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FROM CASS COUNTY.

BY P. D. BECKWITH, OF DOWAGIAC.

I am not a farmer, but am a manufacturer of agricultural implements. I will therefore try to answer your questions pertaining to implements only.

Labor-saving implements have been introduced in this county very extensively, of nearly all the usual kinds, and by the aid of them manual labor has been lessened so much that one man with these implements can perform the labor of three men without them, on farms in general. The Howard Mower and Reaper, the Kirby, Ball, Manny, and Wood's, are more generally used here than others. Corn-planters are not much used. Grain-drills are used in this county quite extensively. The common tooth or cultivator drill is used very little. I am manufacturing the roller grain-drill, for sowing wheat, oats, barley, buckwheat, peas, beans, clover, timothy, etc. This drill is used in this section, and also in some other parts of the State, with very favorable results. I have made it three years, and the main principle has been in use, in rude form, in what is known as the Gage neighborhood, about seven years. It is liked so well, that I have sold six machines in the above neighborhood in the three years I have been making them, within a distance of two miles. Some of our farmers say they would not know how to get along with their seeding without this drill. [This drill has been used with satisfactory results at the College farm the past season.-SECRETARY.] The common rotary horse-rake is extensively used here, and with good success. Horse-pitchforks are just being introduced, and most of the farmers think they make a considerable saving of labor, but are not able to say to what extent. Hay-tedders are not used here. The wheat cultivator is being introduced in this county with good results. It promises to be a valuable addition to the list of farm implements.

Forest, or wood land, has advanced twenty-five per cent. in the last five years. Wood and lumber advanced a little two or three years before our present war, but since the war com

menced, wood has trebled in price, and lumber has doubled in price. There is no land being cleared here at present.

Wages to farm laborers, by the day, are commonly $1 25. Now, in harvest, they are $2 50, and by the month from $20 to $26. In former years, before the war, wages have been bui about one-half the present rates.

This section of country does not need under-draining. 1 think some general system of agricultural education among the masses of farmers, would greatly advance the agricultural interests, but I cannot suggest a plan for such education.

FROM CASS COUNTY.

NO NAME GIVEN -COMMUNICATION DATED AT EDWARDSBURGH

This section of country has been cultivated about thirty-five years. This immediate vicinity is prairie, surrounded by tim ber and openings, interspersed with numerous little lakes and marshes. The prairie soil is a black, sandy loam; openings of a lighter kind of soil, and more sandy.

The principal crops are wheat and corn. The average yield per acre, at first, was large, with but a small amount of labor; but of late the yield has been much diminished, from constant cropping without resorting to clover or manure. At first, the average yield of wheat was twenty-five bushels per acre; now twelve or fifteen. Corn, at first, sixty bushels per acre; now forty. This decrease I attribute to the constant wear of the soil, without rest or seeding.

For years almost our only variety of wheat was that known as the Wabash. It yielded well, and was of good quality, but at last the insect known as the Hessian fly began to attack it, and to such an extent that its farther propagation seemed useless. Then followed several kinds of white wheat, which in turn were attacked by the same insect, and their further propagation abandoned. Then followed the Mediterranean, an early variety, which contines to be grown with success at the present

time. The earlier the crop ripens, the less liable it appears to be to the ravages of the insect. The different varieties of white wheat give, when unmolested by the insect, a larger yield per acre than the red.

Hay has not been grown for market to much extent in this vicinity, except that upon the marshes. The ruling price is six dollars per ton.

The average price for wheat has been about one dollar per bushel; corn, fifty cents; oats, twenty-five cents; potatoes, twenty-five cents. The wheat and corn crops are those mostly relied upon for market. At first, the wheat crop was by far the most profitable, but of late the corn crop has taken the lead, in consequence of the greater certainty of a full crop.

The only kind of fruit cultivated in this section to much extent is apples, which grow finely, and bear a good price. They are produced for the Chicago market, mostly, and bring about forty cents per bushel, on an average.

Root crops are not cultivated to much extent in this section. I have often asked farmers why they do not raise roots for feeding, but from none of them do I get a satisfactory answer. Our soil is well adapted to the growth of most roots, and they could be raised at a less cost, for the same amount of nutriment, than grain. In this section, grain is the great staple for market. The number of horses and cattle raised for market is comparatively small. Sheep have taken the lead of all other kinds of stock for profit, since the first settlement of the country,

Beef and pork are mostly sold on foot. The price for beef has been about two dollars and fifty cents per hundred, live weight; hogs, three to five dollars per hundred, live weight; fat sheep, three to six dollars per head. Mutton can be produced cheaper than the other kinds of meat.

There is not enough of dairying in this section to establish & price for the produce in our market towns. There are no cheese factories in this vicinity.

In this vicinity, but very little pains has been taken to improve the breed of cattle or horses. The horses we deem best adapted for the road, with light vehicles, are of the Morgan blood, and weigh from ten to twelve hundred pounds; and of those for the farm, about fourteen hundred pounds is the best, but horses of this weight ought not to be driven much beyond a walk, to have them last well.

Our best flocks of sheep are of Vermont origin. The average weight of fleeces, washed, has been from four to seven pounds per head. The price has ranged from sixty cents to one dollar per pound. Sheep are kept in this vicinity more for the fleece than for mutton, and up to this time the surplus of our flocks has been bought mostly for the western market, as stock sheep.

The breed of swine that is deemed the most profitable here, is a cross of the Berkshire. They possess this advantage; you can fatten them at any age, and they are very peaceable; they are usually fattened at about eighteen months old, and weigh, if well fed, on an average, three hundred pounds, dressed.

There are many labor-saving machines in use among us. Those for the female portion of community the most in use are the sewing machine, washing and wringing machines. For the farm, there are reapers and mowers, thrashers and separaters, horse-rakes, cultivators, etc. The estimated amount of labor saved by the use of the different machines, is one-half.

Of reapers and mowers, we have almost an endless variety. Those that are now taking the preference are self-raking, the first in rank among which is Seymour & Morgan's, and Allen's. The superiority consists in the working of the rake, it being entirely under the control of the driver, enabling him to form his bundles of uniform size, let the growth of the grain be light or heavy.

Years ago, there appeared in our midst hand corn-planters, which were extensively used for a time, but they were soon laid aside. The present season another machine has appeared, drawn by two horses, for planting. Those that I have seen appear to be defective in the dropping-a part of the time

dropping regularly, and again skipping. Otherwise, they give satisfaction.

The grain-drill is used to a considerable extent, and with various opinions as to its benefit. My own opinion is, that if the farmers would prepare and fit their grounds as nicely for broadcast sowing as for the drill, they would have as heavy a yield as where the seed is drilled in.

We have but two kinds of horse-rakes in use in this section. One is a revolving rake, with wooden teeth, running flat upon the ground, and does its work well. The other is slung upon an axle and wheels, with the driver's seat on the top, and is worked with a single horse. By most farmers, this is only thought to be fit for gleaning the wheat field. It collects entirely too much dirt for hay.

Horse-pitchforks and hay-tedders are not in use in this section. There is not attention enough paid to the growth of grass to make them needful.

No pains is taken, as far as I am acquainted, to save the liquid excrements of animals. The yard and stable manure is usually applied to the fallow ground for wheat. A liberal dressing will increase the yield about one-third.

The only other fertilizer in use in this vicinity is plaster. This has usually cost about six and a half dollars per ton. At present, it is much higher than this. We derive more benefit from plaster applied to our sandy soil, than to the loamy soil of the prairie. Upon the latter, clover appears to be benefited to a greater extent than any other crop, while upon the former there does not seem to be this marked difference.

The advance in value of wood-land within five years, and also of wood and lumber, has been one hundred per cent.

Wages for farm labor have ranged at about seventy-five cents per day from the first of March until the commencement of harvesting; then one dollar and fifty cents per day through harvesting and thrashing; then back to the previous price, until the fall work is completed. By the year, hands would command about sixteen dollars per month. These were the prices before war times.

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