324 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



A Chestnut and Cedar Grove. 



Mr. Wm. M. Field, Smyrna, Chemung Co., N. Y., asks how he 

 can produce to the best advantage, chestnut trees and a cedar 

 grove. 



Mr. R. J. Pardee said the chestnuts should be planted before 

 the nuts have become thoroughly dry, and they should be planted 

 where the trees are to grow, as chestnut trees are the most diffi- 

 cult trees to make live after they have been transplanted. The 

 most expeditious and economical way to produce a cedar grove is 

 to obtain small young trees from the open fields, where they have 

 always grown in the sunshine. 



Facts from an Illinois Farmer. 

 Mr. E. W. Brown, Cambridge, 111. — I wish some one from every 

 State would give an account of their section. I give a sample of 

 mine. Price of improved lands, with common house, and young 

 orchard fenced on the outside, from $30 to $40 an acre. Good 

 prairie farms, from five to ten miles from the railroad station, $10 

 to $20. Common lumber at the station, $28 a thousand; brick at 

 the kiln, $10 to $12; masons' wages, $4 a day; carpenters', $3 

 common hands, $1.50; by the month, $25; a good team, $300 

 lumber wagon, $130; harness, $33; steel plow, $25; harrow, $12 

 horse-shoeing, $5; coal at the bank, 10 to 12 cents a bushel 

 wood, delivered, $6; groceries and dry goods, nearly one-fourth 

 dearer than in the East. Cost of raising grain to the renter, 

 where he grives one-third of the corn in the crib, and small strain 

 in the half bushel at the machine; oats, 25 cents, 50 bushels to 

 the acre; wheat, 65 cents, 20 bushels; corn, 16 cents, 50 bushels, 

 A hog will eat 10 ears a day on an average, for the first 18 months 

 of his life — 150 ears make a bushel (this is 25^ bushels), and this 

 will make him weigh 350 pounds, but he must have good care. 

 Clover and fruit grow nearly or quite as well as in the East. As 

 a general thing land in and next to groves is poor and rough, as 

 well as on one side of the streams. Cost of breaking up prairie, 

 $3; the two first crops of wheat will average 25 bushels an acre; 

 after that 15. Corn on good land 40, oats 45, rye 20, barley 20, 

 and buckwheat 20. I find it a great advantage to watch the price 

 lists of grain, &c., to talk with the best farmers, and to use my 

 own judgment. 



The regular subject was then introduced: "First work in 

 Spring." 



