STOCK — HOGS. 485 



close proximity to the prairie, which furnishes an ample quan- 

 tity of good hay for feeding all the stock kept on the farm, and 

 also affords pasture for the young stock during the Summer. 

 From one hundred and fifty to two hundred acres are usually 

 planted in corn on my farm, and on some smaller lots not adjoin- 

 ing ; the remainder are planted with oats, as we raise but a 

 small quantity of wheat. I feed all the grain to my stock, and 

 although I have lived here twelve years, I have never hauled 

 a load of corn to the railroad. The farm is watered by wells 

 and wind-mill power ; there is a fine spring, too, which, with 

 Lake creek, provides good facilities for watering the stock ; the 

 same power that pumps the water grinds the feed used on the 

 farm. 



STOCK. 



My stock at present consists of one hundred and fifty head 

 of cattle, fifteen horses and one hundred and seventy-five hogs. 



A dairy of fifty cows form the nucleus for the stock oper- 

 ations, and with an ice house, milk-room and the Cooley 

 creamer, I have all the appliances necessary for making an 

 article of butter that will command a good price, and is con- 

 tracted for by the year, in advance. In ordinary seasons the 

 cows pay for themselves each year. My stock are grade 



SHORT-HORNS, 



■with a small herd of thorough-breds. Each year I feed and 

 turn off two car loads of grade Short-Horn steers. 



Stabling is supplied for sixty head of cattle. The dairy 

 cows are all stabled during the Winter, and receive a daily 

 allowance of good hay or mowed oats, and two quarts of corn 

 meal, and two quarts of oats. No stock is raised save from 

 thorough-bred sires, consequently they continually improve. 



My plan is to herd the young stock on the prairie in Sum- 

 mer, and turn them into the stalk fields and on prairie hay in 

 the Winter, until February or March, at which time the steers 

 are put upon one-half or two-thirds feed of corn until grass 

 comes. 



HOGS. 



I grow the Poland China hogs, raised by the dairy and 



