No. 10. Cost of a Farm, <^c. — The Peach on the Plum-stock. 323 



place, pigs are a spontaneous production. 

 Corn on the farm, the present year, and 

 perhaps it is about an average, within 50 or 

 60 miles of Chicago, is not worth over 12A 

 cents a bushel. Oats eight to ten cents, 

 and potatoes less. And they being so low, 

 I will not pretend to fix a price upon beets, 

 rutabagas, carrots, &c, but they can be 

 raised cheap. The summer feed costs little 

 or nothing, and as often as every other year, 

 hogs will get fat upon the mast, which our 

 oak and hickory groves produce abundantly. 

 The next question that I expect your east- 

 ern readers to ask, is, Can prairie farmers 

 raise grain at these prices] I will state a 

 few tacts, and they shall draw conclusions. 

 The first cost of land is one dollar and 

 twenty-five cents an acre. The first plough- 

 ing we generally count as cost, though erro- 

 neously. This is worth one dollar and fifty 

 cents an acre ; or to be better understood, 1 

 will state differently. Prairie land is abun- 

 dant at government price ; but timber is 

 mostly in second hands, and is held higher. 



A quarter section of prairie, that is, 

 160 acres, at $1 25, is $200 



Timber, say 40 acres, which is more 

 than enough, at $3. 120 



Breaking up the prairie, at $1 50. 240 



Fencing it into four lots, eight rails 

 high and stakes, 960 rods, or three 

 miles, 15,366 rails, at one ct. 153 

 66 ; 3,840 stakes, at a ct. 19 20. 173 



A good comfortable double log cabin, 

 such as first settlers generally oc- 

 cupy. 50 



Other small buildings and temporary 

 sheds, 50 



Average cost of a well with pump, 

 $30, with buckets, $15. 



I will add to cover contingencies, such 

 as half an acre of land well paled in 

 for garden, a cow-yard, hog-pen, and 

 other " fixings." 



This makes the cost of the farm, inde- 

 pendent of the woodland, just $5 an 

 acre— the total, $920 



Here, then, are 160 acres of as rich soil as 

 it is possible to imagine, all ready for the 

 emigrant to take possession of and put in a 

 crop, for the sum of $800. The first crop 

 of corn will average about 15 bushels ; in 

 oats, about 20 bushels ; in wheat, about 10 

 bushels; potatoes, about 150; turnips, or 

 rutabagas, 300; buckwheat, 25; beans, peas, 

 millet, pumpkins, melons, &c.,&c., "aright 

 smart chance," and some of the latter, as 

 big " as a good sizable boy can tote." The 

 second crop will be some better, though the 

 sods will yet be in the way of cultivation. 

 After this you have a deep, loose, rich black 



soil, which as you do unto it, so it will do 

 unto you. The practice generally adopted, 

 is to take the skin and starve the body — 

 burning straw and wasting manure — " run- 

 ning over" four times as much land as can 

 be cultivated. In my statement of prices, I 

 have taken this county (the Northwestern 

 one in Indiana) for a basis. In others there 

 may be a sl'ght variation. Both in this 

 State and Illinois, Missouri and Iowa terri- 

 tories, there are thousands of locations to be 

 had at about the rates stated. 



If such " information from the prairies" is 

 such as you want, you can be furnished from 

 time to time, by " Your old friend," 



Solon Robinson. 



Lake C. H., la., Nov. 25th, 1842. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 The Peach on the Plum-stock. 



In one of the former volumes of the Cabi- 

 net, a correspondent advises, as a protection 

 against the worm, to bud the peach upon the 

 pium-stock; and asks, if any of your readers 

 can inform whether the plan has ever been 

 carried into execution, and what has been 

 the result? 



I beg to state, in the orchard of Mr. Caleb 

 Brinton, at Prospect Hill, in Salisbury, Lan- 

 caster county, there is a peach tree many 

 years old, that has been budded on the plum 

 stock, about 18 inches from the ground. At 

 the point of junction, the peach tree is about 

 double the size of the stock, and is com- 

 pletely girdled by the worms, which have 

 also extended their ravages downwards into 

 the plum-stock for about the space of nine 

 inches ; and from this part of the tree have 

 been extracted, the present season, perhaps 

 not fewer than 20 worms, which have preyed 

 indiscriminately on both peach and plum, at, 

 and above and below the junction formed by 

 budding ; but not a worm has been detected 

 at the root of the plum-stock; the tree, how- 

 ever, being as completely destroyed as though 

 the evil had proceeded from thence; and form- 

 ing a perfectly satisfactory answer to your 

 correspondent's inquiry. It is worthy of re- 

 mark, that during a late examination of the 

 peach trees in this orchard, one half of 

 which is kept in grass, the other under cul- 

 tivation, there were about four times as 

 many worms found in those growing in the 

 cultivated portion of the orchard, as in those 

 grown around by grass — an interesting fact 

 for the Delaware peach growers, who, we 

 are told, keep their peach orchards under 

 cultivation, by way of protection. 



C. B. 



Pequea Valley. 



