October. I knew that it was late, but I hoped that chances might work favorably, as they sometimes do, and give me a crop, but they did not. The wheat went into the winter weak and small, and the most of it was killed in the spring. That which was left was attacked by the bug, and being late, the rust fi ished it. I only harvested it in patches. Where there was no wheat, the weeds grew very luxuriantly. Many of the pig-weeds had to be cut with an axe. The whole had to be mowed, raked and burned before I could plow it in the fall. The ground is now full of foul seeds, and I have thought it best to change my plans in reference to it, and so have seeded it down in order to get a new start at some future day. Had I sowed it a month earlier, the probality is that I would have harvested a splendid crop of wheat, my bins would have been filledand consequently my purse-my ground would have been free from weeds, I would have been saved great labor and expense in preparing it for the next crop, and my plans in reference to it would not have been disarranged as they are now. I had another piece of ground which I counted too poor to adopt at once into my rotation. It had not been profitable to its owner for some time before I came into possession of it. I sowed it to oats and seeded with clover. I harvested 25 bushels of oats per acre. The next spring I sowed plaster and secured a tolerably good growth of clover. There came a copious rain the last of June, and while the ground was in good. condition I plowed the clover under. I then dressed it with 40 bushels of freshly slaked lime to the acre and sowed it to buckwheat. When the buckwheat was at its best estate I plowed it under and sowed it to wheat. The spring, with its dry freezing, was very bitter on winter wheat and injured it just in proportion to the lateness of its sowing, or inversely as it was rooted. In due time the bugs assailed it, and the rust hovered about it, but I threshed 28 bushels per acre of wheat, that brought me at the Baraboo mill 25 cents per bushel more than the market quotations. On land of the same quality in an adjoining field, spring wheat hardly paid for harvesting. After I have repeated the clover and buckwheat process, I shall adopt this land into my rotation.

There is nothing which more thoroughly disorganizes a man's plans than to have his grass-sced fail to catch. Without a reasonable certainty in his seeding, a rotation of crops seems impossible. However general the failure may be, there are always pieces which

succeed. The conditions of success must be carefully studied. If I was liable to failure in this respect it would be the most discouraging circumstance in my farming. I have never yet failed to any extent, but yet, I cannot deny my liability to do so. I believe that the longer a rotation is practiced, the more likely a man is to succeed. Land in good heart and well cultivated is far more liable to catch, than when it is poor and in bad condition. It is important that the seed should be sown at the earliest possible moment. No possible amount of freezing and thawing can injure the seed. It must have the cool, damp weather of spring in which to push down its main root, so that it may stand the drouths which are near at hand. I would not hesitate to sow the seed in March, two weeks before I could sow the wheat on the same ground. The ground must not be too loose and open. I think that fall plowing thoroughly mellowed on the surface by the common harrow, is as good a seed bed as can be prepared for it. The seed should always have the benefit of the last harrowing. On light soil, a roller is doubtless a good thing, but on my clay soil I never use one. A good heavy rain will leave the surface as hard as desirable. I have succeeded well in seeding with any of my spring crops by having this mellow surface with firmer soil below. The roots soon strike this firmer soil, which will promptly furnish them with moisture as long as the ground contains it. I think that small grain stands up better on land so prepared, and at the same time I get all the growth of straw that is desirable.

The longer we practice a short rotation the surer we will be to succeed with our seeding. If a clover-stubble which has been cut for seed, be turned over and cultivated in corn, and then plowed and sowed to wheat, there is likely to be a stand of clover without the sowing of seed. There is nothing more disastrous to the prosperity of the bugs than clover. They will live in timothy if driven to it, and seem to enjoy life reasonably well, but they find nothing congenial in clover. If there are any processes in legitimate farming which will restrain them, it is important for us to know it. My experience thus far induces me to believe that it may be effectually done by the persistent use of clover. It would be very desir able for a whole community to make common cause in this matter, and this brings me to the important subject of co-operation.

I do not limit my application of this to a combination of men

whose chief aim is to secure high prices for their own wares and low ones for every one else, but a general co-operation in communities by which a local reputation shall be gained for excellence in whatever may be the products of the locality. A few illustrations will best convey my meaning. It seems that in Chester county, Pennsylvania, a number of farmers combined in breeding with care a style of hogs which have become widely known as ChesterWhites. They have attracted attention for many years, until the whole country has become filled with them. I have no statistics in reference to them, but we all know that many thousands of pigs have been sold from that locality at large prices, so that it must have been an immense source of revenue to that district of country. Breeders have made large fortunes in the sale of these hogs. It would have been of doubtful policy for a Chester county farmer to have rejected this breed in favor of any of those which are now preferred before them. His true policy would have been to have co-operated with the rest in securing as high a grade of excellence as possible in the hog for which the district was famous. We hear too, of Orange county butter. for excellence in this product has been achieved in that locality. Orange county land may be excellent for many purposes, but the probability is that a man in that region can do no better than to fall in with the local industry and help to maintain the local reputation, which is a fortune for the whole region.

A national reputation

It does not matter in the least what may be a man's individual opinion of the comparative merits of the Devon, Durham or Jersey cattle. In the Island of Jersey it is probable that the breeding of Short Horns would be a failure, and so would the Jerseys be a failure in Devonshire or Durham. I have realized lately more pointedly than ever, the mistake which any neighborhood makes in scattering in its aims in so small a matter as hog breeding. While one still clings to the Chester Whites, another prefers the Berkshires, and another the Poland Chinas. This makes it far more difficult and expensive for us to secure suitable crosses than it would be if we had a common aim. We are now all likely to degenerate together. With concentration of effort we might easily secure the best of either variety, and so establish a local reputation which would be of advantage to us.

I made a journey the past fall to a locality where I supposed

that great attention had been paid to the breeding of draft horses. I supposed by this time the vicinity would abound with animals of this kind. I was entirely disappointed with the result of my visit. There had been no unity of action in the vicinity, and no local reputation had been gained.

I can illustrate this failure near at home. For 25 years a herd of Short-Horns has been located in Sauk county. It might reasonably be supposed that by this time the country would be well stocked with full bloods and high grades, but the efforts at improvement have been scattering and no great progress has been made.

One thing that we want is more local experimenting. I do not mean that profound research into organic laws which lie too deep for common opportunities, but a series of prompt and easily conducted experiments, which will determine the varieties best adapted to our own localities. We often hear of some new variety which is giving great satisfaction at a distance. We incur expense in introducing it, only to be disappointed with the result.

There is a great deal said of late about the propriety of changing seed. This may be desirable, but does not go very deeply into the merits of the case. It is always desirable to change poor seed for better, but if our own is the best, it is the proper seed for us to sow. If we hunt deeper, we will find causes of failure which cannot be reached by changing seed. We want to study the adaptations of our own localities. We know that nature recognizes great differences in the different parts of the same forty acre lot. There will be the oak and hickory ridge, the maple grove on the slope, the basswood and elm on the flat, and black ash and alder near the creek, and coarse grass and cat-tails will fringe the banks. This order of things cannot be reversed, and it suggests the great importance of intelligent adaptations in our farming. The natural flora of the sandy portions of Sauk county is widely different from that of the clay land and bluffs. The Baraboo river draws a line as marked by different natural productions on either side as might be found elsewhere by two hundred miles of travel. We know that our cultivated grains have wonderful powers of adaptation, as cultivation has given them a cosmopolitan character, but still it would not be strange if we could find varieties peculiarly adapted to our various situations.

We measure the yield of our small grain because it is generally threshed for us by the bushel, but we seldom place different varieties under the same circumstances of cultivation in order to fully test their comparative merits; still we are generally better informed as to these things with our small grains than we are with our Indian corn.

I am confident that I have known men to plant inferior varieties year after year, when they could have changed their seed with but little more trouble than the asking. Men will express strong preferences for one variety above another, with no good reason for it, and without once bringing the matter to the actual test of experiment. There is an idea prevalent in the matter of corn, which I would like to have effectually exploded, and that is, that a large cob and long kernels are necessarily desirable. If we were buying it in the ear we might prefer such corn, but in selling, it would be against us. Practically, the large cob will require a larger crib, and this with the increased labor of husking, is the full measure of its disadvantages. These experiments with corn are easily tried, but to be valuable must be tested with accuracy. It will not do to guess at the result. We raise nearly 550,000 acres of corn annually in our state, and a variation in the yield of one bushel to the acre materially affects the revenues of the state. I tried an experiment of this kind the past summer, and have found a difference of yield amounting to eight bushels per acre, and a difference of four bushels in varieties largely cultivated. I propose to continue them until I am satisfied that I have the variety best adapted to my own circumstances.

There are very important facts bearing upon our business which can only be learned by reading statistics. These tables make exceedingly dry reading but they cannot be overlooked by intelligent A thorough acquaintance with them will show us that prices are governed by laws scarcely less immutable than those which govern the stars.

men.

Our own failure in wheat proves to be of no great importance to the world at large. There are but three principal factors affecting prices. Supply, demand and transportation. The cost of production has nothing to do with it. If this cost is so great as to render production unprofitable, the only remedy is, to discontinue it.

Transportation is the only factor which can be reached by legis lation. Unobstructed competition is the sure road to cheap trans