Southport telegraph. [volume] (Southport, W.T. [i.e. Kenosha, Wis.]) 1840-1850, 1842-11-02
SOUTHPORT TELEGRAPH.
NOVEMBER 2, lS42.
FARMING IN WISCONSIN.

FARMING IN WISCONSIN.
Mr.. George W. Tiff, came to this Territory IN
April last, and purchased GAO acres of land on the
open prairie, about five miles from this village
He has during the past summer caused to be turn
ed 400 of prairie sod; 200 OF which were
sowed to wheat more than six weeks ago; it has
come up finely with rank luxuriance, and now ex-
hibits pleasing green and verdant prospect. The
remaining two hundred acres ready broken up will
be sowed to wheat, or some other grain next
spring. The land cost $780, being the government
price of ten shltings per acre. The blowing cost
50 80 per acre-Sl 900 for the 400 acres; the seed
sowing. and narrowing, cost at the rate OF 81 w
per acre, or $780, for the zoe acres sowed to wheat;
the fencing which is not yet done may be estimat-
ed to cost at the rate of $l,00 per acre, or $500
for enclosing 400 acres. Here then, is an invest
ment, including the title to the land, and the I'M
provements made upon it of $240O.
IT, order TO Judge whether Mr. Tiff has made a
good investment, we will make an estimate OF
the probable avails arising from his farm the
coming year. Allowing the wheat now on the
ground to yield next season twenty bushels to the
acre. he will have 4, 900 bushels of winter wheat TO
market year from the present fall; which wheat
at 46 cents per bushe will amount to $lS4O. De
duct from this amount $40, to pay the expense OF
harvesting, carrying it to market, and other contln
gencies, and it leaves the clear amount of $l4OO.
The remaining 200 acres which are ready broken
up will be sown to wheat next spring, or some other
crop perhaps equally productive profit; and allow
ing the avails of it, after deductng the attendant
contingencies to be $400 less than that of the 200
acres put into wheat this fall, and the amount real
lied from it will be $I000-1naking the total avails
arising from the 400 acres So, 400. Thus it APP
pears that Mr.. Teft at the expiration of eighteen
months from the time he purchased the land from
the government, will find himself in possession Of
farm one mile square, having on II larger field
under improvement than farmer out of five
thousand can boast of in New York New Eng
land, and having already received an income from
it suifiient refund to him the amount he paid for
the soil and the improvements. Although these es
Inmates of the avaIls arising from the farm, depend
upon the producvcncss of the season, the condition
of the grain market; and although they may turn
out to have been made too favorable to the pros
pectlve interests of Mr.. Teft, still 1t is believed
they serve to give tolerable correct idea of what
can be done in this portion of the west with mod
crate amount of capital. In the regoing there is
no estimate for buildings because Mr.. Jeff has not
moved his family to this country, and all the labour
which has been performed on the premises has been
done under contract.
Suppose Mr.. Teft had purchased $40 acres Of
land in its wild or natural state in New York, New
England, Pennsylvania, or any other timbered
country for the same price per acre, (Which how
ever it would have been impossible TO have done in
the vicinity of any commercial or market town. the
expense of clearing the timber from it and fitting it
for crop the first year, could not be estimated less
than $40, per acre, $4,000 for clearing the 400
acres. Here then is difference of $4,000 in
item, of expenditure in favor of the west over the
east If it be said that he would have had the adj
vantage for obtaining higher prices for his crops at
the east than here; even this advantage is more
than over balanced in favor ofthe wes,by the supe-
rior productveness of the soil, the ease, facility and
less expense in conducting farming operations in
prai RE country. Besides in the eastern states it
usually takes some twenty years before a new farm
is rid of stumps, stones and other impediments
which obsruct agricultural operations; while in a
prairie country after the first years cultivation, the
fields of the farmer free from any distractions
to the use of the pillow or the harrows, as the lands
on the rich river bottoms at the east, which have
been cultivated fifty or hundred years.
We have not mentioned the investment made
by Mr.. Tett a of peculiar interest in the
west as one which exceeds in prospect of an ad
vantageous outlay of capital, beyond what other
men have done in this country; there are scores of
other farms in this county which probably would
have served our purpose equally well to illustrate
the advantages which Wisconsin possesses for men
of moderate capital, who wish 10 60 into the
business of farming. 1t is matter susceptible OF
proof that man with a capital of $780, can &C.
compllsh more in two years on a new prairie farm,
IN the West, than he can accomplish on a new
farm with the same amount of capital in twelve
years, in one of the Eastern States. A young man,
therefore, who is about to begin the world in the
business of farming and who selects his location in
heavy timbered country in preference to prairie
country, deliberately throws away ten years of his
life to hard labor.
LEAD TRADE.
The Lead Trade is destined TO become
a business Of much importance 10 the Ter
ritory; the resources Of Wisconsin have