1852. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
67 
Prairie Farming—Breaking the Sod. 
Many false impressions have gone forth among the 
eastern farmers, in regard to the expense of breaking a 
prairie sod; and to those who may contemplate remov¬ 
ing to a prairie country, a few facts exemplifying the 
method of executing this work, and its average cost, 
when done by contract, might be found interesting. It 
is a very common practice throughout the entire western 
prairie country, to get the sod broken by contract, at a 
given price per acre, which ranges from $1.50 to $2.50 
according to the character of the work, and the local in¬ 
fluences governing the value of labor. The plow mostly 
used in breaking sod, turns a furrow two feet wide, and 
in some cases as high as thirty inches are turned, but 
the average may be rated at eighteen inches, requiring 
three yoke of oxen to da the work with ease. From 
two to three acres per day are plowed with an ox team, 
requiring one man to hold the plow, and another to drive. 
Tolerably good wages are made, at an average of two 
dollars per acre; and when all things are considered it 
cannot be said that it costs more to break up a prairie 
sod, than to plow an old meadow in one of the eastern 
or northern states. From two and a half to three inches, 
is the usual depth that the soil is broken, and the thinner 
it is plowed the better, so long as the vitality of the roots 
of ;the grass is destroyed. Advocates of deep plowing 
would not find their theory to work well, in breaking up 
prairie, from the fact that the thinner it is plowed the 
sooner will the roots of the grass undergo decomposition. 
When once broken, the case becomes altered. So soon 
as the first crop is harvested, deep plowing is no where 
productive of more favorable influence than on a rich, 
vegetable prairie soil, recently brought into cultiva¬ 
tion. 
In breaking prairie sod for corn, the work is sometimes 
done late in autumn, but more frequently it is performed 
in the spring, and the corn is planted immediately upon 
the inverted sod, in rows along the interstices of every 
alternate furrow. A small hole is cut in the sod with an 
old axe, or a grubbing hoe, in which the seed is deposi¬ 
ted, and covered; and the crop from that time forward, 
receives no cultivation, or attention, till it is matured, 
ready for harvest. The average yield by this manage¬ 
ment, ranges from twenty to fifty bushels per acre; and 
about thirty-five bushels may be a fairly computed pro¬ 
duct, when the work is done in good season, and in a 
creditable manner. The extreme toughness of the un¬ 
rotted sod, precludes the possibility of working the crop, 
and. indeed nature herself wisely provides for the exter¬ 
mination of the wild grasses and plants, that so profusely 
spread over the prairie surface, requiring only on the 
part of the husbandman, a single plowing, by which the 
soil becomes divested of every species of herbage except 
such as may be planted by the hand of man. 
Nothing can be so perfectly clean, as a virgin prairie 
soil, but owing to the prevailing manner of cultivation, 
the lapse of a very few years only, is required to over¬ 
run the whole surface of the land with a growth of weeds, 
such as can no where be found except in a prairie coun¬ 
try. Those weeds being annuals, are easily extirpated ; 
but when they once take possession of the soil, they im¬ 
part a very unsightly appearance, ranging as they do, in 
most cases, from three to five feet in height; and the 
cost and difficulty in destroying them, are quite equal to 
the expense of bringing into cultivation a prairie sod. In¬ 
deed, on many accounts, an unbroken prairie is prefera- 
ble to a farm that has been carelessly cropped six or eight 
years. This fact must become apparent to any one who 
will take the trouble to investigate the matter; and it is 
here mentioned as a warning to those who might be in¬ 
clined to pay an exorbitant price for improved prairie 
farms, as they are sometimes called, when so overgrown 
with weeds as to make it almost impracticable for a per¬ 
son to pass over the fields without incurring the risk of 
being lost! 
The best month in the year for breaking prairie is 
June, and when it is intended to sow the land with wheat, 
it is advisable to have the work executed at as early a 
period as this month, so that the sod may obtain a per¬ 
fect rot before the period for seeding. In some cases the 
land is plowed a second time, and some prefer doing it 
crosswise of the furrow, and others lengthwise; but it is 
universally conceded that if the rot be perfect, so that a 
heavy harrow will completely pulverize it, the second 
plowing will not contribute in increasing the product of 
the wheat crop, and, therefore, only one plowing is usu¬ 
ally given. 
Along the borders of the wood-land, vast thickets of 
hazle brush abound, which extends itself yearly into the 
prairie. The land where the hazle grows is usually un¬ 
dulating, and the vegetable soil is much thinner than on 
the open prairie. It costs about $2.50 per acre to break 
up hazle brush land, and not less than four yoke of oxen 
are capable of doing the work. The average height of, 
the bush is five feet, and with a strong plow and team, a 
furrow of two feet in width may be turned under with 
the greatest ease. The roots of the brush soon decay, 
and in a dry time the whole mass of brush and roots are 
burned, leaving the land in the best possible condition 
for a wheat crop. 
In Illinois and Iowa, and Upper Missouri, the finest 
and most perfect plows are in use, and indeed some of 
the patterns could scarcely be improved, either in lessen¬ 
ing the draft, or rendering the work more easy for the 
plowman. The strength of this conviction became in¬ 
creased by repeated practical trials, and after giving the 
matter a full and impartial investigation, we became con¬ 
vinced that a prairie sod had no equal as a test, to put to 
trial the skill of a scientific plowman; and that some of 
the most improved steel mould-board plows were so per¬ 
fectly adapted to the character of the work, that any 
further attempt at improvement would be abortive. The 
best plows are suspended on two wheels, supported by an 
axle near the end of the beam. The wheels are twelve 
inches broad on the surface, the one following in the 
furrow guides the width of the furrow slice, and the one 
on the sod acts as a roller to break and smooth down the 
prairie grass. By the aid of a lever the wheels are hoist¬ 
ed up, so as to expedite the turning of the plow at the 
head lands, and the only thing the plowman has to do, is 
to set the plow at the turnings, as the wheels guide it 
quite as perfectly as could be done by the most experien¬ 
ced plowman. W. G. Edmundson. Keokuk, Dec. 1851. 
