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rience, showing that some of the largest crops produced were from late and 

 partially winter-killed fields. One writes as follows : " Winter wheat has 

 looked very badly indeed until within the last four weeks, during which 

 time it has improved remarkably. Many farmers, in answer to my in- 

 quiries concerning wheat, have assured me that no correct opinion could 

 be formed concerning it till the spring was fully opened. The prospect 

 is now decidedly encouraging for an average crop." 

 Doctor Ct. L. Owen, writing from Williamson, says : 



I am sorry to have to report tho condition of winter wlieat as being; on the whole 

 very unpromising. On hxnd not exhausted by incessant cropping-, and where the seed 

 was sown by the 20th of September, wheat loolen nearly as well as in average years; 

 but on worn out soils, and on Hat, undrained lauds, the prospect is gloomy. There is, 

 however, a great breadth of land sown, and we expect to make up in number of acres 

 what we lose in fertility of soil. The fact is, until farmers understand how to culti- 

 vate winter wheat better than tho majority do at present, or until a better system is 

 adopted than is generally practiced, it is in vain to expect good crops of wheat ; for 

 we shall continually be disappointed. Year after year farmers sow wheat, and year 

 after year a great many fail, or only succeed in raising small crops, say from six to ten 

 bushels per acre ; always and ]>ersisteutly attributing their failure to any and every- 

 thing rather than to its true cause. When will farmers learn that tho wheat plant can- 

 not grow and yield sound grain in a soil exhausted of all those elements which are es- 

 sentially necessary to its healthy growth ; for such is already tho condition of most of 

 our lauds that have been in cultivation for the last fifteen or twenty years. Incessant 

 cropping with corn, wlieat, and oats, to the exhaustion of the grasses, and the annual 

 burning of the straw, have already done their work of destruction ; and farmers aro 

 wanting to sell their worn-out lands to remove further West, again to carrj- on the 

 same system of cropping and exhaustion by Avhich they have been enabled to despoil 

 so many valuable acres of God's creation. 



The cultivation of the grasses, including clover, combined with the rotation of crops, 

 are the only means whereby the farmers of this portion of Illinois can improve their 

 lands in a reasonable time. All the manure we can make npou our farms amounts to 

 very little in comparison to the benefit our lands would derive from a judicious rota- 

 tion of crops, aided by the cultivation of the grasses. But for the want of a more practi- 

 cal knowledge of this subject, a great many fail in their attempts to carry out some 

 system. Allow me to suggest the following system of rotation as peculiarly applica- 

 ble to this portion of Illinois, premising that no system of rotation will bo generally 

 adopted that does not admit of the cultivation of doulile the amount of Indian corn 

 to any other one product. In the tirst place, a farm should be divided into several fields, 

 of as near an equal size as possible. The fields should be numbered one, two, three, 

 and so oii. Beginning with corn, the first and second fields should contain corn ; the 

 third field should rest in fallow, and be sown to winter wheat by the 20th of Septem- 

 ber. After the wheat is harvested, the ground should be xnoperly prepared and sown 

 with eight quarts of timothy to the acre, not later than the 1.5th of September. About 

 the middle of March following four quarts of clover seed to the acre should be sown 

 and carefully rolled in. The following summer a good crop of timothy hay may be 

 reasonably expected. A second crop of timothy and clover may be cut the second 

 summer; afterward the field may be pastured one or more years, according to the num- 

 ber of fields the farm is divided into, Avlieu it may be thoroughly plowed in the fall, 

 in\*ierting the sod, preparatory to being again planted to corn the follov/iug spring. 



Wisconsin. — Very little Avinter grain is sown in this State. The re- 

 turns concerning that little are favorable, without exception — the early 

 sown being particularly fine. The correspondent for Fond du Lac 

 County makes the following suggestions : 



Heretofore the West has had poor crops after a wet season. Last summer and fall 

 was very wet up to the commencement of winter. Snow came on with just irost enough 

 to retain the moisture. What little frost there was was soon drawn out by the snow, 

 of which we had in all three feet and ten inches, intermixed with nearly three and a 

 half inches of rain. The snow has melted away gradually, but nearly all the water 

 remains in the soil, so that it is saturated to its utmost capacity. The spring must be 

 late. Then, again, only about two-thirds of the plowing was done last fall, which 

 makes the sowing still later. Wheat and oats do very poorly on spring plowing. And, 

 again, the extremely low price of wheat will cause many acres to lie idle. Money is 

 scarce to employ help to perform labor, with the prospect of not getting our money 

 back. And, again, farmers are changing from every branch of agriculture to cheese- 

 making. Not less than ten cheese factories are growing up in our county, in addition 

 to the eight already in existence. All these considerations suggest that it would be 

 well not to waste or part with our large surplus of wheat at prices less than cost. 



