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.-. „«^ 



THE ILLINOIS F^RMER^' 



^1 



spring, -without this care, for the seedling 

 plants are quite apt to be injured in severe 

 winters, more or less, and the injury is not 

 always perceptible, even by the best judges, 

 till after they are set in the hedge-row; and 

 purchasing «xch plants has, perhaps, more 

 than any one canse, covered the coiintry in 

 places with broken, worthless hedges. — 

 Twice in the last 15 years, I have delivered 

 some such injured outstanding plants myself, 

 without knowing it till too late, and had them 

 all to supply again the next spring. The 

 great drought also made sad work in blotch- 

 ing many pieces of new-set hedge where the 

 plants were good, in 185G. 



From the above and similar causes, in rid- 

 ing through the country, one will see a great 

 many specimens of worthless, unsightly 

 hedges, and is more apt to see them unfortu- 

 nately, on the great railroads and thorough- 

 fares, than anywhere else. For precisely 

 here those damaged plants are mostly hawk- 

 ed about and sold cheap; and great droves of 

 stock are most likely to range and try the 

 work of careless hands and neglected fences. 

 Besides those 2y>'o/essional hedge-maA-ers, who 



did not always know a plow from a hoe when 

 they began their peregrinations out of the 

 cities and towns, to set "si'perb hedges" for 

 the farmc's for two prices, cash down the first 

 year — these found it more convenient to con- 

 duct their operations near the railroads, which 

 they usually completed as soon as the first or 

 second payment was made, and decamped for 

 parts unknown, leaving the hedges andd:heir 

 owners to take care ofthemselves; and the lat- 

 ter generally found their professional hedge 

 was worth no further care from themselves, 

 than to try to plow or grub it up, which is not 

 so easily done; for this Osage Orange when 

 onee set out, insists that it has a right to make 

 a hedge anyhow, even if not nearer together 

 than onee in ten rods, and you may cut as 

 much as you please, and it still persist in its 

 right to live and make a fence. 



But aside from these casualties, I have 

 never in all my experience or knowledge, 

 known a plant more than two years old, or 

 after its second winter's growth, to be killed 

 with cold here, or ami other cause, though the 

 thermometer has been sometimes 25° below 

 zero — often 20° — quite often 10°; and peach 

 trees six inches through, and grapevines, and 

 many common apple trees of good size, have 

 been killed in my grounds, side by side with 

 the hedge, quite to the grouiid. In severe 

 winters, the tops of the hedges are always 

 killed down more or less, but the root never 

 so far; and all the killing of the top has only 

 amounted in practice here to the saving of one 

 good spring pruning. The first plant ever 

 brought into this country, some 20 years ago, 

 is still aUve in my front yard; and my oldest 

 hedges are decidedly the best on my place; 

 and the same is true of my brother's in Quincy, 

 and many others. But farther north I have 

 learned that the plants last winter killed out 

 so badly in some places in the young two year 

 old hedges, that it has discouraged their own- 

 ers — I think unwisely — for in other places 

 still farther north, I learn they have stood 

 well; and I must think the error, where they 

 were killed out, consisted in too late culture 

 in the fall; besides it is hardly probable that 

 we shall have another winter combining so 

 many peculiar causes of destruction cs the 



last, perhaps in a whole century; and he that 

 abandons a young hedge, or a wheat crop, or 

 any thing else, if needful on his place, from 

 one unfortunate winter, is unwise, especially 

 if there is good reason to think that some error 

 in culture caused the catastrophe. But I 

 cannot, of course, and will not speak with any 

 positiveness about either soils or climates, or 

 anything else not immediately within the 

 range of my own personal experience. 



But if I were to purchase a farm myself, 

 200 miles north of this, my first effort would 

 be, as it ever has been here, to hedge it; and 

 if the ground was dry and warm, I believe I 

 should succeed; if not, I knoic I should fail, 

 till made so by drainage. But I am of the 

 opinion that there may be many places on the 

 poor sandy and gravelly soils of the north, and 

 also on the low and wet soils further south, 

 where it will not pay to attempt this hedge. 

 On our swampy lands and wet swales here, it 

 will not do without thorough draining or 

 dykeing, so as to make a good dry corn scil 

 7. The only hedge I have ever had killed 

 down was burnt down under aburningbuild- 

 Ing, which burnt the soil from one to two 

 feet deep, almost into brick dust. But, after 

 all, the roots of the hedge came up through, 

 and that same piece is now a good hedge. 

 Burning ofi" stubble and killing the top in that 

 way, or prairie grass, only makes it grow the 

 thicker and better; and some trim their 

 hedges only by such burning down, I am 

 told, in the south, as the old stocks wil] stand 

 till the new shoots come up again to their 

 relief. 



I believe I have now, my dear sir, answer- 

 ed all of your questions in order as proposed; 

 according to the best of my knowledge; and 

 I am not aware of being under any particular 

 bias in the matter, for instead of desiring to 

 extend my operations in the hedging busi- 

 ness, I would prefer, as things now are, to 

 contract it, and sold out my farms with the 

 intention of so doing, so far and so fast as I 

 find it expedient and practicable. 



If anything further is desired, I would 

 most cheerfully give you all the inform :•! son 

 in mj' power, as soon as time and other clni!'> 

 will permit. 



Allow me also to say that I have soon -ind 

 felt in connection with this hedge busin«\<s 

 of the west, as well as with all our «!i?ier 

 farming interests, such great and urgent 

 need of a system of State inst'tntj-'-'^ '■'n'\i- 

 laf to those proposed in Ho:. '^T. .••'!!- 



bill now pending in Congress, V'-c i Lave 

 devoted most of my spare time for sou: e y-esrs 

 past, to that great national object. ./S tha ve- 

 port herewith sent will show; and i Lope 

 your time and talents are not so fuliy cm- 

 ployed, but that you will find time to give 

 this great interest an efiective helping hand. 



J. B. TURNER. 

 Jacksoi.'VILLE, 111., Feb. 1, 1858. 



-••» 



From the Diary of a Country I>o:-tcr. 



"Spare tlicliltle Birds." • 



The fact is indisputable that one-fifth, 

 if not one-fourth, of the crop of the Union, 

 amounting in vdue to many millions of 

 dollars each year, is destroyed by insects. 

 This renders the study of entomology 

 almost a necessity ; for if without check, 



this evil continues to increase, the day 

 may come, sooner than many will believe, 

 when the important agricultural products 

 will be so diminished, from this cause 

 alone, as to produce great dearth and 

 suffering, and ^hen many of the best 

 and most valuable fruits will be a rarity, 

 if their production is not rendered im- 

 possible. Note, in verification, all the 

 varieties of the plum, gage, nectarine, 

 and cherry fruit, which, from the ravages 

 of the different genera of curculio, or the 

 weevil, are now rare, and seldom come 

 to perfection; and even one species of 

 this destructive insect has lately depos- 

 ited its eggs in the apple, and even in 

 the peach. If this is to continue, with- 

 out effort at prevention or remedy, how 

 soon may it be hopeless to look for, or 

 even expect again to see, as in the days 

 of old, the various fruit trees breaking 

 down from the burden of their golden 

 and luscious fruit. 



The evil is not done by the perfect 

 insect. Many insects never .feed after 

 their metamorphosis, but by the boring 

 and deposition of the egg, which soon 

 hatches, and we have a worm, or the 

 larvse, ravenous in its appetite, and de- 

 structive to anything it comes in contact 

 with. The larvas, or worm, does all the 

 mischief by feeding on the fruit, thus 

 destroying its organization ; after which, 

 of course, it soon drops to the ground, 

 into which the grub or worm goes, and 

 there hibernates until the ensuing year, 

 when it revivifies, and comes forth the 

 perfect insect at precisely the right time 

 and season "to walk in the foot-steps of 

 its predecessors," and cause a greatly 

 increased injury to whatever it deposits 

 its efjg£5 in, and its larva feed on. The 

 utility or entomological study and exam- 

 ination, will be of paramount importance, 

 for, doubtless, a careful inquiry into the 

 habits, peculiarities, and destructiveness 

 of the various insects that are injurious 

 to the crop, must lead, in many instances, 

 to the discovery of an antidote for their 

 r vages, or remedy for the injury they 

 i: lict. 



There is evidently a great increase of 

 insects injurious to agricultural produc- 

 tion. What is the cause of this? The 

 .eason is the greater average mildness of 

 winters, and the great destruction of 

 small birds, snakes, toad fro^s, water 

 frogs, terrapins, and ants, which feed on 

 insects. When the winter is very se- 

 vere the cold destroys myriads in their 

 hibernating state of inaction, or tempo- 

 rary death. Again, it destroys the eggs, 

 by bursting them, and thus making them 

 unproductive. The acute observer, by 

 the aid of a microscope of only ordinary 

 power, can, after any hard winter, see 

 quantities of the eggs ( generally adhe- 

 rent to small twigs,) of the butterfly, 

 ruptured and unprolific, from their gen- 



