176 SHELBY COUNTY, ILLINOIS. 



the rate of three cords to the acre. This field was then culti- 

 vated, harrowed and rolled until it was in good order, then 

 sown with wheat, two bushels to the acre. My repeated fail- 

 ures in this field made me anxious for the wheat, which was 

 therefore closely watched. All parts of the field looked well 

 and grew vigorously. Even on the wet ground of previous 

 3'-ears, now ditched, there grew a luxuriant crop to the edge of 

 the ditches. As early as the ground would admit in the Spring 

 of 1879 the field was harrowed, no attention being paid to 

 crossing or following drills. My neighbors as they passed along 

 the highway commented upon the probable killing of the wheat 

 with such usage. After harrowing, the wheat grev/ wonder- 

 fully, and at harvest yielded forty-two bushels and forty pounds 

 per acre for the whole field. The former waste places along 

 the ditches were estimated at from sixty to eighty bushels by 

 numerous persons who came to look at the wheat while grow- 

 ing. The same field after thorough plowing was again top 

 dressed with manure, rolled and harrowed until pulverized, and 

 then sown with wheat drilled east and west, one bushel per 

 acre, then cross drilled with one and one-quarter bushels north 

 and south. It will be thoroughly harrowed in the early Spring, 

 but is now growing luxuriantly, with every promise of a more 

 abundant crop than ever. 



REHABILITATION. 



The whole farm now presents an entirely changed appear- 

 ance. An entrance gate near the center of the north side of 

 the farm, opens into a broad carriage or wagon way bordered 

 by osage orange hedges. On the right hand, as you enter, is a 

 hospital lot of five acres, with grass, water and shade trees, 

 accessible from barn lot and pasture. Further south is the 

 barn with plain sheds and lot of two acres. South of this is 

 another lot of three acres, reaching to a branch with a never 

 ceasing .flow of pure water. Along this roadway, with proper 

 gates opening into them on either side, are pasture lands and 

 fields. Passing south until a large hay barn is reached, this 

 lane ends at the timbered land which forms the southern boun- 



