VOL. IV. 



SPRINGFIELD, NOVEMBER, 1859. 



NO. IL 



PUBLISHED MONTHLY; 1 



Agriculture, as connrcted with Schools, Col- 



BT 



BATEHACUEidk BAKER. 



JOURNAL OFFICE SPRINGFIELD, ILL 



*•* 



S. FRANCIS. Editor. 



<«*- — — — ^ 



TERMS OF SDBSCRIPTION. 



One copy, one year, in advance ~-~ $1 00 



Five copies, " " 3 75 



Ten " and ODA to the person getting np club 7 6o 



Fifteen copies and over. 6'.i^ cents each, andone to person 

 gutting up club. 



CASH B&TM OF ADTCRTISINO : 



One dollar per squHra of ten lines, each insertion. 



CONTENTS. 



AgricuUaro, as connected with Schools, Colleges, and Pnb- 



lie Institutions 353 



Health and what promotes it 356 



The C uuty Fair „^ 357 



Orchards „ 357 



The Aut inin „ „ ............. ...367 



Fa'l Plowing 357 



Winter Schooling 357 



Seed Corn „ , 358 



The American Chestnut 358 



The Hog 359 



Wash ington Coanty Fair 359 



Southern Iliiaois , 359 



Agricultural Periodicals for Pren-inms 369 



Fall Busiuess ., 360 



Fall Work 360 



Q apes _^ 360 



Bull Times 360 



Have farmers fears that their stock and feed will be short 360 



Awarding Committees 360 



Sorfrho >^yrup 300 



Fill Plowing I 350 



Root Pits .?. .......360 



See to your Gardens 360 



Western Agriculture.. „ 361 



Old Times „ „ 361 



The best Bull , „....362 



Eggs in Winter ...362 



American Horses in England „„.„ K62 



Hercaotile Business ...362 



Potatoes 362 



Jesse Frye'i Gang Plow 362 



Biickwheit hb Food .....862 



Horses Stolen 363 



The Tomb of Rachel „....„ 363 



Beni-fits of Agricultural Fairs 363 



How tley predict weather at the Smithsonian In8titnte....361 



Cost of Raising Wheat 364 



Dressing for Kooat Fowls 364 



The Illinois Farmer 364 



To Remove Freckles 364 



How a Chick is Hatched 365 



ToCaok Cariots ^Ro 



Lice on Fowls 505 



The best Mode of Preserving £ggs 365 



The Market for Grain „ 355 



Gotta Percha „ ..566 



Insects as s-^en in the Mic-oscope 366 



Linseed Cake for Heifers ^ 3^g 



Barrels for Fruit SPB 



Dahlia Roots 3o6 



leges, and Public Institutions. 



%. 



Bt Aliz. M Oow, President of the Dixon Instltnte. 



It has been well remarked, that the 

 chief object of our schools, should be, 

 not BO much to acquire a definite amount 

 of positive knowledge as to learn the art 

 of learning, and acquire the disposition 

 arid the taste to do so. Failing to per- 

 ceive this truth in education, many are 

 prone to press upon the pupils of our 

 schools a long and varied programme of 

 positive studies, to be mastered abso- 

 lutely within the few years of school 

 life. The effort seems to be, to crowd 

 facts, stubborn facts, into the mind, un- 

 til the "passive recipient" may be cal- 

 led a "walking encyclopedia of useless 

 knowledge,'' knowing a 'little of every- 

 thing and but little of anything.'' The 

 study of books too often excludes the 

 cultivation of those faculties which make 

 us acquainted with things about us, so 

 thatniany of the so called educated pass 

 from the schools seeing, hearing and 

 knowing nothing, by observation, of the 

 grand, glorious world around. A Ben. 

 Franklin and a Hugh Miller read their 

 earliest and best lessons from the leaves 

 of nature, unfolded from the trees or 

 bound in solid folios among the rocky 

 shelves. They gathered many facts, as 

 the result of their thinking, while scores 

 gather facts without thinking at all. 

 They are the best educated who study 

 men and things, as well as books, and 

 thus gain, by their own observation and 

 reflection, what otherwise they would 

 never acquire. The observing, reflect- 

 ing mind, engaged in any occupation, is 

 more successful than that which unhes- 

 itacingly follows a dull routine and a ven- 

 erable precedent. In no profession is 

 there so wide a field for observation, ex- 

 periment and discovery as the field of 

 the farmer. Great as our discoveries 

 have been in-^agricultural science — ad- 

 mirable as are our improvements in the 

 machinery of husbandry — enthusiastic 

 as many are who devote themselves to 

 the plow and the pruning knife, it must 

 not be supposed that we witness even 



"the beginning of the end.'' Greater 

 achievements are to be accomplished — 

 greater wonders wrought; and the mass 

 of agriculturists are yet to learn that 

 they are members of a scientific pro- 

 fession. If so, how are these things to 

 be accomplished? Our children will 

 have to answer this question. 



The American mind and energy are 

 admirably delineated in the description 

 of that character of characters, the 

 "Yankee boy:'' 



"Thus, by hiHgentns and bis Jack-knife driven, 

 Ere long he'll solve you any problem (riven; 

 Make any gim-crack — musical or mute— 

 A plow, a coach, f n organ or a flute; 

 Make anything, in short, for sea or shore, 

 From a child's rattle to a eeventy>.foar. 

 Hake it. »iii(i n Aye; when he undertake* it. 

 He'll make the thing, atui the madiine that maket iti" 



Our prairie corn will, probably, be 

 surer than our crop of geniuses, but we 

 may have strong, vigorous, intelligent 

 men and women, if we cultivate them. 

 What share, then, shall our schools have 

 in this development of our youth, in or- 

 der to develop the great agricultural in- 

 terests of our Statu? 



The successful agriculturist is he who 

 possesses, among other things, an ardent 

 love for the beautiful in nature. He 

 must be a man of close, accurate ob- 

 servation; must be a man oE practical 

 neatness and order, in all his operations; 

 punctual and regular in all his duties 

 and gentle and humane in his feelings 

 and actions. Can these qualities, so 

 desirable in the education of every man, 

 and so essential to the agriculturist, be 

 imparted in our schools? 



Every child may be taught, or, rather, 

 be directed and encouraged to teach it- 

 self, to see, hear, feel, and thus know thtj 

 world around it, and to love it for the 

 curious, the beautiful and the true which 

 it contains. To this end, the school 

 house and its surroundings should be ar- 

 rang d with special reference to neatness 

 and taste. The esthetic element of our 

 nature is capable of the highest develop- 

 ment, affording the purest pleasure and 

 the cheapest gratification. The perfec- 

 tion of art is but the imitation of na- 

 ture's works, and he is the true artist 

 who seeks beauty, harmony and grace at 

 the original sources. The poetry of 

 the soul should receive its earliest im- 



