CORN AND WHEAT. 325 



fifty were originally prairie, remainder timber. There are four 

 hundred acres now in cultivation ; remainder, including the 

 timber, in meadow and pasture. 



Usually I raise three hundred acres of corn, and fifty acres 

 of oats and Hungarian grass, and twenty acres of Winter 

 wheat, which produces twenty bushels per acre. The corn 

 crop of 1879 was a fair yield, averaging fifty-five bushels per 

 acre. My mowing land produces two Ions per acre. I am 

 much pleased with my Blue Grass pasture, which as early as 

 November comes out fresh and green. 



COUX AND WHEAT. 



I commenced on this farm just as tlie Indians left it fifteen 

 years ago — plowing the firs)t furrow. Tiie first season I broke 

 one hundred and fifty acres and planted it in sod corn, which 

 made about thirty bushels to the acre, and was worth enough 

 to pay for breaking the land. I have broken more or less ever 

 since. Sometimes I sow Fall wheat on the freshly broken sod, 

 which generally produces from twelve to fifteen bushels of 

 good wheat, worth about as many dollars. The second year I 

 cross-plow the last year's breaking, and plant it in corn, which, 

 with two plowings, generally produces from forty-five to sev- 

 enty bushels per acre. As the land becomes older it requires 

 more cultivation to keep the weeds subdued. After cultivat- 

 ing four or five years, I sow it in mixed grasses — clover, timo- 

 thy, orchard grass, and Kentucky blue grass. The last named 

 runs all the others out in about four years. In order to secure 

 ourselves against prairie fires, I broke a fence row all around 

 the farm about a rod wide, on which we constructed a fence 

 three boards high, and then fence rows across the farm, leaving 

 the fields as large as possible. The following Spring I planted 

 Osage orange hedge just inside the board fence, which, through 

 reasonable cultivation, has, in about five years' time, enclosed 

 the farm with good hedges and the fields also. These are 

 one corn-field of two hundred and forty acres, one of one hun- 

 dred and sixty acres, two of eighty acres, one of forty acres, 

 and several of ten and fifteen acres. The board fences can be 



