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THE ILLINOIS FA.IIMEII. 



The Croiis. 

 The wheat crop docs not prove as good as an 

 ticipased. In this section, there were many 

 fine fields. But this was by no means gene- 

 ral; and much would not pay for cutting. 

 Oats was near a failure. Barley, little sown, 

 and little saved. The hay crop excellent. 

 Many early planted potato fields an entire 

 failure. Tiie late planted look well. Corn 

 is coming on rapidly — if the season shall 

 continue late, there will be something of a 

 crop. The sugar cane, though late, is grow- 



ing well. 



We can still sow turnip seed. The latest 

 sown crops, if they succeed, are best. Buck- 

 wheat can still be sown. Millet, Sugar Cane, 

 and common corn, sown broadcast, will yet 

 produce fine crops of fodder. The sugar 

 corn produces a large yield of fodder sown 

 broadcast. 



It is time we were getting ready to sow 

 wheat. The laud should be put iu the best 

 order. Plow well and deep, and cover up 

 the weeds and trash, so that you can drill in 

 the seed. No drill will work Avell where the 

 ground, near the surface, is full of weeds. 

 If to be sown broadcast, use Gaboon's Sower 

 if you can get it. It will sow from fifteen 

 to twenty acres per hour, and better th n 

 can be done by hand. U 



The early sown wheat, the present season, 

 has proved the best, — a significant fact, 

 which should be remembered. 



he London Il/uslratrd Xcu-a has a 

 description of Bray's Traction Engine. It 

 is said one of these engines, of eight-horse 

 power, weighing six tons', with a gang of 

 three plows, plowed six acres of light, loamy 

 soil in ten hours. Mr. Ilinchby's statement 

 of some experiments with Frye's Gang-l'low, 

 in Christian county, would lead us to suppose 

 that the Yankee was very much superior to 



the English invention. 



.♦.— 



The following will make a very good 



currant wine, not heady, and will keep well 

 as long as it is bottled tight : 



One gallon of water, 



One quart of currant juice, 



Three lbs. of sugar. 



Gooseberries, e.^peeially Houghton's 



Seedling, can be rapidly iuereased by layers. 

 They should be layered in June, but if the 

 weather is suitable, layers wt)uld take root in 

 July. There is no better gooseberry for this 



climate. 



«•• 



B^^Wc learn that most of the Fair week 

 at Centralia will be devoted by Mr. Mills, 

 Superintendent of the Plow Pepartment, to 

 the trial of plows and other agricultural im- 

 plements. This is just what is wanted and 

 needed. 



Cow Milking. 



The agricultural papers are discussing the 

 question; — vJio. should milk the cotes? 

 Now, we can answer it to our own satisfac- 

 tion, at least, and say, that if woman attends 

 to her duties, she has no time to devote to 

 milking cows. This domestic duty comes at 

 the very moment when she is wanted in the 

 house, — when she should be preparing break- 

 fast, getting supper, or clearing away the 

 supper table. This matter does not admit of 

 a question. Wc advise our country girls, 

 when a young man solicits their company 

 through the voyage of life, to propound this 

 question to him, and when he answers it, 

 they will be able to determine whether he 

 wants her for a slave or a companion — '■'Do 



ijon expect VIC to milk the coics?" 

 — — i**^ 



TiiK Cow.— The New York Tdhunc 



thus asks and answers questions about the 



cow : 



"What is a good cow? One that gives 

 fourteen quarts of milk per day, and makes 

 therefrom fourteen lbs. of butter per week. 

 What is a medium cow? One that gives 

 twelve ((uarts, and makes ten pounds. What 

 is a common cow? One that gives from eight 

 to ten quarts, aiul makes seven poimds." 



We apprehend that with the standard thus 



presented, there are not avast numberofg(X)d 



cows in Illinois. 



jJ@^Congress appropriated 800,000 for the 

 purchase of seeds the present year; and 

 directed the publication of 2-12,950 copies of 

 the Patent Office Beport on Agriculture for 

 1857. This report will be published in 

 Auguist next. 



i|@~We learn from Bock Island county, 

 that there will be a large number of visitors 

 to the State Fair from that county. The 

 same feeling exists to sustain the fair at Cen- 

 tralia, in many other Northern counties from 

 which we have received information. 



Kill caterpillars and remove their 



nests from your apple trees. ]\Iakc a deter- 

 mined war upon this insect, and they will 

 yield. There arc various ways for killing 

 them, but the most cfl'ectual way is to put on 

 a pair of gloves and take hold of the nests 

 with your hands and rub and "wipe them 

 out." It is very little credit to a farmer to 

 p«rniit his apple trees to be destroyed by 



caterpillars. 



^ 



^Pr. J. W. I'arker, of Columbia, S. 



C, received the premium of tlic State Agri- 

 cultural Society, for a crop of Indian corn, 

 amounting to two hundred bu.slicls and twelve 

 quarts per acre. This is the largest crop on 

 record. The ground was a sand hill, richly 

 manured, and twice irrigated. 



The Locust Borer. 



This insect, which has destroyed many fine 

 locust groves in this county, is now com- 

 mitting its ravages on isolated trees in this 

 city. Some of them already show evidence 

 that they can survive but a short time. 

 These trees, which are used for shade, cannot 

 be sj^ared without much inconvenience; — 

 nevertheless, they will have to die. 



It would be quite prudent for our citizens 

 to seek' some other trees for ornament and 

 shade, not liable to be affected or destroyed 

 by insects. The Sitrcr Leaved Maple 

 (Pasy Carpum) is a fast growing, beautiful 

 tree, forms a fine head, and so far as we know, 

 is not liable to injuries from insects. There 

 are beautiful rows of these ti'ees on the ave- 

 nues leading out of Cleveland, Ohio. TLej 

 can be had at our nurseries and at very rea- 

 sonable prices; — for we recollect hearing L. 

 Ellsworth, of the Pu Page County Nurseries, 

 say, that he could supply any reasonable de- 

 mand — the trees some ten feet high — at 318 

 per 100. 



We find the following notice of the "Locust 

 Borer" in a Bloomington paper : 



. The Locu.st Borer. — About the middle 

 of 3Iay I was enabled, through the kindness 

 of a friend, to procure from the trunk of a locust 

 tree in this city, several larva3 or "borers" 

 and one "chrysalis." The trunk or body of 

 the tree from which they were taken, was 

 completely riddled, so to speak — there being 

 cavities in the lieart three-quarters of an inch 

 in diameter by six inches long. In one of 

 these cavaties the chrysalis was found sur- 

 rounded by a thin silken covering or cocoon. 

 At the present time one of the "larvae" (grubs) 

 is spinning a cocoon, and is in appearance as 

 follows : — it measures two and a half inches 

 in length, by three-eiLditsof an inch in width 

 near the centre, tapering gradually toward 

 each end, and is made up of twelve segments 

 independent of the head. The length of the 

 head aiul breadth of its base wdiere it joins 

 the first segment is one-quarter of an inch 

 — the latter as well as the head, is covered 

 with a hard, brownish colored casing through 

 the centre of which runs longitudinally a 

 small white line. It is supplied with a good 

 pair of "mandibles." They measure one- 

 eighth of an inch in length and are very 

 strong. With these he is enabled to carve 

 his way through the firmest woods. 



As above stated, the body is made up of 

 twelve segments, color dirty yellow, excepting 

 whore the green contents of the abdomen 

 show through. It has six legs, two on each 

 of the first three segments, and ten pro-legs, 

 two on each of segments G, 1-, 8, 9 and 12. 

 On either side and in the centre of each seg- 

 ment is a suudl red spot and hole (spiracles) 

 through which respiration takes place. On 

 the surface of the body there are numerous 

 papilhv, out of which grows a fine light color- 

 ed hair about one-(|uarter of inch in length. 

 The silk spun by the larva) is quite strong. 

 "When attached to the end of a stick and spun 

 out six inches in length, it will when sudden- 

 ly drawn up, raise the head of the grub or 

 larvic from the table before giving way. 



