THE ILLINOIS FA^RMEH. 



205 



Small Farms. 



Editor Farmer: — Send me two copies of 

 your paper — ouc for. J. S., who is the near- 

 est neighbor I have, and he lives a mile off. 

 You must know that when wheat was high 

 and the crops good, I fancied I would make 

 money by extending my farm and growing 

 wheat. I have now four hundred acres of 

 land; and in 1857 and '58 I had nearly three 

 hundred acres in wheat. The crop was des- 

 troyed in '57 and nearly so in '58. The 

 raising of wheat has been a losing business 

 with me. Last fall I made up my mind that 

 it would not answer for me to devote my at- 

 tention to raising wheat. I t^ed to sell a 

 portion of my land, but could not, and I suc- 

 ceeded in leasing it. I put twenty-five acres 

 only in wheat last fall. My intention is, to 

 give more attention to stock. I like your 

 idea of raising pork. Pork has paid well for 

 years. Sometimes it has been raised with 

 great profit, and I think always has paid for 

 the raising. I can do a good business in this 

 lino with seventy-five or a hundred acres of 

 corn — making this my main crop. I can 

 seen get into a stock of hogs. 



I have made a slave of myself and family 

 in edeavoring to carry on a large farm. I 

 am tired of it. I believe I can make abetter 

 living by cultivating asmaller farm, the work 

 of which I can mostly do with the assistance 

 of my boys. I shall have time, too, to attend 

 to my orchard — to fix up my place and to im- 

 prove its natural beauties. K you have an 

 opportunity, you can inform inquirers for 

 land, in regard to that that I wish to sell. It 

 is in fence within four miles of the Alton & 

 Chicago Railroad, and I will sell it on very 

 reasonable terms. J. E. 



Lick Creek Prairie, Dec. 16. 



Fall Plowing for Spring Wheat and Oats. 



Editor of the Farmer : — I see that 

 some of the correspondents of the Illinois 

 Farmer appear to know but little of the val- 

 ue of Fall plowing for Spring Wheat and 

 Oats. It is universally practical in this 

 County, not only because there is more lei s 

 ure to plow, and it enables the farmer to sow 

 his grain in better season in the Spring; but 

 because it is generally thought to produce a 

 better crop, especially if plowed early in the 

 fall. Onr practice is to turn in the stubble 

 as soon after harvest as other business will 

 permit. 



That early fall plowing is better than 

 Kte. I had the opportunity to witness this 

 year on a field, part of which was plowed 

 the first of September and the balance in 

 November. The field was sowed with wheat 

 in March, across the furrows. That on the 

 early plowing was much more luxuriant 

 during the whole season, and produced bet- 

 ter grain. The difference was disccrnable 

 during the growing season, at the distance 

 of i a mile. 



Our land is Prairie — some flat and some 

 gently rolling. Oats are much surer to be 

 sold very early, as early as the ground can 

 be worked. 



G-. N. enquires if there is an early kind of 

 corn that will produce a fair crop '{ I ans- 

 wer, there is. I have a kind that this year 

 was fit for the Table 15th July, and fairly 

 glazed, 1st of August. It is small, -with 



small cob, white, 8 rows, and will bear plant- 

 ing very thick. I planted some in March, 

 not thinking it would come up, but it did, 

 and was several days earlier than that planted 

 the last of April. I consider it very valua- 

 ble for early corn for the table, and early 

 feeding. I will send a sample to any body 

 that will pay the postage. 



S. W. ARNOLD. 



Enquiries. 



Editor of the Farmer : — Can you tell me 

 how to grow White Mustard on a large 

 scale? 



Can the Castor Bean be successfully culti- 

 vated here? 



Will hogs eat the Japan Pea? 



Where can these seeds be had? 



I have found the best way to raise oats is 

 — to clear the trash from the ground; then 

 sow your oats and plow in the seed two or 

 three inches. Of course this must be dry 

 ground. It would be well to roll or harrow 

 the ground afterwards. The work must be 

 done early in spring. J. S. 



Answers. — Mustard seed can be sown 

 broadcast, — though it would probably do 

 better drilled in. The ground should be 

 well prepared, should be clean, and less seed 

 is required than to sow the same ground with 

 turnips. 



In good seasons. Castor Beans can be raised 

 in this latitude. Several farmers in Chris- 

 tian country raised crops last season. 



Hogs will eat Japan Peas; but the crop is 

 not considered profitable. 



White Mustard Seed, Castor Beans and 

 Japan Peas, can be had at the seed stores in 

 St. Louis. These would be obtained by our 

 correspondent more conveniently from that 

 point than any other. . 



A Steam Carriage for Common 

 Roads. — The New Haven Palladium of 

 December 3d, had just made a thorough 

 examination of Gold's new steam car- 

 riage, which he has just invented and 

 now completed for use upon turnpikes, 

 farms, or wherever such a carriage may 

 be needod for draft or travel. The Pal- 

 ladium says "it is indeed a new wonder 

 — another marvel of the age. Its size is 

 six by sixteen feet, and its weight is two 

 and a half tons.'' On a common turn- 

 pike it can draw twenty tons with great 

 facility. "It has four wheels, the two 

 front are common carriage wheels, except 

 that their diameter is much greater. — 

 The wheels are turned by a small crank 

 and thus the whole thing is steered. It 

 may be turned completely about in a 

 road of thirty feet in width. The back or 

 driving wheels are covered with shoes, 

 between each of which are small grooves, 

 so that the wheels are can take hold of 

 the road and not slide upon soft or icy 

 tracks." -^ 



The machine can be made of all sizes. 

 The Palladium says they will be brought 

 iuto common use in a short time and it 

 thinks will take the lead of similar con- 

 trivances. / 



The Garden. 

 The garden is a bound volume of agri- 

 cultural life written in poetry. In it the 

 farmer and his family set the great in- 

 dustries of the plow, spade, and hoe, in 

 rhyme. Every flower or fruit bearing 

 tree is a green syllable after the graceful 

 type and curse of Eden. Every bed of 

 flowers is an acrosstic to Nature, written 

 in the illustrated capitals of her own 

 alphabet. Every bed of beets, celery, 

 or savory roots or bulbs, is a page of 

 blank verse, full of the bellesi lettres of 

 agriculture. The farmer may be seen in 

 his garden. It contains the synopsis of 

 his character in letters that may be read 

 across the road. The barometer hung by 

 his door will indicate certain facts about 

 the weather, but the garden, lying on 

 the sunny side of the house, will mark, 

 with greater precision, the degree of 

 mind, heart culture which he has reached. 

 It will embody and reflect his tastes, the 

 bent and bias of his perceptions of grace 

 and beauty. In it he holds up the mir- 

 ror of his inner life to all who pass; and, 

 with an observant eye, they may see all 

 the features of his intellectual being in 

 it. In that choice rood of earth he re- 

 cords his progress in mental cultivation 

 and professional experience. In it he 

 marks, by some intelligent sign, his sci- 

 entific and successful economies in the 

 corn field. In it you may see the germs 

 of his reading, and can almost tell the 

 number and nature of his books. In it 

 he ■will reproduce the seed thoughts he 

 has called from the printed pages of his 

 library. In it he will post an answer to 

 the question wnether he has any taste 

 for reading at all. Many a nominal far- 

 mer's house has been passed by the book 

 aflent without a call, because he saw a 

 blunt, bruff negative to the question in 

 :jhe garden or yard. — Ulihu Burritt. 



-•t- 



Peuit in Italy. — An American trav- 

 eler says : — 'T have not yet seen either 

 in the markets or grape yards of South- 

 ern Europe anything that would com- 

 pare with the fruit displayed at onr an- 

 nual shows. Not only in the large 

 grape yield, but in other kinds of fruit, 

 this will be a bountiful year in Tuscany. 

 Figs, pears and peaches are in nncoin- 

 nion abundance; indeed, the last named 

 are about as plenty, good and cheap as 

 with us during a favorable season in 

 New Jersev. Of fresh fiirs, fifteen to 



'■>-'- J 



twenty, can be bought for a crazia, little 

 more than our cent. The olive vieUl 

 does not promise so well as usual, which 

 may oblige the Florentines after tins, to 

 pay a little more for the oil they burn in 

 their laraj)s and eat on their salads. The 

 past summer has been a very comforta- 

 ble one in this part of Italy. There 

 were only a few days of excessive heat, 

 and, indeed, rarely is any great inconve- 

 nience felt on that account?' 



