554 liOCK COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 



healthy plant. The combination of these two causes made 

 every dry or hot spell tell on a plant, which could only sur- 

 vive under the most favorable circumstances. 



Although my method of farming may not be new, or show 

 any particular originality, still I may suggest some things that 

 mio-ht help some less experienced man who tries his fortune on 

 the frontier. 



DESCRIPTIVE. 



My farm comprises three hundred and twenty acres, 

 adjoining Rock river on the west, and it consists of fifteen 

 acres of timber, one hundred acres of natural meadow, five 

 acres of timothy, and two hundred acres of plowed land. 

 About one hundred acres of the plowed land is upland on 

 the east side, and the remainder is bottom land of a deep, black, 

 alluvial soil. The meadow receives the drainage of several 

 sections on the east, if desired, by a natural run, which may be 

 turned off by means of a dam at the foot of the bluff. To this 

 .plan I owe my success on my meadow, which is more valuable 

 than th« plowed land. The meadow yields each 3-ear from one 

 to on© and a half tons of fine blue-joint hay, and improves 

 each year. Hay brings a fair price, generally four to six 

 dollars per ton. 



I have timber on the northwest corner of the farm, and on 

 the south and east sides of it are m}'- buildings, close to the 

 river, thus affording shelter from the Winter storms, which 

 usually come from the northwest. The river affords a fine 

 opportunity for watering stock. The surface of my bottom 

 land is quite smooth, with a descent of twenty-five feet to the 

 west, in one hundred and sixty rods. It is well drained by 

 Nature, except in one or two small patches, which each year I 

 drain by open furrows. On the east side there is a small bluff. 

 This soil is not as black, being slightly mixed with clay. I 

 have the whole farm nearly surrounded with a row of trees, 

 consisting of cotton wood and ash -leaved maples. 



PLANTING AND HARVESTING. 

 The county is naturally well drained, consequently there 



