e glad to hear from correspondents who cultivate, or who live
where the Osier is grown and prepared for market, the details of the
whole industry.

B.F.J.

WAYSIDE NOTES.

BY A MAN OF THE PRAIRIE.

I don't know that I really ought to take any credit to myself for it,
but I hope I have done something toward increasing the number of farmer
correspondents for the hale old PRAIRIE FARMER. I can't help
noticing, as I do with pleasure, that the number is increasing.
Furthermore, the correspondents all write well, I mean, simply; they
seem to have something to say, and say it in a manner that can be
readily understood. Their writings are instructive, too. Well, I hope
this writing fever, like most others, will prove highly contagious, and
have a run through the entire PRAIRIE FARMER family. I know
from experience the malady is not a dangerous one. At least it don't do
the writers any harm; if the readers can stand what I say, I am
satisfied. The editor may boil down our communications, or chop them up
and serve them in any style he chooses, so that he presents all the good
we mean to say, and we will be satisfied. Will we not,
fellow-contributors?

* * * * *

Rufus Blanchard, for many years a leading map publisher of Chicago, told
me the other day, that in 1838 he was farming in Union county, Ohio.
That year he grew about 1,000 bushels of oats, some 250 bushels of
wheat, and raised 100 hogs. He sold his oats for eleven cents per
bushel, his wheat for twenty-five cents, and his hogs for one cent and a
quarter per pound. He hauled his grain to Columbus, forty miles, to
market, and took his pay in salt. I remarked that this was pretty rough
farming. "On the contrary," said he, "in those days we were happy as
clams. We had all the pork we wanted without cost, for our hogs fattened
themselves on the mast of the woods. We paid by toll for grinding our
wheat into flour. The woods supplied us with deer, turkeys, and many
other kinds of game. Our clothing was homespun. We had plenty of corn
meal and cheaply grown vegetables, and helped each other in sickness or
accident. If a neighbor's log house burned down, we all joined together
in putting him up a better one than he had before. We had pretty good
schools and interesting religious meetings without expensive pew rents
or style in dress. We visited each other and had plenty of sound
amusement. I never was so happy or so well contented in