would cost
two thousand dollars. On an ordinary farm about five
hundred rods would inclose the farm and fence in the
homestead with the cattle yard; whereas, the farm I
assume to be a model one, has eleven separate fields,
beside the cattle yard, at an expense of one thousand
dollars in extra fencing, which, at ten per cent interest,
would be one hundred dollars, and one good steer, at
four years old, would pay the interest on this splendid
farm of eleven fields-affording all the advantages of
fruit trees, garden, four small and large pastures, one
meadow, two fields for propagation of animals and
plants, and four fields of twenty acres each for raising
the usual products.
Now, friends, who cultivate the soil to make money,
let me considerately ask you to give my remarks on the
model farm a candid, impartial reflection, as to its
merits and demerits, and upon that decision will rest
your future action; I am persuaded that when that
judgment is finally rendered, it will be on the side of
making the improvements as fast as time and means
will allow, and those who have the means will perform
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
the labors as soon as possible. For the reflection they
have given this subject will convince them of the following facts, which are beyond contradiction, yiz:You have your pastures of tame grass for all your
animals according to their several wants; you Wave your
rich meadows for your hay, and affording rich grazing
in the fall when your pastures are short, and you have
four fields of twenty acres each for raising your grain,
which, if cultivated under the rotation system from the
clover, wheat, corn, oats and barley-with all these,
you have one field of fifteen acres for experimental
growing pure seeds, which of itself is enough to pay all
interests on extra improvements, and last, though not
least, you have fifteen acres set apart for propagating
pure breeds of stock, that will render invaluable wealth
in crossing on the best common stock, which is the
lasting and sure prosperity of all who cultivate the soil.
In conclusion, I desire to say, that the lanes and
roadways around and through your farm, which I have
taken in the model farm account, should be well put
into meadow grass, instead of having them as may be
seen through the West, thousands of farms with their
fence corners and sides, with turn rows all growing a
crop of weeds, which will blow over and seed down
your farm that has been cultivated; they never winterkill, and the farmers have them to choke down and
labor hard to destroy.
There is another important feature in this model
farm; by having the fields all fenced in, when the
elements break across your fields of waving grain,
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
which is nearly ready for harvest, earing it down so
that it cannot be saved, what pleasure there is in the
fact that you have these fields well fenced, so that you
can turn your stock into them, saving much th,t would,
without this fencing, be lost; then, too, as soon as the
grain is taken from the fields, the stock can be turned
on to them, where they will eat up the offal and the
seed that often rattles out when fully ripe.
So with all these many advantages, growing inevitably out of and from this improved invaluable means of
cultivating the soil, must commend itself to' the entire
masses of the farmers of the West, and arouse them up
to bend all their strength to put what means they can
spare to make themselves better off in wealth and
health, which, together, control the destiny of mankind.
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
CIIAPTER xxIiI.
HEDGES FOR FENCES.
Fencing in some form, has been in use ever since the
early days of the world's history, by all nations. Thus
we find, in the early times of our own country, that
laws were made designating what should constitute a
sufficient fence to restrain all reasonable domestic
animals from committing trespasses. To this end the
farmers of our country have labored long and much to
build and sustain their fences, to satisfy the laws under
which they were living, and no part of the United
States, at the time of its settlement, was so destitute of
timber as some of the Western prairie States; of these
States, there has been much of the timber taken for
building and fencing, and the balance must of course
come high; the farmers have to fence much of their
old and new lands with pine lumber, and the large demand for building material and fencing will come high
in future in consequence of the immense territory it
has to supply.
Now, friends, under all these existing circumstances,
I desire to say, as one of you, who have made the
fences for twenty years in Illinois, understanding that
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
when lumber is twenty dollars at the market places,
that it will cost two dollars and twenty-five cents per
rod for fencing. Every farmer possessing a farmn of
one hundred and sixty acres, in order to reap all the
benefits of his farm, should have, exclusive of division
fences from those adjoining him, one thousand rods, to
be complete to save all the profits from the farm. At
this stage of the subject, I will re-affirm what I expressed to my friends fourteen years ago, that the
farmers of the prairies should take measures to put a
good hedge fence round the mainlines of thcir farms,
and then, if it was a success, they could make the two
main cross fences, which would amount to six hundred
and forty rods, which would, to-day, be wvorth two
thousand dollars to every farm having this hedgingand allowing thirty-six sections in a township, at fifteen
hundred dollars for each quarter section, would be in
value nearly two hundred thousand dollars for the
township. Now, admitting one half of the towns in a
county to be twelve, these twelve townships would, today, be worth over two millions and a half of dollars.
With these figures before us, I kindly ask the farmers
of the West, and especially the prairie States, to
calmly look at this all-important subject of fencing,
and see if your prairie farmers by township will not
organize, as I have recommended in another place, and
adopt measures to secure a good, mellow, dry, rich
piece of land, and cultivate the osage orange plants,
employing a man to tend them in the best possible
manner, and they will be strong thrifty plants; when
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
one year old, they are ready for setting out-you
should have the ground, where you design to set your
fences, well plowed, twelve inches deep in the fall,
and in the spring, as soon as the frost is out, plow
the soil over again, have it well harrowed, and make
your trench six inches deep-take the plants and cut
them down to six inches from the root, take and set
your line, setting your plants twelve inches apart, then
move the line six inches, and set this row twelve inches
apart. Commence by setting the two first plants six
inches apart, and afterwards twelve inches, making the
plants to stand, when both rows are set, six inches
apart from center to center.
In setting the plants out, much care should be taken
to have the soil pressed around the plants solid, the
soil left two feet each side of the rows, and a little
inclined towards the plants, so as to hold the moisture
from the showers. During the dry months of July and
August, have the plants kept free from weeds, and the
second year prune them down to eighteen inches, leaving all the stems below that. The third year cut your
top round down to three feet, and you can by the first
of June turn it out for a good substantial fence, which
has cost you less than one dollar per rod. This is what
the farmers want, and what they can have. Put a
competent man to take care and see that the plants
receive all the attention necessary to insure a first
class hedge.   By forming  a company you  make a
business of it-and it will cost less than for each
farmer to raise his own plants and attend to them him
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
self; but either way, let there be an uprising among
the farmers, in view of this grand object.  AVlho can
doubt for a moment, the immense wealth it will imp,-t
to those who  avail themselves of the oplportunity of
having these splendid green fences, surrouidi gr their
farms, say nothing about their two cross felicc  they
are sure to have, as fast as time and means will permit.
My observations taken in Morgan,  Sangamon and
Knox counties, in Illinois, assures me the safety of the
Osage Orange for hedges, and I hope these remarks
will find a place in the minds of many farmers, and my
greatest pleasure will come, when  I know  that the
farmers of the prairies appreciate these hedlges, when
they see the prairies of the West enclosed with good live
fences, because I feel certain, from all the external
evidences, that timber for fencing will inevitably grow
dearer, by the increasing demand it must have for
building and other purposes. Would it not be well for
the farmers who do not feel able to put up temporary
fences, to protect their hedges while growing, for two
years, to forn a union of interest, and mutually agree
to take their fences away, and make small fields with
them, sufficiently strong to keep what cattle they have.
By doing this they will have a free and equal chance to
put out their inside division fences, by hedging with
Osage Orange, and if you are under the township club
organization, all the better, as you have that mutual
interest, to make the most money from the least labor
expended. You can have a by-law that all damage
done by stock, shall be adjusted by the owner. I do
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
not see why this effort should not prove a complete
success, and enable all farmers to have a good live fence
in three years, that will, with some pruning, last hundreds of years. This, to my mind, is the most feasible
way for all farmers to be able to have good fences,
made by hedging. Do this by employing one competent man to cultivate the plants, and attend to setting
the fence, and all matters pertaining thereto.
Within three years, providing the farmers will make
a grand movement in this all important business of
completely hedging their farms in the West, I am
free to say the mind is not able to compute the immense
wealth that in three to five short years will be thrown
into the laps of those who cultivate the soil-making
the sinews of our country indomitable.
With these remarks on fencing, by hedging, I have
made as strong as my mind was able to perform, hoping
what I have left unsaid, my farmer friends will perform
by actual demonstration, that'the best minds of our
country will take pride to honor.
P. S.  There is a machine already invented, to prune
and form the hedge fencing in a splendid manner.
170 
FARMER'S GUIDE.
CHAPTER XXIV.
AP-ILE CULTURE.
The apple is the substantial fruit of our country, and
every farmer in the Eastern, Middle and Western
States, and also in the Southern States wherever they
will grow, and in the first three sections of our country
spoken of above; not one acre of arable land in all
these States but what will bear some kind of apples,
and according to latitude, climate and soil depends the
proper selections of fruits best adapted in every respect
to warrant success. When you want to start or replenish your orchard, much discretion should be used
in making selections to suit your special locality; but
in all localities get some of the most hardy and sure
bearers, that you may raise fruit under all circumstances. That is what the farmers want, and that is
what they all can have if they will follow my instructions in this essay.   During my residence in Maine
for twenty years, I never saw an orchard that did not
raise more or less fruit every year, and during the time
I cultivated the apple in Central Illinois I had some
fruit, although they were not set out as they should
have been. The last apple trees I transplanted, are
171
. 
FARMER'S GUIDE.
bearing very well, and I learn they are growing finely;
I took more pains in setting them.
I repeat again that every farmer should have planted,
at least, from ten to one hundred trees around his
homestead; the soil most sure and suitable for apples
is of a clay loam with fine sand, having the proper
solidity that will hold the roots by its adhesive strength.
The best location for the orchard is an inclination
south-west-south or south-east, but the other points
will do, and all of them should have the sheltering care
of two rows of cherry or maple trees to the north of
your orchard of apples and other fruits, and that should
be started immediately, to gain size and grow rapidly
the first year. Bear in mind, you have a double purpose with your cherry trees round your fruit orchard,
furnishing you good protection and good fruit in
cherries of the best varieties. You should have them
well planted that they may grow fast, to get a good
start the first year.
The plat of ground for your orchard should be well
plowed, twelve inches deep, and well manured if the
soil is sandy; for plants two years old, the pits should
be made, at least, three feet square by two deep. Invert your soil, so as to have the bottom soil to lay
around the roots of your trees; if the soil is not rich,
your must put more chip, with a mixture of old manure
and ashes, or lime well pulverized, with half soil,
pack this well round the roots, and, if the soil is not
damp, leave the top slightly dishing to hold a little
water, when showers come in the dry summer time; put
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
a stake down on the north side of the tree, with a
woolen or soft leather band to fasten round the tree to
stay it firmly.
Apple trees should be set out from twenty-four to
thirty feet apart, in true lines, showing taste, that
becomes natural to farmers who take delight in doing
their work well at the start, and of course it will always
be so if it should stand a hundred years.   It would be
well to have these pits where you intend setting your
trees, made in the fall, laying the dirt in a pile, so that
it will shed water well; the frost through the winter
will make the soil mellow and friable, and healthy for
any plants. Setting should be done as early as possible
in the spring, that the roots may take an early start.
The qualities and kinds of trees should be selected
with much care. Be sure to take the most thrifty trees
of two years from the graft, having well divided roots.
If you are starting an orchard, you had better have a
few three and four year old trees, and cut off some of
the limbs, and if they have good strong roots, they will
bear the first year, if you set out well in the fall. The
kinds of fruit are numerous, and many choice.  Among
them are the Winter Baldwins, Spitzenberg, Roxbury
Russets, yellow, Belle Flower, Greenings, Peck's
Pleasant, Gravenstein, Ilubbardston, Nonesuch, Garden
Royal, William's Favorite, Ladies' Sweeting, Autumn
Sweet, rough, Jersey Sweeting, and the Early Sweet,
which are among  the choice apples.   One  of  the
most hardy and constant bearers is the Wagoner, which
should be in every orchard, and not many would be
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
without apples. The Vanderbilt is also an excellent
fruit, and will keep well during the winter.
Having your orchard started, I would strictly remind
you of the special necessity of having a substantial
fence around your garden and fruits.  I am sensitive
on this point, for I set out my first orchard thirty
years ago, having received my trees from Cincinnati,
and had to set them without being entirely inclosed; I
lost many trees, which was bitter to my feelings.
Hence, the farmer should be particular to have his
fruits secured, as every tree at one year old is worth
five dollars to your farm, and the enhanced value of a
well-selected apple-orchard and other fruits is really
hard to estimate; but I hazard nothing when I say
that you fill up the five acres surrounding your homestead with a garden and choice fruits, and keep, as you
should, a short account of all expenses thereto, and the
result will show that you have made one hundred per
cent. on all money laid out upon the same, and your
farm will sell at a higher interest than that; so, friends,
you have everything to encourage you onward to complete your fruits as fast as time and means will perpnit;
the only real outlay is the money you invest in the
fencing and the cost of the plants, for you can put your
labor in at times to advantage, and great pleasure will
arise from these labors of cultivating your fruits, adding
much to soften the toil of the field labors.
The trees should be mulched in the winter immediately after the first freezing up of the soil, any old
straw substance will do, and in the spring, take spade
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FARMER'S GUIDE 
and work this in round the trees with a little lime, chip
or old cattle manure, this will give strength to send up
food for the apple.
When apples are gathered they should remain in a
dry cool place, away from the sun or rain; and kept
there as long as the weather will permit-this will put
them in a fair condition to keep well through the
winter; they require the dryest place in your cellar,
and when you are making cider, then comes the
special comfort in the long winter evenings to eat these
choice apples and drink the cider, with a side bowl of
hickory nuts, all of which will conspire to smooth the
rough places, and make life what providence designed
it should be-a source of pleasure as well as toil
Trees from the time of setting out, should be
pruned, by thinning out all the weakest limbs, and
never let one rub or chafe another, and cut back all
that seem to be outstripping the others, so as to make
the whole tree have a uniform position, and able to
bear itself equally from all sides, adding utility by
giving it a true'balance against the winds, having beauty
of symmetry, so essential to distribute the substance
to all parts of the tree.  Fruits must have plenty of
opening left in the top, so that the light, heat and air,
can circulate freely, affording life and vigor to the tree,
and a richer growth of fruit.   This must seem apparent
to all, for if the tree retain all the wood it can make,
it will furnish room for the juice from the roots,
and consequently it supports the limbs, and the fruit
will not be able to receive any, or at least but little
175 
FARMER'S GUIDE.
Hence the result that thousands of trees bear but little
or no fruit in the West. I know they do not look so
prolific and pleasing to the eye, but the fruit is better
to the taste and stomach, and will make the eyes weep
for joy in harmony with their other'senses
All interloping suckers should be cut off whenever
they appear; they will not grow much on trees
well pruned. I think it would do well to put three
peach or pears in the center of your apple treeshave them clustered together and well tended. I think
they would pay until the apple trees were large enough
to need the room.
Before I dismiss this subject of the apple orchard,
I desire to impress this fact upon the minds of the
farmers, i mean all who are able to set out ten trees,
that the delay of one year in setting out your trees is a
delay of much pleasure withheld from your sight in
seeing your trees growing, and one year short from
fifteen years of seeing your apple trees obtain their full
perfection. With all these incentives to stimulate you
onward to have more or less of the apple and other
delicious fruits growing around you-so pleasant and
renovating to sight and feelings, and, above all, healthy
to yourself and family. Always lifting the mind away
from the gloom that inhabits the breast at times, to
higher reflections of happiness, and temporizing the
rugged labors of the harvest field, and afflictions that
fall in the train of all humanity.
These sentiments are the substance of my own experience, in some measure, while cultivating the soil,
176 
FARMER'S GUIDE.
and so it is with all professions of industry, to have
some prominent feature in their business to strengthen
and excite them in their faithful progression to higher
and nobler purposes of life, and none need them more
than he who cultivates the soil. So, friends, make the
trial and progress onward as fast as you can to obtain
the rich luxuries there is in the fruits that you can
have by making a few extra exertions with the mind,
and all will be finished.
177 
FARMER'S GUIDE.
CIIHAPTER XXVI.
BROOM CORN.
The culture of broom corn in the United States has
been gradually increasing for the past fifty years, and
now it is being extensively cultivated in some of the
Western States, and from the prices obtained for good
brush will warrant a larger production in the future.
The most available soil for the broom plant to make
a good yield is a mixture of sand and clay loam,
medium dry and warm soil is the most suitable, and
with proper care in its culture, there is no crop grown
that will pay the producer a larger profit. But like all
other plants, much care is required to insure a large
harvest.  The soil should be plowed ten inches deep,
and well pulverized by the harrow; lay the rows three
feet apart with a machine having three shoes, made
fast, three feet apart, by two joists, two by six, on
these shoes, with pins, and a tongue for the horses to
guide it; this will facilitate planting very much, and a
machine can easily be made for covering it immediately
after dropping, by simply taking,two joists, two by six,
twelve feet long, and two small pieces put on to the
joists so that they will, in their movement, pass directly
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
on each side of the three rows, having them constructed
so that they will cover the seed up well.
In the absence of machines for drilling, this is. the
most available way for planting, but when you can procure a seed drill it will be still better.
The seed should be well screened from all impurities,
and planted not to average less than six inches apart;
as soon as the corn is well up, take a fine harrow and
care fully cultivate the plants so as to kill all the weeds;
the second tending should have a fine cultivator, double,
so as to take one row at a time, and the third, the last
should be a five teeth cultivator, gauged to dress up
the sides of the two rows, leaving the soil a little raised
from the plant so as to hold some water from the
showers in the dry months of July and August.
At the time when the seed is fully ripe, it should be
bent over twelve to eighteen inches below the brush,
then let it be well cured before harvesting. The usual
way of breaking over the tops is by hand, I would suggest the feasibility of having two men, with light poles
from six to eight feet long, to go crosswise of the rows,
one on each side, to bare and the other to follow up
to press the brush over. It seems to me, when the
corn stands, even this would be an excellent way for
saving much time and labor, and when well cured,
many hands should be employed ready to harvest in
the shortest time possible, and handle well, by having
it put into the barn or some secure place from all water.
Farmers making large crops, would do well to have
sheds erected to lay the brush under for safe keeping,
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and ready for packing into bales. Much care is required to have the brush well laid in the bales, and all
the other work should be done in good mechanical.order,
as no part of the labor attending the culture of broom
corn will pay better than making the bales to have
good form, and firm, to ship without wastage as it is
often done.
It is only a few years that broom corn has been cultivated to any extent in the West, and with proper
care to have the soil made friable by deep culture, and
it has been under cultivation any length of time,
manures should be well incorporated into the soil, with
pure seed by screening very closely so as to take out
all bad seeds which, if suffered to be sown, will destroy the possibility of having first-class brush; the seed
should be sown by drill, or according to the plan I have
directed, so as to have the seed pure, planted, of course,
at one depth, and it will germinate at once, making an
even growth.   Lastly, though  not least, have the
plants cultivated by level culture, leaving the soil, when
last tended- slightly inclined to the plants, as I have
previously remarked, and none can doubt the result but
a full harvest.
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CHAPTER XXVII.
PEACH CULTURE.
The peach in some localities in the different States,
is extensively raised, and I am aware that the soils and
climates of many States are well adapted to grow this
most delicious fruit, and the fact ought to insure a
lager cultivation.   Not  doubting  the  truth of this
statement, from my own experience and observations
on the peach culture, and having the scenes fresh
before my mind, that were exhibited forty years ago in
New York City, when the peaches from New Jersey
were on sale in the market, well do I remember that
Jones' baskets would bring eight dollars, containing
half a bushel; of course they were extra choice, and
brought out the silver. Well do I also remember the
choice peaches I raised in Tazewell County, Illinois,
twenty-five years ago, from seed I purchased at Cincinnati and Louisville, having one variety known as
Favorite Mellocaton, color deep bright yellow, and
very choice flavor. At this time there are very choice
peaches growing in Southern Illinois, and the most
extensive and justly celebrated place for propagating
peaches, is on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan,
being in the State of Michigan.
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The soil is a mixture of sand and clay, being well
adapted for fruit culture, and on the eastern side of the
Lake, the weather in the Spring is favorable for the
peach crop, and so far as the cities on the Lake with
Chicago, are concerned, it is well that peaches will
grow there, for the cheap transportation by water is
favorable.
Peaches grow well in other parts of Michigan,
Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota. The great misfortune with the farmers is,
their not taking proper measures to cultivate them
rightly. It will require some reflection and labor, to
have the soil and climate adjusted with the manures,
to insure good success in peach culture, and with these
aiding facilities, the farmers of the West can have all
their families want, and a plenty to spare to towns and
cities who are willing to pay good prices for fruits, and
consider them a great luxury.
It is well known that vegetables and fruits, are conducive to health, all people, and especially children,
are fond of fruits, and sound policy and true economy
should impel the farmers to cultivate the peach, with a
variety of other fruits, at least for a plentiful supply
for home consumption, and whenever they can be easily
raised, duty should prompt them to extend their cultivation, to supply those who have not by their occupation, an opportunity to raise them.
How important, then, it is for the farmers of the
West to rise up and make one grand universal movement in the fruit culture, testing the soils and climates
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in an experimental manner, in quantities and qualities,
as their better judgment may dictate, from the instruction and best lights shining before you on fruit cultivation.
From my own experience for the past thirty years,
and close observations in regard to fruit-growing in the
West, I hazard nothing by saying, there is not a single
locality in the West where vegetables and plants will
grow well, but if proper care and pains are taken
in supplying the soil with all the essential food and
protection against the elements of winter.
I would recommend the following modes of culture,
viz:-On our rich bleak prairies, where the soil has
been made rich and porous by the continual burnings of
all vegetable substances previous to the time of civilization, and since, leaving the soil, as at present, too light
and porous for the entire safety of the roots in the
winter time.   Hence, to effectually obviate this, the
pits for your trees should be taken out twenty-four
inches by three feet diameter, then put the bottom soil
on the top to set your trees in, doing this work in the
fall so that the frost will act on it, then, in the spring,
as soon as it will do, take a bushel of half old stock
and half old door chip manure, and, thoroughly mixing
these together, take your trees-those that have had
the strongest growth the previous season-cut off the
main stem at the top, and a little off a few branches;
this will give the body more vigor to grow and make
stronger fruit, put the trees in as solid as they stood in
the nursery, with the ground slightly dishing to hold
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water, so needful to strengthen the plants during the
summer months, when the most nourishment is required
to make the fruits what they ought to be, rich and nu  tritious.
Without this process of treatment, ahd giving a little
time and care, as I have directed, you cannot reason  ably nor rightly expect to grow fruits to meet your
anxious desires. Follow out these instructions, and none
can doubt the results of raising fruits on the prairies of
the West.
It would be well to have all your fruit grounds made
rich by green manure in the fall, and plowed under
with a subsoil; this will aid the fruit trees by giving off
continually the wholesome gases that proceed from
the richly manured grounds, as you would have from
such cultivation.
From the strong shelter afforded by your surrounding fruit trees, who can doubt, but with such management, all the farmers of the West can have all the
fruits they need from this easy simple labor and much
pleasure, by the care you will have to impart to it from
time to time, by seeing that weeds are kept away frown
the roots, taking off all worm and miller nests that may
appear upon the trees, and, in very dry times, having
a quantity of water pumped up into vessels in the
morning, letting it stand in the sun until night, and
then putting a few quarts around your trees-this will
furnish new life to the young growing fruit that would
otherwise perish When the farmers fully realize the
living facts that plants, like animals, must have water
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and food to live and do well, then we shall have a new
era in the prosperity of our country's greatness-by
the great improvements of our farmers in cultivating
the soil on a scientific basis-affording, at less prices,
better products from the soil.
By taking the subsoil of our rich prairies and mixing
it with manure, as previously stated, you have a soil
with sufficient solidity, that neither frost nor dry
weather will affect so much, being at all times more
strengthening to the roots than top soil under any circumstances whatever; if you have no chip manure, put
in wood ashes, put a ring round your trees eight inches
from the tree, this will stop the insects from getting on
them, and will aid in giving life to perfect the fruit tree
for a vigorous growth to bear choice peaches.
All sand and clay soils, either on the prairie or
timber, will grow fruits, and what I desire the farmers
to do first, (of course I mean those who have not taken
pains to cultivate fruits,) to set off their ground as I
have indicated before, and commence with as many
trees as their feelings may seem to dictate, and set
them as I have directed, in the Spring, as early as the
weather will permit. I would cut the top of the main
stem some, and a few of the largest branches. This
give aid to the balance, and shape the top better. The
tree must have stock and substance in the roots and
body, if you expect to raise good fruit, and by cropping
off some, you have strong, well formed trees. The
kinds I would cultivate are the Crawfords, Early Mellocaton, a large rich fruit, strong grower, hardy and
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
popular, and ripens about the first of September.
Late Admirable, large size, choice flavor, and is a
splendid peach, and is held in high estimation by peach
cultivators; as lasting fruit, all will have  some of
them. Season middle of September.
The President is not so large, but a delicious, very
sweet fruit, a healthy, strong grower, very productive.
It was first grown on Long Island. Season middle of
September.
The Hemskirke is a medium sized, bright orange
color, fine juicy rich flavor. A hardy, good bearer,
and is highly recommended as a permanent tree to
cultivate. Season the last of July.
The Oldmixon, (freestone) is large size, excellent
fruit, flesh white, tinged with red, rich and very juicy.
None should fail to cultivate this fruit, for it has a full
record of good qualities. There are many others I
could name, that stand high and grow well in the West,
and can be obtained from our best gardens.
Friends, in concluding my remarks on the peach
culture, I have only to add, that I truly hope the
farmers may feel it their duty to make a movement in
starting the fruit garden, even with a few trees, well
set out and taken care of, will create a stimulus that
will induce all to try their experiments in fruit culture,
and in a few years the influence will grow onward
until the farmers of the West will think they have
no home worth looking at, without fruits growing
around it. When that time comes, the farmers will
have better health, and prosperity will surely attend
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them in their onward march to higher and nobler purposes, and mankind will have a National pride for the
greater success of the Agriculturalists of our country.
Where on earth should we look for more favorable
results than in the fertile West, from her rich soil in
the hands of worthy farmers, surrounded with increasing millions of inhabitants.
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
CIIAPTER XXVIII.
STRAWBERRY CULTURE.
Why do not the farmers of the West cultivate the
healthy and delicious strawberry, having the soil and
facilities to do so at their command? But they do not
realize how simple the labor is to cultivate and supply
their families with this rich luxurious fruit during the
entire season which every farmer can and should have at
his own home, fresh and pure from the vines. I desire
to give the needful information in all its details, so
that farmers may learn to know how it can be done,
and they will all feel an interest in raising enough for
their families, saying nothing about the immense
quantities they can raise for the towns and cities, paying them richly for the labor on their production.
SOIL AND PREPARATION.
Any soil in the West that will produce vegetables
will grow strawberries, but the best and most reliable
soil is a mixture of fine sand and clay; any loamy soil
will yield a good return, but manure should be applied
on all soils. The soil with the manure must be worked
down twelve inches deep, and well pulverized, this will
afford nourishment to the young roots, an1 give vigor
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FARMER'S GUID)E.
ous growth to the plants through the entire season;
without this full supply of food from the manure, the
plants must fail to sustain their bearing qualities, and
a short crop will be the result. Hence, the importance
of having the soil made mellow, down at least, twelve
inches, so that the roots will stretch down and drink up
the rich fluid, while the top soil will have been exhausted by the dry weather You can set the plants in
rows or hills; if you are only cultivating for family use,
the hills are preferable, and when setting, put two
plants in a hill six inches apart, and the hills two and
a half feet apart each way-setting only the root in the
ground, press the soil hard around the roots, leaving
the hill a foot diameter, and slightly concave so as to
hold a little water from the water-pot or showers. If
you cultivate for market, put them in three rows together, twelve inches apart in rows each way, with a
space of two and a half feet between the sets of rows,
affording room to run the small cultivator. I notice
some celebrated cultivators prefer setting these plants in
rows, two and a half feet apart and ten inches apart in
the rows, but either way will raise good strawberries if
they are well cultivated; it would be well to put a
little pulverized lime around the roots when setting out,
and every spring, when dressing up the soil, you should
put on some manure, of a mixture of door yard and
cattle, that will strongly nourish the plants for the
coming season, and increase the berry and improve
the fruit in flavor. Care should be taken in keeping
all weeds out; cut the runners off as fast as they
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
appear, which can be done with a light, sharp, narrow
hoe; a piece of ground four rods square, well cultivated,
will supply your family with all they can usQ; this is
better than an acre badly cultivated.
Farmers, the greatest and most important duties required of those who till the soil is furnishing food to
plants, as well as to animals, and the sooner they realize this fact the more certain will prosperity reward all
their labors.
There are a large variety of strawberries cultivated,
of which I shall mention a few of the most prolific and
desirable to cultivate.   Care must be taken in making
the best selections, as there is quite a difference in their
qualities and production, I would recommend for early
use Burr's New Pine, Baltimore Scarlet, Jennie Lind
and Russell's.   For the choice later varieties, take,
over all others, for present culture, the Triomphe de
Gand, Wilson's Albany and the Crimson Green. But
with all these, there are new varieties being propagated
yearly, and it would be well to try a few of these new
kinds as an experiment; you will have plenty of strawberries if you take a little pains to keep weeds and
runners out of the way, and you will have the delicious
fruit that all so much admire.
The strawberry is a sensitive plant, easily affected
by good or bad culture; hence, it requires the soil to
be kept free of weeds, and lightly dressed, with the
soil raised a little round the plants for dry weather.
For winter clothing.to keep the plants warm and
healthy, go to the timber and get leaves to spread over
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
the beds, and it would be well before the hard freezing,
to put on some rye or oat straw, which gives sure protection. As soon as it will do in the spring, take Qff
the straw, and let part of the leaves remain around the
roots, spreading on a little old manure; take a four
teeth iron rake and work the manure in with the leaves,
and it will have a good effect to give the plants an
early start. So you will have no more trouble than to
keep the runners off, and the result will be, for this
little amount of labor that all farmers can spare, and
from June till September the cultivators of the soil,
yes, the farmers, who so nobly work in the dust, they
can have their rich strawberries and cream, from their
own raising not once a week or month when they go to
town, but they can have them daily fresh, with all the
cream they want, not sour, nor wilted strawberries as
you may often find at the restaurants. Farmers, I do
not think it is necessary for me at this time to urge
you on to cultivate these delicious fruits, so healthful
when fresh, for I think you will catch the strawberry
fever, that no Tphysician will be able to cure until you
take the strawberry lozenges, so rich and aromatic to the
taste.  I know there are some farmers that cultivate this
rich fruit, but where there is one that does, there are a
hundred that do not. I am unselfish in this business,
and want all to enjoy the pleasures that are so easily
obtained by a little sweet labor, say nothing of the
pleasure realized.
Now, friends, in closing my  remarks on the strawberry culture, I desire to draw a picture, the design to
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
be a front view of a farmer's home, taken in July, one
hour to sunset, when they rays will reflect life and
beauty upon the surroundings of that center, where
the farmer sits with his family in that bower of evergreens and flowers, faring sumptuously ovet their delicious Triomphe de Gand, strawberries and cream.
Let all carry out the plans I have suggested
and presented for your consideration on the strawberry
culture, and the artist will have thousands of just such
real literal scenes as the farmers home in the West,
which I have feebly represented to you with my pen.
But, in a word, I truly hope you will respond by action!
action! and none can doubt the final result.
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
CHAPTFR XXIX.
GRAPE CULTURE.
The history of the grape has a date back to the
early existence of man. Was first cultivated in Asia
and Persia, and thence through all the countries of the
Eastern Hemisphere. The berries were fermented, and
a beverage was made with fair success. It is reported
that Noah cultivated the grape vine in Palestine, two
thousand three hundred and fifty years before Christ,
and nations acquired them from nations, and they were
brought to our country by its early settlers. They can
be cultivated successfully in a large portion of the
United States, and by acclimation, I think it will find
soil and climate to produce some varieties of choice
fruits over our whole country, and especially the
Western States, with proper culture, will be suscepti-.
ble of bearing large quantities of choice, rich flavored
grapes.
It is conceded that cattle manures, mixed with oat
or barley straw litter, is the most congenial organic
substance, to make the plants grow in a healthy condition; it must be well stirred up with the soil, and when
the soil is destitute of lime, it must be supplied with
ashes or lime, well pulverized with the soil around the
*..:@ A:..*
e ~ ~   *
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
roots.  A  fine, sandy, clay loam, having an elastic
substance, from my experience and observation, is the
most suitable for grape culture, but any me(unm dry
soil], mode rich and full of strength, so essential to
produce that richness grapes must hove to* be choice.
The soil slhould be kept free from all weeds, and raise
the soil -round the plants after the Spring rains have
passed, so that the soil will hold some water from the
showers, and if there should be a dry time through the
Summer, care should be taken to have  water drawn
from the well in the morning into casks, and let it
stand until night, when it can be sprinkled around the
roots.  It would be well to add a few wood ashes, to
give the soil an aikalescent tone, to keep up a vigorous
growthl for the plants through the dry season.  Without this application of water, the fruit cannot be nutritious in substance, and the product will be light and
poor.  Wiithlout, this special care in your culture of the
grape, you had better let them alone.
Th-e proper time to commence working the soil is in
the Spring, when the frost has passed, and the wvarm air
is penetrating the roots of the vines; in dry mellow
soil deep cultivation is best, and moisture is necessary
to insure a strong growth to the vines; but if the soil
is solid, cold and wet, much chip manure and lime or
ashes ishould be thorotughly w,or]ked in around the roots
every spring, as extra means to give this cold soil a
healthy tone to create the true elem,ients that lmust exist to warrant  a good production.  W1ith care and
attention to keep the vines in their proper places
!-i "'.':*':*
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FARM[ER'S GUIDE.
tnroughl thle season, there ought to be a good y'cll of
f'uit.  When you intend starting a plot of grcu:'l for
grape culture, or where you have done so, you 5'cL'(],
in tlhe Fall, subsoil your ground six teen inclls d,cel),
and put into the trenches a mixture of straw and fresh
cattle manure, which contain less nitrogen than othler
manures, hlence, the better for grapes;  you  can also
at,';1 with this manure the straw of bean, pea, or oat, all
beeng well charged with alkaline substance, so essential
to,grape culture.
TheL proper time for hlarvesting is when the clusters
hang down heavily aind the steins are becoming hard
and woody, and when the juice hlas acquired its natural
vinous flav-or with its saccharine substances predomninating, then it is, according to the most experienced
cultivators, the most suitable time to save your fi'uits.
For wine purposes, it is well to let them remain on
the vines as late as possible without the frost hlurti-ng
them, although a little frost may seem to help tllhem.
As to the practical experience and proper labor to be
used in makiilng wine, I respectfully refer you to 0!1c
most a2le and elaborate writings of Professor Lon,-.
-worth of Cincinnati, vlwho has labore. lot,g and ftitlftL,ly, w,,ithl untiring, zeal, to bring the culture of grlx:Qs
u) to its present state of perfection, and it is conclu;-,i-e
e —idle-ce, by his unbounded success, that tlhe culture of
Lgrape is very profitable, and I ivould commend.:
urge e-'ry farmer to cultivate grapes, either as an'
vcstm ent to make money by selling thc grapes to tle
thousands of people who cannot raise them from their
:,.,.,~~, 
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
occupations of life, or manufacture them into wine.
And last, though not least in one sense, I would
earnestly recommend you to raise them for the special
blessings they afford your family, who, above all on
earth, are first entitled to eat them, for their luxury
and health. What surprises me most is to find that
there are more fruits eaten in the towns and cities than
by the farmers, in proportion to the number of inhabitants.  I would ask the question, why is it; are the
people in the cities better able to eat them? certainly
not-do they taste better to them than they do to
those who have the soil, and with little trouble can
raise them?-it would seem not; then we only assign
it as a reason why the farmers, as a mass, have not
realized the great blessings there are in raising fruits
for themselves, with plenty to spare, so that all the
people may feast upon them, is because they think
they cannot spare the time from their heavy labors of
cultivating the crops; this is a wrong impression, and
the sooner they take a little time to raise some of the
different kinds of fruits, the more pleasure and health
will they enjoy. The Delaware, Clinton, Concord,
Catawba, Herbemont and Elsinburgs are  among the
first for successful cultivation, and the most reliable
-with many other varieties the farmers can always
make fine selections; I also recommend the Black
Hamburgh as a superior fruit, and they are successfully cultivated in the gardens of Chicago, by our
wealthy citizens. They have been sold in this market
as high as two dollars per pound.
A.,*...'..
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
MODE OF PLANTING  GRAPES.
The rows should run North and South, that the sun,
through the middle of the day, will shine through' the
length of the rows. If you design only to cultivate a
small piece of ground in your garden, I would put it in
an arbor form, having the first say eighteen inches
from the ground, and so on up to the top, setting the
plants from four to six feet apart.  I should prefer the
one year old plants, the roots are more fibrous, do not
suffer so much in transplanting, and, with care, will
takle vigorous start and bear fruit as soon.'Very little
danger is apprehended about their not living.
After the first year, you can procure your own cuttings from the vines you have growing, and as soon as
the vines have dlone growing in the fall and are at rest,
you can begin to train your vines; the object of
pruning is to regulate the growth and bearing of the
vine, by cutting all shoots and branches that obstruct
the true development of the vine for its future prospcrity in orier to perfect its fruit. Beginning with
plants two years old, they are pruned back again to
one or two eyes, this will form a head from which emanates more or less sprouts every year, allow these to
grow through the season, and when strong to bear, two
or three of these sprouts are pruned to spurs of having
two or three eyes and all the rest cut off.
If you desire to extend your grapery, you can put up
trellis work with posts and light bands of wood tastefully built, so as to hold your vines in a secure manner.  I see some persons are putting up wire of the
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FARMEFR'S GUIDE.
size of telegraph-its utility I cannot decide.  At the
same time this trellis work is being finisheed, the grapes
are bearing,. With- the Summer pruning, all unnecessary growvth. should be cut away, only those shoots
should be allowed to grow which will make bearing
wood foi' the next year.
TIle trellis covering for the grapes is a prevention of
the milcldew; it would be well to experiment, to test that
important feature in grape culture.
In the fall, the growth for the past season should be
cut back, leaving only one or two eyes, and if there are
shoots having borne fruit on the second year's growth,
cut them off altogether, allowing the plant to ge't
strength of root and wood that will bear choice fruit
the next year.
The most important point in grape culture is to have
the roots go deep into the soil; hence, as I said before,
they should be made rich with manures and deeply pulverized, so essential to give all tlhe life and strength of
food the plants must have in order to give a rich h,avest, and let me tell those of my friends who  will take
hold of the delicious grape culture, that the great P,(!
all-important secret in having success, is, first prepare
your ground well in the fall, as describel in this essay,
and, with wonted industry, I am fully assured, that ii
I could be favored to makle a call at your residence ti!e
second year of your experiment of fruit culture, I
would find some of, I do not care which, only to knowv
they were from the origin of the same grampes that w:e-,
pressed at an early day by the best-mian the world's
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FArS,ME-l'S  GUIDI)E.
listorv has on recoird.  W"hlo will be tl-he first to respond
an  adi  thlis feature to tile surroundiugs of tLheir pleasant ihomes?
I  conclusion, I will briefly say that the graj,)e tculture' ai  iinexhlaustable source of pleasarit ljbor, and
all wlhio have taste for such shlould make  experimental
Lril.l  in  -)ropagating tlhe native seedlings, and cross
tlem Yith the well-knovwn hardy kinds and choice in
fi~vo:, aund in a few  years, you have  succeeded in
bringig: out  new species, surpassing any kind on record,.d I would strong,ly recommend all who like the
gralpe -.lt-ure to go to the forests having the wild vines
.and set a numler of roots out and cultivate them, from
such you can make choice selections for lhybridizing
w8ithI th, maost approved varieties.
But the mot-t available nmethod to sustain and perpetuate the hardly rich varieties, is from thle native seed,
from the wildl plants of the forests that have a thrlity,
-hardy appearance.   Any farmer or gardener- who has
anl inherent taste for fruit culture has  a large field
o,,Iened( to hini and all who ma,y desire to become amteurs; and who shall succeed in obtaining the highest
flavors and improved varieties, will receive a rich reward to themselves and lasting benefit to man,kind.
I commendll  this most worthly enterprise to all the
'farmiers OL the West, and hope a large number will be
found(l, if not to propagate the fruits themselves, will
encouraige those who have a des,ire to do so, by liberally
taki.ng plants firom those who are and will cultivate the
best fruits for the climates and soils of our whole
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country, and the largest mind cannot comprehend all
its future benefits.
In conclusion, let me remind those who cultivate
fruits, that they must have patience and perseverence
to accomplish and gratify all their wishes, and if one
quarter of what they plant produce fruit, they are
richly paid for all their labors, and doubly so, taking
the pleasures into account.
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CHAPTER XXX.
RASPBERRY CULTURE.
The Raspberry is a very choice flavored fruit, and is
always ready to take the place of the delicious strawberry on its timely departure from its many votaries,
in fact the earliest one on hand before the Strawberries are all gone.
How kind in our beneficent Creator and supplier of
all things, to have these precious fruits come so regular
in rotation, affording his people lasting pleasures in
feasting on the rich vegetables and fruits throughout
the entire year.
How can the farmer, having all the facilities to furnish himself and family, withhold his hands from
taking an active part in cultivating at least a few of
these most delicious, health-giving fruits. All it wants
to accomplish these great blessings, is a willing mind
to take the first step, and no danger of the result.
The raspberry is one of the best, and very easily
cultivated. Any soil having a mixture of sand and
clay, or loamy land will bear raspberries, no matter if
it inclines to the North; in dry weather the hot sun
does not effect them so much. On heavy rich prairies,
I would take up the sub-soil, consisting of a clay loam,
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and rest it on the top, and by manuring this well with
cattle and chip manure, wvell pulverized together, down
fifteen inches.
Planting should be done early in the Spriig, as soon
as th,e weathler will permit.   To  insure a good  start,
takc-the one year old strorng plants.  Much care shlould
Le taken to set them in fresh stirred soil, and only
co-er up thei roots well witih mellow soil, made rich and
stre: o'thc.n, to give the plant a strong growvth.thle
first ye-ar.  Pinch off thle bearing buds the first season,
inr crei   to give more strength to the -cane for the
second year's growth.
if  our'  oil is rich, put your plants six feet each
wy, put down three stakes to each plant in the Fall.
Durling the first two years you can raise peas or beans
in rows, S3o you c   cultivate the raspberries at the
same t ioa you do tl,e I e:,ans or peas.  1Be sure to keep
the pl.ct,   free from all weeds, and after iAay, raise
the dit  r-iound the plant-s,. so as to hold wat'cr fromn
the show-er;, and in a very dry time take vwell water,
dr1aw it in' the morning, and let' it stand until night;
wet thle soil around the plants; this will keep  up-a
gro',til of the fruits, when  oftentimes,  without this
sprinkling, the fruit must perish.
The true policy is to have  a well in thle middle of
the garden, with a force pump and hose, to force the
wato'lr up into a reservoir.  With a hose this water can
be ciarried over all the plants in the garden, saving
much t'.mo nud troubl,e, enouglh to pay a large interest,
fori thie daig!-iters  and even  the wife can hold this
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hose very nicely for nourishing the delicious  fluits.
There are different opinions  as to the best time for
pruning   Some say the Fall, after the friuit is taken
off, and others say early in the Spring, wihich time, I
think is best to prune them, from  the fact the Woeunds
inflicted suffer more  in  the Fall  on  acoinit- of the
weather, than they will in tle Spring, when  the warml
w-eather is starting all vlegettion into active n,ce.
Care should be taken to cut cT all tihe slender,and
most weakly stll, learing only four or five in a hill.
As i have said beoOreo  make  the soil strong iwith food
to nourish the plants to insure a full harvest.
MIOST RELIABLE KIiDS.
There are many names for the raspberry, and, like
other berries, much interest is taken to propagate and
bring out new kinds as an improvement upon the old
navies, and as fast as they are established and made
known to be the best, the people of course will procure
thlmn.  The re.ost reliable kinls that people have confidece in are' the  Anutwerp, Hiudson River, American
Red, called by some thl)e Purple Cane, which is a very
choice fruit and a good bearer, the Hiornet, Cataioissa,,'
riukl e's Orange, Franconia and Knevett's Gianit are
amorong the best, and I would recommend the farmers to
try a few of these, taking the Red or Purple Cane and
the Red Antw-verp; but if there are any others that
have a better record, why, take them, and if but a few,
be sure to take the little pains required to make them
produce a good yield, and you will enjoy the rich fruits
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for your labor rendered, then you will have another
valuable feature strongly set in the surroundings of
your home, stimulating you onward to greater and
higher efforts to adorn the worthy profession of cultivating the soil of our country.
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CHAPTERI XXXI.
OTHER FRUITS NECESSARY TO CULTIVATE.
THE  QUINCE
Is a desirable fruit for rich preserves, and is easily
cultivated. Soil that will grow the pear wil produce
the quince. Get the hardy plants, and prune them
back first two years, so as to get more strength in the
body, so essential to produce good sound fruit, for a
shriveled quince is worthless.
THE SIBERIAN CRAB APPLE
Is one of the best fruits for making good rich preserves for common use, and especially with buckwheat
cakes. Same kind of soil as other fruits, and the same
cultivation. It is a hardy plant and very constant
bearer.  YGa should have a few of these trees, and
you  will not regret the trouble  and little expense
after having tried them one season.
THE BLACKBERRY
Is much admired for its healthful, rich flavor.
Large quantities in some parts of our country are
growing wild, and are largely gathered for the rich
puddings and pies they will make. In some parts of
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our country, they are quite extensively cultivated, and
large quantities are dried for the pie and pudding
through the year.  Where the raspberry wil  grow,
there you  can have the blackberry.   All farmers
should have this fruit.   W,hat  delicious fruit they
are for tea, and for a few hour's labor only, all can
have them, if they will go to the barrens, where they
grow wild, and take up a load of the best young plants;
take up sonie soil with them, and set them out well early
in the Spring.   Cut off the tops, and set them  the
same as the raspberry. By pruning and cultivating
these wild plants, you can have improved fruit.   Tihe
object is well worthy the experiment, and by setting
out some of the wildl with those that have been cultivated, they wAvill unite and produce some choice fruits.
My advice is to try the experiment, and you will see
the result, to your greet satisfaction.
TIE  CHIERRY.
There are several ver-y celebr ated kinds of cherries
that are cultivated in our country with great success
they are the most hardy fruit cultivated, and always
find ready sae  for e,,ting in their raw state, and for
the rich pudding and pie they will make for your first
fruit in June-they will serve you a double purpose,
besides giving you rich fruit, they will also afford a
good shelter for all your other fruits, so essential in
winter.  The choicest and most reliable kinds are the
Reine ITortense, the Black Tartariari, the Early Richmond, the Red Jacket, and Belle de Choisy.  I would
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recommend the farmers to purchase quite a large nunmber of these trees, and set them about six feet from the
fence, as described in my diagram of the home and.surroundings; this distance will prevent outsiders from
picking them off from the outside of the fenct, wlhile
the trees wrill help to form a shelter for your inside
fruit; these plants can be obtained at any of the c;lebratedcl nurseries in the West.
Take the young hardy plants instead of the olfler
trees that have been stunted in their growth.  A  vword
to the is Se is sufficient on this subject-I i-ill only say
be sure and have these plants growving as sooni as time
w.ill warrant their transp.lpanting, which'. is best in the
Spring.
TIE GOOSEBERRY.
This is an early fruit, and will pay to have a few
plants, they are very prolific and serve well for early
sauce.  You can have them in May-they are aboutthe
first green fruit you can have by natural ct.ltivationtry a few of heme for a chainge, they make  a good pie
or pudding
The best kindcs are the Washington Seedlins, Keep-'
sakle, Bunker  Hill, GC-overnors,  Ablrahlam  iewland,
Green Prolific and the Pattersen Seedling.   They are
easily tended, by keeping the weeds awoay from the
roots through the Summner, and in the Fall, take out
one half the roots of the oldest, and place in around
the roots some manure, covering it over with the soil
you have taken out.
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THE CURRANT.
Currants are fine berries, and if well cultivated,
come early in June; they should be set out with only
one stock in a place, set them three feet apart in rows,
make the soil deep and mellow, have it rich with any
kind of manure, cultivate them the same as corn, and
by having them grow on the single stalk in a place, they
will be very large and fine for the table, and, by labor,
will make excellent wine. One acre of currants well
tended will produce one hundred bushels of fruit; the
large red for all purposes, but the white are very
choice for table use, and farmers will do well to have
these included in their catalogue of fruits.
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
CHAPTER XXXII:
SORGHUM CULTURE.
There are but two kinds cultivated in the Northern
States, viz: the African and the Chinese, and by mixing the seed in some localities, the pure of either kind
are hard to obtain. Since the first introduction of
the plants into the United States, I have watched, with
great interest, the success and prosperity of their culture and qualities, and it is conceded the African, or
Impee, is the most preferable, having a more vigorous
growth, and its juices are richer and more limpid,
showing one degree richer in sugar; hence, the African cane has the preference.
SOILS AND TIME  OF PLANTING.
Strong, warm, rich, friable soil is the best, and more
certain to grow a sound erop, on account of its early
ripening, you should never plant on wet soil; deep
plowing, and well pulverized with pure seed, must insure a good harvest.   Planting  depends  upon  the
season, and the condition of the soil, therefore, I would
plant as soon as the weather will permit the ground to
be sufficiently dry; the seed should be soaked in warm
water until germination is perceptable, this will take
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two days for the Impee and four for the Sorglhum seed.
I would cultivate the rows North and South, letting
in more light and heat; some claim the prcf,:ence to
plant East and West on account of saving the heavy
winds, which would seem to be the best.  IBut the
body of the cane would hold a hard wind, and if the
situation of the land is high it would perhaps be the
safest way to plant it, in good soil, four feet apart, and
the seed not under six inches, if possible, in the rows.
CULTIVATION.
The young plant when first up is very small, hence,
much care is required to have the harrow take out the
small weeds around it, the second tending should be
cultivation, to stir the soil well so as to kill all weeds
and leave the soil level, so that the showers will get in
around the roots in dry weather.  When they d(o come,
if the suckers show too much growth they should be
cut off, so as to give the main plant a good chance to
make a large growth; if the suckers were allowed to be
harvested with the cane, they will more or less impart
a grassy flavor, and create a little acid, which detracts
from the assurance of making good sugar.
The time to commence cutting depends much on the
season, as to the weather being more or less favorable
for maturing the plant; but as soon as the frost has
struck the foliage and seed tufts, the sooner the cane
is trimmed of the leaves and top cut off to three feet the
better, which, if saved well, will make good feed for stock.
The cane should be cut near the ground, and thirty
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
to forty stalks should be shocked together and tied up
strong with two bands from the wilted leaves, then, in
a short time, if you are not ready to commence cishing your cane, you should haul this up and havsc it put
under shelter and kept some weeks; such keeping adds
to the flavor of the juice and saccharine richness very
much.
Care should be taken, if possible, not to have a hard
frost come on the cane while standing; if, however,
such should be the case, all despatch should be rendered
to have the cane run through the mill, for of a warm
sun should strike on the cane, fermentation would set
in, and much danger of spoiling the best part of your
crop.
In reference to the best machines and modes of
superior manufacture, I would refer you to those who
are more acquainted with the business. But follow out
the ways I have recommended in the culture, and I feel
assured you will have a large harvest.
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
CHAPTER' XXXIII..
CULTIVATION OF THE PEAR.
THE SOIL AND ITS PREPARATION.
The pear is one of the most unattractive plants, as it
stands in its own native forests of Asia, and it would
seem barely possible that such a sour distasteful firuit
could have ever been cultivated and propagated up to
produce such delicious and wholesome fruit, as we find
is being raised to some extent in the United States.
It was cultivated a hundred years ago, in'the state of
New  York, and well do I remember those old and
stately pear trees that stood in and around the city of
New York over forty years ago, and one especially
known as the Stuyvesant tree, celebrated for its venerable cast, say nothing of its rich fruit, and nearly
+where the heart of the city stands to-day.
They were cultivated quite extensively on Long
Island at that time, by the Dutch, but not such fine
flavored as now, and when I see how much improvement has been made, in varieties and qualities, I
am surprised they are not propagated and urged
forward more by the Hlorticulturists, so that every
gardener and farmer in our country shall have them
growing, for they can be cultivated on all table land in
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
the West. Sand and clay loam is the best, and on our
dry rich prairies, they can be cultivated to do well, by
a little extra labor in digging the pit holes three feet by
two deep, inverting the soil. Peform this labor. in the
Fall, so as to have the frost act upon it well for Spring.
As soon as the frost is out, and your ground dry
enough, take a bushel of old barn and chip manure,
and mix it well in with the top soil, where you have
it ready for setting.   Before setting, I would puddle
the roots in rain water with the same soil, this will
give the roots fresh life, ready to start with vigor in
their new habitation; much care is needed to see that
the dirt is pressed around all the roots while settingput the roots down on the quince stock three inches,
not so much on its own standard; have them stand ten
feet apart each way, with a stake at the north side, and
fasten with a woollen cloth around the tree to hold the
sway of the wind.
KINDS AND MODE OF CULTURE.
There are 4uite a large number of different kinds;
the Bartlett, I believe, stands, in all respects, over all
qualities-I will here name Beurre D'Anjou, Seckel,
Lucrative, Beurre Bosc, Lawrence, Winter Nelis,
Dogenne, Louise  Bonne D'Jersey, etc.   But out of
this number I would take four Bartletts, to one Seckel,
one Beurre Bosc, and to one Urbaniste, these are the
best to start on, being the most reliable of those which
I have named. The Bartlett should be planted on the
pear root; with proper care, however, it will do well on
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
the quince root.  It should not be permitted to ripen
in large  crops when  young.   The  Urbaniste is a
healthy tree, yet it is a long time coming into bearing, but on the quince, the fruit is very excellent and
suitable to harvest in October.
The Dogenne Gray is a large rich pear, and will
grow well on the quince root, these few samples I have
mentioned, will do well to start on.
The manner of culture, is to follow out my suggestions, and if your land is level and inclined to be wet,
in order that you may cultivate a few pears, I would
recommend the plow, and ridge your ground up anal
drain off the water, so as to make the soil as friable as
possible, in this case I would advise you to go to thle
dry barrens and get a load of the top mould and mlix
this with the old manures from the door and cattle
yards; put one bushel of this to one bushel of mould
from the timber, and set your trees out with care,
packing this mixture well around the roots; by this
management, if the ground is cool and damp, you can
cultivate'what few pears you may want for your own
use; by trying a few you can see how they will grow.
Keep the ground free from all weeds, and the soil
cultivated and raised a little around the trees to hold
water when the showers fall through the summer, this
must be attended to in order to have your trees do
well. Wash the trunks of the trees once in two weeks
with soap suds, adding some wood ashes and salt, this
will  eradicate the  insects that infest the trees  at
times.   This washing  will give life and  vigor  to
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
the  trees, and pay you well for your labor.   In
the Fall, after the ground is a little frozen, have
all the firuit trees well mulched with leaves from the
timber and rye or oat straw; put the leaves on first
and then straw-if five feet round, the better Tor the
safety of the trees-let part of this mulching remain
the following season, to keep the weeds away and give
nourishment to the roots, which is as essential to plants
as animals.
Friends, in conclusion, let me say that it is not the
quantity, but the quality that I advise you to cultivate,
and how to do it.  My  great desire is that you may
raise some of the kinds I have named, and others, to
try their qualities; do this and you will fill up the surroundings of that home, adding another chain of attachment whicii will hold all the stronger in future time.
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
SUPPLEMENT.
MAKING PURE BUTTER.
In reviewing my manuscript on the dairy, I find, in
reference to the essential ways and means to be carried
out for its sure preservation, I was not as ful and explicit as I should have been, hence, I feel it incumbent
on me to extend my remarks on that part of the subject; but first, I will briefly repeat what I have said
and written many times, that the main substance for
making pure butter and cheese is in having good cows,
that give an even quality of milk, and if the farmers
have any cows that give poor milk, sell them to the
butchers, for one cow that gives a lifeless-colored milk
will injure the pure colors of five.
PRESERVATION.
Preservation means and includes all the necessary
pre-requisites attending the entire dairy business,
but the most trying and difficult part of all is to churn
the cream when it has its proper temperature, so that
it will give up in good time all the rich substances which
the cream contains to make pure butter.
Now, instead of taking the butter out in its pure
state by the hands, and working it over some time to
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
get the buttermilk out by washing it with water by the
hands, imparting carbonic acid gas, so poisonous to the
well keeping of pure butter, I propose to offer my
views in regard to the safest and surest way to free the
butter from the buttermilk and keep-it as'pure as it
came from the churn. Thus, in the first place, dairymen who assume and want to make pure butter that
w'ill keep sweet through the year, must have a churn
in the formra of a barrel, with floats on the sides and a
cylinder in the center, somewhat like Davis'  Churn,
that will materially assist in separating the buttermilk,
after tile butter has effectually come, start the plug at
the bottom of the churn and quietly revolve the cylinder until you can scarcely see any buttermilk coming
away. Then take two large dipper wooden ladles,
made expressly for that purpose, and take the butter
out on to a table with grooves cut on the top, which will
allow the milk to pass off freely. Then have a comb,
made of wood, with a head two inches square, and set
teeth made one inch broad, in an oval form, twelve
inches long, so you will have five inches on each side of
the head, and by having these teeth made one end
larger,  and  the other  end  smaller,  so  that  you
can gently pass it through the butter; change it
alternately, it will t'hen more effectually let off the milk
from the butter by passing down the avenues these
teeth will make. With this improvement, let the table
be inclined as much as practicable to allow the milk to
run off readily, and by the lever which is attached to
your table, have the press board large enough to cover
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
all the butter on the table.  IHave also a cushion made
of cotton cloth fastened to your press board, so that
while you are working the butter with the comb. or
butter preserver, you can quietly press down your
cushion, thus, in a very short time, the buttermik will
be all out, and the globules of butter, slightly inclosed
in the white casein, which will hold them, by this
gentle treatment, in their natural form, so necessary to
keep the butter in its purity for any length of time.
Then take the butter from the table with the large
butter ladle, and put it into the tub, previously working
in with the preserver, add one half ounce of salt to a
pound of butter, which you have weighed by the scales
you have on hand.  Be sure to have in your butter
tub a resting board, raised in the middle, with grooves
and half inch holes, so as to let off any liquid that may
possibly remain in the butter, then set it away in your
cool butter cellar, where you must let it remain twelve
hours, then take and put it on your table, and roll it
out with your cushioned roller, then take the seive and
put on salt enough to make an ounce clear after what you
have worked out of the butter. Then having had the
firkins well saturated with brine-pack your butter with
a wooden screw, set in a frame for that purpose, put a
follower on the butter when you press it, having it also
cushioned.  By this process, your butter is made and
packed without having the grain and rich globules of
the butter broken.
In the composition of butter as a whole, we find,
when manufactured, more excitable matter therein con
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
tained, than in any other substance of the same weight
for food. Hence, how very important to have it made
pure from all that would have a tendency to corrupt it
in the least.  So truthful is this the case, that if any
feature is withheld from the current 6f its progress
from the change of cows-food, manner of keeping the
milk, temperature, and so on throngh its various stages
until it comes to salting.  Here is a stand point, that
dairymen, whether small or large, are required to unite
in sentiment and action, irrespective of all interests
and prejudices that may dwell in any dairyman's mind,
in regard to this or that salt as having been used.
Come square down and resolve, one and all, not to purchase from any salt dealer or merchant, any dairy
salt, unless they are willing to guarantee it to be the
Ashton or the pure Onondago dairy salt, having the
assurance that it is from their lawful agents. I know
the Ashton salt is good for butter, as I have used it
when in the dairy business, and from the examination
I have made with the two kinds. I cannot tell the
difference; they seem to have nearly one complexion of
clearness and solidity of strength in power of dissolution, and from the representation of C. Comstock, the
Onondago Salt Company's agent at Chicago, I learn
that the Company have put into their works two mills,
with machinery costing seventy-five thousand dollars
each, for the sole purpose of preparing the dairy salt
upon a scientific chemical basis, whereby all impurities
are extracted, which precludes all possibility of lime or
any other substance remaining in the salt toinjure butter.
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
Now, friends of the dairy, it would seem vague and
useless for me to urge you, who are now in this business,
about pure salt, but I am informed by Mr. C. Comstock that he has sold three times  as much  of his
second quality of dairy salt as he has of the first
and pure; one costing three dollars and seventy-five
cents per barrel, and the pure, five dollars in sacks all
ii barrels.  A small item when one pound will salt sixteen pounds of butter-only one cent and a quarter
difference on the sixteen pounds. Now; my advice on
this all important subject is for the dairyman not to
purchase any other than the pure from the merchants,
for their dairy and family table use, then you cannot
have it mixed. For without pure salt, free from lime
and other impurities, the dairyman cannot make good
butter, if he has all other features as perfect as the art
of man could possibly make them, all would pass for
naught as far as good butter was concerned.
WASHING BUTTER WITH WATER
Should never be indulged in by dairymen, and more
especially if it is made for long keeping, from the fact
that water is highly chargedw ith oxygen, and all the
particles of butter come directly in contact with the
water full of oxygen of the atmosphere, much more than
if the butter was all pressed out by a cushioned press
and rollers-saving the butter in a more perfect manner by not having the grain broken nor injured by impure water being saturated through it, which must promote decomposition of the butter and prevent it from
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
keeping well.  Hence, I desire the farmers will give
the plans I have suggested a fair trial; I would also
g,ive the two best qualities of dairy salt a fair. experimentatl trial, by packing two firkins, dividing the same
butter wAith the Onondago and the'Ashton, putting
into the firkins the same quantities of each, and, of
course, the best the dairymen want and must have, to
make good butter. It would be well to have some
rock salt Fwith which you can soak your firkins some
days before packing; this will take out all impurities
that may be in the wood. Make the press-board twelve
inches square, round the edges and corners. The
cushion should be of sleazy white cotton cloth, in a
strip twelve feet long and the width of the press-board,
with twvo straps at each end to keep it in place; after
using it, have it well washed and dried. Hlave the
same material and length on the roller, which should be
two feet long by four inches diameter.   With  these
appliances all made and kept in perfect order, the
means of having pure sweet butter will manifest itself
when the process is effectually carried out.
Let this rest upon your minds, one and all, and you,
as dairymen, will have the pleasure of making good
butter to reward you in a double sense-the mind and
pocket, which never can go back on you.
There never was a time in the history of our country,
when the dairy business would pay better than now,
and all it wants is a taste for the business, with the
locality of soil for sweet grasses and pure water, and
having the taste and industry to carry out all the
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leading features laid down in my writings on the dairy
business, will my prediction, mrade in another place,
be sustained, that the Northwest, within ten years,.will
be justly claimed the head quarters for raising the dairy
standard to the highest elevation in the' world.   So
trim your lamps for more light, and the day is sure to
dawn upon your efforts by the final result.
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FARMER'S GUIDE.
t
OMISSIONS AND ITEMS:WORTIIY OF NOTE.
All farmers should have from forty to one hundred
and sixty rods of moveable fences on their farms, so
available to partition off fields, in pastures, meadows,
and grazing for stock, etc. 
Without pure sound seed planted, your labors are
lost and hopes blasted.
The more perfect are your farming implements, the
larger will be your harvest.
Good treatment to your domestic animals is better
than gold at compound interest.
Remember that a rotten rail, stake, board or post
holds your products in danger.
Always have food enough on hand for your stock
without Being obliged to turn them on your fields when
the ground is soft.
Water, the purest and most plentiful, has the first
and highest value for a good farm.
All needful tools for farming should be procured at
times when they are not specially wanted.
The smallest products come from the largest farms
for the labor rendered.
The cheapest articles of implements and stock are
the dearest in the end.
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One day's labor expended in preparing your seeds,
for safe keeping until they are sown, is worth fifty at
common labor.
Better pay three prices for seeds best adapted to
your soil, than to sow those that are otherwise.
When you ascertain how much weight you can put
on an animal in ten days by good regular feeding, it
will show and prompt you to put on as much in proportion for one hundred days.
Feed the soil with rich food, and the plants will furnish the same to the animal.
If one tree will bear fruit, you have an evidence that
more can be made to bear with it.
It is more pleasant and desirable to look after work
that is before you than that which is behind
Fortunes have been made from five minutes reflection,
wisely directed
Bedding, for resting your grain or hay upon, should
be made in sections as fencing, and will serve you
eight months for that purpose.
Draining lands that are moist and wet, is the best
endowment the farmers can make, to sustain the high;
est interests of agriculture.
There is no telling how much the farmer will gain by
reading this book, until he shall have practiced and
carried out the precepts therein contained.
Now,  FRIENDS-FARMERS  OF THE  WEST,  this is
the end of the beginning; but, I hope, not the end of
the last.
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DISTRIBUTION OF TIME.
The distribution of time for the laboring classes of
our country, has brought the progressive mind into
requisition from time to time, just a's fast as civilization, education, and the mechanic arts have advanced,
have we found the burdens of the laboring classes made
lighter.   From  the fourteen hour system  down  to
twelve, and from that down to ten hours. And now
under the rapid advancement of intellectual knowledge,
with the laborers of our country, and. the extensive
improvements made in all kinds of labor-saving machinery, both for manufacturers and farmers, would
seem to warrant another reduction of two hours,making eight hours for all the regular laboring men,
who work by the day faithfully, shall constitute the
requirements, by the employers, from the employes,
for their day's labor. Let this arrangement be perfected
between the parties so inseperably interested, that one
cannot subsist and exist without the other. Hence the
stronger these facts are manifested and exemplified by
the employer and employe, the more sure will peace
and prosperity prevail throughout our entire country.
The minds of our State and National Legislatures are
being moved in relation to this momentous subject, and
the State of Illinois has passed a law to that effect, and
it is hoped and believed the law will be cheerfully
sustained. But as to its being satisfactorily acquiesced
in by the employers, will very much depend upon the
faithful and earnest manner the employes perform their
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labor during these eight hours. Here I will remark
from my own experience of thirty years, having had
occasion to employ from five to fifty hands, and'the
shortest time made with them was eight hours, and I
never had my work more faithfully done, and as much
done as though they had worked the ten hours. The
cause for this is obvious, from the fact they knew they
were saving two hours time, and they worked with a
will, not taking up their time with idle talk, and I have
no doubt but a large majority of the operatives will
look at it in this light, and give entire satisfaction to
their employers.
Now, if this measure is adopted and carried out, in
the spirit it ought to be, and as all philanthropists desire
it should, the fruits will be shared equally alike with
the employed and employer, for without this generous
feeling existing between them, the fruits of their labor
will never be as full and rich. Hence, I say again,
strike hands in all the States that adopt the eight hour
rule, and let the employes go to work and make their
eight hours' labor show that they can do as much by close
attention to their business, as they would have done on
the ten hour rule, and better workmanship, by specially
minding what they are doing; let this be your aim,
whether you are farming or making farmers' implements, or any other machinery, for labor is work, and
if any laborer need relief it is him who cultivates the soil.
In behalf of their interests, I will here state what I
think, after much reflection, should be their rule of
action- thus: Adopt the eight hour rule for actual
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labor in the field, clear from taking care of your teams,
and divide the twenty-four hours in the following man ner, to wit:  eight hours  to labor, eight hours to
sleep, four hours to improve the mind with suitable
books, and four hours for recreation, all to be done with
moderation.   Fill the time in all its several parts,
faithfully, for one month, and I feel confident you never
will return to the old habit of making sixteen hours
for your day's labor, as I have done many a day with
the farmers of Illinois. It is true, while you have
these eight hours for rest and eating your meals, you
can look at the best works on Agriculture, so as to keep
your farming interests before you, so that what you
may plant or sow, the increase will give rich reward,
showing that the head has labored with the hands. I
think it would be well for the farmers, when they adopt
the eight hour system, in summer, to divide the time, as
follows: work from seven to eleven-rest three hours,
until two, then work till six, you having three hours
until nine, for reading and improving the mind. Keep
arecord of daily events, and you will find it both
profitable and pleasant, and will not regret it.
With these passing remarks on the subject of labor,
I place them at the close of my book, and truly hope
the farmers of the West will find it to be their special
interest to give the sentiments in regard to labor a fair
experimental trial, in all its bearings, and the result
will show whether it will stand or fall.
Your Friend,
FOLSOM DORSETT.
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