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:Wm' 



THE ILLINOIS PARMEB. 



Soft Maples for Shade Treei. 

 We folly indorse the following commun- 

 ication. Soft Maples can be raised easily 

 from seed; the trees grow rapidly; make 

 mnch wood and form beautiful heads. They 

 would be just the tree for the prairie, where 

 a grove a dozen years old, would brake 

 the heavy winds and storms, or furnish fire 

 wood. We have lately seen lines of these 

 trees on roads, proving all that we have 

 here said, and which commanded the ad- 

 miration of those who had a taste for the 

 beautiful. 



For the Illinois Farmer. 



Messrs. Editors: — Permit me to call 

 the attention of all our fellow citizens who 

 may read your valuable paper, and that are 

 about getting out shade trees this fall,or the 

 ensuing spring, to the claims of the soft or 

 swamp maple. 



This graceful, hardy and beautiful tree is 

 of very rapid growth, attaining to the height 

 of from thirty to forty feet in ten years, at 

 that time it will throw a dense shade over a 

 large area of ground and it will send up no 

 suckers from its roots, (which is a leading 

 objection to the locust.) It will not be 

 broken by heavy sleets, as the bark is per- 

 fectly smooth and does not collect the ice to 

 any extent. 



It is not annoyed by any insect, to destroy 

 its beauty or affect is vitality. 



When planted merely for fire wood it 

 will yield more and of a better quality, in a 

 given time than any of our forest trees. 



Some fine specimens of these trees may 

 be seen in the western part of this county 

 on the farms of Mr. Myers and R. H. Con- 

 stant, Esq. 



A Sojourner in Sangamon. 



Proteetion for Cattle. 

 In the prairie sectiong of our State, 

 where timber cannot be had, and where 

 farmers are too poor at once to build good 

 barns, farmers make very warm shelters by 

 covering frames with straw, which latter 

 article they have plenty of. It is cruel to 

 subject cattle to the hard fare of laying un- 

 der a fence for protection from our freezing 

 prairie winds. Every feeling man should 

 have a sympathy for the poor dumb brute, 

 who cannot, in human voice, express its 

 wants. Stock do not require as much food 

 when warmly kept in winter as when they 



have to bear its pitiless blasts. Poorly 

 kept stock on the prairies may live till 

 spring, through all trials; but their value 

 will be much less than if well wintered. 

 We have fancied that a poor steer,who has 

 lived in the open prairie in winter, if he could 

 reason, would rather go to the shambles in 

 the fall, than to pass another winter ex- 

 posed again to the same sufferings. 



B^oManj of our readers have made experi- 

 ments with the Northern Sugar Cane the pres- 

 ent season. We would be glad to learn of their 

 success, and their projects with regard to the 

 plant for the fature. All tha light that can lie 

 thrown upon the subject of cultivating the cane, 

 the expression of its juice, and its manufacture 

 into molasses and sugar, should be given to the 

 public; — so that another year our manufacturers 

 may rely upon experience, asthey generally have 

 had to rely upon theory, the present year. 



We do not believe that it will require more 

 skill and science to convert the juice of the 

 Northern Cane into molasses and sugar, than it 

 does the juice of the Southern Cane. In both 

 cases it requires the utmost care and practical 

 knowledge. 



We may be mistaken, but we believe the com- 

 ing year Illinois will make the molasses, (and 

 some portion of the sugar,) her people will con- 

 sume. 



B®,The State Agricultural Society has 

 offered good premiums for the sugar and 

 molasses of the Northern Sugar Cane. 

 We hope there will be many specimens on 

 exhibition. Entries can be made of these 

 articles with the Corresponding Secretary 

 up to 1st January, 1868. [See official no- 

 tice in this number of the Farmer ] 



-<•»- 



Digging Potatoes. 



The potatoe harvest is greatly facilitated 

 by the use of the plough ; and one of the 

 best methods is to commence by back-fur- 

 rowing between the rows with a double team 

 running the furrows a little lower than the 

 potatoes in the hill and near enough to 

 roll out a few of them the remainder of the 

 work is to be performed with the hoe. Try 

 it, brother farmers you will find it much 

 ahead of the old back breaking way that 

 has so much deterred people from raising 

 that quantity they otherwise would. 



