1873 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
370 
ufacturing industry than, upon the farm they 
will not cultivate the soil. Grain-farming, 
which comes in competition with the prairies 
of the West, necessarily declines. A new class 
of people, Germans and Irish mainly, are com¬ 
ing in to cultivate the suburban farms. They 
have much more frugal habits than Americans, 
are eager to become land-holders, and in a few 
years own the farms. This decline in the grain 
products of New England has ils compensa¬ 
tions. Fruits and vegetables take the place of 
the cereals, the cilies are more cheaply fed, and 
all classes are better paid for their labor. 
English Prize Farming. 
It is not from English farmers who merely 
rent their farms that we hear the complaint 
that their business is not profitable, but from 
the owners of American farms; yet these 
English farmers each year pay large sums for 
rent, and still larger sums for permanent im¬ 
provements upon the land, from which they de¬ 
rive but a temporary benefit. At the same time 
we own our lands, and in our estimate of profit 
the interest on their cost rarely enters into the 
calculation as a charge upon the receipts; yet 
the complaint is general that our farming does 
not pay. Possibly there may be something in 
our want of good management, and a compari¬ 
son with the methods followed by some Eng¬ 
lish farmers who have been competitors for the 
prize of $500 offered by the English Royal Ag¬ 
ricultural Society, might help to point out the 
weak spot. The farm which was awarded the 
prize was one occupied by Mr. W. G. Walgate, 
of 460 acres, of which 120 are in grass. His ro¬ 
tation is one of five j'ears, viz.: turnips or other 
roots, spring grain (wheat, oats, or barley), 
clover, wheat and oats, or peas and beans. The 
stock consists of 160 heavy long-wool sheep, or 
as many more as may be needed to consume 
the roots; a large number of pigs, many of 
which are purchased for fattening, and not 
reared upon the farm ; 40 bullocks for fattening, 
and 12 horses. The labor costs $8 per acre. 
All the manure made goes to the root crops, 
with 600 pounds of bone dust and 400 pounds 
of superphosphate per acre in addition. The 
consumption of oil cake and other purchased 
feed is immense; the bullocks eating6 pounds a 
day while grazing, with 7 pounds of meal 
per day added when finally fed on turnips; the 
manure is , therefore, very rich. The wheat is 
sown in drills 9 inches apart, and 8 to 10 
pecks per acre of seed is sown. This crop is 
horse-hoed, also hand-weeded. The clover fields 
are sown with 14 pounds of white and 7 pounds 
of red clover seed per acre, with a little Rib- 
grass (Narrow-leaved Plantain) mixed. This 
farm is said to have been evidently under profi¬ 
table management, and on no other farm was 
there such an excellent lot of stock in the fields. 
Mr. Walgate has been a tenant of this farm for 
25 years, and had built the greater portion of 
the farm buildings himself. One of the other 
farms was admired for its neatness both around 
the farm-steading and the fields. The report 
says a more charming garden, tidier fields, bet¬ 
ter roads, and more perfect fences were never 
seen. The other of the three farms competing 
was managed in a similar manner to the prize 
farm, but the special object of admiration was 
a magnificent wheat field. 
Now in comparing the condition and man¬ 
agement of these farms with that of the gen¬ 
eral run of our farms, there are a few leading 
points of difference. They are the root culture, 
liberal feeding of cattle and production of rich 
manure, clean cultivation of even the wheat 
crop, heavy manuring at the commencement of 
the rotation with two hoed crops in succession, 
beans (which takes the place of our corn) and 
turnips, and a clover crop between the two 
small grain crops. The abundance of labor is 
rendered necessary by the system of manage¬ 
ment. It, is not necessary to point out wherein 
we fall short in any respect; it speaks for it¬ 
self. There is nothing here impossible of 
achievement by any American farmer. 
Stock-Raising at the West. 
The business of raising stock in the extreme 
West is undergoing a change. Texan cattle¬ 
men, at least those of the eastern and central 
part of the State, declare that “ cattle-raising 
there is played out.” We have heard the same 
remark made as to Colorado. The reason is 
that settlements and homesteadings are occupy¬ 
ing the range, and the feed is becoming very 
scarce. The losses of stock last winter in 
Texas and some parts of Colorado were greater 
than ever before, and the profits have dimin¬ 
ished to 25 per cent or less. This, of course, is 
inevitable from the circumstances to which the 
business of cattle-raising is now subjected. 
Still, this occupation has attractions for some 
men, especially young, rather restless indivi¬ 
duals who love adventure and a life of activity. 
Both of these are to be enjoyed in cattle-raising, 
and in certain localities there is still scope for 
its profitable exercise. Western Texas, South¬ 
ern Colorado, and Western Kansas afford a 
field for adventure of this character. Probably 
the locality best suited for those whose inquiries 
are now before us, and which in some measure 
have led to the production of this article, is the 
extreme western part of Kansas, along the Ar¬ 
kansas valley, and on the uplands north and 
south of it. Westward from Fort Dodge to the 
mountains, and from the Indian Territory 
northward, there are still vast ranges unoccu¬ 
pied on which large herds may be pastured. 
In the neighborhood of the fort one drove of 
17,000 head was fed during last winter and 
spring, aud several smaller droves were fed 
lower down the river along the immediate 
neighborhood of the Atchison, Topeka and 
Santa Fe Railroad as far as Great Bend and the 
Yalley of the Walnut in Barton Co. East of 
this point large droves can not find room, as 
the country is now comparatively well settled, 
and stock-raising must be carried on in a differ¬ 
ent manner, as to which we may have some- 
thina: to say at another time. Just now we de¬ 
sire to give an idea of what an intending stock- 
raiser “ out West” can or must do. 
Droves of “Texans” are brought into this 
part of the country for sale every summer. 
They come as beeves or as stock cattle—that is, 
cows, steers, heifers, calves, etc., not fitted for 
beef, and brought with a view to sale. From 
these herds purchasers may select either stock 
cattle, cows, heifers, beeves, or yearlings, as 
may suit their purposes. The prices generally 
current are $10 for cows, $6 to $8 for heifers, 
$5 for yearlings, and $15 to $30 for beeves, ac¬ 
cording to condition, if taken as they run. If 
selected, a trifling advance is charged upon these 
prices. If stock cattle are purchased, it is 
mostly for the purpose of breeding, and this is 
the business which well managed may be made 
the most profitable. A herd of a few hundred 
young cattle, all cows or heifers, with sufficient 
full blood Shorthorn or Devon bulls well cared 
for, could not fail to be a profitable investment 
in the hands of a man who understands his 
business or is possessed of fair intelligence and 
shrewdness. Beeves are purchased for feeding 
in more easterly districts, where tame pastures 
through the summer and corn in the winter can 
be procured for them. They are thus brought 
into condition for market. But large numbers 
of beeves are sent to market from the large 
herds off from the grass on the open prairie. 
From the large herd already mentioned fat ani¬ 
mals were shipped all last winter to the Chicago 
market, as were others from GreatBend,Wichita, 
and many other points in this and other locali¬ 
ties. They were fed on the open country, with 
no other shelter than the banks of the streams, 
the sparse timber, and breaks in the surface 
afforded. No hay or other feed was provided, 
the self-cured prairie grass was all they had for 
fodder. Water was had in abundance from the 
Arkansas and other streams. This fact is an 
evidence of the favorable nature of the climate, 
or rather of the supply of feed and water, for 
with ample supplies of these the cattle thrive 
well during spells of cold in which buffalo- 
hunters freeze to death. 
The appearance of a herd kept under these 
conditions is pictured in the scene, which repre¬ 
sents a portion of the Arkansas Valley with 
Fort Dodge in the distance. The herders, who 
are Texans or Mexicans, or a mixture of the 
two, are mounted upon mustangs or Indian 
ponies, and keep outside of the herd and pre¬ 
vent them from straying. If the cattle are in¬ 
clined to get out of bounds they are followed 
and driven back again. Two herders will care 
for a drove of 500 to 1,000 cattle. Their homes 
are carried with the drove, being covered 
wagons, which when there are several together 
are generally drawn up in a circle or “cor¬ 
ralled,” especially when they are camped near 
the Indian Territory. 
It is not to be supposed that these herders 
are the most civilized of men; on the contrary, 
they are what may be called rough, and on the 
whole are uninviting to a stranger, especially 
when gathered around the saloons in the fron¬ 
tier “towns” as they are called, but which are 
really a few wretched shanties. In these the 
herders delight to spend the hours or days 
which they snatch for recreation from their 
regular avocations. The new comer who has 
been used to civilized life will look with more 
than doubt upon the rough board-partitioned 
rooms in which stray bullet-holes here and 
there let in the light, and to each of which may 
“hang a tale” of some unfortunate who “died 
with his boots on.” The beds and bedfellows 
he will meet here will be those with whom 
necessity sometimes makes us acquainted, and 
he may not unlikely open his eyes after a night’s 
well-earned rest upon a pillow not at all downy, 
to look straight into the muzzle of a seven- 
shooter casually lying beneath the head of his 
next neighbor upon the very closely adjoining 
couch. But the question as to “ what is your 
business?” is kindly meant, although not cal¬ 
culated at first to inspire one with confidence; 
and unless it be for men who have loose notions 
as to property in horseflesh these rough features 
of life have really no element of danger in them. 
Those who desire to become cattle-men must 
put up with some of these inconveniences, and 
those who think they would-rather not had 
better keep their stock inside of a fence a hun¬ 
dred or two miles further east. It may be ac¬ 
cepted as a fact that the day of large droves 
