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164 



THE ILLIISrOIS FA-TOMER. 



profitable crop, now is the time to know 

 it, so that another spring we shall know 

 what to do about sowing the seed. 



Enquirer. 



Tlie Cane Crop. 



Mr. ^Editor : I have a small patch of 

 cane. It is ripe. It Avas planted early. 

 I have pealed some of the stalks, taken 

 the pith out, and found that it had a 

 rich and pleasant sweetness, too sweet 

 and rich to eat. In this pith there is 

 nothing of that strong, unpleasant taste 

 which is found in some of the syrups. 

 This bad taste must come from the out- 

 side or rind of the stalk. The molasses 

 is not pleasant unless this is removed. 



I went to your Springfield Sugar Mill 

 on th^ 28th of September. The works 

 were not perfectly in order, but some 

 seventy gallons of syrup had been made. 

 It was entirely divested of that vegeta- 

 ble taste, which is so disagreeable ; and 

 was as pleasant as any sugar house mo- 

 lasses. I was informed that ripe cane 

 would make such molasses, if the juice 

 was properly clarified. This is the great 

 object. Molasses which contains acid 

 and vegetable taste, must be refined, or 

 it is of no value but for the distillery. 



I have great confidence in the success 

 of the trial now going on in the south 

 part of your city The mill is operated 

 by a steam engine, and when grinding 

 it throws ofi'a stream of juice nearly an 

 inch in diameter. The boiling is done 

 by steam; the apparatus was not theii 

 perfect ; but would soon be. 



The cane was coming in rapidly. The 

 early planted cane was in fine order. 

 The mill will soon be going day and 

 night. 



I feel proud that an experiment on so 

 extensive a scale is being made in San- 

 gamon county, and believing in its suc- 

 cess, I feel that an impetus will be given 

 to the putting up of sugar mills and the 

 raising of sugar cane, that in another 

 year will be felt to the great benefit 

 of our farmers. I hope the doubting 

 and distrustful will visit the Springfield 



sugar mill. S. W. 



«•» — ■ ■ 



iLditor of the Farmer : In common 

 with most of ray brother farmers, I had 

 a poor crop of wheat the past season. 

 In truth, though I prepared my ground 

 and put in my seed, as well as my 

 neighbors, I did not prepare the ground 

 with that care that I should have done. 

 I plowed in the weeds, harrowed the 

 land, sowed my seed, and let luck decide 

 the rest. The bad weather of spring 

 came, and my wheat yielded only fifteen 

 bushels to the acre. I believe that, had 

 my ground been plowed as soon as I had 

 taken off the previous crop of wheat in 

 1857, and again in the fall, I should 

 have had a tolerable crop. 



This fall I have reduced the extent of 



my wheat ground, and have put in my 

 wheat well. It is now looking well, and 

 I have great confidence that I shall make 

 a fair crop. 



I ajj-rce Avith vou that our farmers 

 should divide their crops. They should 

 raise some wheat, a great deal of corn, 

 some oats, barley, buckwheat and pota- 

 toes. Instead of depending on wheat 

 as a leading crop, they should rely upon 

 stock. Forehand farmers raise swine, 

 cattle and horses and mules with profit. 

 Less able farmers can soon get into a 

 stock of hogs, and hogs always sell at 

 living and sometimes high prices. Even 

 in the present hard times — for hard they 

 are — pickled pork, hams, shoulders and 

 sides, sell at 8 and 12 cents per pound. 

 What farmer can't make money by 

 turning his attention to raising hogs, 

 killing them himself, and putting them 

 up at these prices ? And the same 

 prices have ruled for several years. 



I am glad that farmers are not sow- 

 ing wheat now as they did last fall. The 

 Avheat, I hope is put in better than it 

 was then. Some I know is put in a 

 great deal worse. If we have a bad 

 winter, I think a good deal of wheat 

 will be lost. I suggest to farmers, 

 where they have not already done so, to 

 plow ditches for carrying off the water 

 from their wheat lands. I. S. 



The One Crop System. 



Editor of the Farmer : A good many 

 of us have been in the habit of depend- 

 ing on one crop, mainly, to make money. 

 Latterly, with many of us, this crop has 

 been wheat. For myself I have aban- 

 doned this system. Two years loss of 

 the wheat has satisfied me that it is not 

 a system to depend on. We can grow 

 wheat, barley, oats, corn, potatoes, tim- 

 othy — we can give more attention to the 

 dairy — we can raise hogs with great fa- 

 cility, and we can raise some other 

 stock and it never was yet known that 

 all these different things failed or that 

 some of them did not fetch fair prices. 



We have another year to pass over 

 before we can hope to realize enough to 

 pay up our past indebtedness and to be- 

 gin the world again fairly. That is my 

 case, and I think it is the case of a 

 great many others. We must make up 

 our mind to chantre our mode of farminer 

 — that IS, a good many of us. Two and 

 three years ago I had good crops of 

 wheat and they sold well. The two last 

 years the crops have failed. All my 

 labor and the money I spent on these 

 crops were lost. I dare not proceed 

 any further in this way. I am even 

 nervous on account of the little wheat I 

 have sown this fall. 



I want to hear your correspondents 

 on this subject. It may be that a series 

 of disappointments has made me faint- 

 hearted. J. N. 



Corn. 

 3Tr. Editor : The wet weather contin- 

 ued so long last spring, that many per- 

 sons, despairing of the maturity of the 

 common corn of the country, procured 

 and planted early kinds. Now the far- 

 mers would be glad to know if any of 

 these early kinds, late planted, produced 

 good crops. Some of them, it is well 

 known, did not. Now if there is a va- 

 riety of this early corn that matured 

 well, and yielded a fair crop of corn, 

 such a variety must be of great value to 

 our farmers for early feeding. I hope 

 some of those who have grown the dif- 

 ferent varieties of corn, the past season, 

 will inform the public, through the col- 

 umns of the Farmer, of their success 

 and the value of the different varieties. 

 I have heard many farmers speak on 

 this subject, and I know their anxiety 

 to hear all that can be said on it. 



G n. 



—f 



Oats. 



Editor of the Farmer: I have been a 

 somewhat attentive reader of the agri- 

 cultural papers for the last few years, 

 and have been struck with the coinci- 

 dence of many farmers in the fact that 

 ground plowed in the fall for oats, and 

 the oats soived early in the spring, in all 

 most every, case jjroduced good crops. 



Now this is an important item to our 

 farmers. Ground can yet be plowed for 

 the oat crop next spring. It will be 

 in good order for plowing this fall. The 

 plowing will then be done. Spring 

 work generally crowds, and if a few 

 days' plowing can be saved, it will be an 

 object with our farmers. 



I think next to securing seed corn in 

 the fall, plowing for oats is an object. 

 Who will try it ? I will venture to say 

 a great many will not, and if such lose 

 their oats, they will make a charge 

 against Providence on account of the 

 loss. M. 



Labor the Creator of Wealth. 

 A novice in reflection would naturally 

 consider the possession of inexhaustible 

 money, gold and silver, as the greatest 

 sign of wealth, national or individual. 

 The false position money has been per- 

 mitted to assume as a supplier of the 

 necessities and luxurious tastes of society 

 has begotten the impression that money 

 is the chief wealth. But truly consider- 

 ed how far this conclusion is from fact. 

 Gold and silver bear but a mean relation 

 to those wants of man upon which life 

 depends ; intrinsically they are, as an 

 application to his temporal necessities, 

 less valuable than the simplest weeds by 

 the way side. Can a man eat, or drink, 

 or wear gold ? But for the fictitious 

 value allowed to it, what pleasurable im- 

 pression would it produce on any of the 



