208 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



May 



For the New England Fanner. 

 SOUTHERN" IIiIilNOIS. 



Mr. Editor : — Since the publication of an arti- 

 cle on South Illinois in your paper, I have received 

 a letter from one of your readers, making farther 

 inquiries. With your consent, I propose to an- 

 swer those queries through your paper. Fever 

 and ague is still somewhat prevalent here,»although 

 it is far less so than ten years ago. To persons 

 of correct dietetic habits, who are temperate in all 

 things, who keep themselves clean by frequent 

 bathing, (especially in warm weather,) and take 

 plenty of exercise and fresh air, and have pure, 

 soft water to drink, the ague has no teiTors, and 

 their liability to diseases of any kind is no greater 

 here than in Massachusetts or New York. 



From a record of the weather kept in thia coun- 

 ty, I make the following quotations : For the 

 month of July, 1861, highest temperature in shade, 

 105°, on two days only ; mean temperature for the 

 month, 68°, January, 1862, lowest point, 2° below 

 zero. Mean for the month, 40° above. 



The roads here arc not as free from mud in win- 

 ter as in New England, but they are in summer 

 and autumn. We have much rainy weather in 

 ■winter, and as a matter of course, all the older 

 roads are more or less muddy, but never so bad as 

 to be impassable. The ground does not freeze 

 half as deep as in Massachusetts, and of course 

 the mud is not very deep, not as much so as in 

 Northern Illinois. The original settlers of Egypt 

 are nearly all of Southern origin, mostly from 

 Tennessee and the Carolinas, and are behind the 

 "Down Easters" in almost everything pertaining 

 to a highly civilized and progressive people. On 

 the completion of the Illinois Central Railroad, 

 eight years ago, the Yankees began to flock in, 

 and now about one-third of the population, in the 

 vicinity of the railroad, are from New York, Ohio 

 and New England, comprising teachers, profes- 

 sional men, mechanics, farmers, and pomologists, 

 many of whom would rank high in their respec- 

 tive callings in the Eastern States. 



We have a free school system similar in some 

 reepects to that of Massachusetts. All the schools 

 must be kept in operation six months in each year 

 to entitle the district to its share of the school 

 funds, and the Directors can extend the school 

 term to eight or ten months, if they wish. In most 

 of the districts and villages along the railroad, or 

 near it, Eastern teachers are employed. Last year 

 teachers were paid from $30 to §50 per month of 

 20 days ; this year wages are reduced 15 per cent. 



Good schools and churches are not as abundant 

 here as in New England, but the march of im- 

 provement is rapid, and the time is not far distant 

 when the enterprising, energetic and progressive 

 Yankees will have a majority here, and thousands 

 of bushels of luscious fruits will find their way to 

 a Northern market li'om this once benighted 

 "Egypt." 



There are already some four small nurseries 

 here ; some of them are being enlarged, aiia will 

 probably be able to meet the demand, as some of 

 them are branches of larger nurseries in Ohio. 

 Wholesale prices of fruits shipped North from 

 here last season were about as follows : Peaches 

 from $1 to $2,50 per box, {h bushel.) Early 

 apples, from $2 to $5 per barrel, (2^ bushels.) 

 Early pears, such as Bartlett, $5 to $6 per bushel. 



Grapes, Catawba, 10 to 15 cents per pound. To- 

 matoes, from $1 to $6 per box, (3 pecks.) Straw- 

 berries, from $4 to $8 per bushel. 



It pays well to raise peaches for drying and can- 

 ning. In shipping North, the earliest fruits and 

 vegetables bring the highest price. Gardeners 

 generally plant tomato seed in hot-bed in Februa- 

 ry, and have fine large plants by April 1st. 



I have never seen or heard of any winter-killing 

 of fruit trees or their branches. There are seed- 

 ling peach trees here 40 years old, and still bear- 

 ing beautiful crops. The hard winter of 1855-6, 

 which destroyed many thousand peach and tender 

 varieties of apple trees in North Illinois, did no 

 damage in South Illinois, farther than killing a part 

 of the peach buds. Young fruit trees, as a general 

 thing, will grow one-fourth more here during the 

 season than in the Eastern States, with same cul- 

 ture. The Sugar Maple is not plenty enough to be 

 available for sugar making. Sorghum docs finely, 

 making a growth of from 9 to 15 feet high. 



Our long summers are just the thing for such 

 semi-tropical plants as sorghum, tobacco, cotton, 

 sweet potatoes, castor beans, etc. 



In my former letter, I stated that plenty of land 

 could be had for from $5 to $50 per acre, accord- 

 ing to location and improvements. This includes 

 the buildings, as land which has been partly or 

 wholly cleared of the native forest, generally has 

 buildings of some kind upon it, but the older build- 

 ings are rough, cheap tenements. The value at 

 which land is rated, depends more on its proximi- 

 ty to a railroad depot, than the improvements on 

 it. For instance, at this place, (Jonesboro' Sta- 

 tion,) unimproved land within one mile is valued 

 at $40 per acre, while just as good land, which 

 has been partly cleared and cultivated, three miles 

 distant, can be had for $15 ; five miles, $5 to $10. 



The cost or labor of clearing woodland here is 

 much less than in most of the Eastern States, the 

 growth of timber not being as large and dense, 

 except on "bottom lands." 



Good springs of pure, soft water are not as nu- 

 merous here as at the East, although some of them 

 equal the springs of New England. A part of 

 the surface is underlaid with limestone. In the 

 sandstone formation, the springs furnish soft wa- 

 ter. Good-sized, durable cisterns can be made 

 for $25. We have limestone and sandstone quar- 

 ries furnisliing good building material. Also clay 

 suitable for brick and potter's ware. 



I will cheerfully give any farther information in 

 my power to those desiring it, if they will inclose 

 a post paid envelope for the reply to their queries. 



A, Babcock. 



Anna P. 0., Union Co., III., March 5, 1862. 



Remedy for Ringworms.— The North Brit- 

 ish Agriculturist says that the disease locally 

 known as ringworm or tetter, which shows itself 

 about the head and neck of young cattle, in the 

 form of whitish dry scurve spots, can be removed 

 by rubbing the parts affected with iodine ointment. 

 The disease may also be combated by the use of 

 sulphur and oil ; iodine ointment is however to be 

 preferred. As this skin disease is easily commu- 

 nicated to the human subject, the person dressing 

 the cattle should wash his hands with soap and 

 hot water after each ointment. 



