THE ILLINOIS FARMER. 



211 



EDITORIAL NOTICES. 



The Orebard. 



No fanner can afford to be without an 

 orchard. The great object with him is to 

 know how to make one. In the first place, 

 the land must be suitable. Technically it 

 should have a dry bottom; — that is, when 

 trees are planted out, the roots should not 

 stand in water half the year. It should be 

 a warm and generous soil. Then seek for 

 your trees. Get them where you can rely 

 that you obtain the varieties yon want; 

 and see to it that you get good trees. 

 They should not be kept out of the ground 

 so long that the trees, although the bodies 

 may look well, are sure to die. vWe have 

 known trees brought from a distance to do 

 well. This is the exception, not the rule. 

 Packages of trees thrown on to the deck of 

 a steam boat, placed near the boilers or 

 where they are heated by sun or fire, will 

 soon lose their vitality. And this will be 

 the case too, when brought from the east, 

 and suffered to remain for a time by the 

 road-side, or on open cars, or otherwise ex-! 

 posed to the weather. Some of these trees 

 may live; but there are five chances to one 

 that many will not. We venture to say 

 that of the thousands upon thousands of 

 trees brought from the east and set in our 

 prairies, not ten per cent, of them are alive. 



If you want good apple trees, take sorar 

 one of the catalogues of our nurseries (and 

 you can find many of them at the Illinois 

 Farmer office,) and select the trees you 

 want, make out your order, direct where 

 tbey are to be sent, send a reference, if 

 you are not known to the nursery man, that 

 you will pay, and when the season arrives 

 to receive your trees, you can have them; 

 —you can rely upon the variety sent you 

 and of the excellence of your trees. Plant 

 them out as directed in the catalogue fur- 

 nished you, and you will be quite sure of 

 having a good orchard, when your neighbor, 

 who pays for foreign trees, will be likely to 

 be cursing the "Yankees," when he ought 

 to Curse his own stupidity and folly. 



It 

 Now is the time to plant strawberry 



niinois County Fairs. 

 We wish we had a full list of the times 

 at which the different County Agricultural 

 Societies will be held. Some of them com- 

 mence on the 1st of the prraent and others 

 as late as the first week in October. Of 

 the counties in our neighborhood, Cass has 

 already held her fair; Morgan commences 

 bar's on the 8th Septiember; Tazewell on 

 the 18th; Logan on the 9th; Macon on 

 the 30th; Menard, October 1th; Christian, 

 October 21st. The Sangamon Fair will 

 commence on the I5th September, and cou;^ 

 tinuc four days. We understand that the 

 farmers of Macon county are determined to 

 make an exhibition which will throw int® 

 the shade all the previous exhibitions in 

 that county. Every farmer should attend 

 his own county fair and bs many others as 

 he can find it convenient to do. 



-<•»- 



beds. 



Hams, Bacon, lard. 



This is a great country. It produces 

 hogs4n abundance. Pork pays a ptofit at 

 $3 a hundred pounds; and yet at this time, 

 with a large crop of hogs the last year, 

 our market is, we may say, entirely bare of 

 Hams, Bacon and Lard. 



Why is this so? Pork brought a high 

 price last fall, and our farmers sold every 

 thing of the hog kind to packers (saving a 

 scanty supply for themselves,) that would 

 bear the name of pork hogs.^ These hogs 

 were cut up, packed or smoked, and the 

 lard worked up, and the prices of aU were 

 • so high in distant markets, that the packers 

 sent the whole production out of the coun- 

 try. 



Now if some of our farmers had kept 

 their hogs, packed them, or made bacon of 

 them, saving their land, too, for our home 

 market, they would have neiurly doubled the 

 amount for which they sold their hogs! 

 This is so, and some farmers see their folly. 

 They sold their hogs for about five cents 

 and have since been glad to buy bacon at 

 fifteen cents, and lard for the sam« price 

 per pound. 

 .^ And this is going to be the case nez^ 



