242 



THE ILLIjN^OIS F^HMEH. 



meadow and treading, in in the winter, it 

 tmproves the meadow very much. When 

 ihe heavy rains come, and the frost is 

 going out of the ground in the spring 

 take the stock off. 



I think it is not best to sow more 

 Wheat than double the amount you think 

 you will want I'or bread. If it should 

 not be more than half a crop you will 

 still have enough for bread. Always 

 BOW your Wheat in September. When- 

 ever you get your hay and wheat stacked 

 go over all your fields and pull up all 

 the cockle burrs, and the balance of the 

 sour dock you did not see in June. The 

 time to pull up the sour dock is after the 

 first rains in June ; then it comes up 

 easy. If it should get too hard to pull 

 get a chisel made two and a half inches 

 broad, fifteen inches long, and thick 

 enough through so that a man cannot 

 bend or break it. Get a shank put to it 

 for a man to put his foot on, with a 

 handle on it to push it down by the side 

 of the dock, then pry it up by the roots ; 

 it is much easier than to pull them when 

 they get old, and burn them when the seed 

 gets ripe. 



If you have old land plow it up ten or 

 twelve inches deep in the fall or fore past 

 of winter. You will find yon will raise 

 almost double the quantity of corn with 

 less work than by plowing shallow in the 

 spring. I like it best to cut and set up 

 my corn sixteen hills square. W^hen you 

 commence your shock throw the first 

 load on the ground, then cross it. It 

 stands up much better than to the hills 

 together, while even the blade is not 

 blown away it is a good time to cut corn 

 There is a great deal of corn spoiled by 

 cutting it when too green. You hud 

 better cut it when the blade is all blown, 

 and perfectly dry to feed fat cattle, than 

 cut it too green. 



If you want to make money by feeding 

 steers, commence feeding on the 1st of 

 October. Let your cattle remain on the 

 pasture and do not give them more than 

 six quarts once a day. After feeding 

 them ten days you may give them seven 

 quarts per day if your cattle are large. 

 Feed at the same time of day as near as 

 possible. If you want to get them fat 

 soon, by the first of November give them 

 five quarts twice a day ; by the 10th of 

 November give them six qaarts twice a 

 day. Increase very slowly, but never 

 give them their full feed until cold 

 weather if that should not be until 

 January. I expect good grass until cold 

 weather. Do not put them in a lot until 

 cold weather. Your cattle will be much 

 healthier than if in a lot, and take much 

 less corn. By the latter end of January 

 or the first part of February begin to 

 feed so that they will have beds of corn 

 and fodder to lay on, if corn is cheap 

 and you want to get cash without grazing 

 them. 



Have hogs enough to eat up all thej 

 waste corn. If you feed heavy have halfj 

 as many stock cattle as fat cattle to 

 follow. If you can, get cattle to follow 

 coming four years old. If you can get 

 a chance sell your fat cattle the first op- 

 portunity and put as many more in their 

 place. Ilcmember to commence with 

 .them so as not to founder them. Do 

 not get to a full feed under ten days or 

 two weeks. They will be good for the 

 June market. Whenever you can get a 

 price sufficient to make a reasonable 

 profit sell and buy more. My judgment 

 whenever I have anything to sell, and 

 can get a reasonable profit, is to sell any 

 thing I have to spare. Do not sell on 

 credit unless you are sure of getting your 

 money. 



Wheat wastes very much unless it is 

 well stacked — laying out of your money, 

 paying interest "and cash and losing 

 credit — I think it is better to sell any 

 thing you have to sell than to let the officer 

 sell it. 



I have not, for many years, let my 

 stock horses in a stable. Let them run 

 out all winter. Give them nothing but 

 hay, when there is snow on the ground. 

 I have a blue grass pasture, water, and 

 brush in it. I do not wean a colt. I 

 put my stallion with the marcs, never 

 catch the horse to put to the marcs, but 

 turn them together to let them do as they 

 please. There is no doubt but the 

 mothers of the young colts wean them 

 as our mothers wean us. Come to my 

 place and you will see several young colts 

 running with their mothers, and the 

 young sucking colts fat. I wmtered 

 rising seventy head of stock horses last 

 winter without any grain of any descrip- 

 tion. They all did not eat exceeding 

 six tons of hay during the winter, and I 

 am doing the same way this winter. I 

 sold a few days ago a pair of brown bay 

 colts three years old past, for three hun- 

 dred and fifty dollars, with ten per cent, 

 interest from date until paid, with good 

 security. The colts were not more than 

 half broken. I sold the same day a filly 

 three years old for one hundred and thirty 

 dollars, getting more than half cash and 

 ten per cent, interest until the balance is 

 paid. The same day I sold a filly four 

 years old, not broke, for one hundred 

 and fifty dollars — American gold. 



I raise five colts large enough to use, 

 cheaper than one steer. The trouble 

 with the colts is that you cannot sell a 

 lot of colts together for the cash as you 

 can steers. Raise horses, steers, hogs, 

 and babies, if you feel like it. It is bet- 

 ter to raise hogs than dogs. 



Whenever you get your corn cut, dig 

 your potatoes and gather your apples bo- 

 fore they freeze. Then fall to making 

 rails and resetting your fence. I think 

 it pays well to reset your fence once in 

 every four or five years. Make a good 



fence sufficient to save your crops. — 

 Stake and rider it. To double rider it 

 is for the best. It keeps it from blowing 

 down and keeps you and your neighbors 

 on good terms by having a good fence. 

 I think by this time you can keep away 

 from town ten weeks without over strain- 

 ing yourself. 



If you have to go, do not go on Satur- 

 day, for every trifling, indolent person 

 is there to hinder you from attending to 

 your business. Whenever you enter the 

 door, ask for what you want, get it all, 

 and then go home to your wife and boys. 

 By staying all day and going home in 

 the night you are apt to eat too much, 

 and not apt to work enough in the night 

 to make it digest well, which if you had 

 gone home when you should, you could 

 have packed the same load and had time 

 to have worked it ofi" before night, and 

 not have hurt you. Take care to do all 

 your work in the proper season. Ground 

 plows much easier and lighter for your 

 teams when ploughed in the proper sea- 

 son than it does out of season. Dr. 

 Franklin says, "Riches are like the ark, 

 the growth of it is not in one year. The 

 daily additions of pence in time makes 

 full purses." 



If I understand him — he means, if you 

 cannot get five dollars per day, take what 

 you can get, rather than do nothing, and 

 get into mischief as many an idle fellow 

 does, for it takes many a hard year of 

 labor to pay the penalty of crime, be- 

 sides the loss of character, which is the 

 worst of all, when had they been at work 

 for two bits a day, it would be much bet- 

 ter for them, and have saved theur friends 

 from distress. 



When I was about sixteen years old I 

 went to rake hay in Pennsylvania for 

 Jacob Rusch, much tlie|wealthiest man in 

 all that country. I worked from the 

 time the dew was off the hay, close and 

 tight, until dark, and went two and a 

 half miles after my money, and got seven 

 and a quarter cents for my day*s work, 

 together with a great deal of praise for 

 being a good boy. My father, 

 Josiah Strawn died by the side of Mr. 

 Rusch. 



Jacob Rusch, bought all his sons, ex- 

 cept Reuben, the best and largest farm 

 in that country, and gave them every- 

 thinc: to work them besides. And if I 

 am rightly informed, there is not one of 

 them doing well. Reuben Rusch had 

 just brains enough to work. On Mon- 

 day morning he would get up at twelve 

 o'clock, and thresh wheat until twelve 

 o'clock, at night, and then half of the 

 night all the week. 



I think it is much better to bring up 

 our children to industrious and steady 

 habits, and give them a good common 

 education, if we cannot give them ona 

 dollar. There is being educated in 

 Jacksonville, Morgan Co., enough law- 



