330 Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
that he had sold in the fall for $30 per head, and had received his 
pay, but had agreed to keep them five months longer for $10 per 
head. He estimated that he could keep them for $3 per head. 
Astonished at the figure, he explained that he fed them two quarts 
of oats per day, and wheat-straw day-times and oat-straw nights. 
Two quarts per day, for one hundred and fifty days, is ten bushels, 
at thirty cents per bushel is $3. The manure, he said, would 
pay for the straw and labor. He stated that it had been his prac¬ 
tice for years to feed all his stock, from calves up, two quarts per 
day of oats, and what wheat-straw they would eat with plenty of 
water and good care, stabling every night, and on stormy and very 
cold days, and his stock was all very thrifty and good sized. The dif¬ 
ference between $3 or $4 and $10 in wintering stock, is enough to 
lead to success on one hand and failure on the other. His practice 
with pigs was to have them come in July or August. Feed pump¬ 
kins and squashes and light feed during the winter with very little 
corn; let them run to pasture during summer, and top off with 
corn when fourteen months old, thus making pork for three cents 
per pound, instead of six or seven cents when kept entirely on 
corn, being difference enough to account for success in that line. 
He valued highly, soft-shell squashes to feed stock of all kinds. 
Could raise thirty to forty loads per acre, planting on rich ground 
in rows one rod apart, and from six to eight feet in the row. Every 
Saturday, if the day is pleasant, the bo} 7 s being out of school, he draws 
the manure which had accumulated during the week, and spreads it 
on the corn-field for next spring. I saw nothing in his system or 
success which any industrious, careful man on a farm might not 
hope to imitate and equal. Of course we found many more suc¬ 
cessful men on a larger scale, hut they often have a faculty for buy¬ 
ing and selling, a natural shrewdness for bargains which seems 
born in some men, and which others cannot attain. We find fancy 
farmers who have made their money in speculation in some other 
business, who swoop down upon us as from above, and flourish their 
little hour with their new notions and fancy teams. Their race is 
usually interesting but short, and we gather few lessons from their 
practices. Exclusive wheat-culture in Wisconsin is ruin. The 
last year has demonstrated that corn will not always save us, 
and we are forced to the conclusion that we must adopt a 
mixed husbandry; must raise horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs; 
