148 
The cost of fencing at the present time with rails is about thirty or 
thirty-five cents per rod, but a few years longer will render it necessary 
to dispense with the use of these, as all the timber will be needed for other 
purposes. The question now arises what will people do to obtain fencing 
materials ? Many Eastern people often ask this question, as if confident 
a satisfactory answer could not be rendered . We answer, the soil is 
very rich and will pay a return for cultivation. I know many farms on 
the broad prairies of Wisconsin that have furnished one crop of wheat 
sufficient to pay for the breaking up of the soil and fencing the same, 
when the materials were transported many miles. In the prairie sections 
posts and boards are beginning to be used extensively. The time is not 
distant when hedges will probably be grown and stone walls be built to 
to enclose fields wherever quarries are to be found, and they are nu¬ 
merous in the prairie country. Inventive Yankees will be sure to con¬ 
trive some way to make fields upon a soil so productive; there are large 
tracts of wild land, well located in Wisconsin, that can be purchased 
at from $7 to $10 per acre—an outlay of as much more money per 
acre in buildings, fencing, and breaking, will put a farm in produc¬ 
tive order. This fixes the value at $20 per acre.—I am speaking of the 
prairie and opening lands. It is well known that the cost of making a 
farm in heavy timbered land is far greater ; from my limited experience 
in clearing such land I place the cost of clearing alone at $10 per 
acre. 
As to the comparative merits of prairie and opening land a wide differ¬ 
ence of opinion exists among farmers. The prairie farmer is often heard 
to remark, I would not take an opening farm for my own and work it; 
while the farmer in the openings exclaims, I would not have a prairie 
farm as a gift—both are certainly extravagant in their ideas, and more 
or less prejudiced in favor of their respective localities. One fact, I be¬ 
lieve, is established beyond controversy, viz., the richest and strongest 
soil in this country is unquestionably found on the prairies, and it can be 
cultivated with greater facility than can the soil in the openings, it being 
free from stumps and stones. Reapers can also be used advantageously 
in harvesting grain, placing the harvest completely within the control of 
the farmer. These machines on the smooth prairies will cut from eight 
to sixteen acres per day, and do the work better than it can possibly bo 
done with grain cradles. The saving of labor by the use of these ma- 
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