1874.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
^15 
of producing. I wrote to Mr. Lawes, telling 
him that John Johnston and some of our best 
farmers claimed that they got far better crops 
by spreading the manure on the surface of the 
land and letting it lie exposed for several 
months than they did when it was plowed un¬ 
der. He replied : “ I have no doubt that the 
farmers are quite correct in what they say, as 
exposure to the air and rain for so many 
months would set free many of the ingredients 
of the dung.”—“ He means,” said the Deacon, 
“ that they would be set free and evaporate into 
the atmosphere, which is precisely what I 
think.”—No, he means that they would be set 
free and be carried into the soil by rain, and 
produce a better effect than when plowed un¬ 
der in the fresh state. The soil is so conserva¬ 
tive, that when it once gets hold of manure it 
tries hard to keep it. If you should take a 
field of clover with a crop on it equal to two 
tons of hay, plow the crop under on half the 
field, and mow it on the other half and remove 
the hay, and then plow it up, and in due time 
sow the whole field to wheat, what have you 
done? You have made one half the field 100 
lbs. per acre richer in nitrogen than the other 
half. Now this 100 lbs. of nitrogen is as much 
as is contained in 70 bushels of wheat and its 
usual proportion of straw. But does any one 
suppose that this half of the field will produce, 
even if we should sow the whole field to wheat 
for two or three years, 70 bushels of wheat per 
acre more than the other half? And if not, 
why not? We know that if .we could convert 
this nitrogen into ammonia and nitric acid, and 
apply it in proper quantity, it will produce a 
far greater increase of wheat, barley, oats, and 
grass than when applied in its organized con¬ 
dition. So much we know. But how best to 
attain this object is yet to be determined. 
Mr. Isaac Stickney, of Woodhull, Ill., favors 
me with samples of wool from his pure High¬ 
land sheep and from the half and three-quarter 
grades. I had supposed that these sheep were 
best suited to mountain regions, but Mr. S. sa} T s 
he has had them now for six years on his farm 
in Illinois, and they are very healthy. The 
soil of the farm, judging from a sample which 
Mr. Stickney sent me for analysis nineteen 
years ago, is rich, remarkably fine, and abound¬ 
ing in organic matter—better suited, I should 
have said at that time, for corn growing than 
for sheep breeding. Mr. S. has about 900 acres, 
and he says there is not an acre of waste land 
on the farm. It is a beautiful rolling prairie. 
Mr. S. keeps over 100 head of cattle, and has two 
pure-bred Shorthorn bulls, 100 Highland sheep 
and grades, 10 horses, and 180 hogs of last 
year’s stock, “mostly,” he says, “of the black 
Berkshire and Poland, so called—a mixed up 
breed which I never have found a person that 
could tell what races they were composed of.” 
This so called Poland-China breed originated in 
Butler and Warren Counties, Ohio. The last 
cross, Mr. Milliken tells us, was a Berkshire, 
and consequently they must have at least fifty 
per cent of Berkshire blood in them. Mr. 
Stickney was one of the earliest importers of 
Suffolk pigs, but he says he has given them up, 
as their thin skin and light hair render them 
unsuited to the prairie wind and hot sun. He 
now proposes to try the Essex. I must confess 
I can not see why a white pig will not stand 
the sun and wind as well as a black one, but 
certainly Mr. Stickney can have no prejudice 
against the Suffolks. 
Here is an interesting letter from “ H. L.W.,” 
Hardin Co., Kv. He has a farm of 75 acres. 
Hay sells for $14 per ton; corn 40c. per bushel; 
wheat 90c.; oats 20c.; early potatoes 75c.; late 
potatoes 50c. per bushel, and cabbages 4c. per 
head. He asks, “ What crop would pay best ? 
Would it be better to keep stock? if so, what 
kind ? Will it pay to subsoil ? ”—I have not 
much faith in the immediate benefit of sub¬ 
soiling, but it would be well to try it on an acre 
or two. At the prices named, potatoes and 
cabbages ought to pay better than any other 
crops. But it is necessary to make the land 
rich, and this can only be done by keeping 
stock and making good manure. I am inclined 
to think that for a few years to come “H. L. 
W.” would find pigs more profitable than any 
other stock. 
“H. B. G.,” of De Kalb, Ill., writes: “In 
your work on the pig, page 141, is a table giv¬ 
ing the value of manure in producing 100 lbs. 
of pork from different kinds of food. The 
valuation is evidently too high for Illinois. 
What would he a fair basis for this State ? 
Corn is worth 50c., oats 40c. per bushel ; tim¬ 
othy hay, delivered, $7.50 per ton.”—This is a 
very difficult question to answer. The table is 
correct, so far as it goes. It shows accurately 
the comparative value of manure obtained from 
different foods. In other words, if the manure 
from a ton of wheat straw is worth $2.68, then i 
the manure from a ton of meadow hay is worth 
$6.43, and from a ton of clover hay $9.64, and 
from a ton of corn $6.65, and from a ton of 
peas $13.38. If the manure from a ton of 
straw in Illinois is only worth $1.34, or half 
the above estimate, then the manure from the 
other foods will only be worth half. The ac¬ 
tual money return from the application of 
manure to land depends a good deal on the 
price obtained for the crop. If you were rais¬ 
ing onions or potatoes at 50c. to 75c. a bushel, 
manure would be worth fully the price given 
in the table. With wheat at $1.75 per bushel, 
and hay $25 per ton, I think the table is not 
too high. But if you are raising corn at 25c. a 
bushel, manure would be worth very little—or 
land either. Timothy hay, delivered, at $7.50 
per ton, can not be a very profitable crop, es¬ 
pecially considering that its removal from the 
farm tends to impoverish the soil. Whatever 
manure may or may not be worth, it seems 
certain that those farmers will ultimately make 
the most money who feed out to good stock all 
the hay, corn, and oats they raise rather than 
to sell them at the above prices. I would, 
however, rather sell oats at 40c. per bushel than 
hay at $7.50 per ton. Here, it costs me $2.50 
per ton to deliver hay, but we get $25 and over 
per ton for good timothy. This pays very well, 
provided you bring back a ton of bran for 
every ton of hay sold. 
When and How to Go West. 
Much unnecessary suffering and disappoint¬ 
ment may be avoided if those who have deter¬ 
mined to go West should know exactly what 
difficulties they will meet with and what obsta¬ 
cles they will encounter. It profits little an 
empty-handed man to stand upon a soil as fer¬ 
tile as may be, and it is an aggravation of his 
poverty that the air he breathes only invigor¬ 
ates an appetite which he has nothing to satis¬ 
fy. Labor is a drug where every man is a la¬ 
borer, and where one’s neighbor is as poor as 
himself. Yet the temptation of a free home¬ 
stead attracts many men with dependent fami¬ 
lies into situations where without available 
means poverty becomes actual destitution. 
Besides, the most available homesteads are now 
occupied, and the further from a railroad and 
a town a new settler is, the more helpless lie 
becomes. For this reason we would dissuade 
the settler who depends upon his labor for his 
living, and who can not afford to remain idle 
for a year or two, from going any farther than 
the point where he can secure work. The man 
who can take $1,000 or more along with him 
is independent of circumstances, if he has only 
wit and smartness sufficient to keep himself 
from making glaring mistakes. All other men, 
as a rule, would find it better to keep from the 
frontier and remain where they are, or not to 
go so far out, but seek those places where land 
is still cheap and where their labor can be made 
available. For the man with some money, the 
lands remote frem the railroads are not the 
best. He may there procure a homestead free, 
but its actual cost in the five years needed for 
its acquisition will be more than that of a tract 
near the railroad, even if it be bought at $10 
per acre. The time lost in going back and forth 
for supplies, and in marketing his crops, will 
soon amount to the value of 160 acres near a 
town at $10 per acre. The comfort to him and 
his family of being near a town will be an im¬ 
portant consideration. If he is not suited there 
will be many chances to sell out to new com¬ 
ers, but in the back country he can not do this; 
he must simply stay there or abandon his im¬ 
provements. Now is the season to go West 
About this time last year we saw a farmer from 
Missouri arrive upon a tract in Reno Co., Kan¬ 
sas, which he had purchased from the railroad 
company, and his mode of procedure struck us 
as so business-like and successful that we de¬ 
scribe it as a model. He arrived with two cov¬ 
ered wagons, in which he had his family, his 
household goods, some plows, and other im¬ 
plements. As he drew up upon his lot, which 
he had previously selected and staked out, he 
hauled a plough out of one wagon, and, un¬ 
hitching the team, hooked on to the plough 
and commenced breaking the sod. His two 
boys tethered the cows, brought out a tent and 
pitched it, set up a stove, and the old lady be¬ 
gan housekeeping. The family arrived early 
in the morning, and as we returned past their 
camp, in the afternoon, there were two ploughs 
at work ; a hedge-row had been broken around 
160 acres, and the teams had already com¬ 
menced breaking a 40-acre lot for corn. The 
old gentleman told us he intended to break 89 
acres before he stopped to build his house. If 
every one who went to the West was so well pre¬ 
pared as this man there would be fewer disap¬ 
pointed settlers. All the hardships incident to 
such a life must be submitted to patiently and 
willingly, or the man who goes West had better 
have stayed at home. 
Making Drain Tiles. 
In places where there is a supply of clay, 
and which are so distant from a manufactory 
of tiles that the freight is too costly for their 
profitable use, it would be better to manufac¬ 
ture them where they are to be used. If the 
quantity to be used is not more than one or 
two hundred thousand, a cheaply constructed 
hand machine can be used. Where larger 
quantities are desired, some of the various 
horse-power machines costing from $250 up¬ 
wards would be more suitable. A very effec¬ 
tive hand machine is shown in the annexed en- 
