DRAINAGE. 95 



distinct breeds, but on the other hand often cross my chickens, 

 as in the crosses I think I get fowls better adapted for all uses. 

 I save our early Spring pullets for layers the following 

 Winter, as this is the season that eggs are scarce. Early 

 pullets, the following "Winter after they are hatched, are the 

 proper age for good layers ; this adhered to, with proper care 

 and feed, there will never be a lack of eggs in Winter season. 



DRAINAGE. 



I have not experimented any in underground drainage, 

 as my farm is rolling enough to dry sufficiently by open 

 ditches. There is not one farm in twenty but needs draining 

 to bring it into a higher state of cultivation. I venture to say 

 that every wheat field would produce a larger and finer crop 

 if properly drained. 



I think it may be truthfully said that our county furn- 

 ishes as large an area of equally fertile lands as any other 

 in the State. The only thing needed for the full develop- 

 ment of its productiveness, is a thorough and systematic 

 surface and under drainasre. 



C. CROUCH, 



BELLE PRAIRIE, HAMILTON COUNTY. 



Pioneer Farming in 1821 — Bear and Deer in Abundance — Pan- 

 thers and Wildcats — The County Now One Vast Winter 

 Wheat Field. 



My farm is situated in the north part of Hamilton County, 

 Illinois, about the center east and west, and consists of four 

 hundred acres — two hundred and twenty in a good state 

 of cultivation, remainder in unenclosed wood land. It was 

 originally heavily timbered for this part of the State. The wal- 

 nut, sassafras and mulberry stumps many of them remaining 

 with me, although mostly cleared and put in cultivation for 

 forty or fifty years, my father having settled on the same in 



