FARMING AND STOCK-RAISING. 353 



EZRA CRANE, 



STAFFORD, STAFFORD COUNTY. 



Feeding — Corn — Clod -Crusher — Plans — Potatoes — 

 Wheat — Hogs. 



My farm joins the town of Stafford and embraces one hun- 

 dred and sixty acres, all under cultivation. The soil is a black, 

 sandy loam, six and one-half feet in depth, underlaid with a sub- 

 soil which is a mixture of gypsum, sand, and grayish-brown clay 

 extending to water, which is found at a depth of twenty feet in 

 sand and gravel. Having had nearly eleven years' experience 

 in farming and stock-raising in Kansas, I think I pretty thor- 

 oughly understand what is required to make either or both 

 a success. I have found that the two occupations are more 

 remunerative when combined than either one can be made 

 separately. Every well managed farm can be made to 

 support quite a herd of cattle, sheep, and horses, by simply 

 utilizing the corn stalks, straw, etc., that would otherwise go 

 to waste, with the addition of a trifling quantity of roots, 

 pumpkins, and millet. Although corn and wheat are the crops 

 chiefly relied on to make money in Kansas, I find it the 

 best policy to supplement them with a few acres of potatoes, 

 beans, Mexican peas, peanuts, sorghum, and rice corn, which 

 require no more cultivation than that usually given Indian 

 corn. Potatoes should always be boiled for hogs or milch 

 cows i when given to milch cows, they should be salted slightly, 

 and a small quantity of meal added to the first three or four 

 messes, or till the animal has cultivated an appetite for them. 

 As a laxative and appetizing food for work horses, which are 

 kept much in the stable or have not an opportunity to graze, 

 or for debilitated, over-worked, fevered and constipated ani- 

 mals, they are excellent. The only objection is, that it requires 

 some patience and perseverance to teach a horse to eat them, 



