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county. Enough of marsh, to produce the hay for wintering, may be found 

 convenient in nearly all cases. 



Stock-growing, for dairy purposes, I think has been found profitable in all cases 

 where proper attention h;is been given to the selection of animals, and proper 

 provision made for their care and feed. The root crops, used for feeding, grow 

 hixuriously with deep and clean culture, and produce bountifully on all our dry 

 lands not over-cropped. 



Some few have already moved towards an improvement in this respect ; and 

 more would do so if the means were at command. At the furthest, it can be but 

 a few years before this county will ex^^ort some wool, and may be able to fill 

 some small orders for butter and cheese. Coni is generally a fair crop, never 

 having been an entire failure, and but two or three times a light crop since the 

 county was settled. Still it may be questioned whether we can successfully 

 compete with our Southern neighbors in the article of pork, except when prices 

 range high as at present, I have practised feeding corn to milch cows in the 

 winter for the last two years with success. I had been previously under the 

 impression that such diy, hard feed, ^^■ould not produce milk, but rather, by 

 producing fat, dry the animal. This, I am satisfied, is not true ; but am not 

 prepared at the present time to say that coin is more economically produced for 

 feeding cows than root crops, but think the practice worthy of further trial. 



All of our soils, e.^eept those too wet, are adapted to the culture of the apple ; 

 and those which aie too flat may be rendered dry enough for that fruit by 

 ridging with the 2:)lough, continuing the operation until the ridges for the trees to 

 stand ujion, are some eighteen inches higher than the dead furrows between the 

 rows. 



The subject of fruit culture has received but little attention except at the hands 

 of a very few indi\"iduals until within the last five years. In the early settlement 

 of the county, all the energies and means of the emigrants were required to 

 obtain the necessaries of life, and to buy what was I'egarded the necessary amount 

 of land for a farm. Added to this, the nearest trees were at a great distance, and 

 to procure them, long unsettled prairies, with almost impassable roads, must first 

 be tra^•ersed. The few who bi'ought seeds and planted them, for want of expe- 

 rience in the matter, saw their young trees fall a prey to the first cold day in 

 winter, or to the numerous gnawing animals which had hitherto flourished and 

 multiplied on the abundant supply of nuts annually gathered from our forest 

 trees. A few sur\ i\ed, and the owners have been rewarded with an annual supply 

 of as good fruit as could be expected from seedling trees. 



Some of these trees with which I am acquainted, have the past year produced 

 their sixth annual crop, all full except the last. Within the last eight or nine 

 years nurseries of choice varieties have sprung up in our midst; trees from which 



