Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1860-04-30
Q0(ortGstGr @ailp Spp.
From the New York Tribune.

kingdom it might also be cal.ed-of Mr.. Sui.
liyant, near Homer, Champaign county, Him
ois. While ordinary men are content with a
few hundred acres, he numbers his bv the
thousand, and from the upper windows of his
house can look out upon a single timothy mea-
dow, which contains fifteen hundred acres
within its boundary fences. Nor do we recol-
lect to have seen in this or any other country
body of land more fertile than the black
loan Of the praires on which we saw his corn
growing.
One needs to 90 to Illinois to understand
the extent TO which an insatiate thirst Tor land
may be developed. The small farmer from
New England, who mayhap has drudged
score OF years upou poor hundred acres
homestead, and by bad management has made
his acres poor without enriching himself goes
to Illinois and settles upon a halt-section some
where near the railroad. Content at first with
his 800 acres, and rejoiced to find his soil so
prolific as to require no manure, he works hard.
n ASthrives fer while. But with an ocean
~ tile land about him stretching on every
side to the horizon, he gradually becomes
thirsty for an increase of his farm, and at dit.
terent times buys, now quarter and now
half section, and i'll larger lots as the disease
gets the better of him, until his estate becomes
cumbrous and unmanageable, his load OF debt
the same. 1t surely would be a violation OF
every principle of common sense to deny that
this overgr0wth Of farms brings Shittless man
agemcnt. Man is but mortal, and where labor
is scarce the landowner is forced to skim over
his great farm from the sheer mpossibility to
do full justice to any portion of it.
This is the experience Of most Illinois farm
ers, who err in buying more land than their
capital warrants and after visiting number
Of places we became convinced that good
management was decidedly the exception,
shittesncss the rnle.
The case OF Mr.. SulIivant is somewhat diff.
ferent HimseIfa farmer, we are told, OF very
large property, which is located near Colum-
bus, o., he SO fully appreciated the splendid
capabilities of Illinois prairie land that he qui-
city located in very desirable localities gov
ernment land warrants to the extent of many
thousand acres, and at one time and another
SO increased the quantity that he now holds,
or did last tall, over one hundred thousand
acres of land. In the farm at Homer, which
we visited, there are 20 900 acres in another,
in Livingston county, 40,000 acres and other
smaller plots elsewhere. He bears the reputa
ton of being an excellent farmer in Ohio, and
with his skill and experience the vast prairie
estates will undoubtedly i'll time be made the
most Of They are now in transition state,
partly cultivated and fenced and i'll part the
mere range Of virgin prairie with the same
tough sod over which the buffalo roamed, and
land is under crops its fertility is well shownin
the stout stalks of the twelve and fourteen feet
corn, and the close bottom OF the timothy
meadow, near the house. The meadow,
which measures tCo miles in length and half a
mile in width, had been cut over prior TO our
visit but we could see from the sod what the
crop must have been, even if the great stock
at one side of the field had not been a witness
to two tons per acre. On this farm there are
from, N,ri,if ~
in stacks of 80 tons each, the whole amounting
to upwards of 5000 tons, or an average OF one
ton to the acre. There were 1900 acres OF
corn raised last year, aud about 1000 OF wheat;
\ the greater part OF the remainder OF the farm
was in meadow and pasture.
To do the farm work two hundred working
oxen are required, which, with the sixty
horses, are managed by seventy laborers.
Five yoke of cattle are put TO each pillow for
4 breaking prairie, but only one is needed for
blowing old land. SO much blowing has to be
done at once, that Mr.. Sullivant would be very
glad to get some tool that would do it whole
sale and, in the hope that Jesse Frys large
gang of plows would answer this purpose, 1t
was tried last year. Thirty acres were
plowed with it; but as it required skill
full man to work the screws which
regulate the depth of the work, and as
it consumed so much power to do little
. Work, IL was aOanuOnCu. L uO NCly hiitO"o
on the place would be suitable for a farmer i'll
Brobdinag They are 20 feet wide, made in
sections which are attached to one draft bar
and drawn by several spans OF horses. The
prairie breaking pillow has beam OF nine teet
long, resting on twO-wheeed truck III front.
AT one side the axle is extended out, so that
the wheel runs much further from the beam
than the other, by which the pillow guides IT.
self tolerably well without being held by
4 plowman. A long lever, extending from the
nose of the beam to the handles, and which
may be set by pin in holes on an upright
piece, enables the attendant to regulate the
depth Of work as required.
j Twenty plows are sent out to the field to
work at once, and relay OF ten others, 10 De
used in case of accident Ii any plowman
gets into trouble he hoists flag on small
pole as a signal of distress; the overseer rides
up; it the blow is badly broken, it is sent TO
the shop TO be mended, but the plowman
merely drives his team to the end OF tie fur
row, and bitches to a fresh pillow that stands
ready for him. Mr.. Sulvant breaks prairie
4 in May and June, blowing or rather pairing
/ the sod, only an iuch and halt deep, TO III
sure its being rotted. The next year the
ground is plowed four inches in depth. The
4 cost per acre is estimated at 80 cents, not
counting anything for OK labor. No grain is
| fed 10 the work cattle, us the wild prairie grass
/ Is deemed sufficient to Keep them III conutloh
4 The prairie hay failing in September, the tame
grasses come in and last until December, alter
which time shock corn is drawn TO the stock
and fed on the ground, stalks ana all, Just Us IL
comes from the field
For the requirements of the farm ten NOW
ing machines are needed, with t0ur heauerS,
and four rcaping machines which cut swarth
- ten feet in width To an English farmer
St3ese headers would seem perfect abonna
ton, for they merely harvest the ears OF gram
with only a foot OF so Of the straw, and leave
the rest standing on the field to be turned UNI
der at next blowing. The cut heads fall upon
a side-traveling endless apron, and are carried
from it up anoth, r, set at.an angle OF about 90
degrees, and tumbled into a deep boxed wa
g0n, which is driven along as fast as the head
er travels.
The Homer farm is managed by Mr.. Joseph
Nj Sullivant. A book keeper is employed to
keep the farm accounts. A regular journal is
kept of the work of each man, aud large
sum of money is constantly on hand to pay
wages and meet the current expenses, when IL
may be readily supposed are far from inconsid-
cradle. The land, as we have before remark
ed, has varied very much in cost Some Mr..
Sulliyant got for 80 cents great deal for
government price-Sl 25 and some thousand
acres were bought of the Illinois Central Rail
road company for $40 an acre.
The regulations of labor are as follows the
breakfast at 5 IL A. NJ, Immediately alter
which the wagons are driven up to the lodg-
Ing-house to take the men to the field, 1t 1t
should be as much as n mile distant. Dinner
is sent to them, and eaten in the field during
he hours intermission at noon. They quit
aorl at SHUTDOWN and ride home. For break
G prairie the burrows are made a mile long