AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Q53 
AN ILLINOIS FARM EE’S 
EXPERIENCE. 
King Philip Corn, Dent Corn, Sugar Cane, Poland 
Oats, Onions, Beans, Cabbages, Pumpkins, c£c., 
or what has been grown on twelve acres of prairie 
land. 
In a letter dated September 21st, from Mr. L. 
Martin, of Eeland, LaSalle County, seventy or 
eighty miles south-west of Chicago, we find some 
of the details of his experience in farming in a 
small way. A few extracts from his letter may 
be suggestive, and help make up a picture of the 
Western agriculturist’s daily operations. They 
will also show what can be done even on a few 
acres. We could point to not a few men in New- 
York, and elsewhere, not long since reputed to be 
worth tens of thousands, who would to-day, be 
rich did they own the twelve acres described be¬ 
low, with w'hat has grown upon them the past 
season — Ed. 
“....I received the package of King Philip 
coin you sent me, and liking its appearance, pur¬ 
chased a peck more of the seed which I chanced 
to find in Albany. I got it home only in time to 
plant on the third day of June. In eight weeks 
from planting we had corn tit to boil and we used 
freely all we wished for roasting and boiling. I 
have now harvested from the peck of seed, on £ 
acre, sixty bushels of sorted seed ears, and twen¬ 
ty bushels of smaller ears for other uses. I cut 
and shocked it on the 24th of August, only eighty- 
two days after planting. Last week I had two 
bushels ground fine, and I pronounce it the sweet¬ 
est and best corn I have ever used. It will, I 
think, be the best seed corn we have raised in the 
West. If the ground is broken before the last of 
June we can get a good sound crop._It does not 
have to grow so large a stalk as to hinder the 
early maturity of a good large ear. A neighbor 
seeing it in the field, remarked that the stalks 
were too small, to which my boy, a lad of nine 
years, replied that, ‘ it was not the stalks we were 
after, but the ears.’....My Sugar Cane was up 
only two inches, when that heavy June rain cov¬ 
ered it over with water for a week or more, but 
it came out bright and is now 13 to 14 feet in 
hight.. . .My Poland Oats, the hens nearly har¬ 
vested for me, but I have saved a quart of seed 
from my Agriculturist letter package. 
... .1 have but a small farm, but have secured 
some good crops. On 12 acres, broken up last 
year, I have this year raised: 4 acres of Dent 
corn ; £ acre of King Philip corn ; 2 acres of car¬ 
rots and onions, in alternate rows ; t acre of onions 
sown broad-cast; 1 acre of beans, from which I 
harvested 21 bushels ; 2 acres of large Bergen 
cabbages, on which there are now between 10,000 
and 11,000 large heads very fine ; and 1 acre of 
potatoes. On the remaining acre I have peas, 
melons, cucumbers, &c., while over the whole 
ground is scattered here and there, somewhat 
promiscuously, pumpkins, squashes, turnips, &c., 
so that not a foot of the 12 acres lies idle... .The 
£ acre of broad-cast onions yielded a large crop 
but it required a good deal of work to keep them 
elean when thus sown... .You will of course 
know that myself and 9-year-old boy have been 
busy with our team to keep the weeds in due sub¬ 
jection, and especially so as I had my leg broken 
in January, in blasting logs for fence posts. In¬ 
deed, owing to this accident we could not even 
fence the plot until after the crops were up, and I 
had to hire a man to do the first plowing....” 
The soul needs a certain amount of intellectual 
enjoyment, to give it strength adequate for the 
tfaily struggle ic which it is involved. 
ANOTHER 
CORN HUSRER. 
On page 198, (Sept. 
No.) vve presented 
an illustration of a 
Corn Husker, term¬ 
ing it “ the latest 
and probably the 
best invention for 
the purpose.” In 
this it appears we 
were at least partly 
in error, as we have 
since been present¬ 
ed with an engrav¬ 
ing of another ma¬ 
chine, patented this 
present year, by Dr. 
E. S. Holmes, of 
Lockport, Niagara 
Co.,N.Y.,andcalled 
‘Holmes' Automatic 
Corn Husker.’ We 
cannot, asyel, speak 
from personal obser¬ 
vation as to its work¬ 
ing “faculty,” but 
as in the former case, 
we introduce an illustration and brief !ascription 
to keep our readers posted iu regard to what is 
being done to mitigate the tedious labor of husk¬ 
ing corn. The machine, as here shown in opera¬ 
tion, ha3 a pair of iron hands with fingers, which 
by turning the crank are made to approach each 
other, and close so as to clasp the husks and tear 
them apart. The ear is at the same time caught 
by clamps, drawn in, and the butt cut off by the 
knife B. The husked ear is then dropped on the 
other side of the machine. It is claimed that the 
corn can be busked from the “ shock,” and also 
that the machine may be placed in the side of a 
wagon-box, and driven through a field of tall stand¬ 
ing corn, with a boy driving the team and turning 
the crank, and a man to bend down the stalks 
and present them to the fingers, when they will 
be husked, clipped from the stalk and dropped in 
the wagon—that is to say, it husks, picks and loads 
the corn at one operation. For particular and 
definite information we must refer those interest¬ 
ed to the patentee as above. 
THE MARKET GARDENERS AND 
FARMERS OF LONG ISLAND. 
Going to Market—The Wagons—Raising Pota¬ 
toes — Seventy-five dollars worth oj manure to the 
acre—Mode of culture, <fe., described—Potato 
Rot. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist. 
As you and. I chanced to see one of those long 
lines of market wagons that daily and nightly 
pass over the road to New-York City, you re¬ 
quested me to note down for your readers some 
account of their operations, and I will comply with 
the request. First, of the marketing If we go 
over to the west side of the city, to Washington 
Market, about 9 o’clock in the evening, we shall 
find most of these wagons there, with the horses 
unhitched, quietly eating, and their owners are 
whiling away their time, as best they can, in an 
occasional nap, perhaps. Most of them have come 
thus early, in part to secure a good position, while 
others are arriving at all times of the night. Soon 
after two o’clock in the morning business com¬ 
mences, and they generally have their loads sold 
out and are ready to start for home by daylight, 
before the citizens are stirring, or the streets filled 
with bustling vehicles. Arriving at home for 
breakfast the market men resign their teams to 
the “ hands,” and having finished their repast 
they sleep till 2 o’clock, while another load is pre¬ 
paring and are ready to start again by 3 o’clock, 
P. M.; the time of starting of course depends upon 
the distance from the city. Such is the life of 
the mass of those who supply the almost incredi¬ 
ble amount of produce brought to the New-York 
Markets in wagons. This is particularly the 
case with market gardeners, and those growing 
potatoes on a large scale for the months of August 
and September. The market wagons, by the 
way, are made strong and hung on springs. They 
carry forty baskets or more at a load, and cost 
$150 to $200 each. We find that potatoes, veget¬ 
ables and fruit carried to market in nice covered 
spring wagons, free from dust and bruises, sell 
quicker, and enough higher to pay for the extra 
trouble and expense. At daylight or before, the 
wholesale dealers, or middle men, of the market 
are all astir, disposing of their potatoes, turnips, 
cabbages, onions, parsneps, squashes, celery, 
poultry. &c., &c., to the thousands of hucksters, 
provision dealers, and corner grocery men scat¬ 
tered through the city, who in turn are early 
ready to retail to their customers for breakfast or 
dinner. 
Early potatoes are succeeded by wheat, and 
where ten acres or more are planted, it is neces¬ 
sary to hurry up the digging and marketing, to get 
the ground ready in season for sowing, as few 
early potatoes are stored in the cellar. Nearly all 
the potatoes grown here are the Mercers, fot 
though many new varieties have been introduced, 
these as yet hold the supremacy. The Carters, 
though a fine variety in the place where they origi¬ 
nated, do not maintain their good reputation 
with us. For very early marketing the Junes are 
in high estimation, while the Peach Blows pro¬ 
mise well for those who can allow them time to 
mature. 
As soon as the corn crop is secured, the teams, 
with less sightly wagons, are set to drawing ma¬ 
nure from the various landings, for the succeeding 
Spring planting. This is brought from the city in 
boats, sloops, and by railroad. No matter how 
cold the weather or high the wind, if the road^are 
at all passable the teams are yopn them. Those 
