GRAIN. RAISING A FAILURE. 246 



T. H. BARE, 



ARGENTA, MACON COUNTY. 



Successful 31anagement of Hogs on Common Sense Principles 

 — Artichokes — Slieep. 



I am but an amateur farmer and stock raiser, having com- 

 menced ray career of farming at the age of thirtj'-seven years. 

 My business prior to that time liad been merchandising and 

 raih'oading. In 1865 I emigrated from Ohio to Macon county, 

 Ilhnois, and purchased the land I now own, one hundred and 

 sixty acres of unimproved prairie, excepting that there was a 

 small house on the premises, and about twenty acres were 

 under cultivation. The land, like most land in central Illi- 

 nois, is very rich, having a deep vegetable loam underlaid by 

 a mixed sand and clay subsoil, moderately flat, with some 

 ponds and sloughs. 



When I took possession I contracted a debt of about three 

 thousand dollars, began making improvements and undertook 

 to pay for them, make a living and pay my debt, by raising 

 grain and selling it in the market. It was eight miles to 

 our nearest market, the road to it being such an one as we 

 might select across the unimproved prairie that intervened, 

 which at hauling season was generally very bad indeed. 



The result of this grain-raising operation was, that 

 although I raised fair crops and generally got what was 

 considered fair prices, I found in a few years that instead of 

 paying off my debt, it was getting bigger. I was adding 

 something to my convenience by way of improvements, but 

 under the shrinking process of the times, — money getting 

 scarcer, — the land would sell for little more than first cost 

 with all the improvements thrown in. 



Tliis state of affairs, I found, must cease, or bankruptcy 

 and ruin would end m.y career as a farmer. After holding a 

 consultation with my better half (that best of all business 



