272 MERCER COUNTY, ILLINOIS. 



feed (about half what they can eat,) continued with pasture or 

 liny until grass comes in the Spring, when they go to pasture 

 for the Summer. 



PASTURES AND FENCES. 



The pastures are not overstocked, and the feed, being 

 mostly l)lue grass, is kept in abundant supply. Good fences are 

 a specialty on Crow Farm, and are made five boards high, with 

 cedar posts set five feet apart, or of hedge. 



SIX RULES FOR JIARKETING. 



The future market price of farm products is beyond human 

 calculation, and the market often disappoints the greatest num- 

 bers. Still, the writer has met with considerable success by 

 observing the following rules : 



When stock is fully ripe and ready for the market, and 

 the market fair, it is better to sell than to hold for a rise. 



When the market is high, and the stock is not ready, sell 

 for future delivery to a responsible buyer ; three times out of 

 ^ur it will beat the buyer. 



When the market is low, make no contracts, and be slow 

 to sell, because a rise in price often comes when least expected; 

 in fact, high prices most always come unexpectedly. 



When people in general say cattle, or hogs, or corn, or 

 wheat, will be high next Winter or next year, they are almost 

 sure to be disappointed, because they go to work with one 

 accord to make it cheaper by increasing the production. 



When the price of any farm product has run high for some 

 time, and the farmers begin to drop other things and go for 

 the product that has the money in it now, then is the time for 

 the successful farmer to let that product alone. 



When a leading article, say hogs, runs low for a long time, 

 and farmers begin to stop raising them because it won't pay, 

 then is the time to raise I'igs. 



The writer remembers one year when corn was scarce and 

 high, and hogs were low, and the farmers wanted to sell their 

 shoats at any price they could get. lie bought up a lot of tliora 

 for about one dollar a head ; fed them a little corn, and Sinn- 



