282 



THE ILLIISroiS FARMER. 



hogs would be a sad calamitj. We do 

 not think that the prevalence of such a 

 disease is threatened. We shall have a 

 great crop of corn in the fall. We want 

 hogs to eat it. Every farmer ought to 

 keep his eje on his hogs — do as well as 

 he can by them — get more, if he can. 

 With other farm products, pork we be- 

 lieve, will be high in the fall. 

 fp . 



Now is the Time ! 



Farmers ! have you put in all the 

 seeds, for grain, and fodder, and roots, 

 which will mature crops this season ? 

 If not, now is the time ! A few days 

 and you will be too late for many of 

 them; and perchance your purses will 

 be lank in consequgnce. Your stock 

 may suffer next spring, and you may 

 have the mortification to sec many hides 

 stretched upon the fence and smell the 

 effluvia from dead stock upon the Prair- 

 ies ! 



There are many farmers to whom it 

 is not necessary to address this language. 

 They have their work done and well 

 done. They do not depend upon luck 

 to make crops. They put their own 

 shoulders to the wheel, and the wheel 

 has to move. 



But there are some who will bear 

 nudging constantly. Corn can be put 

 in yet. Hungarian grass seed can be 

 sown yet. Immense amounts of the 

 best forage can bo made from the sugar 

 cane plant, sown in hills, in drills or 

 bi'oadcast. One acre of good sugar 

 cane fodder will feed more stock than 

 can be fed from five acres of ordinary 

 Timothy. Carrots can be sown yet — on 

 clean, mellow ground, in drills — to be 

 thinned out to four inches and kept 

 clean. The Manguel Wurtzel can yet 

 be sown in drills, plants to be kept ten 

 inches apart — the crop scarcely ever 

 fails, and will sometimes produce 30 tons 

 to the acre, and make the best food for 

 milch cows. Ruta Baga seed can be 

 sown at any time within the first half of 

 this month; but in our sometimes, dry 

 summers this cr^p fails. 



« ® »- 



K^-S^'We learn that arrangements will 



be made to get up a Horticultural exhi- 

 bition here in June, which will exceed 

 in interest any which has preceded it. 

 Ladies should now sow their annual 

 flower seeds, for a full display. If 

 they have not these on hand, they can 

 nd them at S. Francis seed store. 



The Exodus from Pike's Peaii. 

 Our's is a peculiarly excitable race. — 

 The stories of adventurers, to Pike's 

 Peak, and the false statements publish- 

 ed in the border papers of gold having 

 been found there, produced a mania 

 among that class of our people who do 

 not like the slow advancement made by 

 prudence, economy and industry, in 

 securing the means of living and 

 wealth. A large number of this class 

 of our people left their farms and work- 

 shops and other employments, gathered 

 means for an outfit, and with the earli- 

 est spring weather, started for the Sup- 

 posed land of gold. Few of these ad- 

 venturers were of a class to dig and 

 delve, where small quantities of the shin 

 ing dust would be obtained, and after a 

 few days residence on Cherry Creek, 

 they took up their packs and are now 

 making their way, as best they can, to 

 their abandoned homes, east of the Mis- 

 souri River — where they will become 

 wiser if not better men. 



We do not regard the return of many 

 "Pike's Peakers," as evidence that there 

 is no gold in the region of country from 

 whence they have returned. Many of 

 the early emigrants to California return- 

 ed in disgust, denouncing the stories of 

 gold found there as false. After thous- 

 ands shall have left the gold places near 

 the base of the Rocky Mountains, we 

 shall be disappointed if those who re- 

 main do not find gold, probably in pay- 

 ing quantities. The error has been in 

 tlie rush to Pike's Peak, by men who 

 had no conception of what would be re- 

 quired there for their support — food, 

 money — until gold digging there could 

 become a regular and safe business. — 

 Had they been prudent and waited until 

 the coming fall, all the facts in relation 

 to the mineral wealth of the country, 

 would have been ascertained, as well as 

 the necessary provisions required for 

 the subsistence of miners there. The 

 movements of immense masses of popu- 

 lation, are always attended with suffer- 

 ing, except in case of organized armies, 

 which at vast expense, are provided v.'ith 

 food and other necessaries. 



We shall expect the return of a great 

 portion of the emigrants now at and in 

 the neighborhood of Cherry Creek, or 

 who are on thoir way there. Well, 

 there is plenty of work for them here, 



at home. To thousands their "plain 

 and mountain excursion," will be useful 

 Others, who live on excitement, loafers, 

 gamblers, and men who live by their wits, 

 it is hoped, will continue their onward 



way until they arrive in some country 

 where their merits will be appreciated. 



-••► 



Enormous Fruits and Vegetables in California. 



We acknowledge the receipt of the 

 "Report of the second Industrial exhibi- 

 tion of the Mechanics' Institute of the 

 City of San Francisco, held at the pavil- 

 lion of the Institute, in San Francisco 

 from the 20th to the 26th September, 

 1858." This is a volume of 250 pages, 

 and contains a list of the articles exhib- 

 ited, proceedings of Judge, the annual 

 address, &c. It is a work which does 

 great credit to the^Mechanics' Institute 

 of San Francisco. 



The Report furnishes ample evidence 

 of the fertility of the soil of California, 

 and the adaptation of the climate to the 

 cereals, fruits and vegetables. The av- 

 erage crops of Wheat are stated to be 

 forty bushels per acre, though crops of 

 sixty, eighty and one hundred and ten 

 bushels have been made. In San Jose 

 Valley, a field of fifty acres has produc- 

 ed five crops of wheat with a single sow- 

 ing, and the last crop yielded forty-three 

 bushels per acre. 



Fruits in California grow to a large 

 size and in perfection. Granes will yield 

 15,000 pounds to the acre — double the 

 product of grapes in France. There 

 was on exhibition a pear weighing four 

 pounds ; a bunch of grapes weighing 

 fourteen pounds ; a peach measuring 

 twelve inches in circumference. — 

 Strawberries have been exhibited meas- 

 uring six and a half inches in circumfer- 

 ence. The Gloria Mundi apple is fre- 

 quently found to weigh twopoujids three 

 ounces. 



The vegetables of California are equal- 

 ly wonderful in size, and still are excel- 

 lent in quality. A beet has been exhib- 

 ited weighing one hundred and twenty- 

 five pounds; another was measured while 

 in a growing state, and was found to be 

 three feet and six inches in circumfer- 

 ence ; a potatoe weighing eight pounds ; 

 a field of potatoes yielding 700 bushels 

 to the acre ; a very compact cabbage 

 weighing forty pounds ; a turnip weigh- 

 ing fifty pounds; a sweet potatoe weigh- 

 ing upwards of twenty-three pounds ; 



.. I 



