224 Wisconsin state agricultural society . 
our latitude must make its growth and ripen within four months 
from the time of sowing it. Corn will be filling its ears for a 
month after wheat is harvested, and by that time the sod will be 
quite well rotted and in good condition to push it forward. We 
often hear it said that corn on sod will be backward in the spring, 
but will ear heavily in the fall. It has to wait for the rotting of 
the sod. Wheat has no time to wait. As a natural result men 
learn to plant corn on sod, then follow with wheat or some other 
•crop which must make rapidly. 
If my suggestions, based upon a short experience, shall prove 
of any service to my brother farmers, I shall be satisfied. 
It must be borne in mind that in farming, experiment is the 
crucible in which all theories must be tried. How many pet 
notions have been torn from us by failure. Agricultural interests 
fill so important a space in the world, and have, for so long a time 
occupied the thoughts and hands of the human family, that it 
would seem as if its leading facts and practices might by this 
time have been reduced to the terms of an exact science, but yet 
in nothing is the human mind more afloat. How few are the points 
which we have settled to our satisfaction. We deal with such 
varied conditions of soil, climate and seasons over which we have 
no control that our best matured plans are overshadowed by 
uncertainties. Who can measure the subtle influences which will 
rust our wheat while still in the blade, or tell us why in the 
following season, from the same ground we will harvest a satis¬ 
factory crop. The most hopeful sign of the times, is the spirit 
of inquiry which is so widely awakened. Our increasing wants 
and decreasing productions compel us to search after better 
methods. It is the day of small things, but the difference is 
very wide between the method which grabs for every thing which 
can be turned to immediate account and that which consults the 
future well being and productions of the soil. 
Co-operation is the great watchword of the day, and it would 
be difficult to over estimate its importance, yet in nothing is it so 
indispensable as in gaining intelligence. We may as individuals, 
be wearily plodding along in our rude experimenting, hunting for 
some item of experience which our neighbor has already ob¬ 
tained, and which he would gladly give us did he but know that 
