Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1860-06-11
TNrRRRsT1Na To FARnrRRs.
An Illinois Farm PrIneipaIity-A Michael suI.
livuntis Farm.

! NNuAlANF AnAHOAns " AAAC NA0AAAuaJ .LlGu hAN
content with few hundred acres, be num-
bers his by the thousand, and from the upper
windows Of his house can look out upon
single timothy meadow, which contains
fifteen hundred acres within its boundary
fences. Nor do we recollect 20 have seen in
this or any other country a body of land
more fertile than the black loan Of the prai-
ries on which we saw his corn growing
One needs to 60 to Illinois to understand
the extent 10 which an insatiate thirst for
land may be developed The small farmer
from New-England, who mayhap has drudged
a score Of years upon a poor hundred-acre
homestead and by bad management has
made his acres poor without enriching HIM
sell, goes to Illinois and settles upon half
section somewhere near the railroad Con-
tent at first with his $40 acres, and rejoiced to
find his soil so prolific as to require no manure
he works hard and thriYes for while But
with an ocean offertile land about him stretch
| ing on every side to the horizon, he gradually
becomes thirsty for an increase of his farm,
and at different times buys, now a quarter
and now half section, and in larger lots as
/ the disease gets the better Of him, until his
estate becomes cumbrous and unmanageable,
and his load Of debt the same. Itsurely would
be violation of every principle of common
/ sense to deny that this overgroWth of farms
| brings shihless management. Man is but
mortal, and where labor is scarce the land
owner is forced to skim over his great farm
from the sheer impossibility to do full justice
10 any portion oft,
This is the experience of most Illinois
farmers, who err in buying more land than
/ their capital warrants; and after visiting a
number of places we became convinced that
good management was decidedly the excep-
ton, shiftlessness the rule.
The case of Mr.. Sullivant is somewhat
different. Himself farmer, we are told, of
very large property, which is located near
Columbus, o., he so fully appreciated the splen-
did capabilities of Illinois prairie land that be
quietly located in very desirable localities
Government 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 Fall, over enc hundred |
thousand acres of land. In the farm at Homer, |
which we visited, there are 10000 acres; in |
another, in Livingston County, 10000; and |
other smaller plots elsewhere. He bears the |
reputation of being an excellent farmer in |
Ohio, and with his skill and experience the /
vast prairie estates will undoubtedly in time |
be made the most Of They are now in a /
transition state, partly cultivated and fenced, |
and in part the mere range Of virgin prairie
with the same tough sod over which the buff
falo roamed, and the Indian rode at headlong
speed. Where the land is under crops its
fertility is well shown in the stout stalks of |
the twelve and fourteen-fset corn, and the
close bottom Of the timothy meadow, near
the house. This meadow, which measures
t1OO miles in length and half a mile in width,
had been cut over prior to our visit; but we
could see from the sod whit the crop must
have been if the great stacks at one side of the
field had not been a witness to two tuns per
acre. On this farm there are 5000 acres
mOwn, the hay from which we saw in stacks
Of 80 tuns each, the whole amounting to up
ward Of 8, 900 tuns, or an average of one tun
to the acre. There were 500 acres of corn
raised last year, and 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 manged by seventy labOrers. Five
yoke ofcattle are put to each plow for break
ing prairie, but only one is needed for plowing
old land. So much ploWing 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 Fry's large
gang of plows would answer this purpose, it
was tried last year. Thirty acres were
plowed with it; but as it required skillfnl
man to work the screws which regulate the
depth of work, and consumed so much power
to do little work, it was abandoned. The
very harrows on the place would be suitable
for a farmer in Brobdignag. They are 20 |
feet wide, made in sections which are at
tached to one draft bar, and drawn by several
spans of horses. The prairie breaking plow
has beam nine feet long, resting on two
wheeled truck in 'front.' At one side the axle
is extended out, so that the wheel runs much
further from the beam than the other, by
which contrivance the plow guides itself
tolerably well without being held by plow-
man. 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.
Twenty plows are sent out to the field to
work at once, and relay of ten Others, to be
used in case of accident. If any plowman gets
into trouble, he hoists flag on asmall pole as
asig nal Of distress the overseer rides up; if
luC plOh IL UAuly BLOhCl3 ~ - bCA5 W lAC |
shop to be mendcd, but the plowman merely
drives his team to the end of the furrow, and
bitches to fresh plow that stands ready for
him. Mr.. Sullivant breaks prairie in May
and June plowing, or rather pairing the sod,
only an inch and half deep, to insure its
being rotted. The next year the ground is
plowed four inches in depthl The cost per
acre is estimated at 80 cents, not counting
anything for ox-labor. No grain is fed to
the work-cattle, as the wild prairie grass is
deemed sufficient to keep them in condition.
The prairie hay falling in September, the
tame grasses come on and last until Decem-
Der, after which time shock corn is drawn to
the stock, and fed on the ground, stalks and
all, just as it comes from the field.
For the requirements fthe farm ten now
ing-machines are needed, with four headers"
and four reaping-machines. which cut a swath
of ten feet in width. To an English farmer
these headers would seem perfect abomina-
ton for they merely harvest the ears of grain
with only foot or so of the straw, and leave
the rest standing on the field to be turned
under at next ploWing. The cut heads fall
upon a sidetraveling endless apron, and are
carried from it up another set at an angle Of
about thirty-fve degrees, and tumbled into
deep-Doxed wagon Whlch Is driven along as
fast as the header travels.
The Homer farm is smanaged by Mr.. Joseph
NJ. Sullivant to whom we desire to express
our obligations for polite attentions and
readiness to give as every desired informa-
ton. A book-keeper is employed to keep
the farm accounts. A regular journal is kept
of the work of each man, and large sum of
money is constantly on hand to pay wages
and meet the current expenses, which it may
be readily supposed, are far from inconsid-
cradle. The land, as we before remarked, has
varied very much in cost. Some Mr.. Sui
lvant got for ninety cents; great deal for
Government price-Sl %; and some thousand
acres were bought Of the Illinois Central Rail-
road Company at $40 per acre.
The regulations of labor are as follows:-
The men breakfast at 81 A. NJ, immediately
after which the wagons are driven up to the
lodging-house, to take the men to the field,
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