1860. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



259 



Fur the New England Farmer. 

 LETTER PEOM ISTORTHEEISr ILLINOIS. 



Mr. Editor : — I am becoming better acquaint- 

 ed with the N. E. Farmer and its many corres- 

 pondents, and although not generally supposed to 

 be particularly adapted to Western farming, there 

 is so much in every number that is generally use- 

 ful and agreeable, I am not ready to dispense 

 with the pleasure of reading it regularly. 



My object in this letter is to give some general 

 information in regard to common farming in this 

 part of the north-west. Lands rent in the neigh- 

 borhood of villages, or railroad stations, for about 

 three dollars an acre, cash, for ordinary land, or 

 give one-third of the crops to the landlord. If 

 you are quite near the larger towns, you will have 

 to pay more per acre, or give a larger share of the 

 crops. I do not know that land of medium fer- 

 tility is ever let on better terms, however remote 

 from market, or railroad stations. One man and 

 a span of work -horses will undertake to carry on 

 from 50 to 80 acres, some will undertake even 

 more than 80 acres. We will take G5 acres for 

 the average, for that is about it, of prairie land ; 

 of this he will usually put 30 to wheat, 25 to corn 

 and 10 to oats, and perhaps an extra acre to po- 

 tatoes and garden vegetables. To sow 30 acres 

 of wheat here requires GO bushels seed wheat, 

 ■which is worth about one dollar per bushel, some- 

 times considerable higher, as the best of wheat is 

 required for seed, and is always sold much higher 

 than common marketable wheat. To plow the 

 land is worth one dollar per acre. It will take 

 one man two days to sow 30 acres, which is worth 

 one dollar per day. It will take one man and 

 team six days to harrow or drag over the land three 

 times after sowing, which is the very least it 

 ought to have, but often don't get more than two 

 turns M'ith the drag. It is worth 60 cents per 

 acre to reap 30 acres, and the same to bind it up. 

 It will take one team with two men three days to 

 haul and stack it at the most convenient point ; 

 then allow that he will have 14 bushels per acre, 

 ■which, perhaps, is over the average for the two 

 last years hereabouts, which turns off 420 bushels 

 on 30 acres, which is not often worth more than 

 70 cents in the market, at least at the time most 

 farmers are obliged to sell. Wheat does some- 

 times run higher, but it is only the ablest farm- 

 ers that can take the advantage of the market. 

 We will enumerate raising 20 acres of wheat thus : 



Plowing 30 acres of land $30,00 



60 bushels seed wheat 60,00 



Two days, one man sowing 2,00 



One man and team, six days dragging 12,00 



Reaping 30 acres, at 60 cents per acre 18,00 



Binding 30 " " " " 18,00 



Hauling and stacking 3 days 9,00 



Threshing 420 bushels, at 4 cents per bush 16,80 



Hired help in threshing 10,00 



Rent on 30 acres of land 90,00 



Amounting to $265,80 



Credit by 420 bushels, at 70 cents 294,00 



Leaving clear profit $28,20 



I have said nothing about marketing, which ex- 

 pense will vary according to distance and the state 

 of the roads. 40 bushels is a good load for one 

 span of horses any time. In the above figures I 

 have calculated for boarding and horse feed inclu- 

 ded in every item, and all the above expenses a 

 man saves by his own labors, is so much saved to 



himself in cash. An industrious man can do a 

 great deal of the work alone. In harvest he must 

 hire, as the work must go forward rapidly. 



Corn raising is thought a little more profitable, 

 if a man can wait for the rise in the market, which 

 generally occurs from June to September the year 

 after the crop is raised. After the corn is planted, 

 one man and a good strong horse will tend 25 

 acres on the prairie in the ordinary way, and that 

 mostly consists in cultivating or plowing through 

 it from three to five times, as corn is not general- 

 ly hoed here at all ; although most every one 

 knows it will pay to do so, yet it is not often done. 

 With such culture, on common land, and a fair 

 season, a man can depend upon 30 bushels shelled 

 corn per acre, and from 50 to 60 cents per bushel. 

 If he waits on the markets he needs to hire none, 

 only in planting and harvesting. The expense of 

 raising oats in many respects is the same as 

 wheat-raising. It requires 3 bushels seed per 

 acre, and if a good season, 40 ])ushels can be har- 

 vested per acre, which range in price from 20 to 

 35 cents. Oats are a good deal like corn in this 

 respect, as the season advances the price also 

 does. Rye and barley crops also receive consid- 

 erable attention here. 



From these estimates it can be seen whether 

 wheat-raising in Illinois Is more paying than fruit 

 raising and butter-making in New England, or 

 peaches, sweet potatoes and stock-raising in New 

 Jersey, Pennsylvania or Missouri. They all re- 

 quire labor and attention to secure success. There 

 are many improved agricultural implements being 

 introduced here and becoming in use, such as 

 grain-sowers, drills and harvesters. We have had 

 one month of most delightful weather for farmers 

 to get in their crops. Wheat sowing is mostly over, 

 another week will about wind it up. I never have 

 seen such a breadth of land being put into crops 

 as is the case this spring. It has been very dry 

 all spring, wells are low, and rain is required to 

 start the wheat and oats in the ground. 



Thomas A. Jackson. 



Boscoe, 111., April 2, 1860. 



For the New England Farmer. 



■WATER PIPES— NEW WAY OP RAISING 

 POTATOES. 



Om- spring is early, though there is yet snow in 

 the woods and noi'th sides of hills, but the frost is 

 nearly out and on dry soils not much moisture. I 

 plowed to-day in the field and planted potatoes 

 and peas, what I have never before done in March, 

 for field culture. 



I notice a complaint of one your correspon- 

 dents that he thinks his water running through 

 lead pipes has injured his health. My experience 

 would indicate that he is mistaken in the cause of 

 his malady. I have a spring, a little higher than 

 my kitchen floor, ten rods distant, from which the 

 water has been running thirty-five years through 

 a lead pipe. The water being good for all pur- 

 poses, and cool, has been used freely by a large 

 family without any perceptible injury during all 

 this time. I feel confident this water running 

 through ten rods or more of lead pipe is as health- 

 ful as can be found anywhere. It may make some 

 diflference, also, where the water lies stilly much 

 of the time in the lead, and where it is con- 



