122 LEE COUNTY, ILLINOIS. 



ten years, yet I have never had a case of so-called hog cholera 



on the farm. All hogs not sold as breeders, or retained on the 



farm for that purpose, are marketed at from nine to ten months 



old. 



THE HONEY BEE 



has always been a favorite, and has been Kept for years, not 

 for profit further than home use but for a fondness I have for 

 ■working with them. In 1865 I purchased a number of pure 

 Italian queen bees and introduced them into the hives. They 

 did well until 1870, when, by a disease similar to what is known 

 as dead-hood, I lost them all. Since then the black bee only 

 has been kept. Our climate I do not consider favorable for the 

 honey bee. There are too many extremes in the temperature 

 and in wet and dry weather. I have used various kinds of 

 hives, and my convictions are that the slat hive has many 

 advantages for working with the bees, but they are not as good 

 in the cold of Winter as the common box hive, on account of 

 too much vacant room. 



POULTHY. 



A number of varieties of the barn-yard fowls have, at dif- 

 ferent times, been kept. The Asiatic breeds suffer from the 

 colds of Winter and have recently been replaced by the Ply- 

 mouth Rock breed, which are more hardy and better layers, as 

 well as being the favorite at the table. Bronze turkeys have 

 been raised for years and many very fine and weighty ones have 

 been grown, reaching forty-four pounds at two years old. 

 The young males weigh twenty-five pounds. 



While giving attention to the breeds of improved stock 

 mentioned, horses have not been over-looked, 3'et they have 

 not been made a specialty. Of sheep, there is none kept on 

 the farm. 



In the meantime, no interest has been paramount to that 

 of the farm itself. Knowing it to bo the base upon which the 

 success of the others rests, it has, in all times, been treated 

 in conformity with the view that to raise good stock of any 

 kind requires plenty of food, which can be grown only on a 

 farm which has a rich and well tilled soil. 



