FRUIT — MACHINERY, 579 



on location, soil, and cost of labor. In Steele county the farms 

 are not suitable for the production of wheat alone, being cut 

 up more or less in small strips of meadow, sloughs, groves of 

 timber, lakes, etc., leaving the wheat land not more than one- 

 half of the whole area, and that broken in small lots of from 

 ten to one hundred acres, making it much more expensive to 

 work than unbroken sections. I estimate the cost of raising wheat 

 in our section of country, from eight to ten dollars per acre, 

 counting nothing on capital invested and no wear on machinery. 

 I would divide it up as follows, taking twenty bushels per acre 

 as an average crop (more per acre would increase the cost and 

 less would diminish it, the principal difference being in the 

 threshing) : Plowing, $1.50 ; seed, at $1.00 per bushel, $1.75 ; 

 seeding, seventy-five cents; harvesting and shocking, $1.75; 

 threshing, $3.00 ; making $3.75. These figures make no esti- 

 mate for rainy days, break-downs, etc., which are always 

 attended with more or less expense. If the grain is stacked, 

 the expense is a little more. 



FRUIT. 



Being a lover of fruit I started my orchard almost as soon 

 as I commenced housekeeping, and am proud of my success. I 

 sent to Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, for my first trees, in the Spring 

 of 1866. I have three hundred and fifty trees in all, nearly 

 two hundred of these bearing. I sold over one hundred bushels 

 of apples the past season. I started with the crab variety and 

 gradually worked into the standard fruit. My mode of treat- 

 ment has been clean cultivation for four or five years, then 

 seeding down to clover, and keeping the trees mulched w^th 

 light horse manure or straw. 



MACHINERY. 



Machinery is an important item, what to buy, and how to 

 take care of it. I have always bought for cash, or on thirty or 

 sixty days' time, thereby saving from ten to fifteen per cent. All 

 machinery should be housed as soon as you arc through using 

 it. If you have no barn or machine shed, drive some posts in 

 the ground, lay poles across, and cover with hay or straw. In 



