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AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
For the American Agriculturist . 
Notes on Prairie Farming. 
I promised to tell the readers of the Agricultu¬ 
rist how prairie farmers harvest their grain, par¬ 
ticularly here in Illinois. I have waited until 
this lime, when I have more time to write, and 
your readers more time to read. The severe hail 
storms, long continued rains, and hosts of insect 
enemies left to some farmers little or no wheat 
to harvest the present year. The wheat crop is 
much below an average in Illinois this year; yet 
the market price, strange to say, is down to noth¬ 
ing, almost. 
Without the aid of reaping machines it would 
be impossible to save sufficient grain in Illinois 
to bread the people of the State. Of these ma¬ 
chines there are a great many different kinds 
used ; M'Cormick’s, Atkins’, Manny's, Seymour 
& Morgan’s, Rugg’s Illinois Harvester, and 
Haine’s Header being, I think, the principal mak¬ 
ers patronised. Some of these are self-rakers— 
such as Atkins’, and Seymour &. Morgan’s, and 
hence require hut one person to drive the ma¬ 
chine. Haine’s Header requires three wagons to 
carry tile grain to the stacker at once. 
When harvest approaches the farmer is fre¬ 
quently nonplussed for hands, and in a maiority 
of cases gets but indifferent ones at enormous 
wages. The grain is usually cut and bout d, and 
shocked up at the same time—the binders follow- 
ing the machine and keeping up. Some farmers 
thresh their grain from the shock, the machine 
being placed in the middle of the field, and the 
grain hauled to it in wagons. It takes t 1 ree wag¬ 
ons to keep a good machine, worker by eight 
horses, running. One horse to haul away straw 
from the separator, and a hand—usually a boy— 
to drive him. It takes, provided the farmer owns 
the machine, eight horses for the thresher, six for 
hree wagons, and one to take away straw. 
Hands : one to pitch to the wagons (it requires a 
number one hand to keep them going), one to 
each wagon, one to drive the horses in the pow¬ 
er, one to cut bands, one to feed the machine, 
one to attend machine and measure grain, one to 
sack the grain or put it in the pen, and one to 
drive the horse 'hiat draws away straw. Should 
the machine be hired, the usual charge per bush¬ 
el for threshing is six cents—the owner of the 
machine finding six horses and three men, and 
the farmer supplying the remainder. The grain 
is usually put into rail pens lined with straw, and 
covered with straw when full. Grain thus put 
put up is generally secure from the weather, but 
rats and mice keep continual Thanksgiving 
therein. 
Few farmers are in a condition, pecuniarily, to 
hold on to their grain any length of time. Their 
necessities compel immediate sale at any price. 
In mure than huif this is caused by the credit sys¬ 
tem, running up large store bills, half of which 
could be dispensed with. Some farmers have 
granaries and keep their grain well secured from 
thieves and weather. The middle-men, or grain- 
buyers. at the railroad stations ana small towns, 
furnish sacks to be used in hauling it in to the 
warehouse. Few farmers have their own sacks 
properly marked. 
The straw is either stacked up, or a part of it, 
for Winter use for stock, or burned in the field, 
or left scattered all around the place where it was 
threshed, ’till it is found to be in the way, then 
burned. 
The threshing is frequently—nay, in more than 
half the cases—deferred until the grain is stacked. 
The stacking is done soon after reaping, as the 
circumstances of the farmer permit. Many farm¬ 
ers think it best to stack and leave the grain in 
the stack for a few week's to undergo a sweating 
process, which they think benefits the grain 
When threshed either in the field or at the stack, 
the operation is usually a hurried one. The farm¬ 
ers are at much expense in feeding so many ex¬ 
tra hands, and the housewife is sometimes in no 
very good humor when she has so many mouths 
to cook for. 
The waste of grain in cutting, shocking, stack¬ 
ing, and threshing is, in the writer’s opinion, all 
of twenty per cent. There is, in fact, sufficient 
grain wasted in Illinois every year to feed some 
o! the small States. The grain is frequently 
left in the shocks till it is injured by sprouting. 
Storms prostrate many shocks, and thus much 
grain is lost. The fields are generally so large 
that the grain becomes dead ripe before it is all 
cut. All handling of such grain makes waste. 
Shocking, pitching to and from the wagons, and 
in threshing. It is one continued hurry from the 
time the reaper starts until it is all cut; then the 
th)»shing is done in still more of a hurry. Want 
01 order and economy characterise the harvest 
in nearly all Illinois, and this year, 1 think, farm¬ 
ers are opening Cheir eyes to it. 
Thousands of tons of straw, which might be 
put to useful purposes, are yearly burnt. The 
animals of these same farmers stand all Winter 
shivering in the cold, when a few poles and plen¬ 
ty of straw u'ould make a comfortable shed and 
shelter. 
Time and example will alone cure these evils. 
Tire change is commencing, and when every farm¬ 
er in Illinois reads a good agricultural paper, and 
learns to think and reason more, then we shall 
see things as they should be. 
Very many farmers are reducing the number of 
their grain acres, and going more into a mixed 
husbandry, this in itself leading to better manage¬ 
ment and order. It would be matter of surprise 
to Eastern farmers to witness the large extent of 
acres in small grain in the West; to see the heed¬ 
less manner of cutting and securing the grain, 
and to still further wonder where all the grain 
foes, and why more money docs not come lark. A 
short acquaintance, however, with Western 
firming, as it is, would soon unveil the mystery. 
My sketch is rather hurried and imperfect, but 
to the letter true. H. H. 
Prairie Cottage , Christian Co., Ill., Nov. 1st, 1858. 
-- --—---- 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Feeding Corn Stalks—Muck—Manure- 
With a common old-fashioned, lever cutting- 
box, I cut my stalks as short as circumstances 
may require, or time will allow. This is very 
rapidly performed with the assistance of a boy to 
hand up the stalks, eight to a dozen at a time, and 
may be done on a rainy day, or in the evfening. 
When cut up, twenty or thirty bundles of stalks 
will pack into a very small corner. The cattle or 
horses will then eat them more easily. The re¬ 
fuse stalks with muck make good bedding. The re¬ 
fuse stalks, muck, and droppings next go into the 
hog pen where they are thoroughly manufactured, 
with an occasional load of muck added. It comes 
out five or six times a year in a fine state and in 
first-rate condition for further composting, as it 
has been kept under cover and has not been 
leached by rains. It has still heat enough to fer¬ 
ment further when mixed with more muck, as it 
should be. I allow a small load of muck, weekly, 
to each two head of cattle or horses, and in this 
way secure a large amount of valuable manures. 
Whistler at the Plow. 
Poisoned Cattle- 
C. Foote, Medina Co., Ohio, tmnks the poison 
ing of cattle mentioned last month, on page 328, 
resulted “ from the ergot which grows among the 
seed of the June grass,” and he gives as a “ cer- 
tain cure,” to “ bleed the cattle thoroughly in the 
neck ” He says he could give a long chapter of 
his experience. This is not quite satisfactory_ 
for first, does “ ergot” grow on Jnne-grassl and 
second, we are in doubt as to the mode or effi¬ 
cacy of “ bleeding thoroughly in the neck,” unless 
he means such bleeding as butchers perform_ 
which would put an end to the disease by putting 
an end to the animal’s life 
Profit of Poultry. 
“ G.” of Pittstown, Me., (we have his full name 
of course) gives us the following result of careful 
experiments, every item of expense being charged 
and credit given at the market price, for eggs and 
poultry sold or consumed. No account was made 
of feathers and manure—the latter amounting to 
a considerable sum. The feed consisted princi¬ 
pally of whole corn, with occasionally a little 
barley, offal meat, and broken bones, all charged 
for. Free access was had to water, apd milk 
when it was abundant. 
1st year. Cost of 7 fouls, Feb. 17th (crosses of 
Cochin China, Shanghai, Dorking and Spanish, 
of different grades). .; < 
All expense of keeping one vear... 
Total outlay. . ”.. 
Eggs and chickens eaten and sold. $13 12 
Value of Stock on hand at end of year .... 14.00 
Gain above all expenses. 5 
7.00 
9.08 
16.08 
14.04 
2 nd year. Stock $14 ; expenses, $21.83.$35 83 
Received for Eggs and Poultry...$32 47 
Stock on hand at end ol year. 19 00 
$51.47 
Net gain, second year.$15 64 
During the whole two years there was but a 
single day in which no egg was laid—which was 
remarkable, considering the small number of 
fowls. 
A WIFE NECESSARY TO POULTRY RAISERS. 
Appropos to the above, we add from our drawer 
an extract from a business letter from Jabez 
Jenkins, jr., of Philadelphia: “_The young 
man who asks in the January number, page 12, 
how to make poultry profitable, ought to be in¬ 
formed that there is no use in his trying while he 
is a bachelor. I have a relative who farmed it 
awhile lit tl at condition, and had a housekeepei 
who thought she knew all about chickens; but 
he has since married a w'ife from a family which 
takes to poultry as natuially as a duck to water, 
and it would astonish that “ Connecticut Yankee ” 
to see the big fellow’s now raised by my friend 
16 and 18 pounds to the pair...[A hint to the 
bachelors surely.— Ed.] 
A new Chicken Disease. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist. 
A very curious poultry disease came under my 
notice last Summer, which I thought might be ot 
interest to some of your readers. We found a 
chicken so bloated up that its head was drawn 
upon one side, and looked as though the whole 
skin was stretched away from the body, and very 
transparent, as though the fowl had the dropsy. 
On puncturing the skin the wind whistled out so 
that it was heard at the distance of several feet. 
We pricked it with a needle in two or three 
places, so that the air all passed out, and by re¬ 
peating the operation a few times, the chicken 
was cured, and is now one of the choicest fowls 
we have. M. E. Tanner. 
Rockland Co., N. Y-, Nov. 10, 1858. 
