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228 



THE ILLINOIS FA-RMER. 



added. As a naturalist he deals with the 

 insect world in a personal warfare in- 

 volving loss from depleted pockets, 

 blasted crops and blighted prospects. 

 In all his investigations he is an interes- 

 ted actor feeling a pecuniary interest in 

 the result. 



Not his last fruitful source of knowl- 

 edge is close observation of the labors 

 of his fellow workers. His cheapest 

 lessons ai'e gained by watching the suc- 

 cesses and failures of his neighbors, 

 hence his eyes should be open that he 

 may see, and be ever ready yankee like 

 to inquire the hoAV ? when ? and why ? 



Finally as the farmer judges his do- 

 mestic animals giving to each its proper 

 value for discovered excellences, so he is 

 judged by his fellows accordingly as he 

 is known and appreciated for usefulness. 

 If he would be a valued citizen he must 

 be a man of understanding — of correct 

 deportment and upright action for there 

 he is known estimated and measured by 

 his fellows. Learn then — hear much — 

 very much — and with all thy getting, 

 get understanding. 



W. II. GARDNER. 



Sublette, Lee Co., 111. 



tm* 



Strychnine Wliisky. 

 Editor of the Farmer : 



Sobriety and health, are necessary to 

 secure the personal energy of man, wheth- 

 er he be a farmer, a mechanic, or belongs 

 to other professions. When you see a 

 man of cadaverous countenance, ashy 

 pale, and oftentimes bloated, restless, 

 nervous, without personal energy, and lo- 

 sing his moral courage and perceptions, 

 you may be sure he is addicted, either in 

 secret or openly, to the use of ardent 

 spirits, and a continuance of which, sooner 

 or later, will take him down to the grave, 

 a ruined man. 



These are hard words, but they are 

 true. The time was, when the writer was 

 young (and he has now seen many years) 

 drinking did not bring man to the end 

 that it now does. He recollects, that 

 when a boy, of hearing it said that such 

 and such men, then aged, had drank all 

 their lives, and were still hale men. It 

 has occurred to him often since, that there 

 must be some adequate reason why liquor 

 affects persons now in a different way 

 from what it did in former times. It 

 must be so ; and what is this cause ? 



Forty years ago, rye was worth seventy 

 five cents a bushels in the towns on the 

 Connecticut river. Much of it WaS 

 bought up and manufactured into al- 

 cohol, and that alcohol by reduction 

 and the addition of juniper berries, 

 was made into gin, having a high proof. 

 This gin was sold at some fifty cents per 

 gallon at retail, and was drunk by many, 

 without being followed by the effects of 

 drinking modern whisky. 



I again suggest, what is the cause of 



the effect we witness in the use of modern 

 whisky, drank liberally, and not even as 

 temperate drinkers would say, in excess ? 



Is it not true that strvchnine and 

 other poisonous drugs, enable the distiller 

 to obtain double the amount of alcohol 

 from his grain that he could obtain with- 

 out them ? Men who have abandoned 

 the business of distilling, say that this is 

 so! Distillers cannot forego the advan- 

 tages of using strychnine and other poi- 

 sonous drugs to double their promts in 

 distilling liquors. Their greed of gain 

 is slaying thousands of fathers, husbands 

 and sons. 



I cannot add words to give more force 

 to tlie facts here presented Drink and 

 die — brothers, husbands and fathers I ! 

 Cast the poisonous glass from you and 

 live — brothers, husbands and fathers, 



And Live ! ! 



What wc Want! 

 Editor of the Farmer : 



A great deal of the land in this State 

 needs undcrdraining. If underdrained 

 wo would always make crops. But far- 

 mers arc not rich enough to underdrain 

 their lands with tile, neither would the 

 prices of produce justify such expense. 

 Wo want some instruments of the char- 

 acter of the Mole Plow, invented and 

 used in England thirty years ago, and 

 patented two or three years ago in this 

 country as an original invention; but we 

 want that instrument so made that six, 

 eight, or ten, yoke of oxen, can go ahead 

 with it. The plan of working the pres- 

 ent mole plow is expensive, slow and 

 vexatious. If twelve or fourteen yoke 

 of cattle were required to do the work, 

 it would be a great improvement on the 

 present system. 



So necessary is undcrdraining in Illi- 

 nois, and so important is it that this 

 should be done at small expense, that 

 I wish you would suggest to the State 

 Agricultural Society, to offer a premium 

 for the best Mole Plow that can be drawn 

 by ten yoke of oxen, and which will 

 make a good and sufiicient drain, at a 

 depth of two and a half feet from the 

 su face of the ground. I. E. 



«■» 



Sugar Cane. 

 EdUor of tlie Farmer : 



The Chinese have made sugar and 

 syrup from the Chinese Sugar Cane for 

 a time beyond the memory of man. In 

 the Islands adjacent, Loo Choo, for in- 

 stance, the same cane or Sugar Millet 

 has been used for the same purpose. 

 Yet the making of these desirable arti- 

 cles is a delicate, particular business, 

 and as our people have had to learn all 

 the processes by experience, it is no 

 wonder that mistakes have often been 

 made. In the first place, our people 

 followed the processes used in making 

 syrup and sugar from the juice of the 



maple. And they thought that eggs, 

 milk, and blood, were necessary to sue* 

 cess; and when the fact was otherwise 

 proved, they still believed that lime or 

 soda were required to neutralize the acid 

 in the syrup. 



A gentleman in Ohio who has for 

 three years raised cane and worked the 

 juice into syrup, has fouud by experience 

 that the most simple process is the best 

 as well as cheapest, and entirely effec- 

 tual in making good syrup from Cane 

 juice. He has practiced on the plan 

 which we shall now give : He puts the 

 juice of the cane immediately after it is 

 expressed into his kettle, commences 

 boiling, and boils rapidly until the pro- 

 per syrup point is reached. He skims 

 occasionally as the skum rises. Docs 

 not stand with skimmer in hand to skim 

 all the time; but suffers the skum to col- 

 lect on the surface of the juice in con- 

 siderable amount. He boils very fast 

 and the great ebullition and throws 

 upon the surface all the peulent matter 

 which, with slower boiling would remain 

 at the bottom of the kettle, to the injury 

 of the syrup. 



Though he makes in this way a very 

 good article of syrup at less than 20cens 

 a gallon, — he hauls his syrup to Cincin- 

 nati, where it is refined for ten cents 

 a gallon — making an article much super- 

 ior to the best golden syrup, which he 

 readily sells at eighty cents per gallon 

 by the barrel. 



Now here are new facts for the con- 

 sideration of our farmers. Our inform- 

 ant says, that a single man with a boy 

 can attend the grinding of the cane and 

 making the syrup in the manner here 

 described. The gentleman referred to 

 (Mr. Bicker) made eighty barrels of 

 syrup tne last fall. 



H. 



Choice of Oeeupatlon. 

 Editm' of the Farmer : 



I beg leave to offer you a few thoughts 

 on tne subject suggested by the line at 

 the head of this article. In my early 

 days. I was a farmer's boy, I plowed, 

 hoed, mowed some, chopped wood, gath- 

 ered corn, and did a little of all the var- 

 ious kinds of farm work. I found, how- 

 ever, that farm life was not a pleasant 

 life, — that there was too much hard work, 

 and I envied the boys that had soft white 

 hands and stood behind the counter. I 

 pined for other enjoyment than farming 

 — I was indulged by my parents — and at 

 the close of near fifty years, I have learn- 

 ed much from experience. 



That man who seeks to make a living 

 by trade, enters upon a perilous life. If 

 he is smarter than his neighbors, — if he 

 is unscrupulous in means he adopts to 

 make money; — he may make it, but not 

 always. Though he may be sharp, 

 others may be sharper; and if he hope 



