130 
filled from a well, with a good chain pump, close by, and from which at 
any time their wants can soon be supplied. The straw instead of being left 
in unsightly piles, about the buildings and fields, too slowly moulder away, 
spreading the infection of decay about the premises, and encumbering an 
acre of land for years to no earthly use, is carefully stacked in long ricks 
through the centre of the yard, upon such a superstructure as will enable 
the cattle to eat from it for the whole winter between meals, thus saving 
one-half the amount of hay otherwise required, and all the waste. Then 
after having served as a dry and nice bed during the winter, it is well 
mixed with the compost heaps in the spring, and rendered a valuable 
manure. There is great economy in all this, as his animals, and his 
fields end crops will show. Still his greatly hurried neighbors never 
have time to properly stack their straw, or to make their compost heaps, 
and hardly time enough to get out their manure, some of them having 
wisely discovered that their land is rich enough without it, and that on 
the whole the manure is hurtful. Sage conclusion ! time will teach them 
that manure is as valuable to Wisconsin lands as to any other, and that 
many crops can easily be doubled by its judicious application. 
The corn crib, hog pen, and clover lot, are all so combined and ar¬ 
ranged as to be well calculated to improve the breed of pigs. 
In spring time, notice the way in which his work is done : the furrow 
rolls from his plow as if it were working in an ash heap, and the soil 
comes from the very bottom too, instead of skimming the surface. His 
seed, when brought upon the ground to be sown, is clean and pure, and 
of the right kind, having been selected and preserved in season, and 
from the very best. Thus, everything goes on harmoniously in season, 
and according to the most approved method ; and the lucky man almost 
always gets a good crop, while his unlucky neighbors often fail; their 
wheat often turns to chess and oats, and their cattle often die of black 
leg. 
What makes so much difference between these two kinds of farmers, 
beginning as they did under similar circumstances ; is it all luck ? to be 
sure it is ; the good farmer had the luck to be born with a large share 
of natural industry, perseverance and prudence, whilst his slovenly 
neighbors were born with, or have acquired, habits of carelessness, prob¬ 
ably of idleness, may be of laziness, although not conscious of it, by 
9 
