State Contention—Butter-Making, Etc. 299 
to three or four inches; after that I cultivate with a common culti¬ 
vator, three diamond teeth set in the cultivator-frame. Then I 
have drag-teeth in a big frame, made so it can he shut up. [ have 
to shut it up pretty narrow. When I cultivate it the first time 
with this plow, it leaves the ground level. I have just shaved it off 
so it left a nice ridge. After that comes the thinning. That is not 
a very serious job. I was astonished at the ease with which I ac¬ 
complished it. 
Mr. Allen: Did you thin with your hand or hoe? 
Mr. Wood: You can thin with a hoe. 
Question: I would like to ask Mr. Wood how much of a 
crop of potatoes he wanders over in going through it to keep it 
free of the weeds. I am raising potatoes myself and I find it veiy 
difficult to keep it free of weeds. 
Another question I would like to ask is, the nature of potatoes 
for food for the human body. In an early day I was once confined 
to that kind of food; we couldn’t get anything else to eat for four 
days, and it was very thin food. 
Mr. Eaton: I have been myself heretofore engaged in a diversi¬ 
fied husbandry. I am now' about to exchange to a certain extent, 
from agriculture to that of butter-dairying; hence, I am very 
much interested in anything that can be said about the care and 
management of cows. I was unfortunately detained this morning 
and did not hear the very able paper that was read. I am a very 
small farmer yet. My farm is so small I cannot afford to hire out¬ 
side of my own family. I do not find time to wander over my po- 
tatoe-patch and pull out the weeds now and then. I must culti¬ 
vate by horse-pow r er. I have not the time to use a hoe at all. The 
hoe never goes on to my farm except it is to dig a few potatoes. I 
cover my potatoes with a hoe, and that is about all. The question 
[ wish to raise at this time is this—the real cheapness of the vari¬ 
ous kinds of food. Can a farmer, situated upon an alluvial soil, 
like the rich prairies of our country, having a farm of not more 
than a hundred acres, raise the root-crop, buy the machinery 
necessary to prepare the food for the animals, employ hired help 
that necessity will require to attend to a dairy of from twenty to 
fifty cows, and feed them on a portion of that kind of food each 
day, when he can raise corn for thirty cents a bushel, and oats for 
twenty-five cents. We have mills within two or three miles where 
