CULTIVATION BY CONTRACT. 303 



the seed wheat. The labor was all done by the acre, and the 

 contractors furnished themselves with subsistence and imple- 

 ments (excepting the screw harrows mentioned above). 

 The prices paid for work were as follows : 



Breaking prairie, per acre, - - $1 75. 



Cross-plowing, (-i a _ _ _ ^ 25. 



Dragging, " " _ _ _ 20. 



Drawing Screw Harrow, per acre, - 40. 



The average cost per acre was $5.20 for the land cross- 

 plowed, and $4.35 for the land screw harrowed. In November, 

 1879, there was no perceptible difference between the wheat 

 on the ground that was cross-plowed and that which was not ; 

 the stand being an excellent one throughout. This wheat will 

 be cut with the Header, and stacked for $1.50 per acre ; and 

 threshed and hauled to the railroad for ten cents per bushel, 

 the parties doing the work furnishing every thing. 



Upon old ground the cost of seeding would be about $2.00 

 per acre less than that of new land. With a moderate season 

 (and it has been unusually favorable so far) and no accident, 

 this first crop will yield about twenty bushels to the acre ; but 

 the first crop is not generally as heavy as the subsequent ones. 



JOHN F. HILL, 



OSWEGO, LABETTE COUNTY. 



A Model Home in Ten Years — A Yoke of Oxen the Foundation 

 — First Wheat Crop — Methods — Hard Labor — Persever- 

 ance and Economy. 



SHADY SIDE. 



It may seem strange that I should claim to possess a 

 Model Farm, made within ten years, and that, too, upon the 

 extreme limits of civilization, and within a stone's throw of the 

 wild homes of the red men of the West. Such, indeed, is a 



