578 STEELE COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 



pounds each. The gross annual receipts per cow, during the 

 eight years, were about forty dollars. 



FEED. 



Provide green fodder for Fall use, or when the pasture 

 begins to fail. I have found the evergreen sweet corn, sown in 

 drills three feet apart, and worked with horse and cultivator, as 

 other corn, to give fine results in supplying the deficiency. 

 Aside from the best pasture of clover, timothy, and wild grasses 

 for Summer, and good, early cut hay for Winter, I have used 

 the evergreen sweet corn for Fall feed, and wheat bran for 

 Winter, and have always had my cows fat in the Spring, form- 

 ing a reservoir to draw upon in the Summer. Stock should be 

 kept in a thriving condition the year through. It is a grave 

 mistake to allow them to fall off in condition one part of the 

 season to be made up at the expense of the growth during the 

 remainder of the year. 



PEOCEEDS. 



The proceeds from my cows have built me a house costing 

 12,300, a barn costing $1,200, and I still find a balance in their 

 favor. I think I have raised as much or more wheat than I 

 would, if I had not kept cows ; and, instead of having a farm 

 exhausted by continual cropping to wheat, my farm is under 

 a high state of cultivation. 



WHEAT. 



From 1865 to 1878, 1 find that my wheat yield has averaged 

 a fraction over nineteen bushels per acre, sometimes yielding as 

 high as thirty bushels, and again as low as eight or ten. I also 

 find the price, for the time referred to, averages $1.09 per 

 bushel, the highest being $1.80 and the lowest sixty-five cents. 

 I have usually sold on contract as soon as possible after thresh- 

 ing, to be delivered the last of August (if the weather would 

 permit of threshing), or carry it over until the next May, June, 

 or July. I think the rule will hold good to get your crop into 

 market as early as possible, or hold it till the bulk of the crop 

 has passed out of first hands. Tlie cost of raising wheat depends 



