SOLON ROBINSON, 1843 367 



thy, may be made in any desired quantity, as fast as a 

 man can cut it upon smooth clean ground, at the rate 

 of two or three tons to the acre, they did not provide 

 enough for this very severe winter, and the cattle are 

 actually starving to death at this time. Even the ashes 

 of ten thousand tons of burnt straw won't save them; 

 neither will the cornstalks that have been safely pre- 

 served for spring feed, any more than keep them alive. 



"What, do you say that cornstalks are not good rich 

 feed?" 



"Oh no! I said no such thing. I said they had been 

 carefully preserved, and would have told you where, but 

 you interrupted me." 



"Pray then, tell us how you preserve cornstalks in the 

 west." 



"Yes, I will — that is, how thousands of acres are pre- 

 served — by letting the corn stand just where it grew. 

 And such fields as are not gathered by the hogs in the 

 process of fatting, are gathered as wanted through the 

 winter, and thus are the stalks preserved for the cattle 

 in the spring. 'Rich feed,' ain't it?" 



And now if I tell you how corn is planted sometimes, 

 your skeptical neighbor can reduce his figures. 



And firstly, of the first crop on the prairie. The sod is 

 very tough, and is generally broken from 3 to 6 inches 

 deep, and 16 to 24 wide, turned over flat by a plow drawn 

 by 4 or 5 yoke of oxen, 11/2 to 2 acres a day. In every 

 second or third furrow the corn is dropped near the 

 shoulder, and the next slice turned over upon it. This 

 produces a middling crop with no after culture whatever. 

 Again, in old land, the ground being furrowed out for 

 the rows sometimes one and sometimes both ways, the 

 seed dropped in the furrow is covered by passing along 

 another light plow, and as soon as planting is done, then 

 commences the after culture, or rather, I should say, the 

 plowing of the ground, and which culture is almost en- 

 tirely completed with the plow. No manuring, no hoe- 

 ing, or but very slight, no harvesting in many cases, that 



