78 CLAY COUNTY, ILLINOIS. 



My plan to plant an orchard is to prepare the rows with 

 the plow, by plowing up and down the sloping lay of the land, 

 unless very steep so as to wash in gullies ; in this case, plow 

 the rows across. Set the trees in these rows. No need to row 

 crossways, but give more room to large-growing kinds and less 

 to small growers, for some varieties require as much again room 

 as others. After planting and shaping the trees by trimmiiig, 

 keep them well cultivated the early part of the season for three 

 or four years. Work the dirt towards the rows, if the ground 

 is near level, then seed to clover, and they will usually begin 

 bearing by that time. I do not believe in much trimming. 

 Trees bear much younger if the small inner branches are let 

 alone. I have frequently grown from one to two bushels of 

 apples on young trees. If the cleaning of main branches that 

 many practice had been done, it would have taken off all 

 the apples. The orchard should be visited often, and insects 

 watched carefully, but the knife had better be lost or left at 

 home in most cases. The old adage, " pretty is that pretty 

 does," must apply to trees, and in an orchard I think it means 

 fruit, rather than the comely park or lawn shaped tree. 



NOAH WEBSTER, 



BIBLE GROVE, CLAY COUNTY. 



Stock Raising — Methods of Growing Winter Wheat — When to 

 Plow and When to Soiv — Clean Seed — Force Drill — Good 

 open Drains — Spreads Manure — Good Crops and Fair Profits 

 the Results — Never Soivs Grass Seed When there is Snow on 

 the Ground — Horses, Hogs and Sheep. 



My farm is situated in Bible Grove Township, in Clay 

 County, Illinois. It contains five hundred and sixty acres. 

 Four hundred and forty are of prairie, under good cultivation, 

 and well adapted to the grooving of ^rain and stock-raising, 

 with dwellings and out-houses as follows : One thirty-six by 

 forty feet, with good cistern and well of water, frame smoke 



