94 JASPER COUNTY, ILLINOIS. 



while small, and I rarely fail to get from 50 to 60 bushels per 

 acre, at a cost of from 20 to 25 cents per bushel. 



WHEAT 



is fast becoming one of our most renumerative crops. I have 

 been most successful wben I plow my ground in the last half 

 of June, giving ample time for the ground to undergo a state 

 of decomposition (plowing shallow, which has proven best in 

 our county). I then commence preparing the ground the last 

 half of the month of August, by harrowing and rolling until 

 thoroughly pulverized and packed. Then in the first half of 

 the month of September, I drill north and south, if practicable, 

 draining all water off by opening the dead furrows and places 

 where water might stand ; after this is done, I seldom fail to 

 get a paying crop of wheat. 



FKUIT 



has paid well. Apple and peach trees I cultivate when small, 

 passing over them carefully Spring and Fall to clear them of 

 borers, which are destroyed by being cut out or followed with 

 a srftall wire. 



GRAPES 



(Concord) occupy one-fifth of an acre, which I cultivate as I 

 would a garden, allowing nothing else to grow on the land. I 

 train the vine on posts and slats as high as my head, pruning in 

 Spring before the sap rises. From three-fourths of the above 

 land I made 225 gallons of wine, making a yield of 1,500 gal- 

 lons per acre. _ 



^ FISH. 



I have on my farm a pond for the purpose of furnishing 

 water for stock, made by putting a dam across a ravine, and 

 constructed so as to let off the surplus water without cutting 

 out the dam. In the Fall of 1879 a seine was drawn in this pond, 

 resulting in the catching of as fine cat and buffalo fish as there 

 is in any of our rivers. How these fish came there I do not 

 pretend to say, but they are there, and in an abundance. I am 

 satisfied that any varieties will do well in these ponds, and all 

 may have fish at little or no extra cost. 



POULTRY. 



I have never made a specialty of raising the different 



