153 
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It appears to me that farmers might improve some upon the practice 
of burning all the straw and stubble in grain fields; let it be piled where 
cattle are yarded during the winter season, and converted into manure. 
The time will certainly come when the application of manure will do the 
land good—talk about a soil of inexhaustible fertility—it is all nonsense. 
As a means of replenishing the soil of land that has been cropped too much, 
I know not why the practice of growing clover, and plowing it under, 
cannot be adopted here as well as in Western New York. Perhaps some 
Wisconsin farmers who burn stubble, may raise the inquiry: How can a 
crop of clover growing rank, knee-high, be turned under with a plow— 
we cannot turn over stubble ground till burnt over, for the stubble clogs 
a plow badly and hinders us in our work ? The answer to this is, that a 
roller passing over a clover field will press the clover down flat, and 
make way for the plow to turn a smooth furrow, without much inter¬ 
ruption. 
After commencing a farm, and having made considerable progress in 
the way of improvements, farmers can take that course in managing it 
which will render it productive from year to year. Whether a farmer 
possess a grain farm or not, it is important that some attention be given 
from the beginning of his operations in making a farm, to raising stock; 
a few good cows and a few good sheep and hogs, at least, should belong 
to every farmer. The expense of keeping good stock is no greater than 
that of keeping poor. With a good stock of cattle, sheep and hogs in 
his possession* the farmer has something to depend on in case of necessity, 
to raise means when his crops may have been nearly all cut off. 
During the years 1850 and 1851 the farmers generally in Wisconsin 
were in a sad condition ; the wheat crop failing during those years left 
the most of them destitute of every thing from which to raise money. 
Many had not as much stock on their farms as was exempted by law from 
execution, and the only resource left for them was to hire money at ex¬ 
orbitant rates and mortgage their farms, or suffer themselves to be ruined 
at once as to property. They turned their attention then wholly to rais¬ 
ing wheat, because it was the only crop that would sell for money. Now 
the case is very different; a greater variety of crops can be grown with 
profit, and that farmer who acts wisely will not risk often all on the fate 
of a single crop. When we look at the variety of crops which this 
