340 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
[September, 
row placed a cut piece of potato, or a small one 
whole, once in every three feet or so. The next 
furrow covered them, and in due time they sent up 
a good growth of vines between the sods. The 
Tines look very thrifty, and on opening a few places 
we found a plenty of growing potatoes, some of 
them large enough to cook to-day (Aug. 9), and all 
promising a good crop. In another place the 
plowing was first done, the sod opened with a sort 
of wooden spud, the potatoes dropped in, and the 
opening closed by drawing in a little soil with a 
hoe. For some reason this plot did not look so 
well as the other, but it may have been due to 
other causes than the mode of planting. The first 
method required the least work. The latter may 
be preferable when not ready to plant at the time 
of breaking up of the prairie sod. 
Field Beans on Fresh Prairie. 
"We have also seen very good crops of field beans 
growing on land broken the present year. These 
were planted in the cracks between the turned 
sods, in some cases by sticking them in by hand, 
and in others by forming a receptacle 1>£ to 2 
inches deep with a wooden implement like a crow¬ 
bar, with the end flattened out to an inch in thick¬ 
ness, and three or four inches wide, and blunt at 
the bottom end. A cross pin through it regulated 
the depth. The holes were made with a single 
thrust, the seed dropped, a little dirt thrown in, 
and the work was done. Another plan is to use an 
old axe, which is struck down between sods, or into 
them, the seed, corn or beans, dropped in, two 
blows struck on each side to loosen a bit of the 
soil, which is pressed down with the foot to cover 
the seed. These beans, as well as the potatoes and 
corn above described, will supply excellent nourish¬ 
ing food for man or beast during the coming winter. 
White turnips on prairie sod can be growm with 
fair success, not always with certainty, as in a dry 
season they may not take, or may dry out after 
they have made a good start. They can be put on 
any broken sod, harrowed, and 60 wn during July. 
A Yorkshire Man on a Prairie Farm. 
By an incident of travel, we chanced upon a large 
prairie farm in Leyden Township, Illinois, and had 
a familiar chat with the owner, Freyer Marwood. 
He came from Yorkshire, England, direct to the 
West, and had but a single dollar left in his pocket 
on arriving upon the western shore of Lake Mich¬ 
igan. To-day (Aug. 9) we found him with his three 
sons on a farm of about 600 acres, all purchased 
at from $50 to $100 per acre, and paid for out of 
the products of the farm itself, and he now lives 
in a fine residence recently erected. Some items 
from his experience will be interesting to many 
young men in the Eastern States, as well as to 
multitudes in his native country. They may also 
well be studied and thought about by not a few of 
the older and more recent settlers upon prairie 
farms over much of the West. By the way, Mr. 
Marwood says that while young men from crowded 
old England may generally improve their own con¬ 
dition by emigrating hither, and leave more room 
and scope for those remaining behind, he strongly 
advises the older people not to come. Those hav¬ 
ing their modes of thought and work fixed by 
years can not easily adapt themselves to the habits 
of this new country. They will always be longing 
for the fatherland, be uneasy, and have no certainty 
of success. When he came he resolved to at once 
Become an American Citizen, 
and adapt himself to the country he had chosen 
for his future home. He registered immediately, 
and felt himself to be henceforth a full-blooded 
American, and determined to make the best of it. 
Having learned the blacksmith’s trade in youth, he 
worked at this until he acquired a few dollars 
capital. In 1857 he rented 40 acres, with a small 
house on it, at $70 a year; raised what corn, 
potatoes and oats he could, and after nearly five 
years had only a small stock of cows left. In 1861, 
having learned the way to work, he rented another 
farm of 160 acres at $ .00 a year, and went to raising 
com, oats, grass, and some wheat. At the end of 
four years he had by strict economy and hard 
work paid the rent and saved $2,000, with some 
stock and implements. In the year 1865 he made 
His First Purchase of Band, 
a farm of 120 acres, at $50 per acre ($6,000), paying 
down his $2,000, and having six years to pay the 
balance of $4,000. This mortgage he paid off in 
less than four years out of the products of the 
farm. It should be stated that in all these years 
he cut more or iess grass from the unoccupied 
prairies around him—an opportunity not now open 
anywhere near any city or village. During the 
past 11 years he has invested the profits of the 
farm, not in bonds and mortgages, but in improv¬ 
ing the farm itself, and then in buying adjoining 
land of less practical neighbors, and putting that 
into a condition for profitable culture. He regards 
the land as a machine for producing crops, and for 
it to do its work profitably it must be kept in the 
best condition, and be furnished with the nec¬ 
essary materials out of which to make crops. 
Using' Much Manure on Prairie Soils. 
He ridicules the common practice of burning 
straw from new prairie land “to get rid of it.” 
On the contrary, he has from the first saved and 
worked into manure every forkful of straw not 
eaten by the stock, when he could not sell it at 
good prices to villagers or city dealers who keep 
horses. The teams carrying the straw to market 
always bring back a load of manure. Though his 
land is as fertile as the average of new prairie, he 
finds it pays to put on all the manure he can make 
and get. His large crops of corn, oats, and grass, 
prove he is correct, as docs the constant improve¬ 
ment in yield, instead of the usual depreciation 
after a few years of culture. Two tons per acre of 
good Timothy, 70 bushels of oats, 60 to 70 bushels of 
sound corn are other evidences. But this is not all. 
Another Secret of Success 
is his belief that he owns all the soil under him, and 
that some of it can be turned to account. After 
the first thin breaking and rotting of the tough 
sod, he puts the plow right down from 12 to 18 
inches deep, and brings up the buried stores of fer¬ 
tility. He plows the manure down to the bottom, 
thus tempting the roots of plants to go down there, 
where they find not only food, but moisture and 
coolness even in the dryest hot season. The great 
multitude of prairie farmers who burn their straw, 
and claim that three or four-inch deep culture is 
ample, may well take a hint from Mr. Marwood's 
successful experience. Facts tell stronger than 
theories or whims. The leaven of English ideas 
about deep plowing and heavy manuring is not 
bad, even for slipshod prairie farming. 
Other Items. 
After breaking the sod one season, and allowing 
it to rot until spring, Mr. M usually sows flax as a 
first crop, especially as it is one that requires little 
labor. This is cut with the mowing machine, and 
run through the thresher, and yields 12 to 14 bush¬ 
els of seed per acre, which seldom sells below $1.80 
per bushel, and often higher, Some of the straw 
is frequently sold at $3 to $4 per ton, only about 
paying for hauling it to the mill. As it is of little 
value in itself for manure, it is usually put at the 
bottom of the yard as an absorbent of the liquid, 
and ultimately mixed with the whole of the ma¬ 
nure. Flax after flax does not do well. Oats or 
corn generally follow the first flax crop. Oats do 
not follow oats well. Corn may follow corn year 
after year, on good prairie soil, and for an almost 
unlimited period if the manure is saved and ap¬ 
plied on such soils. Poor to medium or fair crops 
of corn may be grown for several years on ordinary 
prairie land, but large, paying crops are the rule 
on land frequently manured. The plowing, the 
culture, the seed, etc., are the same for a poor as 
for a good crop ; the actual cost of applying the 
manure is repaid several fold. 
[The latest from Mr. Judd is a dispatch stating 
that he was (Aug. 12th) on his way to Bismarck. He 
says:] I met with many intelligent farmers in 
Wisconsin and Minnesota, and examined crops in 
both those States. Fanners are in excellent spir¬ 
its, as they well may be, with dairying generally 
good, and crops of corn everywhere superb. In 
Wisconsin, wheat is somewhat below the average, 
while in Minnesota it is above. In the southeast, 
some damage from the chinch-bug is reported, but 
in the northeast, the crop is unusually fine, and the 
harvest weather is all that could be desired. After 
studying the most recent official county reports, 
we estimate the crop at forty-eight millions of 
bushels, which is an increase over former crops of 
nearly one-half. We find both Americans and for¬ 
eigners are settling upon the Northern Pacific R. 
It. lands, the foreigners probably predominating. I 
met with an intelligent Englishman who had just 
come over with twelve children. At home he had 
been a large tenant fanner of the better class, hav¬ 
ing paid $4,000 rental annually. Here this sum 
will purchase outright more land than he hired at 
home. We do not wonder that he reports that 
many of his neighbors similarly situated are coming.. 
Stable Rake and Scraper. 
A handy combination rake and scraper for the 
stable can be made as follows : Select a hard-wood 
stick, fifteen inches in length, four inches wide, 
and an inch and a half thick ; bring it to a triangu¬ 
lar shape in cross-section by shaving down ou« 
STABLE llAKE AKD SCRAPER. 
side to a thin edge. Bore six or eight %-inch holes; 
into the unshaved side, to the depth of two inches, 
and insert in them sharpened hard-wood pins, that 
will project three or four inches. A handle, of the 
desired length, is then made and inserted, and; 
braced, as shown in the accompanying engraving. 
Such a tool may be used to either push or pull the 
litter and manure, the toothed side being especially 
adapted to loosening and moving those portions 
that the smooth side will not catch. 
Swamp Muck—Its Value. 
An item some months ago to the effect that it 
had been shown that an acre of swamp muck was 
worth $25,000, has called out several inquiries. 
This item referred to a former article, and it should 
have explained that analysis shows that some muck 
is rich in fertilizing constituents, so much so that- 
at the usual prices of nitrogen, etc., an acre of the 
muck three feet deep had been estimated to be worth 
the sum named. Very few have an idea of how 
much of a pile an acre to the depth of three feet 
would make. The chemist may show that muck: 
contains certain fertilizing materials, yet that may 
be in an unavailable form, for the plant does not 
always find and take out what analysis shows a soil 
to contain, just as the working of a gold or s 
silver mine never turns out anything like the 
amount of metal that an assay shows to be in the 
ore. Muck, as to its agricultural value, has been- 
both much underrated and greatly overestimated. 
There is muck and muck, and it varies so greatly 
in different localities that to speak of it as some¬ 
thing of uniform composition, like plaster, for 
example, is liable to mislead. While a given de¬ 
posit of muck may contain all the elements of 
fertility, these may not be in a condition to be avail¬ 
able as plant food, and may even be the case 
that they are in a form that would be injurious 
to vegetation were fresh muck to be applied as a 
fertilizer. Fresh muck applied to land is of little • 
or no use. If dug in the spring and spread, it dries 
into hard lumps, and we have known them to retain' 
their form the whole season. For muck to be use¬ 
ful at all, it must first be brought into proper 
mechanical conditions. It should be dug in fall or 
early winter, so that the frosts may break it up and 
thoroughly pulverize it. When in the proper con¬ 
dition, and both fine and dry, it may often De used 
to advantage in stables as an absorbent of liquid 
manure. We say “ often,” as it may happen that 
leaves or sawdust may be had for bedding at much 
less than it would cost to get out and prepare the 
muck for the purpose. Each case must be con- 
