G^TES ON THE FARM. 27 



DAVID C. GRAHAM, 



CAMERON, WARREN COUNTY. 



Thirty -six Gates on the Farm None too Many — Clover and Tim- 

 othy the Best Adapted to our Prairies — Best Time to Cut It — 

 Treatment of Pasture and Meadow Land. 



MY FARM 



adjoins the village of Cameron on the east and south, and 

 contains 220 acres of rich prairie soil, divided into fields and 

 fenced with hedge and rail fences. Eighty acres of the farm 

 were purchased in 1857, at |30 per acre ; the remainder since, 

 at $50 and $75 per acre. There are on the farm thirty-six 

 gates (none to many), thirty of them the Teel pattern, the re- 

 mainder hinge gates. The farm is conducted as follows : one 

 hundred acres in pasture ; thirty acres in meadow ; ten acres 

 in oats ; seventy-five acres of corn ; five acres of orchard and feed 

 lots. The ten acres of oats are seeded down every Spring with 

 clover and timothy seed ; one peck of the former and four to 

 five pounds of the latter to every acre, and in case of a failure 

 from any cause, the seeding is continued until a sufficient stand 

 is made to exclude the weeds. I consider timothy and clover 

 the best adapted to our prairie soil, and no other soil that I 

 ever read of can equal the prairies of this State for these 

 grasses. What we sow, the same kind we mow. Timber, or 

 other soils, usually have a tendency, by nature, to produce 

 wild grasses, not in harmony with the vigorous growth of the 

 clover and timothy. Experience of twenty-two years demon- 

 strates that these statements are correct. 



EVERY YEAR 



about ten acres of the pasture land are broken up for corn, and 

 ten acres of the first seeding of the meadow let out for pasture, 

 so that the same number of acres for pasture, meadow, and 

 corn, are available every year, thus virtually keeping the farm 



