80 <^LAY COUNTY, ILLINOIS. 



field rollers. For wheat, I plow ray ground in the months of 

 June and July, harrow in the month of August, then 

 drug and pack my ground well with a field roller, and no later 

 than the tenth of September I commence sowing, no mat- 

 ter how dry it may be. I never wait for rain, as I would 

 much rather sow in the dust than mud. The rain will come 

 in time to bring up the grain. I make it a point to select 

 good clean seed, and usually sow one and one-fourth bushels to 

 the acre, putting in with a good force-feed drill, and open good 

 surface drains or ditches so that the surface water will find 

 its way off of all the wheat ground. When this is all done, and 

 all the stable and barnyard manure is well spread on the ground, 

 I never fail to raise a good average crop and obtain fair profits 

 for my labor. 



GRASS SEED. 



The corn crop has been only an experiment for the last 

 three or four j^ears. We could only plow and plant when the 

 Aveather would permit, and the yield has been small. In 

 1879 I had a fair yield, for the season was very good. I raise 

 considerable grass. Red Top is the principal grass grown in 

 this locality. Blue grass and clover grows well on timber land. 

 I sow my wheat in the month of February, and my grass seed 

 when there arc Avarm days that will thaw the ground a little so 

 that the seed will catch, I never sow Avhen there is snow on 

 the ground, for when it melts away it carries the seed in streaks. 

 I never fail to get a good stand for meadow. I frequently 

 thresh my Red Top hay and sell the seed, as it will pay some 

 profit. When the seed is thirty-five cents per bushel the 

 profit is small, but at forty-five or fifty cents it will pay a fair 

 compensation, as the hay, after being threshed, makes good feed 

 for stock. I have wintered my cattle on the hay after it Avas 

 threshed, and nothing else, and they have come out in the 

 Spring looking Avell. 



RAISING CATTLE. 



Raising cattle is my principal business, though I raise a good 

 many liogs and some horses and mules, but find that cattle are 

 more profitable. I generally buy year-olds and keep them on 



