>■ ■ :<•- ^^ 



YOL. IV. 



SPRINGFIELD, JULY, 1859. 



NO. 7. 



PUBLISHED MONTHLY, 



BY 



BAII<HACHE Si BAKER, 



JOURNAL OFFICE, SPRINGFIELD. ILL 



[From the fortbccming vol nme of Transactions of the State 

 Agricultural Society, now in press.] 



-«•»- 



S. FRANCIS. Editor. 



TERMS OF SDBSCUIPTION. 

 One copy, one year, in adTance .....^^ )1 00 



Five copies, *' " « 3 75 



Ten " and one to the person getting up club 7 50 



Fifteen copies and over, 62^ cents each, and one to person 

 getting up club. 



CiSH lATES OP ADTIBTI8IX* : 

 One dollar per square of ten linay, each insertion. 



CONTENTS. " 



Premium Essay 289 



Fruit Qrowing in Oregon 291 



Wheat - '^9i 



CiiinBse Cane for 8tucl( .292 



Ditching » 292 



Ditchinjc « 2*2 



The Chess Question ■:0i 



The Floral Kxhibition at Decatur 29 J 



Sowing Timothy with Uuchwheat 293 



t>tra wherries.... v:93 



A Time to Make an Impression 203 



VuderdraiDing » 294 



A Good Prospect for Wheat — — .291 



The United States Fair 294 



Premiums for Farms, &c 2% 



A Great Battle — I'rovisious Low 2y6 



Cashmere Goats— A New Source of Wealth, Ac 290 



llcrticultural Exhibition in Southern Illinois .297 



The Microscopic Companion ^ ....a 297 



Farmer's Congress at Meadota .„. "97 



W bite Ash and Soft Maple „ 297 



fiti an berries ■ 297 



Premiums for Mowers and Ueapera 298 



Kats ~ 208 



B;uckberrie8 — ~ 298 



Gang I'lows i:9S 



Millet 2'J*i 



Twenty-five Dollar Premium 298 



Literary Notice., 298 



Lute Frosts ~ 2<J8 



Buckwheat 298 



A NewKuemy , 19S 



Strawberry Beds 298 



Sorgho 2US 



Corn -... 298 



Tht Time to Cut Timber 2^«9 



Items Worth. Remembering 299 



Sugar Mill for Sale 299 



City Horticultural Exhibitions « 300 



The Apple Crop 3U0 



Premiums for Mowers and Reapers 3G0 



DeKalb Couuty Agricultural Kair 300 



Transmutation of Wheat into Chess 300 



Wo<>dtord Couuty Agricultural Society .3G0 



To Kill Gophers 300 



'Press the Retreating Columus," 301 



Whitewash 301 



Scone Three years ago 301 



A I'rfraium for Boys .301' 



Buckwheat, Turnips, IIungariMU Grass .301 



Pheep Killed 3i)l 



Zante Currants 301 



Evergreens 3U2 



Care of Young Peach Trees 302 



How to Strike Chiua Roses from Cutting- 302 



E-xcesslve Eatisg 302 



Wheat Harvest 302 



Markets 303 



PREJniVJfE ESSJMir, 



BT JOHN RUSSELL, OF RLUrTSOAU. 



Culture of Rice in Illinois. 



There is no single product of the soil that 

 sustains so much of human life as rice. It 

 forms wholly or In part, the food of more 

 tlian two-thirds of the human race, for it is 

 made the staple article of sustenance in the 

 densely populated regions of the Eastern 

 hemisphere included within the tropics, and 

 the southern portion of the temperate zone. 

 In China, with its three hundred millions of 

 inhabitants, if in any province of the empire 

 the rice crop is materially injured by inun- 

 dation, or by long continued drought, a fam- 

 ine in that district ensues, and thousands 

 perish. :; '■ 



Rice is somewhat extensively cultivated 



in Europe, especially on the islands of the 

 Mediterranean, and in the countries that 

 border upon its shores. It was early intro- 

 duced from Madagascar into the West Indies, 

 and from thence into the United States, 

 where it has long formed a respectable item 

 in the exports of our country. 



It will readily be conceded that a cereal 

 so widely cultivated, and which performs so 

 important a part in giving food to man, must, 

 undeniably, possess properties that eminent- 

 ly recommend it to so general a use. 



In the first place, rice forms one of the 

 most healthful diets known. It contains a 

 much larger amount of nutriment in a given 

 quantity, than any other cereal. A handful 

 of rico, which needs no preparation but sim- 

 ply that of boiling, affords the Hindoo and 

 the Chinese asufficiency of wholesome food for 

 twenty-four hours. Another property hard- 

 ly less important, is, that the plant is so easi- 

 ly raised, adapting itself to a great diversity 

 of soil, and like Indian corn, to a wide range 

 of climate. 



In the Caroliuas, and other southern 

 States, where rice is grown for exportation, 

 it is usually cultivated in low swamps, bor- 



dering upon a river or a lagoon, where a dike 

 is constructed at a heavy expense, with sluice- 

 ways, to enable the planter, at certain sea- 

 sons, to lay the surface of his rice fields un- 

 der water. Hence, many who have little or 

 no acquaintance with the culture, beyond 

 that single fact, have drawn the conclusion 

 that it can be raised only in swamps which 

 admit of irrigation. This is an error. — 

 There are numerous varieties of rice, many 

 of which yield a bountiful crop on the up- 

 lands. The Chinese, to whom every foot of 

 land is valuable, raise it on the terraces built 

 along the sides of the mountains. Father 

 Martin, a Jesuit missionary who labored for a 

 long series of years in one of the most south- 

 ern provinces of Hindostan, informs us * 

 that in his district more than thirty diflferent 

 varieties are cultivated by the natives. He 

 speaks of one kind that requires nine months 

 from the time of planting to mature for har- 

 vesting; another seven months; another 

 five, and one that requires but three. This 

 was in a region far inland, lying nearly cen- 

 tral between the Ghauts and the coast of 

 Coromandel — a thirsty country, where the 

 inhabitants during the greater portion of the 

 year have no water for agricultural or any 

 other purposes, except that which is collect- 

 ed during the short " season of rains," in 

 artificial reservoirs. And yet, the country 

 was densely populated. Among all classes 

 rice was the most prominent*, and with the 

 poor, almost the sole article of food, for no 

 other production is capable of sustaining so 

 many inhabitants to the square mile. 



This account, given by Father Martin, is 

 cited to prove that even in India there is 

 raised a yariety of rice that would find abun- 

 dant time to reach maturity in the most 

 northern county of Illinois. The impression 

 that our climate is too cold for the culture of 

 rice, is disproved by the fact that it has been 

 raised by many farmers, in the southern 

 counties of the State, in quantities sufficient 

 for the use of their families, almost from the 

 first settlement of that section. In the cen- 



*"Lettres Edifiautus et CuriemiM." Tome VIX. 





