350 



THE ILLIIS"OIS F^HjVIER. 



fall, and I am not certain but it would 

 be a good plan to plant in the fall. I 

 intend to try it. All other vegetables 

 are abundant and a drug in the market. 



We are nearly done seeding. The 

 people are waking up to the importance 

 ol! early sowing, and with the earliest 

 variety of grain they can get, and drill 

 it in at that. Our prospects are fine for 

 a good fair, which commences on the 

 11th of October. The farmers appear 

 awake to their real interest in the matter. 



I regretted very much that circum- 

 stances were such that I could not be at 

 the State Fair, but I have learned that 

 the people of Marion and St. Clair were 

 there, so that the Egyptians were not 

 without representatives. 

 Yours truly, 



O. B. NICHOLS, Cor. Sec'y. 

 S. Francis, Cor. Sec. St. Ag. Suc'y. 



Protection to Farms. 



When I saw the prairie land for the 

 fi*rst time, it struck me very forcibly, 

 and I have often thought of it since, how 

 much more comfortable the inhabitants 

 might be if they would plant hedges or 

 wide belts of trees to screen them from 

 cold winter winds, and also be a protec- 

 tion to their crops, especially fruit. If 

 each owner of one or two hundred acres 

 of land would plant their boundaries or 

 division lines with belts of trees, say 

 from twenty to one hundred feet Wide, 

 they would find it to their advantage and 

 comfort. 



Besides the protection, the trees would 

 in a few years, when large enough to 

 thin out, be valuable for firewood or tim- 

 ber. An objector might say, "It would 

 be very expensive to procure and plant 

 such wide belts of trees." To such I 

 would reply, that many kinds, one year 

 old (which is large enough,) could be 

 imported very cheap from the English 

 and French nurseries by the 1,000, such 

 as elms, ash, maples, beech, birch, lin- 

 din, larch, alder, &c. Agents in New 

 York city would order them on applica- 

 tion. 



The ground should be plowed a year 

 previous to planting, and well worked 

 through the summer, with or without a 

 crop, as most convenient. The following 

 spring put in plants from three to six 

 feet apart; those which make largest 

 growth, such as elms, &c., plant on the 

 back line, and so on with the different 

 sizes, so as to have the lowest growing 

 kind inside or front; the last or inside 

 row it would be well to plant with ever- 

 greens, say Norway spruce, because it is 

 a faster grower than evergreens gener- 

 ally, and small plants can be obtained 

 cheap. 



Osage orange, locust, and chestnut, 

 being fast growers, would be desirable 

 to mix with the above named kinds. 



Another plan would be to procure 



seeds of any of the fast growing kinds 

 of trees, grow them in the garden one 

 year, and then transplant them in the 

 belts or screens. But there would be 

 failures and disappointments, and it 

 might not prove as cheap and satisfacto- 

 ry as to import them. 



But the quickest mode of obtaining a 

 screen for protection would be to pro- 

 cure cuttings of some of the free and 

 strong growing varieties of the willow, 

 such as Salixtriandra, S. Bevdridgi, S. 

 Purpurda, etc., which grows from forty 

 to sixty and seventy feet high, and very 

 rapidly, too, in a deep, moist soil, and 

 very suitable, no doubt, to much of the 

 prairie land. This, however, would not 

 be so valuable for general purposes, 

 when grown, as elm, maple, etc.; but 

 would make its growth in about half the 

 time. 



For profit and quick growth combin- 

 ed, there is nothing probably equal to 

 the common yellow locust (Robina 

 Pseudacacia;) it will not only make a 

 fine belt for protection in a short time, 

 but for fencing posts and durable tim- 

 ber nothing equals it; and it has always 

 commanded a high price; and I think a 

 portion of the western prairies might be 

 planted with it, as a profitable invest- 

 ment. It is said there are two kinds, 

 one durable and the other not; but I 

 know ot' only one kind. It is possible, 

 if grown on deep, rich, mucky soils, the 

 tintlber would be coarse grained, spongy, 



and not as durable. — Chas. Dotvning. 



«•» 



Seeding Timotby Meadows. 



In sowing timothy seed in the spring with 

 oats or other small grain, according to the 

 usual practice in the West, a good " stand " 

 is attended with much uncertainty. Our 

 springs, just at the period when the young 

 grass stands most in need of a moist earth, 

 arc frequently hot and dry and extremely 

 apt to burn out the young tin^othy plants, 

 before they can become sufficiently rooted to 

 contend against the overpowering force of 

 the grain crop. The two last springs, it is 

 true, liave been exceptions to this state of 

 things ; but, most generally, the crop of 

 grass is entirely starved out and overshad- 

 owed by the grain, or so much injured that 

 the ground is but half set with grass, leaving 

 it liable to be choked up with wefts, at the 

 expense of the little that has escaped the 

 drying, burning influence of the previous 

 weather. 



We have frequently taken occasion to set 

 forth the advantages of sowing timothy in 

 the fall, unattended with any other crop. 

 With a favorable fall, and the work of pre- 

 paring the ground in a proper and thorough 

 manner, there is much greater certainty of 

 securing a stand; and when sown at this 

 time, too, the grass will most generally so 

 completely occupy the ground that it will 

 more thoroughly exclude the weeds, and 

 <*whitc top" to which our fields are so liable. 

 Seed sown in the full will most generally 

 yield at least two-thirds of a full crop of hay 

 he succeeding summer ; whereas, if sown in 



the spring, nothing is made until the follow- 

 ing spring, even under the most favorable 

 circumstances. Timothy has a small seed, 

 and the young plant is extremely frail and 

 delicate, and requires the most thorough 

 preparation of the soil, which can only be 

 secured by repeated plowing, rolling and 

 harrowing. If the ground receives a suffi- 

 cient wetting, the seed should be sowo early 

 in September, in order that the young plants 

 may become well-rooted before freezing 

 weather sets in. The cool weather of the 

 fall season is much better suited to the na- 

 ture of this species of grass, than the scorch- 

 ing weather of spring and summer. The 

 graas, when established, chiefly perfects its 

 entire growth during the entire spring, and 

 before the heat of summer overtakes it. 



The hay crop in the West is a very im- 

 portant one, and the meridian of the Ohio 

 Valley, where so much is grown for the 

 markets of the Southern cities, lies almost 

 upon the extreme Southern verge of the line 

 capable of growing it, and hence the greater 

 care is required in preparing the land, and 

 in securing a suitable time for sowing the 

 seed. In the South and West we labor un- 

 der an additional disadvantage in seeding 

 meadows. Timothy and clover are about the 

 only crops that can be grown from which 

 hay is made, but in the cooler and moister 

 climate of the North, a variety of grasses, 

 mixed, may be sown together, which greatly 

 increases the chances of success. 



In order to produce a good crop of timo- 

 thy, land must also be rich as well as thor- 

 oughly prepared. If it is not rich, it should 

 be made so by the liberal application of a 

 dressing of manure. This alone will secure 

 a good set of grass, whereas, if the seed is 

 sown on a worn and exhausted soil, it might 

 prove a failure. 



Next to well prepared land, a good supply 

 of new seed should be sown. It is poor 

 economy to sow a scanty supply of seed. 

 One bushel to six acres is as little as should 

 ever be sown. In addition to this some 

 prefer to add a pint of clover seed to each 

 acre sown. " 



FAMII.IAR QUOTATIONS. 



'Not one word, dying, he could wieh to blot.' 

 It stands thus in the original : — 

 'Not one immortal, one corrupted thought. 

 One line which, dyinn, lie cuuld wish to blot.' 

 Lord Littliton. — Prol. to Thomson's Coriolanus. 



'To err is human, to forgive divine.' 



Vo'PK.—rEisay on Crilicitm, 



'The pofidious edge of battle.' 



Milton. — Paradise Lost, 



'God made the country and man made tba 

 town.' 



CowPER;— 37i« Task. 



'No pent up Utica contracts your powers, 

 But the whole boundlfps continent is yours.* 

 J. M. Sewalu— jBpifcs/tte to Cato. 

 'And thereby bauga a tale.' 



.' EizaVEAKK.—Js Tou Like It. 

 'And man the hermit, sighed, till woman 

 smiled.' 



Campbell.— Pfea«<re« q/" Hope. 

 'And snatch a grace beyond the rea'jh of an.' 



Popi —Etsay on Criticism, 



'He whistled ts he went for w».nt ot thought.' 



Drtden — Cymun and Jphigcnia. 



'The feast of reason and the flow of eoul.' 



Pope "Satires. To Mr. Forttscve. 

 'Woman — laet at the cross, and earliest at 

 the grave.' 



E. P. Dahnet* -~ JToman: A Poem. 



'When Greek meets Greek then comes ihe 

 tug of war*' 



Nat Ltz.— Play of Alexander the Great 



