266 JO DAVIESS COUNTY, ILLINOIS. 



hand. Farmers are beginning to find out, of late, tliat red clo- 

 ver will grow on these worn out fields, and that by plowing it 

 under, the soil can be renewed. To make a good meadow, I 

 sow one peck of timothy seed per acre, on good strong ground, 

 with Fall wheat, or on Spring grain. I make the field smooth 

 with harrow and roller. After the grain is taken off, manure 

 is hauled on. The latter part of August I commence hauhng 

 it, spreading it on liberally from the wagon. When the haul- 

 ing is completed, I wait for rain to soften the manure. I then 

 take the smoothing harrow and run over the ground until the 

 rough has been made smooth. When this is thoroughly done, 

 the coarse manure will never interfere with mower or horse- 

 rake. My new meadows get all the manure made on the farm, 

 which usually is very coarse, made from corn and fodder fed 

 broadcast over the yards, together with tops of stacks, straw 

 and stable manure. In order to realize a good crop for eight or 

 ten years, without more manure, I have only to avoid pastur- 

 ing,- a practice that is ruinous to a meadow. The aftergrass, if 

 le£t to cover the ground, protects the roots, keeps the snow 

 ii'om blowing off, and holds the moisture during the first part 

 of the season, causing the young grass to make such rapid 

 growth as to cover the ground so effectually that the dry 

 weather in June can have but little effect upon it. I cut on 

 an average about one hundred tons of hay yearly. 



HAYING. 



I commence the first of July, start in with two mowers, cut 

 five or six acres, enough to make a rick of eight to ten tons. This 

 I do every morning (weather permitting). In the afternoon I 

 stack that which was cut the day previous, making a stack 

 bottom of rails or poles, in the center of the field, over which 

 I erect my derrick for hoisting hay with horse fork. Then, 

 with sulk}^, rake into winrows, after which two horses are 

 attached to the sweep, which will scoop up and haul to the 

 stack with ease eight to ten tons in one afternoon. One good 

 man on the stack, one to handle the horse fork, and three boys 

 to handle the horses, make up the force necessary to accom- 



