48 VERMILLION COUNTY, ILLINOIS. 



from three to five dollars per hundred, and shear from four- 

 teen to fifteen pounds of wool. 



Most of the cattle and sheep and a considerable number 

 of hogs are sold for breeding purpose. 



The poultry is of the purest and best breeds. I keep no 

 dogs, but if I did, I would keep no " cur of low degree." 



The above indicates my system of farming, which is 

 mixed husbandry — growing grain, grass, and live stock. 



The stock is mostly stabled in Winter, and all the manure 

 saved and put upon the laud. But the main dependence for 

 improving the fertility of the land is grass, and grazing with 

 live stock. 



In regard to my system of handling stock, which is dif- 

 ferent from that practiced by most farmers, I want to say a word. 

 I keep my stock divided, according to age or condition, into 

 different lots and pastures, more than most farmers do. This 

 enables me to give them feed and care suited to the different 

 ages or conditions, which I think is a great advantage. 



A SYSTEM OF A ROTATION OF CROPS 



is prgicticed, but not with the exactness which is practiced 

 in older and less fertile countries. My rotation is about as 

 follows : Say six years in meadow, four years in corn ; then 

 oats, followed by winter wheat, and again seeded to grass. 



The pastures are five in number, and are permanent blue 

 grass pastures. About forty acres of corn are raised each year, 

 the ground being well plowed and harrowed, or dragged with a 

 heavy pole before planting ; the corn is check-rowed, and 

 after it comes up is harrowed and rolled, and then cultivated 

 six or seven times. The yield is from fifty to seventy-five 

 bushels per acre according to the season. 



About twenty acres are kept in timothy and clover meadow, 

 which yields li to 2 tons of hay per acre. The remainder of 

 ground for wheat is well prepared, and the wheat drilled the 

 first week in September ; the yield is usually from twenty to 

 twenty-five bushels per acre. 



