316 



THE ILLINOIS FARMER, 



disadvantage of being but a slow groAver, 

 after it has completed its maturity and 

 commenced a second growth which con- 

 sists of leaves only; consequently it 

 gives but little aftermath. It is then 

 very nutritious; it keeps its creenncss 

 and vitality till late in the autumn, and 

 may at that time be pastured by stock 

 without injury to the plants. 



In our dry, hot climate, farmers gen- 

 %eral]y leave their grass, after cutting, 

 too long exposed to the sun, and it then 

 becomes- dried up, so that its best prop- 

 erties are evaporated. It is a far better 

 plan to cure the hay by putting it in 

 cocks the evening oi the day it is cut, 

 if the weather is dry and the grass is 

 mature, and letting it remain so for a 

 day or two, or until it can be drawn to 

 the barn or stack at leisure, taking care 

 that it is not left to be exposed to a 

 passing shower, should one be appre- 

 hended. 



From thn Vallt>y Fatmcr. 



Eastern Tree Pcilillcrs. 



Messrs. Editors : — As guardians of 

 the interests of the western Tavmcrs, I 

 have been somewhat surprised to see tliat 

 that have not, through the Valley Far- 

 7ner, taken more pains to caution them 

 against purchasing trees and plants from 

 Eastern tree peddlers, who are now 

 traveling over the West, and particularly 

 our own State, in great numbers. With 

 a carpet bag in their hand, containing 

 two or three extra garments, and some 

 beautifully colored plates of fruits and a 

 nurseryman's catalogue (no one knows 

 how obtained), they travel from house 

 to house, l)oring every farmer, urging 

 him to buy, even when he tells 

 them he wants none of their trees. 

 These peddlers possess wonderful assur- 

 ance and press their suit till nearly 

 ki.ked oui of doors. Their consciences 

 are very pliable, and they arc ready to 

 guarantee that evei'y tree they sell will 

 produce just as fine fruit as their engrav- 

 ings represent. They tell the farmers 

 that no where else can they procure as 

 fine trees or as fine fru't as of them. — 

 They say that trees rai^^ed in New York 

 arc far .superior to Western raised trees 

 — that the climate is much better than 

 this to raise trees in, and tliat they had 

 better improve this opportunity tt) buy 

 good trees and fruit. They run down 

 Western nurseries and Western nurser}'^- 

 men, and make Eastern nurseries the 

 very paragons of perfection. The 

 plates of fruit they have are very beau- 

 tiful and attract admiration, for they 

 have been beautifully and highly paint- 

 ed for the express purpose of gulling the 

 people. The making of these plates is 

 made a very profitable business in Yan- 

 keedom, for swarms of tree peddlers, 

 like the locusts of Egypt, go out from 

 the East annually to ycuur and scourge 



the country. As before said, they 

 force themselves into private houses, get 

 their meals, stay over night frequently 

 where they are not wanted, pretend to 

 possess great knowledge of fruits, when 

 in reality most of them know nothing 

 about them. 



By hard work, constant traveling, 

 great importuning, telling large tales, 

 making great prouiises, showing beauti- 

 ful pictures, they manage to sell a great 

 many trees and conse([uently make a 

 great deal of money. One thing is cer- 

 tain, every sale they make, they get 

 double what they have to give for it at 

 the East and sometimes treble. Where 

 they receive such large profits they can 

 afford to press their claims with great 

 strength and eloquence. They are 

 making fortunes, and I state what 1 

 Jcnow — out of hard working farmers. - 



Who are these agents ? Arc they 

 sent out by reliable, responsible Eas- 

 tern nurserymen? Many of them pre- 

 tend they are, but when the truth is 

 ascertained they are disowned and de- 

 nied by their i)retended employers- — 

 They are generally s^^/f-constituted 

 agents, and too frequently get their 

 trees of such parties at the East, as can- 

 not sell them there, because their char- 

 acters are too well known. Wherever 

 they can get them the cheapest, the most 

 of them will buy. If there is a lot of 

 old accumulated rubbish, the trees ped- 

 dler is sure to get it, because it is cheap. 

 If some particular variety has accumu- 

 lated, and is not saleable on account of 

 its ascertained inferioritv, it is sure to 

 travel westward, and be labeled some- 

 times iinder different names, and the 

 trick will not be discovered until the 

 tree comes into bearing, which, in too 

 many instances, will never be the case. 

 i The refuse of Eastern nurseries is gen- 

 I crally what is sold by these same tree 

 '\ peddlers. The Eastern nurserymen 

 won't deny this themselv<^s. They can't 

 sell this refuse stufi' at the East, and it 

 must come west, and in this manner 

 our Western farmers are duped and 

 swindled in the mo.^t outrajieous man- 

 I ner. There may be some honest ex- 

 j ceptions to this, but not one case in one 

 hundred. 



If farmers want to buy trees in the 

 East, let them send their <u-ders direct to 

 the most reliable nurseryman there, and 

 as their reputations will then be at stake, 

 they will send you no refuse stufi. But 

 the peddler in buying, even of the best 

 nurserym-jn, Avill not buy the best, be- 

 cause it will cost too much, but take the 

 ; poorest and cheapest, so that he can 

 make money. " 



Jn no view of the case do I believe it 

 is the policy of the farmer to patronize 

 these peddlers. Tluy are unreliable in 

 any event. They have no reputation at 

 stake, if they swindle you you will 



never see them again. But when you 

 order direct it is a different thing. You 

 are more certain of getting better trees, 

 and of varieties that have not been by 

 them assorted to fill the list. 



But is it for the interest of Western 

 farmers and fruit growers to buy trees 

 and plants at the East ? I say, decided- 

 ly, IT IS NOT. And I will not only give 

 the assertion, but the reasons of the 

 assertion. 



In the first place, trees raised in this 

 climate by t''e time of planting out in 

 the orchard are already acclimated. But 

 the trees obtained at the East have got 

 to become acclimated here, and too 

 many of them perish before this takes 

 place. The climate of the East where 

 most of the.«e trees are raised, is much 

 cooler and moister than here. The 

 result of planting them out under our 

 hot suns, which they are not used to, 

 is death to a largo number of them. — 

 The bark is frequently injured the first 

 summer after planting, by the sun, and 

 the borer takes possession under the 

 bark, girdling the tree. If the bark had 

 not been injured by the sun this would 

 not have occurred, for this borer, known 

 chiefly in the West, never attacks a 

 healthy tree. The attack upon these 

 Eastern unacclimatcd trees are far 

 greater than upon trees raised in the 

 West, "which are to the manor born." 

 If no other reason were given, this 

 would be sufficient to prevent the pur- 

 chase of Eastern trees where equally 

 reliable trees could be obtained that 

 arc raised in the West. 



Another serious objection to getting 

 trees at the East is that the season there 

 is so short that the nurserymen are com- 

 pelled to send scores of men and women 

 over their nurseries, before digging the 

 trees, to strip off the leaves, not being 

 able to let nature take her course, but 

 they must aid (?) her, in other words, 

 violate her own laws. The leaves not 

 being allowed to remain on the tree their 

 proper time, the wood frequently does 

 not mature, and the purchaser must be 

 the sufferer. 



Again, so short is the season for dig- 

 ging there that it must be done on a vast 

 scale — they arc dug by the thousand to 

 fill large orders, and the roots of the 

 tree, consequently, are frequently ex- 

 posed for hours to the drying suns and 

 winds, before they can be packed. — 

 Sometimes they must be obtained from 

 different fields, miles apart — sometimes 

 from other nurserymen; and by the 

 time they are packed, frequently many 

 of them are so dried up that they can 

 liever bo made to grow. 



And if they are dug, immediately pack- 

 ed in the manner they too frequently 

 are, by the time they hav<! come a dis- 

 tance of twelve or fifteen hundi'td miles, 

 by our abominably slo.v and careless 



