488 CHEROKEE COUNTY, IOWA. 



and streams of the purest water. It has the peculiarity of pro- 

 ducing good crops with little rain. We seldom have too much 

 rain, and yet in a few hours after a heavy shower our ground 

 can be cultivated. This is due to the looseness of the soil. 

 This season we have had but a small amount of rain, and yet 

 crops have done well. I consider the whole Missouri slope the 

 best part of Iowa for farming, but scarcity of timber is a 

 drawback. A great deal of timber has been planted within 

 the past few years. The magnetic well at Cherokee is attract- 

 ing much attention. The water flows in a continuous stream, 

 from a depth of two hundred feet. A piece of steel, placed ia 

 the water, soon becomes magnetized. 



IMPROVEMENTS. 



My house is a story and a half high, the main building being 

 sixteen by twenty, with an ell on the south side. A fence en- 

 closes the house, and a small orchard and garden lie south and 

 west, while on the east is a wood yard, enclosing corn cribs, 

 granaiy, "^nd sheds for machinery. Just north of these still 

 stands tlie old log cabin built by me in 1856. A lane extends 

 from the road to this yard north of the house ; north of this 

 lane is a hog lot, consisting of three acres, extending across the 

 creek and enclosing a grove of oaks. East of the house and 

 across the wood lot is a banked stable and small cattle yard, 

 opening on the east into a pasture that extends east and south 

 to the river. The orchard contains several Siberian apple trees 

 in bearing. There are few farms enclosed in this county; part 

 of mine is left unenclosed. Stock here is herded or kept in 

 pastures. South of my house was a piece of about four acres 

 that I sowed in timothy, but when the grasshoppers visited us 

 in 18 r6, they sowed it so full of eggs, that I spread straw and 

 burned it to kill them ; afterwards I plowed it up. 



METHOD OF FARMING. 



The system which I pursue is to have a rotation of corn, 

 wheat, and oats or barley. The ground intended for corn is 

 usually plowed in the Spring, while stubble which I intend for 

 oats or other crops is plowed in the Fall. The wheat sown in 



