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56 



THE ILLINOIS FARMER. 



New Orehards. 



Editor Illinois Farmer. 



I have been at work some five years on 

 my farm, which, when I took hold of it, was 

 raw prairie. Being poor and short handed, 

 it required all my time to get it fenced, 

 plowed, and the buildings necessary, (and 

 they are very common ones,) put op to 

 make my family comfortable. For two 

 years I had no time to spend in making such 

 improvements as render a country residence 

 beautiful. I mean I had no time to fix np 

 yards, and lay out my garden grounds as I 

 had always intended to do, and plant trees 

 and shrubbery so as to make the place look 

 like a home. But I have prospered on a 

 small scale, and I now have more time to 

 spend in regulating these matters, not much 

 time for this, however, but as I tel 1 my wife, 

 I am determined to take time. And now I 

 want a little advice from you. I want you 

 should tell me what I want in the way of 

 garden fruit, trees and shrubbery, just a few, 

 and how many apple trees I ought to have 

 for an orchard for a family; and I want you 

 also to tell me something about the kinds 

 and quantities of seeds I want for my vege- 

 table garden. Here I will just say to you, 

 that more than a year ago a traveling agent 

 induced me to buy some apple trees of him, 

 which I planted out; but when the fall came 

 there was hardly one of them alive; and the 

 trees themselves when I got them appeared 

 to be stunted, ugly and altogether unthrifty. 

 I do not desire to buy any more trees from 

 pedlars, who bring them from New York, 

 Canada and elsewhere. A. 



t&^Oar correspondent has imposed on us 

 a hard duty ; but to oblige him, and perhaps 

 benefit others, we will append some hints to 

 his communication. We like to see the 

 dwellings of a farm, especially in this prairie 

 country, on a somewhat elevated piece of 

 ground, which will be dry at all seasons. 

 We care not if this is near or at some dis- 

 tance from the road. A pleasant residence 

 cannot be had where the ground is not high, 

 dry and where a good cellar cannot be had. 

 We do not like to see a few rods square of 

 ground, "pailed in" in front of a country 



dwelling. There should be some ten or a 

 dozen acres at least about the dwelling, the 

 front portion of which should be in grass, 

 relieved at little distances with clumps of 

 shrubbery (roses, snow balls, lilacks, &c.,) 

 and trees of smaller growth, such as the 

 Mountain Ash, evergreens, and the like. 

 On either side there can be peach, plum, 

 quince, cherry, pear trees, grapes, and on 

 well arranged plats, a flower bed, if you like 

 In the rear, a kitchen garden, and a good 

 space devoted to it^ There can be no ques- 

 tion that a proper use of vegetables and 

 fruit are among the securities for health. 

 The vegetables of the present day, where 

 good seed is procured, are far better than 

 those produced by the ordinary, degenerat- 

 ed and mixed seeds, usually produced in our 

 gardens. Wo venture to say that farmers 

 would be the gainers if they would throw 

 away most of their old seeds and purchase 

 fresh and new and improved varieties. It 

 would be a difficult matter to give such a 

 list of seeds as you would need for a vegeta- 

 ble garden. Tastes differ; but we suppose, 

 like most people, you want early vegetables. 

 Then you must have early Silesia lettice, 

 early radishes, early onions, (these must be 

 grown from setts,) early beets, early beans, 

 early cabbages, early corn, early squashes, 

 early potatoes, early peas. You want all 

 these early varieties. The tomatoe can 

 only be made early by forcing the growth 

 of plants in a hot bed, afterwards to be 

 transplanted into the garden. You want 

 also the same kinds of vegetables when the 

 season for these early varieties has passed. 

 You can procure the seeds of later beets, 

 beans, cabbages, &c. To do this, it would 

 be convenient if you had a small work on 

 gardening, which usually can be procured 

 at book stores at the cost of 25 cts. There 

 is no necessity of failing to have excellent 

 garden vegetables, in ordinary seasons from 

 the time the early arrive at maturity until 

 frost destroys vegetation, and then to be 

 able to put away in your cellars or in other 

 secure places, a variety of delicious vegeta- 

 bles which would last you until spring. 

 We find that oar correspondent has cut 



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