STOCK FARM MADE IN FIVE YEAKS. 327 



fifteen rooms, and a banked barn sixty by eighty, originally 

 intended for a cattle barn. But after several years' experi- 

 ence I have become convinced that cattle will do better, in the 

 long run, when not confined in stables, but with plenty of shed 

 room to go under when they want to. I am sure tliey will be 

 healthier and longer lived. They will grow faster for a short 

 time if kept in stables, but with me quick growth means quick 

 death. 



GEORGE HAY, 



SENECA, NEMAHA COUNTY. 



A Stock Farm Made in Five Years — Arrangement of Yards 

 and Sheds — Feed Macks and Troughs — Poland Chitia Hogs. 



STOCK FARM MADE IN FIVE YEARS. 

 While I do not claim to have a "model farm," yet I shall 

 venture to give a brief description of a farm, which, I may say 

 has been made during the past five years, by persistent industry 

 and effort, and with very limited means, and I propose to show 

 what may be done with a raw piece of prairie by a vigorous 

 application of method and muscle, governed by an experience in 

 farming and stock raising, reaching through about twenty-five 

 years, and a cash capital not exceeding $6,000. 



BOUGHT THE LAND IN 1873. 



I came to this county in the Fall of 1873, with the inten- 

 tion of engaging in stock raising. Being desirous of locating 

 my family where good educational facilities existed, I purchased 

 land in close proximity to Seneca, a flourishing little town, 

 situated on the St. Joe & Denver railroad, for which I paid 

 $3,160 for three hundred and twenty acres unimproved prairie. 

 In the following Spring I commenced the work of improving 

 the tract. 



HOW I FENCED THE FARM. 



I enclosed the land, which consisted ofi two separate tracts 

 of one hundred and sixty acres each, not adjoining each other, 



