^jSS^jrijJTirf:-' 



THE ILLIjSTOIS FARMER. 



329 



prices. Our impression is that it had 

 better be sold and the money applied to 

 the payment of debts. The interest on 

 indebtedness and the loss of wheat will 

 be more than equal the rise in the price. 

 Live economically and correct the errors 

 of the past as fast as you can. 



Our merchants are again laying in 

 stocks of goods. These stocks are small; 

 because heavy stocks now thrown upon 

 the country, will injure themselves and 

 you. Buy lightly, and only when you 

 cannot possibly get along without goods. 

 The people of the country have commit- 

 ted grave errors. These errors will 

 with the utmost difficulty be repaired. — 

 "God helps those that help themselves." 

 Retrieve your errors, if possible. Do 

 not repeat them. Let the foreign mer- 

 chants hold on to their goods. Get 

 along without them. Wear your old 

 clothes. You have generally enough 

 for two years. You are learning a les- 

 son — and merchants are learning a les- 

 son — and merchants are learning a les- 

 son, that will be a lasting benefit to the 

 country. 



The Wheat Crop. 



Our farmers have been much disap- 

 pointed in the yield of their w^eat. — 

 Fields where it was confidently expended 

 the yield would prove to be 35 bushels 

 per acre, not more tjian twelve bushels 

 were obtained. The deficit was caused, 

 as is supposed, by frost, when the wheat 

 was in blossom. The same disappoint- 

 ment is experienced by the farmers in all 

 the counties about us. 



When estimates are therefore made 

 of large amounts of Wheat in Central 

 Illinois, they are entirely illusory. Our 

 wheat crop is a very small one, though 

 excellent in quality. 



In other portiouo of the State, North 

 and South, th^ wheat has yielded well. 

 In Indiana it is not an average crop; 

 and the same fact may be stated in re- 

 gard to Ohio. Taking the whole United 

 States, the yield is not an average 

 one. 



Still wheat rates very low. Nor do 

 we see any prospect of a material rise in 

 the price. In Europe the crops are 

 good. Europe does not want our wheat 

 in large quantities unless she has bad 

 crops — unless it is sold here at very low 

 prices. It is said that in New York these 

 low prices are touched, and wheat can 



be sent to Liverpool in small quantities. 

 We hope enough will go to cause an 

 advance in prices here; but doubt wheth- 

 er this will be the case. 



Fanner's Clnh-fflceling in Springfield July 16. 



Mr. H. in the Chair: — The subject 

 of draining by the Mole Plow was intro- 

 duced. Mr. H. said he had some exper- 

 ience in the effects of underdraining by 

 the use of the Mole Plow. This season 

 he had been able to plant corn, which 

 was now looking well on a piece of his 

 farm which last year — being a sort of 

 basin — could not be plowed with cattle. 

 Indeed, his cattle came near miringin^ 

 passing over it. It is now as good and 

 dry ground as any portion ofhis farm. 



He said that farmers, on perceiving the 

 good effects of draining, were liable to 

 run into extremes. Some of them belie- 

 ved that under ground drains could be 

 made a mile long. He thought this a 

 grave error. His plan was to cut an 

 open and deep ditch through the ground 

 to be drained, and run his mole plow 

 from these ditches, latterly, to the dis- 

 tarC3 of twenty rods. Do this and 

 make the latteral underground drains 

 four rods apart, and even less, and your 

 land will be well and thoroughly 

 drained. 



On the piece he had referred to, the 

 drains cost twenty cents a rod and the 

 crop this year would pay for all the 

 draining and the work in making the 

 crop. Mr. H. said his idea was to under- 

 drain all lands that had a clay subsoil. 

 IE they were dry and water did not 

 pass through the drains, the air would, 

 which would greatly benefit the land and 

 increase the crop. Land with a gravelly 

 subsoil, or with a sandy subsoil, could 

 not be drained by the use of the mole 

 plow. His experience would recommend 

 farmers to reduce the size of their farms, 

 underdrain their land and cultivate 

 thoroughly. 



Mr. N. said that when he went on to 

 his farm, he found that there was a bear- 

 ing orchard upon it — located on level 

 land. It was gradually dying out. — 

 Many trees died after the hard winters, 

 and there were no healthy trees left. 

 He had planted out a new orchard on 

 high rolling land, which was somewhat 

 protected and was doing well. 



He was convinced that only by thor- 



ough cultivation, the farmers would suc- 

 ceed in raising good crops. He had ex- 

 cellent soil, but a rotation of rops was the 

 best means he knew of to succeed in alway 

 obtaining tVem. Plow deep, and put 

 the seed of the weeds where they will not 

 trouble you until your crops get a start. 

 Farmers can cheat themselves by slight- 

 ly cultivating the land, but they cannot 

 cheat the land. If our flat lands cannot 

 be drained we had better put them down 

 to grass and make prairie of them 

 again. 



Mr. L. said that more hedge plants 

 had been put out this year than in any 

 previous year in Illinois. Some persons 

 had failed in making good hedges by 

 their own bad management of them; but 

 though their cultivation was so well 

 understood now that there could be no 

 failure. Men who had experimented 

 with hedges, were now satisfied and 

 intended to surround their farms with 

 them. ^ By putting the ground in good 

 order, getting good plants, and putting 

 them in the ground well, there could be 

 no failure. Several old fogies within 

 his acquaintance, who had until this 

 season, believed in rails for a fence, had 

 within the last three months set out 20,000 

 hedge plants each. : ': 



Mr. F. spoke of dwarf pears for crops. 

 He had known one man set out several 

 hundred. Some few of them bore the 

 first year, some the second, but most of 

 them are now dead. He did not believe 

 they would succeed here without the 

 highest scientific cultivation. Our black 

 soils certainly do not suit them. The 

 soils on high grounds are better, and if 

 thoroughly underdrained there might be 

 promise of success. Professor 'Turner, 

 has dwarf trees, on drained high land, 

 which do tolerably well. His experience 

 satisfied him that if we are to have fruit 

 here, it is by very careful cultivation of 

 the trees. - 



Adjourned. 



—— 



5®=" Mr. E. WoodrufFof this neiglibor- 



hood has had good success in sowing timothy 



on buck wheat ground, after the buckwheat 



is taken oflf. He does not harrow the seed 



in. The ground is always in first rate order 



after a crop of buckwheat. 



••• 



B^„ The crop of corn promises to be 



abundant; and as stock hogs are coming into 



demand at S3 50 per hundred, corn ought 



to be worth about 25 cents for fcedinsr. 



