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156 



THE ILLINOIS F^HMER. 



Morris, New York, and two splendid 

 bulls of the Durham Short-horse breed. 

 These two latter arc for Adelaide, in 

 Australia. They were purchased at the 

 Royal Agricultural Society's Show, at 

 Chester; one from the herd of Mr. J. K. 

 Farnworth, Cheshire; the other from 

 that of Mr. Jonas Webb. They are both 

 exceedingly fine animals, and though 

 young give unmistakable evidence of 

 fine breeding. Of the Ayrshires, it is 

 only fair to say they^are all an exceed- 

 ingly fine and justly celebi'ated bi*eed of 

 dairy stock. Twelve of the Ayrshires 

 were shipped on board the Agnes, on 

 Wednesday last, for Boston : the other 

 tAvelve will be shipped for the same des- 

 tination in course of the ensuing week. 

 The two Short-horn bulls will be put on 

 board the Bristow, in the beginning of 



week, for Adelaide. 



••• 



Cleaning Seed Wlieat, 



John Johnston of Geneva, one of the 

 most thorough and successful farmers in 

 this country, as all our readers know, 

 says that he quit raising chess twenty- 

 eight years ago — by never sowing it. 

 He has not raised a bushel of it in all 

 that long period on his extensive Avheat 

 farm. Thirty-seven years ago he ob- 

 tained eight bushels of chess in every 

 hundred of wheat. His mode of clean- 

 ing seed is the same in substance that 

 Ave have practiced thirty years ago, but 

 will bear repetition, and we therefore 

 give it as recently described by him : 



"My plan is to take out the fanning- 

 mill riddles, some call them screens; I 

 call the lower one only a screen — it 

 takes out mustard seed and cockle in 

 jHtrt. iVfter the riddles are out, take ofl" 

 the shaking rod, or at least the one 

 nearest the wings or fans; then let one 

 man turn the wings or fans by the ci^nk 

 or handle, as usual; let another pour the 

 wheat into the hopper from a basket or 

 any other vessel — a tin-pail ansAvers 

 very well — let him pour the Avheat in 

 regularly and not very fast, ii much 

 chess. Let the man turning keep up a 

 steady wind; he need not turn very fast. 

 Have a boy, or a girl, or a man, or a 

 woman, if you choose, to take back the 



clean Avheat 



mill, and I ^ 



chess seed is bloAvn out. 



as it comes down from the 

 will ixuarantee that every 



The man pour- 

 in jr in the Avlieat ou;;ht to be the boss, to 

 make sure that the man turning does not 

 slack up too much, or that he don't stop 

 turninsr until the wheat and chess are all 

 out of the hopper, else it may fall down 

 amongst the clean Avheat. If the wheat 

 is 60 ft)S to the bushel or over, very lit- 

 tle, if any, Avill be blown out with the 

 chess. As considerable Avill lay on the 

 cockle and mustard screen, Avhen that is 

 going to be put doAvn it is safest to scrape 

 back the upper part with the hand, be- 

 cause if there is chess anywhere amongst 



the wheat, it will be there. Now if this 

 is done precisely as I direct, and if the 

 wheat is notjuiade entirely free of chess, 

 unless three chess seeds should be stick- 

 ing together, which is sometimes the 

 case with the top seeds on the main stalk, 

 in that case there may be such left in 

 the Avheat, still a little more Avind will 

 bloAV them out. If any man Avill try it 

 and cannot do it, send for me, and I can- 

 not do it to perfection I won't ask them 

 to pay my traveling expenses." 



We have met with many farmers Avho 

 asserted that they sowed perfectly clean 

 seed, and yet had an abundance of chess 

 — but on closely examining such seed, 

 spreading it out thinly, we could always 

 find plenty of the seeds of the chess; 

 sometimes enough to make ten thousand 

 grains in a bushel, and yet pass entirely 

 unnoticed by a casual observer. TraA'- 

 eling once Avitli a friend who "believed 

 in chess," Ave offered to prcve to him 

 that all seed claimed as clean, Avas foul, 

 and proposed to examine the seed Ave 

 should find at the residence of a good 

 farmer Ave were about to call on. The 

 Avheat Avas accordingly called for and 

 clot^cly examined— -handful after handful, 

 but no chess could be found! "What," 

 said Ave at last in despair, do you never 

 raise any chess here? I do not find 

 any." "No !" was the emphatic ansAver, 

 "no chess groAvs on this farm ! We ncA'- 

 er soAv any--Ave have cleared the farm 

 of such foul stuff long ago — and we find 

 it never groAvs unless it is soavu." — 



Country/ Gentleman. 



1«» _ . 



TJie Potato Crop. 

 Editor of the Farmer : — The papers 

 in the Northern part of our State and 

 Wisconsin represent the prospect of the 

 potato crop there as good. In the South 

 port of the State the prospect is only 

 tolerable, and in the American Bottom, 

 from Avhence the great supply of potatoes 

 Avas usually raised for the St. Louis and 

 Alton markets, and the country belcAV, 

 the crop is entirely cut off. In Sanga- 

 mon county, so far as I have observed, 

 the potato crop planted on rolling ground 

 took Avell, though I am told the potato 

 fly is doing it much harm. The prospect 

 is that all the potatoes raised in Sanga* 

 mon county Avill bring a good price, and 

 our farmers Avould do well to save their 

 Avhole crop. To do this, they must be 

 dug in season, and if saved on the ground, 

 they should be Avell covered. Our far- 

 mers have lost thousands of dollars by 

 having their potatoes frozen. Last year 

 many were lost. In the fall they could 

 not be had at less than forty and fifty 

 cents per bushel. Some Avere kept over 

 for higher prices and brought 25 and 30 

 cents in the spring. Experience shows, 

 that as a general fact, produce should be 

 sold Avhen it is ready for market. Could 

 potatoes have been bought in the fall at 



what were considered fair prices, the nu- 

 merous car loads, brought from the 

 north, would not have come to Spring- 

 field. Whenever potatoes cannot be 

 had for forty or fifty cents in our mar- 

 ket in the fall, northern farmers will 

 send their potatoes here, which will des- 

 troy our market for the home produc- 

 tion in the coming spring. This has 



been our experience so far. M. 



<•• 



Kight Air-Seasonable Hints. 



During the months of September and 

 October, throughout the United States, 

 wherever there are chills, and fever and 

 ague, intermittents, or the more deadly 

 forms of fever, it is a pernicious, and 

 even dangerous practice, to sleep with 

 the outer doors orAvindows open; because 

 miasm, marsh emanations, the product of 

 decaying vegetation— all of which are 

 different terms, expressing the same 

 thing— is made so light by heat, that it 

 ascends at once toAvards the upper por- 

 tion of atmospheric space, and is not 

 breathed during the heat of the day, but 

 the cool nights of the fall of the year 

 condense it, make itheaA'y, and it settles 

 on the ground, is breathed into the 

 lungs, incorporated into the blood; and 

 if in its concentrated form, as in certain 

 localities near Rome, it causes sickness 

 and death Avithin a fcAV hours. 



The plagues Avhich devastated Eastern 

 countries in earlier ages, were caused by 

 the concentrated emanations from marshy 

 localities, or districts of decaying vege- 

 tation; and the common observation of 

 the higher class of people was, that those 

 Avho occupied the upper stories, not even 

 coming doAvn stairs for market supplies, 

 but drcAv them up by ropes attached to 

 baskets, had entire immunity from dis- 

 ease, for tAvo reasons, the higher the 

 abode, the less compact is the deadly 

 atmosphere; besides, the higher rooms in 

 a house, in summer, are warmer ones, 

 and the miasm less concentrated. The 

 loAver rooms are colder, making the air 

 more dense. So, by keeping all outer 

 doors and windows closed, especially the 

 lower ones, the building is less cool and 

 comfortable, but it excluded the infecti- 

 ous air, Avhile its Avarmth sends what en- 

 ters through the crevice immediately to 

 the ceilings of the rooms, where it con- 

 gregates, and is not breathed; hence it is 

 that men Avho entered the bar-room and 

 dining-saloons of the National Hotel, re- 

 maining but a fcAV brief hours, Avere at- 

 tacked Avith the National Hotel disease, 

 where the ladies Avho occupied upper 

 rooms, where constant fires were burn- 

 ng, escayed attack, although remaining 

 in the house for Aveeks at a time. 



It was for the same reason that Dr. 

 Rush was accustomed to advise families 

 in the summer-time, not being able to 

 leave the city, to cause their younger 

 children especially, to spend their time 



