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THE ILLINOIS FARMER. 



grape, morello cherries to represent some 

 new wonder in the currant family, and other 

 currants and small fruits shown in vials 

 which are made to magnify the normal size 

 of the fruit fifty per cent. Every farm- 

 house and every village garden have been 

 visited by these worthies, and the superlative 

 merits of their trees and plants vividly set 

 forth. 



Sometimes they represent themselves as 

 the agents of some well-known nursery in 

 New York. At other times they are the 

 owners or partners of nurseries in this State. 

 One thing is certain, they can furnish you 

 with any variety of fruit you may please to 

 name, though, at the time of taking the or- 

 der they are not the owner of a single tree, 

 shrub or plant. 



Should you wish to follow them further, 

 after the order season is over, you may find 

 them visiting the East, purchasing cheap 

 trees by the thousand, which are labeled 

 with such names as suit the wishes, whims, 

 or caprice of their western customers, and 

 when the first frosts arrest further growth, 

 these trees are duly packed and sent forward 

 in charge of a third party to their destina- 

 tion, who, armed with the written contract, 

 delivers the goods. In many cases these are 

 of less size than represented, but this is of no 

 avail; they fill the letter if not the spirit of 

 the contract, and the purchaser has the 

 satisfaction of believing, that if not as large, 

 or well-grown as he expected, they will 

 soon grow to it. Of course, he has full con- 

 fidence in the integrity of the little wooden 

 label which sets forth the name, for how is 

 he otherwise to know whether it is a seed- 

 ling or Putnam Russet, a Newtown Pippin, 

 or a Swaar; to him the trees have the same 

 general aj)pearance; those little characteris- 

 tics form of tree, color and size of twig, 

 size and feature of bud, have formed no part 

 of his study. He sets his trees, cultivates 

 them with care, but with his best efforts 

 only a few of them show a thrifty growth. 

 Year after year their numbers grow less. 

 After a long delay some of them show fruit. 

 He watches its development with an anxious 

 eye, and wonders why its rich pencilings 

 are so long delayed. It proves but an in- 

 different fruit, perhaps a seedling. The 

 wonderful grape would no*" produce the plum 

 tomato and now discloses its foxy origin. 

 The currants have long since disclaimed 

 their relationship to the cherry, aad proved 

 themselves of the common kind. 



But where is the peddler? — gone, no one 

 knows where. His note for half the bill of 

 purchase, payable in six months, is still held 



by the nurseryman, who was so anxious to 

 close out his unsaleable stock. This is but 

 an every day picture, the facts of which are 

 patent to the West. Yet these leeches 

 continue their vocation, and find too many 

 simple-minded persons sufficiently credulous 

 to give them a hearing. 



This system of fraud is fast working its 

 own cure, but its effects have proved a 

 deeper injury than many suppose. The ef- 

 fect of the withdrawal of trade from our 

 nurseries in consequence has been severely 

 felt, and it will be sometime before the last 

 traces of these vampyres will be obliterated. 



We hope no one will confound the well 

 authenticated agents of responsible nurser- 

 ies, who travel for orders, with the self-con- 

 stituted vagabonds which we have noticed. 



DOMESTIC ECONOMY. 



Our Receipt for Cuuing Beef and Pork. — 

 This receipt, which orginated with U3, and Las 

 now had many years of tri&l, we believe to be 

 unsurpassed as a pickle. Nearly all the modern 

 receipts which have appeared in the different 

 aQ[ricultural journals, partake, in some instances 

 almost identically, of the ingredients and pro- 

 poriious set forth in ours, which we first laid 

 before our readers some fifteen or eighteen years 

 ago. At this period in the season, when farm- 

 ers and others will soon be putting down their 

 winter's, and we may add, their next year'i sup- 

 ply of meat, it may be of service to re-publish 

 the receipt, which is as follows: To 1 gallon of 

 water, take IJ lbs. of salt, J lb. brown sugar, 

 i oz. saltpetre, and J oz. potash. In this ratio 

 the pickle to be increased to any quantity de- 

 sired. 



Let these be boiled together until all the dirt 

 from th« salt and sagar (which will not be a 

 little) rises to the top, and is skimmed off. — 

 Then throw the pickle iul# a large tub to cool, 

 and when cold, pour it over your beet or pork, 

 to remain the usual time, say from four to six 

 weeks, according to the size of the pieces, and 

 the kind of meat. The m«at must be well 

 covered with the pickle, and it should not be 

 put down for at least two days after killing, dar- 

 ing which time it should be slightly sprinkled 

 with powdered saltpetre. 



Several of our friends have emittsd the boil-* 

 ing oi the pickle, and found it to answer equally 

 as well. It will not, however, answer quite so 

 ■well. By boiling the pickle, it is purified — for 

 the amount af dirt which is tiirown off by the 

 operation, from the salt and su^ar, would sar- 

 prise oue not acquainted with the fact. 



If auybody can prove that he has a better 

 receipt tor the curing of maat than the forego- 

 ing, we will send him the Telegraph for half a 

 dozen years for his discovery. — [Germantown 

 Telegraph. 



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