f^'^fHe^r^^srr'^^PTi^ 



^,-yffkV!^:P-wf.-u^i«y«|jiipjy;iu.^^ 



)i«t.UjjyLiii9^i{,iiJ^j!,U4liiii("'.i_4ii^.MiJVV^^^ 



THE ILLINOIS FABMER. 



123 



proved very anpropitious for corn, and yet I 

 made a good crop, say forty bushels to the 

 acre, on land that had been cultivated with 

 corn, without change, for ten years in succes- 

 sion. True, the land when prepared for 

 cultivation had been denuded of timber, but 

 I am not old enough yet to find out any 

 material difference between our timbered 

 and prairie soils, on the uplands of this 

 county in the production of crops, after 

 many years of successive cultivation. 



A portion of my old farm at Rock 

 Spring, two and a half miles north of the 

 farm I cultivated in 1821, was first' culti- 

 vated in corn in 1322. I settled on a tract 

 of "barrens," so called from the timber be- 

 ing shrubby, stunted aud scattering; with 

 patches of prairie, intermingled with patches 

 of under brush, of oak and hickory, grow- 

 ing from grub roots. On such tracts of new 

 country, the autumnal fires contend with 

 the annual growth, and partially or wholly 

 kill the young timber, until settlements 

 are maie and the prairie grass killed out. 



Being like all my neighbors, unable to 

 fence, break up and cultivate new groupd to 

 the extent desirable, with every farmer, I 

 had to plaac corn for many years in succes- 

 sion in the same field. The . supposition 

 tljat by such a process the rich soil would be 

 soon exhausted, gave us no uneasiness, for it 

 was a trifling matter to remove our fences 

 and make a new cornfield, as some did. 

 Congress land in great profusion for $1 25 

 per acre, adjoined nearly every farm, and 

 from 1820 to 1835, we had no fear of specu- 

 lators annoying us. Very little wheat and 

 but occasional crops of oats were grown in 

 this and the adjoining counties. Corn was 

 the staple commodity of agriculture, and 

 grown on the same ground for many years 

 in succession. 



In this part of the State, the prairies ly- 

 ing near the timber were first cultivated. 

 Very seldom would a settler make his pitch 

 in the interior of a prairie The same policy 

 of successive crops of corn was pursued on 

 these prairie farms. No difference in the 

 character and quality of the soil was dis- 

 covered in the farms near the timber, and 

 those made subsequently in the interior of 

 large prairies. The destruction of the. 

 peculiar grass of the prairies (pbapratensis) 

 by the feeding of stock in the summer, by 

 the growth of hazel patches, shrubs, brush- 

 wot^, and finally timber; and by the intro- 

 duction of the Kentucky blue-grass, has de- 

 stroyed the tough adhesive sward of our 

 prairies that yet remain such, and modified, 

 but not essentially changed the character of 

 our prairie soiU. 



My farm at Rock Spring wai badly 

 managed for many years. Absence from 

 home a large proportion of my time, in my 

 professional duties, for more than twenty 

 years, compelled me to depend on hired men 

 who had no skill or training as agricultur- 

 ists, or on annual "croppers," who were ac- 

 customed to skim over the ground with the 

 primitive "Barshire*' plow; or on my sons 

 in boyhood. The surface in barrens ii 

 more undulating than the prairies, and while 

 it drains off the water from excessive rains 

 rapidly, it also has its soil washed away 

 where the surface slopes, or small ravines 

 exist. 



All these circumstances were anfavorafole 

 to the successful growth of successive crops, 

 and especially corn. Then these barrens 

 had a thinner and lighter soil at first than 

 the soil of the prairies in this part of the 

 State. I have used very little manure, ex- 

 cept on meadow land ; and in favorable sea- 

 sons I have mowed and cured from two to 

 three and half tons of bay (timothy and red- 

 top,) to the acre by measurement and 

 weight. I have repeatedly exterminated 

 the sour dock, when it has made inroads 

 into my meadow. An industrious laborer, 

 with a sharp grubbing hoej by catting off 

 each plant an inch or two below the surface, 

 aud letting the hot June sun pour its 

 scorching rays on the bleeding stump, need 

 not give himself further trouble with this 

 noxious weed. This operation should be 

 performed when the weed is in blossom. 



My farm was brought under cultivation 

 at successive periods from 1822 to 1845, 

 which then included about sixty acres of 

 land in cultivation. My oldest field of ten 

 acres was left to grow up in grass, without 

 seeding, after the harvest of 1842, and it 

 was broken up again and sown to wheat In 

 1844. The soil had been resuscitated, and 

 the crop of 1845 exceeded twenty bushels to 

 the acre: an average harvest that season. 

 Another portion of a field of mine measur- 

 ing nine acres, was first cultivated in 1826, 

 aud every year after run to corn, wheat or 

 oats; the corn repeatedly three years in 

 succession, with crops ranging from 35 to 

 50 bushels to the acre. This field had been 

 skimmed over with the Barshire plow of 

 "Croppers" till in 1845, it did not prodace 

 ten bushels of wheat to the acre. In the 

 spring of 1846, on my return from PhiladeU 

 phia, after an absence of seventeen months, 

 I found my sons had sown this field to oats. 

 The crop was a good one. After the stock 

 had used up the scattering stalks of oats, 

 and eaten the fresh grass, I instructed my 

 sons how to break up the oat field for wh*at. 



