AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
173 
I861.J 
Good water is found at 20 feet depth in the 
prairies. 
“ What is the price of land, or how does land 
rent ?” To this question no definite answer can 
be made, as it both sells and rents at very va¬ 
ried prices, governed by situation, improve¬ 
ments, and necessities of the seller or renter. 
I have rented my farm of 325 acres of prairie, 
with a good house and barn, to a tenant for one 
year, for one-half the wheat, 90 acres, (I finding 
seed, and he putting it in, and I paying one- 
half the machine threshing,) and one-tliird of 
corn and other crops. Money rents are from 
$2 to $3 per acre—grain rents all sorts of ways. 
Land sells from $5 to $30 an acre for raw, un¬ 
improved land, and improved lands from $7 to 
$50. It is cheaper to buy improved lands , than to 
buy raw prairie at one-lialf the price, especially if 
you have no more money than necessary to 
purchase, build, and fence. There are plenty 
of fine farms to be had, with improvements, at 
reasonable prices, part cash. To get a definite 
idea of the price of land, it is necessary to be 
“ Charley on the spot,” and a day or two in 
riding around, will give more information than 
a dozen letters. Do not, however, place confi¬ 
dence in all that is told you. Men who have 
places to sell or rent, usually paint matters 
somewhat; the truth can be had from neighbors. 
To those who write that they have large fam¬ 
ilies and small means, I would sincerely say, 
consider what you do. A few acres well culti¬ 
vated in Virginia or New-York, will yield you 
as good, or a better living, than many illy cul¬ 
tivated in Illinois. Do not buy or rent more 
than you can attend to. Crops frequently fail, 
prices are often very low, and unless you can 
get along without one or two crops, and pay 
for help, when required, it is a lottery to ven¬ 
ture. Lands near railroads are to be had, im¬ 
proved and unimproved, at $15 to $30 per acre, 
which yield with good cultivation, 30 to 60 
bushels corn, and 10 to 20 bushels of wheat; but 
when every one has good crops, wheat is 
worth but 60 to 70 cents, and corn is a drug at 
12 to 20 cents. Hogs are profitable when all 
thing are favorable, so is stock of all kinds. 
But, friends, who desire to try the rich lands 
of Illinois, remember that “ money makes the 
mare go,” and a little of that article is very es¬ 
sential for your happiness and comfort. The 
health and comfort of your wife and family 
should be paramount to all other things, and if 
you have not the means to build a comfortable 
house, and have the necessary comforts of life 
around you, to guard against sickness, you had 
better rent until you can have them. Do not 
go to Illinois unless you are industrious and per¬ 
severing. Do not imagine, rich land will enrich 
you without labor; the idea is fallacious, and 
many have suffered from it. H. Hlnkley, M.D. 
For the American Agriculturist . 
Cheap Pig Feed. 
In the Summer of 1858,1 had two half breed 
Suffolk pigs. I kept them from July to October 
inclusive (four months), exclusively on waste 
cabbage leaves, with the exception of a little 
dish-water slop from the house. They grew 
very thrifty, and were nearly fat enough to kill. 
The leaves were fed raw, just as picked from 
the cabbage. I had a patch of about 1000 cab¬ 
bages and the lower leaves would grow nearly 
twice as fast as I needed them for the pigs. The 
cabbage did not seem to be materially retarded 
'n growing and heading. 
In 1857,1 fed an unruly cow, that I kept tied 
to a stake, exclusively on the pickings of the 
bottom leaves of the cabbage on a patch of 600, 
for four months time. She got quite fat. The 
cabbage headed up finely with some very large 
heads. L. L. Fairchild. 
Dodge Co., IVi’s. 
“ Horn-Ail ” not a Disease. 
Dr. Dadd, who is regarded as good authority 
upon the diseases of cattle, regards “Horn- 
Ail” as a symptom, rather than a disease. 
The common practice of boring the horn with 
a gimlet he ridicules as quackery. He says: 
“ ‘ Horn-Ail,’ as it is improperly termed, may ac¬ 
company common catarrh, also that of an epi¬ 
demic form; the horns will feel unnatural if 
there be a determination of blood to the head. 
This might be easily equalized by stimulating 
the external surface and extremities, at the same 
time giving anti-spasmodic teas, and regulating 
the diet. The horns will feel cold whenever 
there is an unnatural distribution of the blood, 
and this may arise from exposure, or suffering 
the animal to wallow in filth. For a cure, en¬ 
deavor to promote a healthy action through the 
whole system; to stimulate the digestive organs, 
to remove obstructions, both by injections, if 
necessaiy, and by the use of aperients; lastly 
to invite action to the extremities by stimulating 
liniments. Whenever these indications are ful¬ 
filled, 1 horn-ail ’ soon disappears.” 
-■»-.--a«v--- —- 
Graining Young Cattle—Hoot Feeding. 
A subscriber, T. Boardman, Tompkins Co., 
N. Y., speaks of his success in giving extra feed 
to a pair of steers. Though the grain was chief¬ 
ly fed out in small quantities, to make them gen¬ 
tle while they were being broken, more than any 
thing else, he found it a paying operation. He 
was astonished to see how rapidly they took on 
flesh when they were turned out to grass in the 
Spring. They grew so sleek and handsome, 
that they were soon in demand, and sold for 
fifty per cent more than any other cattle he ever 
disposed of, at the same age. He thinks he got 
at least five dollars a bushel for all the gram 
which he fed to them. 
There is no doubt about the economy of gen¬ 
erous treatment for young cattle, and indeed for 
all cattle, during the Winter. It prepares them 
to make the most of the grass season, when it 
comes. If they are lean and hollow in May, as 
most animals are that have been kept at the stack 
during Winter, it takes them full two months to 
recover what they have lost upon a spare diet. 
If in good condition when they first enter the 
pastures, they take on flesh rapidly, and not a 
day is lost. The pay for the extra feed will be 
returned in the extra growth if they are young 
cattle, and in extra milk if they are cows. 
We have often had occasion to notice this in 
milch cows. We think they will give from 20 
to 30 per cent more milk in the Summer after a 
diet of meal and roots, in part, in Winter. The 
extra feed which they require is probably sup¬ 
plied much more economically in the form of 
roots, than in grain, especially in the older 
States, where corn is 75 cents a bushel and up¬ 
wards. Turnips, beets, mangel wurzel, and car¬ 
rots can be raised from five to ten cents a bush¬ 
el, and from a peck to a bushel of these roots, ac¬ 
cording to size, with plenty of hay, fed daily to an 
animal, will keep him in good flesh. Those who 
regard these roots as all water, will be surprised 
to see what a change they make in the looks of 
an animal in a very short time. In the new 
States where com is worth 30 cents a bushel 
and less, there is less motive for raising roots. 
But, during Winter, some feed beside hay is 
good economy everywhere. Except for tur¬ 
nips, it is now late to put in a root crop this 
season, unless in a high northern latitude, yet a 
fair crop of carrots or mangel wurzels may be 
secured even now, if sown immediately and 
well cultivated. 
Feed for aveaned Calves.— Full blooded 
or grade animals are often kept with the cows 
for six or eight months. To keep them from 
losing flesh, ivhen weaned, they should have 
Indian meal, grain, or roots. A mixture of 
meal and roots is the best, if the weaning is in 
the Winter; if at this season, the meal is suffi¬ 
cient. The change of food should be made 
gradually, beginning with a small quantity be¬ 
fore the calf is taken from the cow, and increas¬ 
ing it daily until the young animal is Aveaned. 
Othenvise serious derangement of the digesti\-e 
organs would be likely to follow. 
--*-«•- 
Do Moles Eat Peas ? 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist : 
You ask : “Do Moles eat Corn?" If they will 
not, there is one thing, which, from provoking 
experience, I know they will eat, viz.: Peas. 
With many hopes, I planted freely last Spring, 
but vainly watched for the springing blade. Ex¬ 
amination revealed the cause: I very soon came 
upon the “ underground ” track—but the peas 
never made their appearance. They cut my 
beets and potatoes very badly, and they seemed 
to have very nice times in the floAver beds; they 
Avere not wanting even in the cellar, Avliere I 
was so fortunate as to arrest a noble fellow. I 
shall try the corrosive sublimate with the peas, 
unless it injure the seeds for germinating. 
Death to the moles say I. “ C. C.” 
Janesburg, N. Y., Jan. 1861. 
Remarks —Is “ C. C.” sure the moles ate the 
peas ? If he says he saw them actually eat them, 
or found peas in the stomach of one of them, 
we Avill believe him—othenvise Ave must think 
there was some other cause for their failure. 
The animals may have disturbed those groiving 
along their tracks where they Avere hunting in¬ 
sects ; but it is hardly possible that they should 
have gathered all the peas from the whole plot. 
Shut up moles in a box, as Ave have done; 
put in with them a lot of different kinds of grain, 
and when you find it untouched for days, 
you will incline to our opinion that they are in¬ 
sectivorous, and not granivorous animals. We 
do not say they Avill never eat any kind of 
seeds, when driven to it by hunger, yet there is 
reason for doubting this.-A little corrosive 
sublimate will probably not injure the germi¬ 
nating power of the peas, nor hurt the moles— 
at least not until they do eat the peas.—E d.1 
To Free Swine from Vermin. 
A writer in the Southern Planter says : “ If 
your hogs are lousy, go to their rubbing place, 
or what is better, take a rough twelve foot log to 
the feeding place, and keep it constantly smeared 
with tar. No spaniel ever loved water better 
than a lousy hog loves tar, and he applies it 
himself, to the most infested spots on his body, 
so effectually that the lice speedily disappear. I 
have seen 95 out of 96 hogs jjmear themselves 
Avith tar in less than thirty minutes after they 
had access to it; and not one had ever known 
its use before.” 
