109 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Notes on Illinois Farming —HI. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist. 
In speaking of Western farming, allusion has 
been had in general terms to the mode of opening 
a prairie farm, and in my second communication 
to fences. My next letter, as yet unpublished, 
[not received, Ed ] gave a short account of houses. 
Outbuildings need but a small space as they are 
in vogue with old “sucker” farmers, or but to 
small extent. A hastily constructed log stable, 
with a door about four feet high, rendering the 
animals’ ingress and egress a very dangerous af¬ 
fair, open all around between the logs, half full of 
manure, and illy provided with racks or feeding 
boxes, is, in a majority of cases, all the outbuild¬ 
ings for animals, or rather horses, that can be 
found. Oxen, cows, calves, and sheep, also hogs, 
generally shelter themselves where they can, un¬ 
der the lee side of hay or straw stacks. Where 
an immigration of Yankees, Pennsylvanians, or 
Eastern farmers is found, better provision for 
sheltering stock is made. In many portions of 
the State, however, some steps are being taken 
towards improvement in outbuildings, &c. The 
Agricultural papers are doing much towards re¬ 
generating the the old habits of carelessness and 
and inattention to the wants and comforts of do¬ 
mestic animals ; but great room for improvement 
still exists. 
I will merely mention roads, and say that they 
are never attended to when it can be avoided, 
and good roads are scarce. The prairies when 
dry, make good roads without attention, and when 
wet, very bad ones. The story of the man who 
did not cover his house in wet weather because he 
could not work in the rain, and in dry weather, 
because it did not need it, applies here. Nothing, 
in my opinion, evinces a better mark of a flour¬ 
ishing agricultural community, than good roads, 
and fences. 
The great staples of Illinois are wheat, corn, 
hogs and cattle. 
Illinois raises enough grain to feed the Uuited 
States, but is not very well paid for raising it. 
Wheat is raised on new land broken in May and 
June, and upon old land. The sod crop of this 
grain is generally considered the best, yielding 
from 20 to 30 bushels, sometimes more. I pre¬ 
sume the average yield of Winter wheat in this 
State to be 15 bushels. If proper attention were 
paid to the culture of wheat, it would, in my 
in my opinion, yield much larger crops. 
Spring wheat usually does well, and there has 
been some crops of 40 bushels to the acre, in 
this country the past season. Wheat is sown in 
such a careless manner, as a general thing, that 
the wonder is how any crop is made to pay. 
Some reap more cheat than wheat, and you can 
find thousands of sucker farmers who will posi¬ 
tively assert that wheat turns to cheat. What 
a pity they can so cheat themselves. More grain 
is sown broadcast than by drill, but in five years 
it will be otherwise. 
In connection with this subject I would remark 
that drills are sold too high to come into immedi¬ 
ate general use, and this is a fault with almost 
every new and useful agricultural machine. 
Broadcast wheat is covered with the harrow or 
plow, as the owner may fancy ; that sowed among 
standing corn being put in by the cultivator or 
with double shovel plows. 
Pennock’s drill seems to be the one most gener¬ 
ally liked, though various others are used; my 
own crop was put in by one of Pennock’s seven 
tired drills, which I like much, but can add an 
improvement to prevent clogging by rubbish. To 
jise the drills effectually, stubble, weeds, &c., 
piust be buripd out of sight • this is not ip accord¬ 
ance with Western farming, a few inches being 
deemed sufficient. Broadcast wheat this year 
looks as well as drilled wheat, so far; what Win¬ 
ter may do yet in his dying struggles remains to 
be seen, and feared. When I harvest my crop you 
shall have an account of it. It is my intention to 
roll my wheat in the Spring when the frost has 
gone. Wheat is generally cut by machines and 
thrashed by machines. Of this we must wait un¬ 
til another leisure moment gives time to write. 
H. H. 
Prairie Cottage, Christian Co., 
Ill., Feb. 9th., 1858. 
- — ----- 
Notes on Farming in S. E. Tennessee. 
We recently received a visit from a subscriber in 
Marion Co., Tenn., Mr. A. Newberry, from whom 
we gleaned some interesting statements respect¬ 
ing a section of the county little known. Mr. N. 
came from England about eight years since, and 
three years ago purchased a tract of land in Marion 
County of 1,500 acres, paying therefor only 
twelve hundred dollars, though almost 50 acres 
were cleared up, and a thrifty orchard of 150 ap¬ 
ple trees was planted—the majority of them the 
Limber Twig variety, which flourishes well there, 
and is much esteemed as a market fruit on ac¬ 
count of its excellent keeping qualities. Marion 
County lies on the north side of the Tennessee 
river, in a valley between two spurs of the Cum¬ 
berland mountains. Mr. N’s farm lies on the top 
of “ Walden’s Ridge,” from 2000 to 3000 feet 
above the bed of the Tennessee river, from which 
he is some nine miles distant. This elevated 
position gives a climate, in many respects, like 
that of New-York, though less cold in Winter, 
and less warm in Summer. A blanket covering 
is always needed in Summer nights, while sheep 
graze in the fields nearly all the Winter. 
Throughout this section the hills or mountain 
spurs are not sharp and rugged, but so gently 
undulating as to furnish tillable fields upon their 
sides. The original trees are of tall growth, some¬ 
what scattered, without much under-brush, except 
near beds of streams where there is an under¬ 
growth of liuckle-berries, “sour wood,” {nysse r 1 ) 
black gum, &c. The soil ranges from sandy to 
rich sandy loam, with frequent clay sub-soils. 
In the more open woodlands, the trees are often 
deadened by girdling, the soil “ scratched’’ over 
with a bull-tongue plow, and corn or turnips plant¬ 
ed from which a good crop is produced the first 
season. A wood lot of ten acres girdled in the 
Winter and planted with corn in the Spring, gave 
300 bushels of shell corn. 
Through the Agriculturist s Annual Distribution 
he received last year, some of Stowell & Dar¬ 
ling’s sweet corn, both of which grew very finely, 
and gave great satisfaction. The Barling variety 
furnished corn for the table in eight weeks from 
■-planting , and every stalk produced three well de¬ 
veloped ears. This, with Stowell’s, he thinks, 
will give them everything that could be desired in 
sweet corn, both for quality and a succession. 
Mr. Newburry brought from England the atiatch- 
ment to root culture there prevalent, and he finds 
turnips one of the best paying crops in his new 
location. He adopts the English method of leav¬ 
ing the roots in the ground to be fed off by sheep 
during Winter, which is a feasible mode in the 
milder climate of Tennessee. Potatoes grow 
particularly fine on these new lands, made rich by 
the deposits of leaf mold for centuries past. Last 
Summer he took out thirty barrels of seed 
potatoes from New-York, including Junes, Mer¬ 
cers, and Western Red, all of which did well, but 
he prefers the “ Western Reds” on account of 
their later ripening, and therefor better adapta 
tion to keeping. 
Grasses of various kinds grow well, especially 
Timothy, Herds-grass, and the “ Amsterdam blue- 
grass” -which takes well on poor soil. The abun¬ 
dance of natural grasses makes this region well 
adapted to stock-raising. Several young men 
have gone therewith from $1000 to $2000, which 
they have invested in live stock to be glazed 
for Southern markets, to which there is now easy 
access by the railroads, and have greatly bettered 
themselves by so doing. 
We are somewhat surprised at the statements 
of Mr. Newberry, that even with the present 
market facilities, there is a large amount of land 
of fair quality which can still be purchased at 
prices ranging from 75 cents to $2 per acre. The 
great present want is good society. The scat¬ 
tered original settlers need an infusion of civiliza¬ 
tion. A colony of enterprising men with their 
families settling at any point in those regions 
would not only find farming profitable, but ex¬ 
ert a benign influence upon a large circle around. 
Reapers and Mowers. &c.III. 
FIELD TRIAL OF IMPLEMENTS BY THE UNITED 
STATES AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, JULY, 1857 
To the Editor oj the American Agriculturist. 
Since my last, I have read the articles in the 
Rural New-Yorker by Mr. Soper, showing the 
great injustice done to the Ketchum Machine ir 
the Report of the Syracuse Trial; I have also 
seen Mr. Burrall’s and Mr. Allen’s respective Pro¬ 
tests in regard to their machines. Such blunders 
—such errors—such omissions—such reasoning 
and such injustice do these gentlemen point out as 
abounding on nearly every page of the Syracuse 
Harvester Trial Report as to even surprize me, 
familiar as I supposed myself with the subject; 
and yet I presume there are several others among 
those who competed, that, if disposed, might add 
largely to this catalogue of delinquenees. if they 
have not concluded, by this time, that the whole 
thing is pretty essentially used up. For my own 
part I can only say, in farmer parlance, that these 
gentlemen, in their severe though just protests, 
have cut me completely out of my swartL and 
left little more to say. Trials of this kind 
hereafter will be a by-word and reproach; and the 
medals which the Society have awarded can only 
be exhibited by their winners with disgrace. Had I 
been so unfortunate as to have obtained one, the 
very first thing I should do would be to melt it 
down and then dispose of it as so much gross 
bullion. 
But, to give the public an idea of the injus¬ 
tice these gentlemen complain of, I will quote 
one or two of the charges from each. Mr. Bur- 
rail states, among many other things : 
“ I entered two machines of entirely different 
construction. One as a Reaper only, for which I 
paid an entrance fee of $50. This machine had 
previously, at the New-York State Trial at 
Geneva, in 1852, been thoroughly tested in com¬ 
petition with McCormick’s, Manny s, Seymour 
& Morgan’s, Atkins’ and others, and received the 
first premium, and has often since competed suc- 
cessiully with those and various others. It was 
on the ground from the beginning to the end of 
the trial, and until I was informed by Mr. Holmes 
that nothing further was required of it. The 
Committee were furnished, at their request, with 
a printed description of it, setting forth its dis¬ 
tinctive features and claims o merit. It was 
examined, weighed and priced ; was worked in 
three several fields, its draft tested on stubble 
and at work, and yet not a word in reference to 
all this appears in your book, fMeaning the Re¬ 
port of the Syracuse Trial,] I felt this omission 
deeply, inasmuch as from its former successes, 
and established claim to excellence, I deemed ita 
