508 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
will afford a remedy, in great part, for leaf blights and mildews, for sus- 
pended growth in summer, and long- protracted, unhealthy growth in 
autumn, with hope of relief from the terrible scourge of rot in peaches 
and grapes, and possibly some amelioration of pear blight. It is a re- 
markable fact that, while Providence has given the Western States more 
than an average amount of rain, which, if properly husbanded by deep 
culture, would add richness to the land and supply every season and stage 
of plant growth with necessary moisture, the West, in fact, suffers every 
year the most damaging droughts. The annual rain-fall in southern Dli- 
nois is about fifty inches, while New England has about forty, and Old 
England about twenty-five. About twenty inches of water are annually 
evaporated in Illinois, which amount would be materially reduced by 
drainage, thus saving heat in the soil in seasons of excessive rain, which 
- are the cool seasons of the year. 
Professor William M. Baker, of the Industrial University of Illinois, 
in an essay on climatology, asserts that meteorology influences the 
health, habits, and even the morals of men. ‘The results of destroying 
the forests in various countries are deplorable, diminishing the annual 
rain-fall, while freshets become greater, though not lasting. Many. 
Streams, formerly with ample power all the year round, now afford it 
only in the spring and autumn, and many others have degenerated into 
mere torrents. His illustrations of these facts, though full of interest, 
are too numerous to be copied or abridged. 
The report of Mr. J. P. Reynolds, State agent at the Universal Exposi- 
tion at Paris, is replete with facts and suggestions. The first and un- 
expected feature in the landscape of France that strikes an American 
is the prairie-like openness of prospect, resulting from the absence of 
farm-houses, with their clusters of secondary buildings, which every- 
where dot American scenery. Now and then a pretentious chateau, 
with some accessories, is to be seen. Proprietors, tenants, and hired 
laborers reside in adjacent villages, where each family occupies the 
narrowest limits consistent with its actual need of shelter and rest. 
Their dwellings may have been built fifty, one hundred, or even five 
hundred years ago; their gray stone walls, red-tiled roofs, or moss- 
covered thatch tell no story of their age. Nothing about them suggests 
an idea of modern or even individual taste. The iron rule of rigorous 
necessity, exacting durability and economy, would seem to have pre- 
seribed their forms, m materials, and proportions. A striking feature of 
the economy universally practiced in France is the utilization of all 
available wall-surface for the production of fruit ; that is, its incidental 
culture against walls, barriers, and structures erected for other pur- 
poses entirely. Mr. Reynolds thinks that this incidental product ex- 
ceeds the entire fruit crop of Illinois. There is scarcely a farmer who 
may not profit by the suggestion. An abundance of delicious fruit 
could thus be raised by every family, without waiting to build a trellis 
oranarbor. The bare walls of his dwelling, fences, and out-buildings 
offer surfaces that would produce better fruit, and with more certainty, 
than the open vineyard or orchard, and are ready for use without the 
outlay of an additional dollar. A large part of the wood consumed as 
fuel in France is afforded by faggots, obtained by pruning poplars, wil- 
lows, elms, and birches, that erow along the margins of brooks, and on 
the confines of fiekls. This is obtained without detriment to the crops, 
or appreciable loss in any respect. More than 160,000 acres are devoted 
to the production of the osier willow, of which a million of pounds are 
exported to the United States. 
Atis singular that no British-made plow received a prize at this in- 
