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THE ILLINOIS FA.R]VrEIl. 



157 



above stairs. "We have spent a lifetime 

 ourselves in the West and extreme South, 

 and know in our own person, and as to 

 those who had the firmness to follow our 

 recommendation, that whole families will 

 escape all the forms of fall fevers who 

 will have bright fires kindled at sunrise 

 and sunset in the family room. But it 

 is to plain a prescription to secure ob- 

 servance in more than one family in ten 

 thousand. After the third frost, and 

 until the fall of the next year, it is an 

 important means of health for persons 

 to sleep with an outer door or window 

 partly open, having the bed in such a 

 position as to be protected from a draught 

 of air. We advise that no person should 

 go to work or take exercise in the morn- 

 ing on an empty stomach; but if it is 

 stimulated to action by a cup of coffee, 

 or a crust of bread, or apple, or orange, 

 exercise can be taken, not only with im- 

 punity, but to high advantage iu all chill 

 and fever localities.—^aZrs Journal of 

 Health. 



About Milking and other Things. 



JEditor Farmer : — Your correspon- 

 dent has touched a very delicate sub- 

 ject, more so, perhaps, than you are 

 aware of. In the families of farmers, 

 where the work of the house and farm 

 is done by the family, and where there 

 are brothers and sisters and father and 

 mother, we have no difficulty about 

 milking. When work is not driving on 

 the farm, and when our men people 

 have little to do before breakfast and 

 after supper, and more especially when 

 the weather is bad, snowy, rainy or 

 blowey, they expect to milk, and do it 

 with pleasure; but when harvest time 

 comes, or when our men have as much 

 or more than they can do in plowing, 

 sowing and planting, indeed, wherever, 

 from any cause, the labor of the farm is 

 severe, requiring the .attention during 

 all working hours, then we do the milk- 

 ing. The difficulty is with hired hands; 

 — they generally do as litrle work as 

 possible, always grumble when they are 

 not surfeited with the best cooking we 

 can get up for them — their whole object 

 being to live well, do little work and get 

 high wages; — I say the difficulty is to 

 get these men to do the milking. Oh, 

 they are above that ! They will see us 

 picking our way through the mud and 

 weeds to get to the cows, and they will 

 lay about, perhaps smoking, while we 

 milk and afterward get their breakfast 

 or supper for them. Now this is what 

 we do not like. 



I believe that woman has important 

 duties to fulfil in the economy of life. 

 She is to be the "help meet," not the 

 slave of man. Her more delicate frame, 

 and her more delicacy of nature, points 

 out distinctly her sphere of action. We 

 appreciate the position in which Provi- 



dence and nature have placed us, and 

 we wish that our course may harmonize 

 with our duties, and with the perform- 

 ance of duty by the other sex, make a 

 harmonious whole. 



It is a false position, in my opinion, 

 that would excuse woman from the do- 

 mestic duties and labors of life. Under 

 all circumstances she ought to know 

 what their duties are, and how to per- 

 form them. Labor is entirely respecta- 

 ble, and is necessary to health as to 

 happiness. Woman who cannot labor 

 in some calling, is of little account, any- 

 where — a drone who lives on the labors 

 of others, a blank in God's creation. A 

 mother who does not bring up her daugh- 

 ters to industry — who makes a slave of 

 herself that they may yawn away their 

 time in idleness and dress, — ^is a simple 

 mother, who has little appreciation of 

 the responsibilitiesof her position. She 

 is doing her daughters a grievous and 

 irreparable injury. What sensible man 

 would not prefer to see the girl in her 

 neat and appropriate "fatigue dress," in 

 the morning, busy in her domestic avo- 

 cation, than to find her loHing away her 

 time, perhaps with a volume of yellow 

 covered literature before her, — expect- 

 ing, perhaps, that others like herself, 

 might chance to give her a morning 

 call? ELIZABETH. 



Home Farm, Aug. 10, 1858. 



-•••- 



Misery and Indigestion. — The lon- 

 ger I live the more I am convinced that 

 the apothecary is of more importance 

 than Seneca, and that lialf the unhappi- 

 ness in the world proceeds from little 

 stoppages, from a duck choked up, from 

 food pressing in the wrong place, from 

 a vexed duodenum or an agitated pylo- 

 rus. The deception as practiced upon 

 human creatures, is curious and enter- 

 taining. My friend sups late; he eats 

 some strong soup, then a lobster, then 

 some tart, and dilutes these excellent 

 varieties with wine. The next day I 

 call upon him. He is going to sell hi 

 house in London, and retire into the 

 country. He is alarmed for his eldest 

 daughter's health. His expenses are 

 hourly increasing, and nothing but a 

 timely retreat can save him from ruin. 

 All this is the lobster; and when over- 

 excited nature has had time to manage 

 the testaceous encumbrance, the daujjh- 

 ter recovers, the finances are in good 

 order, and every rural idea effectually 

 excluded from the mmd. In the same 

 manner, old friendships are destroyed 

 by toasted cheese : and hard salted meat 

 has to lead to suicide. Unpleasant 

 feelings of the body produce correspon- 

 dent sensations in the mind, and a great 

 scene of wretchedness is sketched out by 

 a morsel of indigestible and misguided 

 food. Of such infinite consequence to 



happiness is it to study the body. 

 Sidney Smiths V ^ y" v v • : ; ^ :/ 



^ Wheat as a Staple.' 



Editor of the Farmer : — I read your 

 article on this subject in the last Far- 

 mer, with much interest. I like the 

 bold manner in which jom speak out; 

 but yet I am sure that our wheat oftener 

 fails in Central Illinois from bad culti- 

 vation than from any fault in soil or 

 climate. I agree with you that it is 

 folly to grow wheat as we have generally 

 done — -that is, half plowing the land, 

 sowing late, sowing broadcast, and 

 leaving the ground so that rains will 

 stand upon it. Neither our soil or cli- 

 mate can be depended on to make crops 

 of wheat under such circumstances. If 

 farmers will follow this old plan^if they 

 go on scratching their grounds, sowing 

 their wheat broadcast among weeds and 

 litter — if they wait to sow until in Octo- 

 ber — and more than all, if they sow on 

 level lands, they will not make a good crop 

 of wheat one year out of ten. That's 

 my opinion. 



Now, I stand up for our soil in Central 

 Illinois for making wheat; but I would 

 premise that to do this — soils must be 

 plowed deep — ten inches is shallow 

 enough; — if the land is weedy, bury the 

 weeds to this depth — afterwards cross 

 plow your land, not going so deep as to 

 disturb the weeds; — if the ground is not 

 mellow and fine by these operations, 

 harrow it — harrow it — till you effect the 

 object; then drill in your wheat in time 

 — latter part of August or near the first 

 of September. Never fail to have 

 ditches to drain your land. If necessa- 

 ry, make them wide and deep enough to 

 prevent water standing on your field. 

 Do this, and your prospects will be fair 

 for a good crop — say 30, 35 and 40 bush- 

 els to an acre. 



Is not this better than to scratch over 

 many acres, half do your work, and 

 finally lose most of your crop? If our 

 farmers will pursue a thorough system 

 of cultivation, they will uot be likely to 

 complain that our soil is not adapted to 

 the wheat crop. It is the farmer— not 

 the soil— is in fault. 



I hope this fall our farmers will be 

 alive to the necessity of thorough culti- 

 vation for wheat. I hope to see them 

 running their plows deep— preparing 

 their soil in a fitting manner for the seed 

 — putting it in properly — draining their 

 grounds; and the next season reaping a 

 rich reward for their labor, ' 



Let them do all these things— and 

 then if in nine seasons out of ten, they 

 do not raise good crops, — they may com- 

 plain of climate and soil. 



THE BLACK SOIL OF S^NGA- 

 *'MON FOREVER." 



