230 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



Tributary to Elgin, the farms are largely managed by tenant farm- 

 ers, probably 75 per cent of them. The landlord furnishes the farm with 

 good buildings, suitable for dairy purposes, and the dairy. The tenant 

 furnishes the teams and farming tools, and performs all the labor' nec- 

 essary to run the business. Each receives one-half of the proceeds of 

 the farm and dairy, and in changing cows, which vary on different farms, 

 from ten to thirty-three per cent each year. Those changing the most 

 realize the greater per cent. What feed is purchased, each pays half. 



Comparatively few farms art rented for cash. There is a vast diff- 

 erence in the per cent these farms pay. Some of them pay a greater per 

 cent on a valuation of one hundred dollars per acre than others do on 

 forty, with local conditions the same. The difference is largely due to 

 management — an item well worth looking into. 



By having a farm stocked with a dairy, which brings the soil up to a 

 high state of fertility and increases its productiveness and value; and 

 with thorough cultivation and preparing a perfect seed-bed, there can be 

 an abundance of feed raised which is essential to the production of milk 

 and keeping of stock. 



As the land increases in value, that value can be met by careful and 

 better farming; by producing more feed to the acre; keeping more 

 stock to the acre, and producing more milk to the acre. 



We formerly planted our corn in checks three feet eight inches, and 

 as the land became richer and stronger, we reduced that check to three 

 feet four. The last few years we have planted three feet each way. 



In planting 3 ft. 8 in. there are 3,240 hiils to the acre; with the 3 ft 

 check there are 4,840 hills, an increase in number of hills on an acre of 

 fifty per cent. There should not be over two or three stalks in a hill, 

 two is better. If you can grow a 11 average of one pound per hill, you 

 will produce eighty-six bushels of corn per acre. 



In planting, we make the first row three feet from the fence. We 

 aim to get the use of all the land in the field. Do not lose sight of the 

 fact , that this high state of fertility of the soil must not produce any- 

 thing but corn. Therefore, keep it clean and thoroughly cultivated. 



