796 I^^Y COUNTY, MICHIGAN. 



twenty to forty-three bushels to the acre. I have only once 

 manured the land, and only a small piece then, before putting 

 in the seed. I take the second crop of wheat off, seeding with 

 timothy grass at the last wheat sowing, and I let this field re- 

 main in grass three or four years, tlien plow up in the Fall and 

 put oats on in the Spring as early as the frost will permit, even 

 while the top only is thawed out. After the oats are off, 1 

 plow again, and the next Spring I put in barley. Sometimes 

 I have put in wheat as soon after the oats as I could plow and 

 sow, which is about the first week in September in this latitude, 

 though I have had good wheat which was sown the last of 

 September. After my barley, I plow and drill in about one 

 and three-quarter bushels to the acre of wheat the first week 

 in September, and this land will then give from thirty to forty 

 bushels of the best wheat to the acre. I have raised eighty- 

 five bushels of oats, and fifty-two bushels of clean white barley 

 to the acre. Barley must be sown as 3'ou [do oats, as soon as 

 you can get qn to the land. 



POTATOES. 



I have raised from ten to twenty acres of potatoes a year. 

 I think the best way to raise potatoes is to turn over the pas- 

 ture sod late in the Fall, and then put on the pulverizer early. 

 When the weather is dry and warm, I mark off the rows three 

 and a half feet apart, and put in my seed at ten inches apart in 

 the rows. I cover the seed with the plow, putting on the 

 roller and flattening down the ridges. When the plants have 

 appeared two or three inches above the ground, I put on 

 a small, light, diamond-shaped, double drag, shaped thus: 



<>l 1 This is drawn by one horse by driving between 



O ' the rows. I run over them about twice before 



they are ready to cultivate. Then I run the cultivator be- 

 tween the rows, till the soil is well loosened up.. After a few 

 days more I bring the shovel plow between the rows, throwing 

 the earth on either side against the rows, and then finish up 

 with the hoe, to straighten up and fix the plants. My work is 

 now completed till I dig them, when I plow them out and pick 



