THE ILT^IISrOIS FA.RMER. 



197 



than imported this seed, it desen^es the com- 

 mendation of the whole country— and while 

 politicians are wrangling over the "tithes of 

 anise and mint and cummin, and neglecting 

 the weightier matters of the law," let the 

 "bone and sinew" — the producers of the coun- 

 try sustain the only bureau of the Federal 



Government which benefits them by distribu- 

 tion of seeds." 



4«« 



The Dairy. 



Editor of the Farmer : — Farmers complain 

 that their crops are not good and that they 

 are not able to pay their debts. This is the 

 complaint of many. Some, however, who 

 purchase only what they can pay for, seem 

 to be getting along about as well as in for- 

 mer years. The trouble is that too many 

 live on anticipated crops — live a year ahead 

 of their income; and when this income fails, 

 of course they are in a bad way. 



But I am not about to lecture on domes 

 tic economy. These lectures have been 

 common enough within the two last years — 

 our own experience the lecturers. What I 

 propose to say is, that there are some em- 

 ployments which our farmers would find rea- 

 sonably profitable, if they would engage in 

 them, 

 ness. 



We 

 stock. 



and paying Dairy. I have known certain 

 farmers come here and make money as they 

 made butter and cheese, and after a year or 

 two would fall away into the habits of the 

 country. 



I am entirely satisfied that good profits can 

 be made here by good Daries. There is a 

 great opening for them. It is a shame that 

 in this fertile region, we have to send to New 

 York and Ohio for our Cheese and Butter. 



One of them is the Dairy busi- 



certainly have a g5Sd country for 

 We can have the best pastures. We 



can have green crops, to feed our Cows in 

 August and September, if pastures fails. — 

 AVc can have good meadows, from which to 

 secure hay for winter. We can raise corn, 

 and feed them, as we like, with cracked 

 corn; and we can raise roots — carrots, the 

 large beet, and turnip, to feed them with 

 occasionally in winter. It is true that the 

 care of milch cows is a steady and constant 

 employment. They must have care and 

 shelter, must be fed regularly, must be milk- 

 ed regularly — the milk must be properly 

 taken care of. There must be a milk house 

 neat, clean, ever sweet, and kept warm or 

 cool as desired. If butter is made, it should 

 be done with care, and it should be a tip-top 

 article. The sanit v^ij be said of cheese. 



New cheese and butter pay well here. ■ A 

 good article of either brings a good price, a 

 much better price than can be had in any 

 part of New York or Ohio. Good Butter 

 the year round has brought twenty-five cents 

 a pound in this market; and green cheese, a 

 week from the press, is always sold, at whole- 

 sale at eight cents per pound With these 

 good markets for thft products of the Dairy, 

 with pastures free of cost, with roots that 

 produce in abundance all that food required 

 for cows — there is not made butter and 

 cheese enough in this country, to supply the 

 demands of the country. Our public houses 

 — at least many of them, purchase their 

 butter from Ohio and New York — and the 

 cheese found in our States mainly comes from 

 those States. 



Why is this ? Is it because our farmers 

 cannot make money fast enough with the 

 good profits on butter and cheese ? Or is it, 

 because our people do not like the labor 

 necessary to carry on the Dairy? There is 

 some screw loose here. Perhaps they do 

 not know how to make cheese and butter. — 

 Perhaps they had rather not be industrious 

 as would bo necessary to have a thriveing 



Wines. 



Editor Farmer: — A few day ago I saw 

 the paragraph copied below in a newspaper, 

 I cut it out for publication in the Farmer. I 

 thought that the account of the wines usually 

 sold at the shops, and the manner in which 

 they are compounded, would be interesting 

 to your readers. You could see what stuff is 

 sometimes used for sacramental purposes; but 

 (^ener by well persons, as a stimulating and 

 healthful drink, and by the sick in their weak- 

 ness. A pure article of wine is not very in- 

 jurious drink in reasonable quantities. In- 

 deed, I think in many cases it is useful. So 

 our phj'sicians say, and they ought to know. 

 Now, there are many vegetables which can 

 be employed to make a healthful wine. That 

 made from our native grapes; from currants; 

 and from other fruit; is very harmless— unless 

 enough sugar is added to give it strong intoxi- 

 cating qualities. Even some of our domes- 

 tic wines, hailing from Cincinnati, are said 

 to be imitations and counterfeited. Hence, 

 if our people must drink wine — if the ladies 

 desire to have a little in their houses to treat 

 their friends or to use as medicine, they^had 

 better make it themselves. This they can do 

 in the proper season; and I hope that the 

 analyses made of wine in Cincinnati, and given 

 below, will induce them to make the attempt. 



"MORE GRAPES." 



What Wines are Made of. — Hiram 

 Cox, Esq., of Cincinnati, made the following 

 statement: "During the summer of 1856, I 

 analysed a lot of liquors for some conscientious 

 gentlemen of our city, who would not permit 

 me to take samples to my office, but insisted 

 on my bringing my chemicals and apparatus 

 to their store, that they might see the opera- 

 tion. I accordingly repaired to their store 

 and analysed samples of sixteen difi'erent lots. 

 Among them were port wine, sherry wine, 

 and Madeira wine. The distilled liquors 

 were some pure, and some vile and pernicious 

 imitations, but the wines had not one drop of 

 the grape ! The basis of the port wine was 

 diluted sulphuric acid; colored with elderber- 

 ry juice, with alum, sugar, and neutral spir- 

 its. The base of the sherry wine was a sort 

 of pale malt, sulphuric acid, from the bitter 

 almond oil, with a per centage of alcoholic 

 spirits from brandy. The basis of the Ma- 

 deira was a decoction of hops, with sulphuric 

 acid, honey, spirits from Jamaica rum, &c. 

 The same week after analysing the above and 

 exhibiting the quality and character of the 

 liquors to the proprietors, a sexton of one of 

 our churches informed me that he had pur- 

 chased a gallon of the above port wine, to be 

 used in his church on the next Sabbath for 

 sacramental purposes, and that for the mix 

 ture of sulphuric acid, alum, and elderberry 

 juice, he paid 82 75 a gallon." 



Hcdgiilg, 

 Editor of the Farmer : — I have turcd out 

 this winter another half mile of Hedge. It 

 is now on its fifth year. I am so well 

 pleased with my own experience that I intend 

 to plant a hedge around the remainder of my 

 farm the next spring. 



A little expeaience in raising hedges will 

 show that a good hedge can be made in four 

 years. The idea that you must make a 

 broad base for your hedge, is folly, I think. 

 My hedge was planted, out four years ago 

 last spring — the plants w^ere placed from five 

 to six inches apart — the second spring, I cut 

 them oflf well down to tlie ground — the next 

 spring, I cut them off six inches from the 

 ground — last I again cut them ofi" twelve 

 inches from the ground — this fall I slashed 

 down the tops and let them lay over each 

 side of the hedge and took up the fence 

 that protected it — and not an animal has 

 gone through it. 



I saw ahull make the attempt three times. 

 He went up deliberately and put his head 

 into it. The insinuating thorns went into his 

 face, and he backed out. He made the at- 

 tempt three times, and on the third time 

 left the hedge with a roar ! 



My experience is just this. Get good 

 plants; have your ground well prepared; and 

 go to work in the spring and set out your 

 hedge plants five or six inches apart; take care 

 of them; weed them and live them for two 

 years, and then treat them as I did mine. — 

 Don't expect to get a hedge if you have a 

 fence running clcse by the side of it. 

 Your hedge wants air, sun, room, needing 

 cutting back three time? — second, third, and 

 fourth year, and then afterwards topping it 

 as you see it is required. • 



Some farmers say they can't afford to cul- 

 tivate hedges. I can't afford to keep up a 

 rail fence when I can make hedges, and 

 when I have a hedge — which I always can 

 have it I take care of it— I have something 

 that I can depend on, and which with a little 

 care will last. I do not know how long, and 

 I don't know of any body that does. I have 

 heard that there were osage orange hedges 

 in the country twenty-five or more years old, 

 and which promise to continue; but of these 

 personally I know nothing. 



My opinion is that a man who lives in a 

 place of his own, and expects to remain on 

 it, will find himself behind his neighbors in 

 a few years, if ho does not surround his IJirm 

 with osage orange hedges. 



^ I. S.F. 



Editor of the Farmr :— I pee in the last 

 Farmer you express the belief that not more 

 than half as much ground will be sown with 

 Wheat this year as last. I think this esti- 

 mate high. I do not believe there will be 

 a third as much. Last .season I had 200 

 acres of land, in wheat, I had attempted to 

 raise wheat the year Before. I have exper- 

 imented to my satisfaction. Ten acres is as 

 much as I will risk. I have turned my atten- 

 tion to cattle and hogs — mostly to hogs, I 

 can get a crop of them to market every year 

 Indeed, I can so time the matter, as to have 

 hogs ready for market, the whole year. — 

 This crop is growing and in season all the 

 while. Rarely does the price touch hclow 

 a living price, I don't think we can glut the 



