The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1867-03-01

OF The State Agricultural Society, has
9, 400 acres fifteen miles southwest frono
Lawrence In 1864 be sold his corn In
the ear at home for 81 IS per bushel.
On the lst of August be bought $50
acres of wild prairie for $500. He cut
and raked the grass by macbihery. and
could gather only about half Of It, as the
rest had not burned over the previous
winter, and was so matted With dead hay
that the machines could not work. AT
Ter the hay was cut and cured his neigh
bors stacked ''on shares" The JUDGES
half was 100 tons, which he sold on The
ground for 81 gO40. hsFhus bis first crop
from the wild prairie paid for the
entire tract and the cost of cutting, gath !,
ering aud stacking the hay. This year
he rents another farm for 81 90 per acre
more than first cost of the land and
Improvements. . -8
Col. James Montgomery-''tbe terrible
Montgomery of the Border-( Free State
partisan leader in the early days and Co.
lionel of Kansas infantry during the Re
bellion has 600 acres in Linn county.
Two, hundred under cultivation. 8 Ex
farm Ct 1000 acres north Of Lawrence.
R. G. Elliott has 500 acres in the came
vicinity. Mr.. Marlindale, 10 Greenwood
county has several thousand acres. Kan
sas is peculiarly adapted to extensive
farms, and many not here enumerated
are under cultivation.
CORN.-The cereal best adapted to Kan
sas. The earliest planting is indispensi-
ble,to Assure crop. The average yield is
from 40 to IS bushels per acre; 100 is
not uncommon, A field 10 Nemaha
county produced, by measurement 107
bushels. With the best machinery, one
man will plants cultivate and gather so
acres ia season. The hoe is never US
ed. Upon some farms it is an implement
altogether unknown. Weeds are kept
down by blowing two or three times dur
ing the season with the four pointed stir
ring pillow, which strikes four burrows at
once, finishing two rows of corr as fast
as two horses can walk. The driver
rides upon little spring seat on the ma
chine. In 1864, some sections were too
wet for blowing, yet fields which were
untouched after planting, yielded so bush
els to the acre. I.u as5-l
Everything but husking is done by ma
chnery. With these enormous yields.
stripping the ears by hand is difficult and
expensive. Surely, Yankee genius Is
equal TO the invention of a husking ma
chine, and one would be of inestinabe
value to the farming interest. l hear ru
mOrs of some such invention in New York
or Boston. Who can tell the public some
thing abouti. p '2''
WHEAT.-Yields from Is to 40 bush
els. This year, in Lyon county, a field
produced ALI bushels to the acre; one in
Allen county, Al bushels. Spring wheat
should be sown in February or early in
March, fall wheat by the middle of De-
.cember. The crop very seldom fails.
OATS Easily raised and yield large;
chief difficulty richness of soil, which
makes The straw heavy and liable TO fall
before harvest. A field in Nemaha coun-
ny produced 80 bushels to the acre. 'l
HAY.-This would seem the most ma
tural crop. For on high, dry prairies the
wild grass grows to four or five feet, and
upon bottom lands eight, ten aud twelve.
The early frosts do not destroy its nu
triiiYe qualities. OF cultivated grasses
miIlet aud Hungarian flourish best often
averaging five feet high upon the most
ordinary soil, and producing three or four
tons to the acre.
SoRGuUM.-hdmirably adapted to the
soil, and thriYes date in the dryest season
when other crops fail. Inventions for
making sugar from the syrup are steadily
improving. G. B. Lines of Wabaunse
converts about half (by weight) of his
syrup "into sugar, and leaves the rest an
excellent article for the tablet Sooner
or later these prairies must furnish sugar
for the United States, and perhaps for the
world. He.tz a..
SHEEP-The climate is subject to very
sudden changes, equaled only by the nor
theirs Of Texas. Ways among the pic.
neers used to say it was unsafe to leave
home any day in the year without an
overcoat, umbrella apd fan. These alb
rupt transitions from heat to cold are very
trying to sheep; yet, a large number o
farms for wooi-growing are in successful
operation. Wisely, too, domestic man
ufactures are inaugurated. The For
Scott Wooden Mills employ % workmeu
and produce $50 yards of cloth daily
Coal is plenty, labor is reasonably low
and in lime much manufacturing will BE-
done. .F
CATTLE.-Of late, many have taken t
stock-raising, which involves less rish
than wool growing, and is equally profit
able. There are large stock-farmers II
every part of the State. The native cat.
tie have no. malignant disease. Some
driven in from Texas have introduced TIT
] fatal, contagious Spanish rot, and in Dor
der counties farmers now combine t
keep out Texas droves.
In short winters, Kansas has SO pc
cent The advantage of Nebraska, low
and Minnesota. In northern counties
most of stock growers feed from three t
four months. But the winter of 1857
was so mild that even in Nemaha, on tn
extreme northern border, half the farm
ers gave their cattle no hay whatever
Some wastefally and cruelty let thei
stock run during the cold monihs withOu
feeding at all. and many commit the gres
mistake of Western farmers by providin
no adequate shelter. In extreme south
FERN counties little or no feeding is re
CURED. For many years to come stock
raising must be the specially of Kanss
farmers.
Cows command from. S25 To SAO sacl