LECTURES AND ESSAYS. 403 



wealth, he has a cow, or perhaps two, and he owns a pair of steers. During 

 all this time, there has a village, or perhaps a city like Big Rapids, sprung 

 up within reach of him. Now he is a very independent pine stump farmer. 

 He can cut two cords of pine wood today, put it on his wagon or sleigh and 

 bring it to town and next day stand on the corner of the street, where there is a 

 market, and offer his wood for one dollar per cord, and just about night a 

 person comes along and offers him ninety cents. I guess he takes it. That 

 is not so bad, he expects to sell as soon as he gets to town, so he stables his 

 oxen in the street, goes without his dinner, and is nothing out. 



Ten years gone by. Not one solitary pine stump less. I never knew one 

 to rot or burn up unless it was pulled and well piled. There is one redeem- 

 ing feature of our stump farm. The soil is usually good, and the surface level. 

 During the first five or ten years our stump farms, as a rule, have not had 

 the attention or care they need. 



They have been cropped and somewhat run out. It is a hard and slow 

 job for a man of small means to pull and take care of the stumps, although 

 I am very glad to say there are a good many stump machines in this and 

 adjoining counties. I would not advise a man, after the struggle of the 

 past, to mortgage his farm for a machine, nor sell his last cow, but I would 

 advise anyone to get a stump machiue as soon as possible. 



One hardly realizes the loss annually among the stumps until he has a field 

 cleared. In a crop of wheat, oats or rye we do not notice the space occupied 

 by the stump so much ; but potatoes yield small and few near the stump, and 

 we can see very plainly the loss in a corn crop. For instance, in cutting 

 corn into shocks of seven hills square, it yields a bushel or more of ears per 

 shock, in good ground, but when you come in contact with a stump, only a 

 few small stalks and a few nubbins are the contents of that shock. In using 

 a two-shovel cultivator we never break one between stumps but always on an 

 unseen root of a stump. So you can plainly see that it is quite a loss to 

 farm among pine stumps. In two corn crops in succession you lose at least 

 one bushel of corn per stump, which is at least twenty-five cents, that being 

 about what it costs to pull a stump. After they are pulled they are worth 

 all it costs to move them, for fencing purposes. This does not include the 

 inconvenience nor loss of time in preparing a field for a crop among stumps. 

 In the first place a man can plow from one-third to one-half more if the 

 stumps are out, for the roots extend sometimes as much as twenty feet on 

 either side, varying in depth and always obstructing the plow and harrow. 

 If the field was clear of stumps the farmer could use a wheel cultivator that 

 would cultivate one row at a time, using a team with a boy. A crop of 

 wheat or oats must be cradled, as we cannot use a harvester or self-binder to 

 advantage. There is quite a contrast between the pine stump farmer of ten 

 years ago, and the pine stump farmer after his stumps are pulled. The 

 former digging among stumps with his mattock and brush hook, plowing at 

 a slow rate, with his steers sweating and fretting and tired, and a poor crop. 

 The latter can ride his wheel plow, use a wheel harrow or cultivator and 

 harvest his grain with a self-binder. He can attend State institutes and 

 farmers' clubs, and discuss the advantage of fertilizers, etc. But he must 

 never have an excuse for not sowing clover seed, as that is our only salvation. 



I feel very much encouraged with the amount of stump fences that I have 

 seen within the last year or two. Ten years from this time there will be 

 thousands of acres of this stump land rid of the stumps^ and the same put 





