156 



old were stiil healthy and productive. The best time for pruning is 

 after t!ie middle of June. Several gentlemen denounced the injudiciou.s 

 pruning practice employed in many cases. 



AGEicuLTur:AL PROGRESS IN DELAWARE.— Mr. 'Wiliiani C. Lodge, 

 secretary of the agricultural society at Claymont, Delaware, states the 

 object of tliat association to be the diffusion of scientific knowledge, 

 based upon actual experiment. The practical aims of tlie society embrace 

 the most profitable crops that can be grown in the locality, and the secur- 

 ing of maximum results with a minimum outlay of labor and expense. 

 Especial attention is given to the propagation of new and valuable 

 varieties of fruit. Periodical exhibitions are not contemplated, but 

 specimens of merit are presented at the^weekly meetings. 



Prairie far^iing- in Illinois. — A correspondent froni Du Page 

 County, Illinois, ai resident since 1842, commenced farming operations 

 in tliat year by breaking the "raw prairie" from 4 to G inches deep with 

 the plow. He found that the more deeply plowed sod rotted much 

 the sooner. Part of the first year's breaking, sown witli oats, yielded 

 about 40 bushels per acre. The remainder of the breaking was i^lanted 

 in seed-corn, drojiping the seed in every fourth rovr, lapping the furrow 

 over the corn. This part of the breaking yielded from L*5 to .30 bushels 

 per acre. The following year, ihe sod not yet having sufficiently rotted, 

 the furrows were turned back again, harrowed three or four times, and 

 sown with foil wheat. Tliere being but little buow that winter, the 

 wheat mostly froze out; it was "ball" whca.t. Next season another fal- 

 low was sown in "blue-stem'- wheat, yielding forty bushels per acre. 

 Tbe land was plowed in Ma5', and again just before seeding time, which 

 was during the full moon of September. The seed was sown broadcast 

 on a six-pace land, at the rate of about 2 bushels per acre. The ground 

 was cultivated with a broad shovel-plow, and thou the grain was cov- 

 ered by a small triangular drag. In twenty-five years, farming on this 

 system, our correspondent never tailed to raise a good 0Yc>p of fall 

 wheat. 



xVGRICrLTURAL STATISTICS OF BOONE COUNTY, ILLINOIS.— jMr. G. 



B. Moss, of Belvidere, Illinois, has compiled for tlie Department the 

 iollowing statistics for Boone County for twelve years, ending vrith 1871, 

 giving aji illustration of the local changes and increase of productions 

 throughout the Western States. 



