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II 



THE ILLINOIS FAKMER. 



133 



set oat they should be carefully plowed 

 each way, so long as the vines will permit, 

 and earthed up a little at each plowing with 

 the hoe. Perhaps the most certain plan 

 for farmers to get their potatoes planted in 

 time and well cultivated, would be to select 

 ground in their corn fields, and make hills 

 to correspond with the corn rows, and cul- 

 tivate the same as the corn, putting two 

 planti in each bill when planted four feet 



h..'ijCLTi.>. 



The hilU should be about as large as can 

 be thrown up with a small plow, and where 

 few are made the corners may be dressed up 

 with the hoe, but it is not necessary if the 

 ground has been well prepared, except for 

 turning rows and near stumps. 



The season for planting in this latitude 

 is from the 10th of Ma? to the 20th of 

 June, or as early in the spring as we feel 

 secure from frost. Those that want a few 

 early potatoes may plant the 1st of May 

 and cover with earth in cold or frosty 

 weather, which will not injure the plants for 

 a few days, if the ground is not too wet. 



Plants can be carried a great distance in 



good condition, if the roots are packed in 



damp moss or earth/but care must be taken 



not to wet the leaves when closely packed, 



, or they will rot in a day or two. 



Sweet Potatoes should be dug before frost, 

 or the vines cut off immediately after, or the 

 quality of the potatoe will be injured for the 

 table or for keeping, and should be placed 

 in a warm, airy room fori cellar, or use, as 

 they will not bear a low temperature with- 

 out injury. 



The proper time for taking up and ship- 

 ping Sweet Potatoes from this country is 

 the first week in April, from which time 

 plants can be brought forward ready for set- 

 ting in the open ground by the first of May. 



Our agents and others, wishing to secure 

 seed, should send in their orders early, as it 

 is too late for us to dispose of our stock at 

 the time of taking them up; and we would 

 add that we now think our business suffi- 

 ciently established to justify sending the cash 

 with the order by those that wish to buy 

 Potatoes, by which much ticue, disappoint- 

 ment and postage might be saved, 



J. W. TENBROOK & CO., 

 Rockville, Parke Co.. Ind. 



From the Country Gentleman. 



Drill Seeding. 



In the fall of 1853, 1 engaged .a man who 

 owned a drill to oonie and sow six acres with 

 wheat in a field of ten acres. The part sown 

 with the drill was the poorest and farthest from 



the barn; consequently had not received bo 

 much manure as the other. The remaining 

 four acres were sown broadcast. At the time 

 of harvesting, the drilled wheat was much the 

 beet — probably four or five bushels to the acre. 

 The same season, (some time the last of Sept.) 

 I had another piece sowed with a drill — clover 

 sod, second crop; the green clover turned under 

 would hay probably IJ tons to the acre) — of a 

 long triangular form. The outside was sowed 

 with a drill. A strip nearly the whole length 

 of the piece in the middle, of about three-quaf- 

 ters of an acre, was sown broadcast. At the 

 time of harvesting, the drilled wheat would 

 yield 25 bushels an acre, while that sown broad- 

 cast would only go about three or four, and was 

 badly shrunk and smutty at that. The winter 

 with us here, was by far the worst for winter 

 killing wheat I ever knew. Common sowed 

 wheat here did not yield over one-third to one- 

 half a crop that season. 



Having so good luck with a drill that season 

 I purchased one in company with one of my 

 neighbors. Then I thought I would try an ex- 

 periment with spring wheat. I had a piece of 

 low unreclaimed bog swamp land of fifteen acres 

 which had raissd two crops of, and which I 

 wanted to sow in wheat and seed down for a 

 meadow, well drained with open drains. I fixed 

 the drill, expecting to sow IJ bushels to the 

 acre, but in consequence of white caps which 

 clogged the feeding slides, it only put on one 

 bushel and four quarts. Ten acres were sown 

 in this way. The remaining five acres were 

 sown broadcast on the furrows, IJ bushels per 

 acre, well sowed and well put in. The wheat 

 sown broadcast came up first, looked the best, 

 and did the best until about knee high, when 

 the drilled part came on, and after that did the 

 best until harvest. When harvested the berry 

 of the drilled part was nice and plump as wheat 

 could be, while that sown by hj»nd was SDine 

 shrunk; the hands while cutting judged the 

 drilled part would yield three or four bushels 

 to the acre the most. The fifteen acres yielded 

 three hundred and ten bushels and -three 

 pecks. 



I think from my own experience and others 

 about me, that drilled wheat will yield on an 

 average 3 to 4 bushels to the acre over broad- 

 cast one season' wi,th another, besides requiring 

 about one-half bushel less seed. Seed sown 

 with a drili, are all deposited at an even depth 

 and consequently can grow and ripen more 

 evenly than if deposited at all depths, from the 

 top of the ground to six inches bel»w. E. Din- 

 NisoN. Forestville, Chaut. Co. 



Use of Arsenie in Steeping Grain for Seed. 



Boussingault has communicated to the An- 

 nates de Chimic some experiments on the use 

 of arsenic in steeping grain for seed. The pro- 

 cess has two objects, the one to protect the har- 

 vest from disease, the other to prevent the seed 

 from being devoured by vermin. The substan- 

 ces generally used are salt, glauber salt, lime 

 and sulphate of copper. But although these 

 may hinder the development of cryptogamic 

 sporules, they have little effect in preventing 



