5^^?^~?r'.. -'-J. 



- ^ ■.>•"•;•■-; TC'!T»."'T 



?*awg55g^r5:Jli<?r«sf»r--5 



THE ILLINOIS FA^RMEH. 



219 



The January No. of the Farmer. 



The article on "novel reading," has 

 good points. There are many valuable nov- 

 els, the perusal of which will do good. The 

 difficulty is in making proper selections. 

 Walter Scotts, are among the best. It is 

 questionable, however, if the persual of 

 more sterling works, history, geography, 

 travel ; such works as enlightens us in the 

 employments of our every day life, would 

 not prove more advantageous to us. I think 

 they would. 



We have a communication from Mr. R. 

 Kimball, of Delavan, relative to his experi- 

 ments with the African Sugar Cane. He 

 has tried also the Chinese, and prefer the 

 African. He finds no difficulty in making 

 sugar of the juice of the African, from 

 the fact, as he supposes, that it maintains 

 less mucilage than the other. Accounts 

 of all these, from every quarter, will enable 

 our sugar growers to go to work another year 

 with entire confidence in success. 



Samulil State, of Medena county, Ohio, 

 gives his experience in regard to cooking 

 corn as food for stock. He grinds the 

 cob with the corn, and boils the meal. — 

 His experience proves that there is a great 

 saving in this practice, that stock fattens 

 handier, and that it keeps ofi" all diseases. 



'■'Sorgho as food for stock." — Wherever 

 this has been tried, it has been successful. 

 The seed is equal to corn for hogs. The 

 stalks and leaves cut up in a cutting ma- 

 chine, will be eaten with avidity by cattle, 

 horses and hogs. Thesauharine in the stalk 

 has very fattening qualities. The amount ot 



the forage that can be raised on an acre of 

 ground is surprising. I have seen it stated 

 at 80,000 pounds. 



" The Dairy " is a good article. We have 

 every thing to make good butter, but quali- 

 fied hands and conveniences in the shape ot 

 dairy houses. These will come in good 

 time. We ought not to send for butter to 

 New York, and Ohio. 



^^ Wines." — If our friends want drink- 

 able wines, they must make them. The 

 wines usually bought, are made of every 

 thing, except the juice of the grape. It is 

 easy to raise grapes, and it is easy to make 

 good wine from this juice, no more difficult 

 than to make wine from currants. 



" Hedging. " — There is no use of decoy- 

 ing Hedges of the Osage Orange. Every 

 man who planted their hedges four years 

 ago, and has taken good care of them, has 

 now good hedges, which will turn stock, and 

 which he would not part with for money. 

 The country shows signs tliat there will be 

 an unusual call for Hedge Plants. 



We have the oxperience of a farmer in 

 growing wheat as a staple crop. He says 

 that in the long run he has lost money 

 by this crop; and njw will try another staple 

 "Hogs." He shows his good sense. Hogs 

 have always paid. Prepare your clover 

 pastures, plant early corn and late corn, and 



get such hogs as you can bring to market at 

 11 months old, weighing 250 pounds. 



"Debby's Husband," has heard from the 

 country ! ''Experience" has explained to 

 him some matters that may mend his man- 

 ners, if this is not done, we advise him to 

 go to the country and receive some tarter 

 lessons. 



Syrup of the Sargho has been made 

 successfully in considerable qualities in 

 Winnebago county. The proceedings of 

 the Sugar Growers Convention there shows 

 that the people are in earnest in making 

 themselves independent of Southern Sugar 

 [danters, for sugar and molasses. 



It if well that the question is now under 

 discussion — "How shall we protect our 

 farms and orchards in the prairies from the 

 winds which sweep over them ?". The 

 answer of our Blooraington Convention is — 

 protect by bolts of timber close timber. — 

 Plant the seeds of our forest treess — set out 

 cuttings of the cotton wood, the Silver Abele, 

 and even of willows; — but best of all plants 

 out, belts of Evergreens. They can be had 

 at our nurseries in large quantities at low 

 prices; and they will be lower when the de- 

 mand largely increases. 



The proceedings of the State Horticultur- 

 al Society at Bloomlngton, show that there 

 is vitality in that body. Within the past 

 four years all the rules which seemed to 

 govern in the cultivation of orchards, have 

 been of no avail in saving trees or securing 

 fruit. The best orchards have died away, 

 and many young orchards promise no better. 

 It is the mission of the State Horticultural 

 to ascertain the causes of these evils, and to 

 point out the remedy. The members are 

 not unconscious of their duty. The practi- 

 cal remarks made in the discussion of this 

 Society at Bloomington, will be of great ser- 

 vice to our farmers. Its full repor will be 

 published in the Transactions of the State 

 Agricultural Society. 



Samuel Jacob Wallace believes that Steam 

 power will be used advantageously, in drain- 

 ing our farms, and thus drained our farms 

 will grow good and permanent orchards and 

 that the same process will secure the best 

 crops of the c.xeals and other staples. 



Agricultural Lectures could be rendered 

 of great service in the rural districts in the 

 winter season. It would be something new 

 and if the lectures were practical and come 

 down to man's every-day business would be 

 eminently useful. 



Josiah Sawyer, of Tremont, made sugar 

 from the Sargho. He says that there were 

 fourteen or fifteen hundred wooden mills en- 

 gaged in crushing out the juice of the cane 

 in Tazewell county last fall, and that the 

 quality of the syrup was much superior to 

 that of the previous year. We have no 

 doubt the crop will be quadrupled the pres- 

 cnt year. 



"Small Farms." — J. S. on Lick Creek 

 Wants to sell a portion of his farm of 400 

 acres, and put the avails on the balance, and 

 make himself comfortable by improving a 

 small farm. He shows his good judg- 

 ment. 



S. W. Arnold believes iri fall plowing for 

 spring wheat and oats. His experience is 

 altogether in favor of this practice. 



The list of premiums awarded at the 



late meeting of the Executive Committee 

 contains some premiums that gratify me 

 much. Egypt has come in for several pre- 

 miums I believe hereafter she will carr}^ oflF 

 most of the premiums for wheat and corn. 

 One gold medal goes to Wayne county. — 

 One Reaper to Randolph county. One drill 

 to Randolph county. Two twenty-five dol- 

 lar goblets to Randolph county. One ten 

 dollar goblet to Randolph county. Well 

 done, Randolph county. Nobly have you 

 won these distinguished honors. 



HOMO. 



"Fruit Growers Society of Western New York— 

 Aannal Meeting." 



CULTIVATION OF APPLES. 



"How many varieties should be em- 

 braced in an orchard of 1000 trees, to 

 secure the largest profit of orcharding in 

 Western New York ? What are the 

 most profitable varieties for an orchard 

 of 1000 trees." 



The above is a caption to a long dis- 

 cussion in the Fruit Grower's Society 

 of W^estern New York, which was re- 

 ported for and published in the "Rural 

 New Y^'orker," and republished in some 

 of the papers of our State. The discus- 

 sion is an interesting one, and of import- 

 ance to the Fruit Growers of Western 

 New York; but of little practical advan- 

 tage to us in Illinois. Indeed, it is cal- 

 culated to mislead our fruit growers; for 

 with but one or two exceptions the list 

 of apples highest commended, have been 

 tried in Illinois, and have failed for 

 want of adaptation to our climate and 

 soil. We speak now of the Baldwin, R. 

 J. Greening, Roxburj, Russet, Eropus, 

 Spritzenbery, and to a great extent, the 

 Fall Pippin. And these, too, are the 

 leadiag varieties of apples of trees which 

 are scattered broadcast over the State 

 by the tree agents from New Y'^ork ! 



The varieties of a[ pies we have men- 

 tioned, highly valued and certain and 

 productive in New York, are discarded 

 here by our most experienced orchard- 

 ists. Fine productive orchards of these 

 varieties four years ago, are now dead, 

 and if their remains are not removed, 

 they'will bear unmistakable evidence of 

 the truth of this record. 



New York publications of the charac- 

 ter of that herein referred to, mislead 

 our people to their great inquiry. Our 

 seasons, our soils and our climates, are 

 peculiar. Trees that are hardy in New 

 York, are tender here; trees that are 

 productive there, and not so here; and 

 some varieties of apples that are fine for 

 winter in New York, are fall apples in 

 Illinois. 



