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312 



TIIID II.T.I:N^0IS P^^^HjVTER. 



SPRINGFIELD, AlICiUST 1, I85». 



Our Mate Fair. 



This, as our readers are ■well aware, 

 cominenccs at Freeport on the bt\\ Sep- 

 tember, continuing five days. The exec- 

 utive committee of the State Agricultural 

 Society have made arrangements with 

 the Rail Road Companies, so that per- 

 sons can pass to and from the Fair at 

 half price, and that articles to be exhib- 

 ited at the Fair, will be carried there 

 and returned free of cost. 



We are anxious that the people of 

 Illinois shall patronize their State Fair. 

 The State Agricultural Society is an in- 

 stitution of their own, got up and hith- 

 erto sustained by them, and has been of 

 vast use io introducing stock into the 

 State, in bringinrj into notice the best 

 agricultural implements, and, in a word, 

 in stimulating improved systems of agri- 

 culture and Horticulture, which have 

 been productive of the best results- The 

 processes of agriculture have more rap- 

 idly advanced in this State within the 

 last six years than in twice that period 

 of time before. This progressive spirit 

 is still extending, and we trust that ere 

 long the great natural advantiages of 

 this State will reach the highest point of 

 improvement by means and causes now 

 in existence — the spirit of inquiry 

 among our farmers, sustained and en- 

 couraged by our State and County Ag 

 ricultural and Horticultural Societies — 

 our agricultural papers and political pa- 

 pers partially devoted to agriculture — 

 our rising Normal School and its ad- 

 juncts, the thousands of free schools 

 of our State. 



The prospects of our State attaining 



the highest position as an agricultural 

 State, with a population able and desi- 

 rous to make her all which the most en- 

 thusiastic and patriotic desire to see, in 

 other respects, are, indeed, flattering. 

 Our people are only required to press 

 on in the support of the institutions we 

 have named, and in securing the advan- 

 tages arising from them, and the re- 

 sult will be most certain. 



One of these institutions now calls 

 upon our citizens to lend a helping 

 hand — and the more so, as the more 

 help she receives the more means she 

 will possess to make herself useful — 



The ntimatc relations between the State 

 Agiicultural Society and the County 

 Agricultural Societies, justifies the former 

 in anticipatinii; large and energetic as- 

 sistance from the county societies. 



The arran;;ements for the fair are 

 such that visitors need not be at great 

 expense in visitin^^ tlie Fair. Ample 

 food will be found on the Fair grounds, 

 and lodgings in the city will be furnish- 

 ed at cheap rates. Persons disiposed 

 to camp out in companies can do so, 

 adjacent to the grounds, on a beautiful 

 site selected for that purpose. 



There was a triumphant exhibition of 

 the Society in Southern Illinois last 

 fall. Southern Illinois nobly came to 

 the fair, in regiments, companies, pla- 

 toons, in couples and singles. She 

 promised to do this, and she did do it. 

 She was liberally sustained by the Cen- 

 tre and North. We anticipate even a 

 a more triumphant exhibition in the 

 North. The counties there are more 

 densely populate! — the people there have 

 more extensive farms — are more conver- 

 sant with the advantages of agricultural 

 societies, societies having existed lon- 

 ger in the northern counties — and be- 

 sides, the pledge is out by northern men, 

 that the North will be at the fair. 



We shall be disappointed, taking the 

 ambition of the people of the north into 

 consideration — the very large and dense 

 population of the counties within a hun- 

 dred miles of the State Fair — its loca- 

 tion near the densely populated portions 

 of Wisconsin and Iowa, we say that we 

 shall be disappointed if it does not prove 

 to be the best fair ever held in this 

 State. 



Come, farmers of Illinois, and bring 

 your wives and sons and daughters with 

 you, to the State Fair. They have no- 

 bly sustained you in the toils of the 

 season — give them a pleasant and use- 

 ful respite from their labors. Let them 

 see at the fair the glorious exhibitions 

 of the wealth, the genius, and the en- 

 terprise of our State. This comming- 

 ling of the North and the South and the 

 Centre, at our State Fair, is as useful 

 as it is one of the most grand features 

 of our exhibition. 



Come, again we say, to our State 

 Fair. You will return invigorated in 

 health and spirits; your just pride as 

 citizens of Illinois \\ill be elevated, and 



as farmers you will feel that your mis- 

 sion is the noblest accorded to man. 

 Come I Come ! 



Strawberries. 



There is an increasing disposition 

 among our farmers to add to their 

 healthful fruits, an ample supply of 

 strawberries. These can be secured 

 with a little labor and attention. A 

 few hours' work will give the farmer 

 bushels every year. It is evidence of 

 an unthrifty or careless farmer if it can 

 be said of him that he does not culti- 

 vate fruits — apples, peaches, grapes, 

 gooseberries, currants, raspberries, black 

 berries and strawberries. We know of 

 one farmer, near us, who transplanted 

 the roots of the common black cap 

 raspberry into his garden, and this year 

 gathered bushels of the finest berries, 

 improved from their original size, and 

 better flavored than any of the foreign 

 varieties. All the small fruits make 

 certain crops with us, and produce plen- 

 tifully. None pay more liberally, how- 

 ever, for the care bestowed on the 

 plants, than the strawbery. 



Of the strawberry, there are many 

 varieties. Some prefer one variety, and 

 another a different variety. Wm. R. 

 Prince, of the Linnacan Nurseries, Flush- 

 ing, N. Y., who has had as much ex- 

 perience as any other man in the Uni- 

 ted States, in their cultivation, thus 

 gave his opinion in regard to the selec- 

 tion of varieties at the meeting of the 

 farmers, in New Y'^ork city, on the 20th 

 of June last : 



"The great point in culture is econo- 

 my and its results, and the true tost of 

 the strawberry is farm culture, with or 

 without cutting off the runners. Now, 



gentlemen, I hold myself responsible, in 

 the fullest sense, for all I assert, and I 

 call upon Mr. Huntsman, chairman of 

 your committee, to correct me if I 

 make any mistakes. 



The following varieties I consider the 

 best for field culture, where the plants 

 are alloAved to cover the entire ground, 

 without further labor, thereby saving 

 extra expense and producing much great- 

 er crops, as the whole of the ground is 

 occupied. All are pistillates : 



Scarlet Magnate — the heaviest of all 

 strawberries. 



Diadem — splendid ecarlet, produces 

 double the crop of Wilson's Albany. — 

 Mr. Martimut^Bergcn of New Jersey 

 stated that he did not deem it possible 

 lor so great a crop of fruit to grow on 



