LE CLAIRE, SCOTT COUNTY, Iowa, SIR: By the kind remembrance of Hon. A. C. Dodge, senator in Congress from this State, I have been furnished your Circular of August last, asking information with regard to the agricultural products of this section of the country. Notwithstanding my knowledge of agriculture is somewhat limited, I have concluded to send in my mite from this newly-settled, but productive and rapidly-improving portion of the Great West. I have read all the Reports from your Office from 1847 down to the present time with great care and attention, and I rejoice in the means afforded by them of disseminating such valuable information over our widely-extended Republic. Owing to the fertility of our prairie soil, manures of any kind have not been used by any of our farmers in this section of Iowa. The crops mostly raised here are wheat, corn, oats, barley, potatoes, and onions. Wheat.-Owing to the cold, dry, windy weather in the winter, fall wheat is not raised to any extent, but very fine spring wheat, of the Red River and Italian varieties, and what is called Hedge Row, is extensively raised. It is sown in April and harvested in July. Before sowing, the ground is ploughed about four inches deep and then harrowed well, when one and a half bushel of seed per acre is sown, and again harrowed; the yield is from fifteen to twenty bushels an acre. The Hessian flies and weevils are unknown to the wheat raised here; nothing troubles wheat in this country but smut, which may be prevented by washing the seed in vitriol water before sowing. The price of wheat this year is from fifty to sixty-five cents per bushel. Corn.-Several varieties of Indian corn are raised in Scott, Clinton, and the adjoining counties of Iowa; the most common, however, is the Yellow Dent. One man with a team will cultivate about thirty acres; it is planted in May and ploughed three or four times, and ought to be hoed once or twice; common yield from fifty to seventy-five bushels per acre. The ground is well ploughed up before planting, and the rows from three and a half to four feet apart, and four stalks left in a hill. Oats, barley, rye, peas, and beans are successful crops here; the yield, however, depends upon the season. Clover and Timothy grow well wherever tried, but, in consequence of the abundance of prairie hay, little attention has yet been paid to their cultivation. Butter and cheese made in abundance, and quite profitable. I am, however, but little acquainted with the dairy business. Horses are raised with but little trouble and expense, and at three years old will sell for from seventy-five to one hundred dollars. Sheep and wool-growing will undoubtedly be the most profitable business in Iowa, as they seem to do remarkably well, and can be raised with very little expense. I am sorry to say that but few sheep have yet been introduced into the country. Hogs are raised here extensively, and pork sells at from four to five dollars per hundred weight. Potatoes.-Irish potatoes of the best quality are raised here in great abundance; they produce from two hundred and fifty to three hundred bushels per acre, and are selling this season at twenty-five cents per bushel. Sweet potatoes grow well here, but are not much raised. Fruit Culture.-Apples, pears, cherries, plums, and grapes do well; the peach is uncertain. I regret that I have been unable to answer your questions more fully, and also to give you some other information, as I intended. Very respectfully, To the COMMISSIONER OF PATENTS. LAUREL SUMMERS. KANESVILLE, (COUNCIL BLUFF) Iowa, SIR: Pursuant to request by your Circular of interrogatories, I hasten to reply, and will briefly state, in answer, so far as my knowledge and experience extend, in regard to the subjects of which you wish infor mation. Wheat is produced through this section of country without the aid of any kind of manures. Much of the crops are put in with but once ploughing of 4 to 6 inches deep, and the wheat covered by dragging the ground. The better crops are produced by sowing in September amongst the standing corn; the stalks being left standing through the winter are cut down and raked off in the spring. A number of crops are frequently produced successively from one piece of ground, without any perceptible diminution in the succeeding crops. There is no insect that disturbs the crop here. The best crops are produced where the northwesterly winds are broken from the fields. As the snows are light and lay on the ground but a short time, a great advantage may be derived in this Western country by sowing early with oats where the land is open. These will protect the wheat through the winter from wind, and also from destruction by frost and heat. The general average of winter wheat in this county is about 25 bushels per acre, and brings, at this time, 75 cents per bushel. August and September are the time for seeding, and July the harvest month. Corn is abundantly produced without the assistance of manures. Sixty bushels per acre is considered an average yield; and 10 cents per bushel is near the cost of raising. Average price in our place is 20 cents per bushel. Oats are a good crop here, and yield well-say 50 to 55 bushels per acre. Peas and barley are not raised to any extent. Beans are easily produced, and will average per acre-say 20 bushels; bringing in our market from $2 to $3 per bushel. Oats average 30 cents per bushel. Clover and grasses are not as yet cultivated, the country being but lately settled. Stock-growing.-There is no county within my knowledge better adapted to grazing than this. Upon all the streams large beds of rushes are found, where stock will fatten all winter, only requiring herding. Then in the summer our broad prairies produce an abundance of fine rich grass, which will fatten stock much quicker than the tame grasses. The cost, therefore, of rearing is comparatively nothing. The average price at 3 years old will be $12 per head. Wool-growing at present is very limited, but would be exceedingly profitable, as the increase of the stock would pay the yearly expense of the flock. Hogs are raised with very little trouble, and the climate is particularly adapted to their increase; nuts and roots abounding in the forests and on the prairies, to sustain them. Very little corn is fed them until they come to fattening. Root Crops. Turnips, carrots, beets, parsnips, &c., are not at present cultivated as field crops, but grow in boundless and unlimited profusion provided the ground is furnished with seed. Melons, pumpkins, and cabbage also grow abundantly, and to perfection; the two former only requiring to be planted on sod ground, with or without corn, and many wagon-loads per acre may be grown without further trouble. Molasses produced from the watermelon is considered equal to honey. The Potatoes -Both Irish and sweet are produced in abundance. former will produce, if well attended, 300 bushels per acre, at a cost, before harvesting, of about 5 cents per bushel, or less; average market price, 30 cents per bushel. The Pink-eye, large Red Meshanock, the Irish Gray, Blue Kidney, and large Orange, are considered the best varieties. Fruit.-As yet, few or no orchards exist in this county, or immedi ately in this vicinity, except a few small orchards and nurseries. This is doubtless an excellent fruit country. A few very fine peaches have been produced from the seed since settling here. Fruit would be an exceedingly profitable crop, as apples bring from $1 50 to $2 per bushel; and this county will ere long become one of the finest fruit counties in the West. Your most obedient servant, To the COMMISSIONER. J. E. JOHNSON. JEFFERSON COUNTY, IOWA, SIR: I acknowledge the receipt of your Circular of inquiries relating to the farming interests. Particularly confining myself to this vicinity, I proceed to answer such of your queries as have fallen under my observation and experience. We Wheat. Varieties in use, Red-chaff bearded, Golden-chaff, and Redchaff smooth, and Early May. The Mediterranean does not stand the winter so well as the other kinds; the first mentioned most in use. are somewhat troubled with the Hessian fly and the rust, and often injured by the severity of the winter. There is little or no snow, and occasional thaws, and then on a sudden the thermometer sinks from eighteen to twenty and twenty two degrees below zero, which kills more or less root and top. Time and method: some sown on sod broken up in Juneor July; it is also sown on oat-stubble, and mostly among corn; time, from the last week in August till the middle of September; average yield, from eight to twelve bushels per acre; price, fifty cents per bushel. Spring wheat is considerably sown; yet it is somewhat uncertain, in consequence of an insect known by the name of the chintz fly. It attacks the lower extremity of the stalk, taking all the sap from the head, or not leaving enough to mature the berry perfect and plump, it being more or less shrunk; this is invariably the case if late sown. The best preventive that I have found is, break up the ground in the fall, then take from fifty to eighty bushels of air slacked lime and a light coat of stable manure, spread them evenly over the surface; this is done before the frost; and then let it lie until February or March, as the going out of the frost will admit of a loose soil to operate with a drill or harrow-the former preferable. Put two bushels of seed to the acre and you generally have a plump berry, free from the insects, and from ten to thirty bushels per acre. Several kinds in use; but the Italian is the best adapted to our soil and clime, in consequence of its early maturity. Rye is not largely cultivated; it is generally sown in September; yet some sow in August for the purpose of pasture. It is a sure crop; yield, from fifteen to twenty bushels per acre; price, from fifty to seventy-five cents per bushel. Oats are largely cultivated; common time of sowing, March, April, and May; one and a half to two bushels and a half per acre; yield from thirty to fifty bushels per acre; price, fifteen to twenty-five cents per bushel Corn. This great staple is of the first importance with us; it affords a cheap and wholesome bread, and supports our stock of all kinds, which are our only source of making anything in the surplus-money line. We have two kinds in common use-the yellow and white gourdseed; the yellow being the hardiest and earliest, and considered the most heating and strong; the white possessing more of the saccharine, and when distilled will not produce so much liquor to the bushel as the yellow. I prefer the white to feed to horses; the yellow, for all other kinds of stock. The method of putting in: plough in the fall, harrow in the spring, list or furrow out in the usual way, four feet apart; put from three to four grains in a hill. Time of planting, from the last of April to the 1st of June-the best time from the 1st of May to the 15th. Yield in bushels, from forty to seventy-five per acre; price, from ten to fifty cents per bushel. Yours, respectfully, To the COMMISSIONER OF PATENTS. ENOS ELLMAKER. KNOXVILLE, MARION COUNTY, Iowa, SIR: Agreeably to your request, coming though an Agricultural Circular of August, 1852, we have the pleasure of answering you, so far as we are able, in relation to some of your interrogatories; but as we reside in a new State, and in a county that has not been organized more than six years, we must be pardoned and it must be excused should it fall behind older ones. Wheat. In relation to guano, we must say that even stable-manure is not used, as there appears to be enough of richness or productive ness in the soil to satisfy the agriculturist without resorting to the use of manure of any kind whatever. In relation to the productiveness of wheat, we think that twenty bushels may be reckoned an average crop; though we think more might be raised, as the soil is new, and there is not proper care and labor bestowed by the husbandman in the cultivation of wheat, so as to produce as much as the richness of the soil will admit. The usual time of seeding is from the 15th of August until the 20th of September. The amount of seed is from three pecks to one and a half bushel. Those who sow early use the smaller quantity, and those who sow later the greater quantity. Time of harvesting, about the first week in July. Plough but once. As we before stated, the husbandmen here are not yet sufficiently enterprising to cultivate the soil by more than one ploughing. The yield is increasing, and we think will increase as the country grows older. Price, about fifty cents per bushel. There have never been any flies or weevils here. Timothy is the only grass sown here with wheat. No manure used for corn. Corn is the principal crop raised here. Average product per acre, about sixty bushels; cost of production, about three dollars per acre. We have no hesitation in saying that, by having the corn ground, it will gain twenty-five per cent. over corn fed raw. The ground is prepared by ploughing, in the month of April or May, and then listing the ground out, having the rows about three and a half feet apart, and cross-listing or furrowing out and planting the hill where the furrows cross, so as to permit the corn to be cultivated by ploughing the rows both ways. Oats.-Oats are very productive here; and the most inconvenience in relation to this crop is, that, owing to the newness and richness of the soil, they are very subject to fall down or lodge. Quantity of seed used, from two to three bushels. Rye, peas, beans, and barley not cultivated to any extent. Clover and Grasses.-Clover very little cultivated here. Timothy does extremely well, owing to the richness of the soil, and grows as coarse or large in the stalk as rye; and we have measured the heads of Timothy that measured 8 inches in length. The yield per acre is about three tons. Cost of growing Timothy, about $150 per ton. Cheese. There has been a considerable amount of cheese made in this county by a colony of Hollanders, who have done well in the business. Average price, 6 cents per pound. The cost is comparatively small, as cows graze upon the prairies free from the first of April until the latter part of November, the whole of the cheese-making season. Neat Cattle." Cost of rearing until 3 years old:" The cost will be about $6; usual price at 3 years old, heifers, $12; steers, $20. "Value of good dairy cows in spring and fall:" spring, $16 to $20; fall, from $12 to $15. "How do you break steers to the yoke?"-By putting the yoke upon their necks and hitching them behind an old and steady yoke of well broken oxen, and sometimes by yoking them up and tying their tails together. Horses and Mules.-We think them highly profitable, from the small cost here in raising them, and the high price they command at present. The expense of rearing will be about $30. Wool-growing is quite profitable here, as the pasture costs nothing. |