pw«re^w*^ 



-^^-J^?w^*^K^EP?=e^pp5ff5;ysg5»^(p5IOT??r^:jP?«^wi;5^ 



r^ i,«i.! jppspBier^ .■■•«*-'*f "jv aiJ*i"4|i.pj»*.»n aspiBpHBsiHi^ppf 



ceive the droppings, and once in 15 or 20 

 days removed to the compost pile, and a 

 fresh supply of earth pat in. My hovels 

 [coops] for spring use, cover a space of 

 about 8 feet square, those for summer use 

 about 6 feet. For summer, the ends are 

 left a little open, to admit air. They are 

 also white-washed on the inside, and moved 

 about every 15 or 20 days. In spring, for 

 early use, the hens are set as they take 

 their nests, and carry what chickens they 

 hatch; later in the season, I never put the 

 eggs under less than two hens at a time, 

 and frequently from 4 to 6; These hatch 

 out at the same time, and I make a selec* 

 tion of the hens, and give a hen from 50 

 to 75 chickens, and put her under one of 

 the largest hovels. The remainder of the 

 sitting hens are stopped for a few days, to 

 wean them from their nests, and again tam- 

 ed out for laying. In this way I keep the 

 largest portion of the hens for laying and 

 sitting. We feed the chickens three times 

 a day with corn-meal dough, with a good 

 portion of bran added. [Give them also a 

 plenty of lobbered milk. — Ed.] They are 

 never turned out early in the morning, nor 

 allowed water, except in long spells of dry 

 hot weather. My average this season, has 

 been about 25 chickens to the hen. I have 

 tried most of the different kinds of chickens, 

 and greatly prefer the Dominique crossed 

 on the Shanghai. First, they are very 

 thrifty, of quick and large growth, soon at- 

 taining the size to fry ; their flesh or skin is 

 of a rich yellow, which adds very much to 

 their appearance, when brought to the 

 table. 



-••i- 



Prairie Breaking; Small, T8. Large Farms; 

 Magnifieent Farming with small Comforts; 

 Draft of Breaking Plows; what Teams to 

 use. 



To the Bew settler, Prairie Breaking is en- 

 veloped in a cloud of fog. He has no data but 

 guess work, and finally, concladea kis spaa of 

 nags must be turned oat to grass, and a long 

 string of oxen and steers purchase fl, or the job 

 lee out to some native of the prairie, who has 

 had ample practice with the long whip, and which 

 requires almost as much ezpertness as in the 

 driving of a team of dogs among the hummocks 

 of the arctic ice. In the northern coanties, the 

 prairie team is seldom seen, and the ordinary 

 farm team does the breaking. The tramping 

 oat of prairie grass weakens the tarf and facili- 

 tates the process. Bat here in central Illinois, 

 the blae grass soon makes a tougher sod than 

 the ordinary prairie grass, and here too the red 

 root, that anomloiis pla at, whose root is like 

 solid oak, and top of annual herbaceous growth, 

 is found in great profusion. It is the dread of 

 the prairie breaker, throwing his plow out of 



the ground, making bad balks in the plowing, or 

 snappingpieces of steel from his favorite plow 

 share. 



We have ever been the advocate of small, iJfeU 

 cultivated farms, with machines aud instruments 

 adapted to the use of sacb; and consequently are 

 no great friend to the threshing machiaes that 

 take in their train a small army of men, nor of 

 giant headers, that sweep down a whole prairie 

 in a day, nor of long lines of half broken steers 

 turning broadignag furrows. We are more utili- 

 tariaa in our views, though we might make less 

 show on paper, or less laud the teeming soil of 

 the mighty west. 



We farmers of the west are too apt to become 

 magnificently great in our farm operations, from 

 the turfling of three foot furrows to the tying of 

 the bag string of oar last load of wheat, which 

 in too many cases is designed to pay two per 

 cent a month on the last magniloquent essay in 

 upper tendom farming. For ourself, we prefer 

 to jog on in a quiet way and do our work 

 cheaply yet effectually, so that it will make a 

 fair return for our labors. We have no ambi- 

 tion to encumber our little farm with great ap- 

 pliances to do small work; nor do we wish to sit 

 down to a gammer meal of fried bacon, stewed 

 dried apples and bread; though we might own 

 a two thousand acre farm with forty Darham 

 calves sucking the milk of eighty cows, while 

 milk and butter is ignored for family use. 



Those who prefer this kind of farming, have 

 our sympathies, for though rich in broad acres 

 of swelling prairies and noble herds; yet they are 

 poor in comforts, aad in 4hose surroundings of 

 home, that fill up the measure of domestic 

 happiness, and give zest and enjoyment, com- 

 mensurate with Our wealth of soil and climate. 



But we have digressed from prairie breaking 

 with which we intended to fill up this letter, and 

 will now return to the subject. 



IVe will commence by saying that prairie 

 breaking can be chiefly done with a single span 

 of horses, and aa efiFectually as with half dozen 

 yok:e of oxen. Three horses make an admirable 

 team, autting a furrow sixteen inches wide, 

 while two horses will cut a foot; plowing one 

 and a fourth to one and a half acres per day. 

 Six yoke of oxen are generally used to cut two 

 feet, breaking one a half to two acres per day. 

 The plow is a huge, expensive aflfair, and the 

 wear and tear of whip and lungs no small item. 

 WiB are now breaking lor sod corn with two 

 hoi'ses, using a sixteen inch plow, (made for 

 three horses,) and cutting a furrow one loot wide 

 and two and a half inches deep. Through the 

 kinidness of S, Francis, the Secretary of our 

 State Society, we have the Elliptic Dynamome- 

 ter, made by Gibbs & Co., of Canton, Ohio, by 

 wh ich we have tried the draft, and which we 

 intend to use on several plows in old ground, to 

 show their relative value. The plow used is one 

 ma (?e at Moliae originally, but from bad material 

 and poor workmanship, has been almost remade 

 here. It is of exoellent form, runs first rate and 

 cuts like a knife. The averas;e draft is four 

 hundred and fifty pounds; on fine, smooth prairie, 

 shows between three and four hundred; hum- 

 mocks, or tussocks of grass, carry it to five 



