1909. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
065 
THE ELGIN, ILLINOIS DAIRY DISTRICT. 
The Locality and Its Soil. 
Part I. 
The essentials of successful dairy 
farming should consist of fertile soils, 
a thoroughly intelligent and economical 
tillage thereof, the best breeds of cat¬ 
tle procurable and the best possible' 
methods applied in their feed and care. 
With any one of these factors elimin¬ 
ated satisfactory results cannot obtain. 
To be sure, a market is indispensable, 
but when careful, painstaking work is 
carried out along these lines, especially 
by concerted action, the market will 
soon be in evidence with wide-open 
doors. . In this famous dairy section, 
comprising almost the entire northern 
part of the State of Illinois, we have 
illustrations on ail sides of what can be 
produced by the application of the 
methods as here outlined, together with 
energy, perseverance and a close obser¬ 
vation of the natural laws which govern 
our business relations as between pro¬ 
ducer and consumer. We are obliged 
to consider as a prime factor the quality 
or fertility of the soil, together with its 
general adaptability to the purpose. If 
tiie natural resources are ample then a 
greater maximum of results will accrue 
from a given amount of labor. 
We have an area of country, almost 
entirely devoted to dairying, covering a 
territory 100 by 150 miles, approxi¬ 
mately, and lying in 15 or more coun¬ 
ties, on which nature lias bestowed her 
gifts most lavishly; strong and fertile 
soil, a comparatively mild climate, with 
plenteous and timely rains, an abun¬ 
dance of good water at easy depths, 
with here and there tine springs of liv¬ 
ing water out-cropping on the surface, 
a network of small creeks and rivers, 
insuring sufficient drainage, affords a 
combination of natural resources that 
has helped to give ottr part of the State 
an enviable notoriety. As a whole, we 
might say that we have a level country, 
compared almost to a gigantic plain. 
Undulations here and there occur near 
the larger streams, but we have no 
rocky or broken land, strictly speaking, 
in this part of the State. There is ab¬ 
solutely nothing to prevent the present 
tiller of the soil from utilizing the lat¬ 
est and most improved makes and kinds 
of farm machinery in the planting and 
harvesting of his crops. The stone- 
boat, which seems to be quite an ad¬ 
junct to the farmer's equipment, in 
some other parts of the country, to 
carry off the yearly crop of stones from 
his fields, has no place in the Illinois¬ 
an's farm. In its native wildness some 
(ii) years ago, this was considered a 
prairie country, although many quite 
large groves of timber could be found 
here and there. But very little of this 
timber remains to the present day, and 
the younger generation of our soil til¬ 
lers know nothing of the arduous task 
of digging a farm out of the timber. 
The soil predominating in northern Illi¬ 
nois is a dark alluvial loam; geologists 
term it a “pebbly loam,” in many places 
reaching a depth of several feet, and of 
great natural fertility. 
Approaching Lake Michigan we have 
small areas of land where the soil is 
a little inclined to he mushy, or sticky, 
especially during the Spring months. 
This is remedied in many cases by the 
use of tile drains, or small open ditches. 
Heavy fertilization with stable manures 
is also employed with good results. The 
subsoils are mainly a yellowish clay, al¬ 
though gravel out-croppings at rare in¬ 
tervals indicate a different basis; this 
description of subsoi's applies practi¬ 
cally to the entire northern part of the 
State. An excess of this lower-lying 
stratum of clay is undoubtedly the cause 
of the mucky condition of some of 
those soils as above mentioned. \\ here 
gravel deposits underlie the surface to 
within a few feet there may be found 
the quicker and more responsive soil. 
These slight variations in the soil for¬ 
mations require rather different modes 
of treatment. The farmer who tries to 
farm intelligently finds opportunities 
here as well as elsewhere for the exer¬ 
cising of his best judgment. Soil that 
is inclined to heaviness needs to be 
worked in the Spring, at the crop pre¬ 
paratory stage, at just the right time, 
and if an open crop is grown, constant 
and thorough tillage must be given it 
during its life to aerate the soil as well 
as to stimulate the growing crop. By 
practical and most approved methods 
our lands have been brought to such a 
stage of productiveness that they have 
a high commercial value. No doubt but 
that our ample railroad facilities and 
the nearness of many large cities and 
towns have enhanced the price of our 
possessions in some degree. If, on one 
hand, the cities and railroads have en¬ 
abled us to prosper, so we have, by rea¬ 
son of our superior soils and their prac¬ 
tical tillage given an additional value to 
their possessions in more than a like 
ratio Values in our lands have rapidly 
risen during tiie last decade and there 
‘arc but few farms within a radius of 
::() miles of Elgin that can be bought 
for much less than $100 per acre, while 
those with the better building equip¬ 
ment command from $125 to $150 per 
acre. Notwithstanding these seemingly 
high prices much land changes hands 
and in nearly every instance the pur¬ 
chaser’s purpose in buying is to devote 
it to the dairying interests. w. c. b. 
ALFALFA ROOTS IN TILE DRAINS. 
1 have read with a great deal of in¬ 
terest your articles on Alfalfa culture, 
while I have been experimenting myself. 
I have a field of nine acres that in the 
Spring of 1905 was a Timothy and 
clover* sod. This was covered with 
barnyard manure and well plowed, fit¬ 
ted and planted to dent corn. We har¬ 
vested 150 baskets or 75 bushels 
(shelled) corn to the acre. In the 
Spring of 1906 this field was sown to 
barley and seeded with Alfalfa, using 
one bushel of barley and 18 pounds of 
Alfalfa seed to the acre; the barley and 
seed were mixed together and sown 
with a broadcast seeder. We cut and 
thrashed a little over 30 bushels of bar¬ 
ley to the acre, and in September cut 
a nice crop of hay. It came through 
the following Winter in fine shape, and 
during the Summer of 1907 we cut it 
three times, getting 30 tons of hay (es¬ 
timated). In the Spring of 1908 we 
found that the higher part of the field 
had been somewhat winter-killed, and 
June grass had come in, so that-we cut 
the field twice and got 22 large loads 
(a ton or more) and the last part of the 
season being very dry and the cow pas¬ 
ture very short, we turned the cattle in 
and let them eat the third crop without 
cutting. During, the Fall of 1908, we 
commenced to cover this same field with 
manure, and the following Winter we, 
took the manure from the stables to 
the field every day. until it was covered 
at the rate of 30 or 35 two-horse loads 
to the acre, with the intention of 
breaking for corn in the Spring of 
1909. 
And now I come to where my real 
trouble begins. This field slopes to 
the north and the lower part of it was 
too wet for cultivation, so 15 years ago 
it was tiled, having a good fall and a 
fine outlet. An addition has been 
made to the field from the pasture 
since the tile was laid and that part is 
still wet, so I laid out three branches 
leading down to the main, which is a 
six-inch round tile three feet in the 
ground. When we opened the main to 
make the connection we found that 
the Alfalfa roots had grown down to 
and entered the joints of the drain, 
and grown until they are three or four 
feet long, and I should judge that in 
time they would completely fill the tile. 
Can you give me any light on the sub¬ 
ject? I seeded another field in the 
Spring of 1908 and another this 
Spring before I made this discovery; 
and both of them are partly tiled, 
something similar to the one described. 
1 am sending under separate cover a 
sample of the roots taken from the 
tile. EVERETT MARTIN. 
Waukesha Co., Wis. 
R. N.-Y.—Some of these roots meas¬ 
ured four feet in length. We have 
been told that Alfalfa “cannot stand 
wet feet.” These feet were surely 
vigorous enough. This is a new prob¬ 
lem to us, and we submit it to our 
readers. We would like to know of 
other cases where Alfalfa has filled tile 
drains in this way. 
Indigestion in Horses. 
What Is the cause of my horses eating 
everything they can reach? They eat 
everything that I bed them on—shavings, 
sawdust, straw. They would eat every¬ 
thing in the shape oT bags, sticks, boue^, 
etc., that they get their mouths on if I 
allowed them to have such stuff. I have 
even seen them gnaw on strips of iron 
nailed on the mangers. I give a feed made 
up in this proportion : 250 pounds ground 
oats, 200 pounds meal, 200 pounds bran, 
100 pounds oil meal; 4 quarts to a mess, at 
5:30 A. M\, 12 M. and 7.80 1*. M. I do 
not feed heavily of hay; a small bunch 
three times a day. I .also feed a teaspoon- 
ful of charcoal once a day to each. Can 
you tell me what my horses' systems need? 
Would you advise a change of feed.? What 
would lie a good Spring tonic for them, 
or would not you advise it? They are 
driven 20 miles a day. f. c. b. 
Pennsylvania. 
The depraved appetite is the plain symp¬ 
tom of indigestion induced by tiie improper 
feeding described. At once stop feeding 
ground feed and give whole oats, starting 
with three quarts at a feed three times 
daily and if necessary increasing to four 
quarts at a meal to keep up tiie strength 
and flesh when doing such long trips daily. 
Do not feed hay at noon : allow about all 
they will eat at night and a very little in 
the morning. Give the drinking water be¬ 
fore feedings Allow .. access to rock 
salt. If found necessary to give medicine 
after a week of the feeding suggested mix 
in the feed night and morning a table¬ 
spoonful of a mixture of two parts pow¬ 
dered wood charcoal, and one part each of 
powdered mix vomica, ground gentian root 
and bicarbonate of soda. a. s. a. 
SWEEPING 
FIELD 
The almost universal “sweep of the 
field” hy the IMPROVED DE 
LAVAL. CREAM SEPARATORS 
1908 is being repeated in even 
in 
greater volume in 1909. 
The old cow laughs, for she feels sure of a “square deal” now; and the 
wise raven quoths, quoths he: "’Tis well done, let the good work goon.” 
The big “broom” of DE LAVAL im¬ 
provements and all-around superior¬ 
ity is fast “sweeping the field” clear of 
would : be competing separators, made 
up mainly of inferior variations of dis¬ 
carded or abandoned DE LAVAL 
inventions, the most of which, while 
DE LAVAL originated, were never 
good enough for actual DE LAVAL 
use even 10 to 20 years ago. 
The Improved DE LAVAL is 
simply in a class by itself---ten years 
ahead of the field of all attempted 
competition---and not to have seen it 
is simply not to have seen the perfect 
up-to-date cream separator. 
The next thing to a DE LAVAL 
machine is a DL LAVAL catalogue 
---and anyone need but ask for it. 
THE DE LAVAL SEPARATOR CO. 
42 K. Madison Strkkt 
CHICAGO 
1213 k 1215 Fii.hkrt Street 
PHILADELPHIA 
Drumm .t Sa »'ka m knto Sts. 
SAN FRANCISCO. 
General Offices i 
165 Broadway, 
NEW YORK. 
173-177 William Street 
MONTREAL 
14 & 1G Primcros Street 
WINNIPEG 
107 Fin .st Street 
PORTLAND, OREC. 
