1862. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



401 



For the Neic England Farmer, 

 SEASOTT AND CROPS IN ILLINOIS. 



Mr. Editor : — When I was spending my ear- 

 lier boyhood days upon a farm in New Hampshire, 

 I can well recollect with what ])leasure I used to 

 read the Farmer, and watch with interest for the 

 notes of correspondents from the diflorent sec- 

 tions of the country, and, perhaps, a few notes 

 from the Sucker State may be of interest to some 

 now. 



This is a small rail station on the Chicago, Bur- 

 lington and Quincy railroad. It contains some 

 seventy-five dwelling-houses, three stores, one 

 grocery, and it used to have a beer saloon — but 

 thanks to the Sons of Temperance, it is now among 

 the things that were, — a tin shop, three black- 

 smiths' shops, a wagon shop, shoe shop and two 

 harness shops. The religious sentiments are rep- 

 resented by three churches, and when the village 

 first sprung into existence, the old log school- 

 house beside the grove not being considered com- 

 modious enough, a new one was built. That one, 

 however, becoming wholly insufficient for educa- 

 tional purposes, another was completed last year, 

 sufficiently commodious for four teachers. Two 

 doctors and a lawyer represent the medical and 

 legal profession. 



Seven years ago the place was almost an un- 

 broken prairie. The first settlements were made 

 in the township about twenty-five years ago, but 

 settlers did not come in till about the lime of the 

 opening of the railroad, six years ago. The peo- 

 ple are mostly from the New England States and 

 New York, though there are some Pennsylvani- 

 ans ; consequently it has a decided New England 

 aspect. The prairie is all enclosed except an oc- 

 casionally barren section, and also the timber land, 

 consequently most of the farmers are obliged now 

 to keep their cattle from running at large, if they 

 would have them do well. There are only two or 

 three small flocks of sheep in this vicinity. 



Crops of all kinds are looking well. Wheat 

 will begin to be fit for the reaper next week, and 

 thei'c will be a good crop, if harvested well. Corn 

 is late, but doing well now, under the fine show- 

 ers and warm weather. The former is selling for 

 sixty cents per bushel and the latter for eighteen. 

 Grain would be much higher if the freights to the 

 Eastern markets were not so high. Haying is 

 generally done after harvesting, though where 

 tame grass is cultivated, it requires earlier atten- 

 tion. 



Owing to so much wet weather, the musquitoes 

 are very troublesome, much more so than for sev- 

 eral years past. 



Money is more plenty than a year ago ; then the 

 banks in the State were all breaking down. 



S. H. Jackman. 



Buda, Bureau Co., Ill, 1862. 



A Subterranean Railway in London. — 

 A subterranean railway is now in an advanced 

 state of construction, running about four and a 

 half miles under the city of London. It com- 

 mences at Victoria Street, in the midst of what 

 was formerly a disreputable thoroughfare, but is 

 now a common centre for the Great Northern, the 

 London, Chatham and Dover, and the Metropoli- 

 tan lines. From that point it passes eastwardly, 



having a large number of intermediate stations. 

 On the occasion of a recent trip made through a 

 portion of its length, the air was found to be per- 

 fectly sweet, and free from all unpleasantness or 

 dampness. The locomotives used condense their 

 own smoke, so that neither gas nor vapor is per- 

 cejitible. The surface of the rails is made of steel. 

 The line is made for two guages, and it is a dou- 

 ble track throughout. The carriages will be 

 roomy, well ventilated, and lighted with portable 

 gas. It is expected that the road will be opened, 

 about the middle of June. — Scientific American. 



Fur the New England Farmer. 

 IRKIGATION. 

 BY JUDGE FRENCn. 



Passing recently over a road which we have 

 known for many years, endeavoring to "find books 

 in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and 

 good in everything," the efl'ect of a little brook of 

 clear water, which was made to trickle through 

 the grass on a hillside, reminded us of the sub- 

 ject of irrigation. Here was a stream, which, in 

 summer, would scarcely fill a single furrow of a 

 sod plow, arrested in its rapid descent, and car- 

 ried round a hill, at nearly a level, for some sixty 

 rods, breaking over the little trench in which it 

 ran, and evidently causing an increase, three or 

 four-fold, in the crop of grass thus watered by it. 

 Any farmer may observe the same result whei*- 

 ever he travels. It is true that, in most instances, 

 the water which thus comes under our observa- 

 tion runs from the roadside, and we are apt to 

 refer the fertilizing efi'cct uniformly observed, to 

 what we call "the wash of the road," and to give 

 much of the credit rather to the roadside manure 

 than to the water. The little brook to which al- 

 lusion has been made, flowed directly across the 

 highway, between two little hills, so that it gained 

 nothing from the road ; and careful observation 

 will satisfy any one, that even the purest water, 

 flowing over the surface of a grass-field, Avill en- 

 sure a good crop of hay on almost any soil. Stag- 

 nant water, on the other hand, either in the soil, 

 or upon it, is sure death to all cultivated crops. 



AVe will not undertake to theorize upon a sub- 

 ject upon which the profoundest thinkers confess 

 themselves at fault. Theories are very good to 

 account for facts, but facts are far safer upon 

 which to base our practice. 



Prof. Way says, — "Although the benefit to be 

 derived from the use of water in irrigation is in- 

 contestible, the mode in which it acts has not 

 been satisfactorily explained. That streams of 

 water bringing down with them in suspension the 

 fine soil of more elevated land, on receiving in 

 their course the rich drainage of populous dis- 

 tricts, should prove fertilizing in the highest de- 

 gree, we can easily understand. But there is 

 more difficulty in accounting satisfactorily for the 



