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THE ILLINOIS F^RMEH. 



363 



cattle. It is of a totally different fam- 

 ily of plants from the cereals, and will 

 flourish on sandy hill-sides which are 

 barren for other grain. It is probably 

 the most easily cultivated and the cheap- 

 est bread grain the world. It is exten- 

 sively cultivated in Belgium, and some 

 parts of France, where it forms the 

 basis of food for the inhabitants. 

 Though its properties are very different 

 from wheat, it is nevertheless, quite as 

 rich in all important compounds, and in 

 extremely cold weather it is more sub- 

 stantial than wheat. It is, however, 

 less digestible, and apt to disagree with 

 Weak stomachs, or persons unaccustomed 

 to it. By analysis, buckwheat is second 

 to wheat in gluten, but deficient in 

 starch. By the addition of one-fourth 

 quantity of oat or Indian meal to buck- 

 wheat flour, the bread is very much 

 improved. 



—*~ 



Horses Stolen. 

 Scarcely a week passes that we do not 

 hear of horses stolen in this state. The 

 thieves have their affairs well arranged — so 

 well, that few horses are recovered. We 

 call attention to the following circular, as 

 proposing one means to find stolen horses. 

 It may not in all cases prove successfu), but 

 it would strike us as likely to be of essential 

 service. We see that the Illinois Journal 

 already contains notices of horses stolen. The 

 papers containing these notices are found in 

 every country town and leading village in 

 the state, in less than a week. Persons who 

 know of horses or mules about the country 

 under suspicious circumstances, would do 

 well to examnie the columns of the Illinois 

 Journal. They might serve the owner by 

 securing for him his stolen horses, and serve 

 themselves by pocketing the reward offered 

 for them. 



To the Farmers and others in Illinois who Icetp Horses : 



Within the last few months valuable 

 horses have been stolen in different parts 

 of this State. This has been managed so 

 adroitly that every effort to recover them 

 has failed. It is certain that there 

 are located in most of our Counties 

 men who are associated with Horse 

 thieves, and who play into their hands. 

 It is believed that these men point out 

 the valuable horses, and suggest the 

 mode of taking them. The horses are 

 driven to their depots, iind ultimately 

 into remote parts of our State, and other 

 States. The evil is a great one. No 

 valuable horse is safe from the horse 

 thief. Our people arc subject to great 

 losses. 



CAN ANY THING BE DONE TO 



ARREST THIS EVIL ? In answer to 

 this question the undersigned would say 

 that a plan has been repeatedly suggest- 

 ed to him, and Avhich, properly carried 

 out, promises to be of valuable service. 

 No man doubts that our present estray 

 law is an excellent one. Under the pro- 

 visions of that law we are enabled to 

 find most of our estray stock. Can we 

 not, under a similar plan, find our Sto- 

 len Horses ? 



The paper which publishes the estray 

 notices is sent to every County Court 

 clerk in the State, and he is required to 

 file it for examination. It is manifest 

 that a man who has his horse stolen, by 

 giving a description and sending it to 

 the publisher of the estray paper, can 

 have the information sent to every coun- 

 ty in the State within one week from the 

 time the theft was made. Should a 

 suspicious horse be seen, there are men 

 enough who will take the description, go 

 to the clerk's office, and see if he is not 

 of stolen horses. A stolen horse would 

 thus be likely to be taken up in any part 

 of the State. These descriptions of sto- 

 len horses could all be arranged under 

 the head of "Horse Stolen.'' Shefife 

 and Constables might readily possess 

 information which would enable then* to 

 arrest horse thieves and their stolen 

 property. The cost of publishing such 

 notice should only be one dollar, to be 

 sent with the notice. This would be 

 nothing to the time and money wasted 

 in useless search. 



The plan for recovering stolen horses 

 is practical, and likely to be successful. 

 We recommend it to the owners of horses 

 in Illinois, It has been urged upon me 

 by gentlemen whom I respect, to issue 

 a circular embracing these views. In 

 obedience to their wishes, and my own 

 judgment, I have done so. 



The same measures can be used in 

 relation to stolen mules. 



Horses and mules taken from thieves 

 may also be advertised in the same man- 

 ner, and thus be restored to their own- 

 ers. 



I have made inquiries of Messrs. 

 Bailhache & Baker to ascertain if they 

 will publish notices of stolen horses at 

 one dollar each for two week, under a 

 proper head, in the weekly State Journ- 

 al, Avhich by law is required to be sent 

 to every county clerk in the State. — 

 They answer that they will do this. 



Such publication need take patronage 

 from no local publisher of a newspaper 

 in the State ; and I feel confident that 

 their regard for the farmers and the 

 public generally, who are suffering from 

 professional horse thieves, will induce 

 them to copy this circular, and give the 

 plan suggested their entire concurrence. 

 S. FRANCIS, 

 Cor. Sec. 111. Slate Ag. Societv. 



having 

 indeed 



The Tomb of Rachel. — The Hon. 

 James Brooks, senior editor of the New 

 York Express, writes to that journal 

 from the Holy Land, as follows : — 



L'pon my return to Bethlehem I rode 

 by the tomb of Rachel — a small building 

 with a whitened dome, and having with- 

 in it a high, oblong monument, built of 

 brick and stuccoed over. The spot is 

 wild and solitary — and not a tree spread 

 its shades Avhere rests the beautiful 

 mother of Israel. Christian, Jew and 

 Moslem all agree that this is just the 

 spot where Rachel was buried, and all 

 unite in honoring it. The Turks arc 

 anxious that their ashes may rest near 

 hers, and hence their bodies have been 

 strewn under tombs all around the sim- 

 ple tomb of Rachel. The sweet domes- 

 tic virtues of the wife have won their 

 love and admiration, as the tomb of 

 Absalom, near the brook of Kedron, their 

 detestation ; upon the latter they throw 

 a stone, to mark their horror of the dis- 

 obedient son. while around the former, 

 they wish, when they die, their bodies 

 may be interred. Nor is this wonderful. 

 The wife, worth fourteen years of service 

 as shepherd, must have been a wife worth 

 The whole life of Rachel is, 

 , one of the most touching in Bib- 

 lical history. The sweet shepherdess 

 has left her mark upon the memory of 

 man, as well as her tomb. The tribute 

 to her is the tribute to a good wife, and 

 Infidel, Jew and Christian all combine 

 to pay it. The great women of the earth 

 — ^^the Zenobias and the Cleopatras— have 

 died, been buried, and their very place 

 of burial been forgotten ; but to this day 

 stands over the grave of Rachel, not the 

 pillar Jacob set up, but a modern monu- 

 ment in its place, around which pilgrims 

 from every land under the sun gather, in 

 respect and reverence for the faithful 

 wife and good mother in Israel. 



4«» 



Benefits of Agricaitural Fairs. 



The principle of association — the practice 

 of bringing men together bent on the same 

 general object, pursuing the same general 

 end, uniting their intellectual and their phy- 

 ical efforts to that purpose, is a great im- 

 provement in the present age. And it has 

 become essential to the best interests of the 

 farmers of the Commonwealth, that these 

 annual fairs .should be established, and that 

 they should be universally attended. From 

 the nieetln<r of men toijether who have the 

 same general pursuits of life — tliat they may 

 compare one with another — that they may 

 compare with each other their experience, 

 and that they may keep up a constant com- 

 munication. It is in this point of view — in 

 this greatly practical point of view — that 

 tljcse annual fairs are of importance. 



Why, gentlemen, every man obtains a 

 veiy great portion oi all that he knows in this 

 world, by couv<.rsation. Conversation — in- 

 tercourMj with other niinds- — is the general 

 source of most of our knowledge. Books d^ 





