378 



TIIIi: ILLI^S^OIS I^^I^CMEri. 



Orelmrd and Gnrdrii. 



WORK IN THE OBCHARD. 



Trees planted in autumn in well pre- 

 pared soil will make a third more 

 growth than if planted in spring. The 

 reason of this, is, that the ends of the 

 roots cut with the spade or broken, 

 heal over and prevent loss of sap, 

 which occurs in spring, the ground be- 

 comes settled around them, and from 

 the first swelling of the bud they go 

 forward without interruption. All trees 

 planted in the fall should be banked 

 up at the time, with earth to hold 

 them to their place, so as not to be 

 thrown out with the frost or swayed 

 over with the wind while the ground 

 is saturated with a heavy rain. In 

 the second place the heads should be 

 thinned out (not cut back,) and not 

 allow the tree to grow too bushy on 

 the start. We have decided aversion 

 to spring pruning, for several reasons, 

 which can be summond up as follows: 

 A loss of sap, which runs down and 

 discolors the bark, the cut branch de- 

 cays and does not heal over dry and 

 and sound. If we must prune in 

 spring, we like to use grafting wax or 

 white lead in oil to cover the wounded 

 part. . 



See that no grass or weeds are al- 

 lowed about the trunks of your trees, 

 if you do not like to have them gridled 

 by mice. Mice never injure a tree 

 standing on a clean cultivated surface. 

 Pieces of corn stalks, boards or old 

 newspapers should be tied about trees 

 liable to the attacks of rabbits. The 

 fall plowing of orchards is of great 

 value in the killing of insects, the 

 driving out of mice, nor will rabbits 

 be so liable to visit the trees when 

 there is no hiding places for them. 



White-washing, trees in the fall has a 

 most beneficial effect to ward off the sun's 

 rays when the tree has lost its foilage, 

 and to ameliorate the sudden changes 

 of winter. This wash will have bleach- 

 ed out by spring, when a clean green 

 bark will be the rusult. In short, the 

 planting and pruning of the orchard 

 should be attended to at this season, 

 and not left over among the thousand 

 duties that spring, every busy spring 

 brings in her train. Plum trees that 

 have lost their fruit by that arrant 

 marrauder the Cureulio, should be re- 



moved to the chicken yard, that neutral 

 ground between the house and barn. 

 Cherry trees, by all means, should be 

 planted at this season. The May 

 Cherry and English Morello, are the 

 two most reliable varieties for general 

 purposes. We always set trees as late 

 as the weather will permit, and in 

 many cases have broken up a thick 

 crust of frost for the purpose of plant- 

 ing, and have uniformly been successful. 

 THE GARDEN. 



It is time to save the cabbage and 

 turnips If you have not laid out your 

 garden, now is the time. You will 

 need two or three acres, this should be 

 protected from March winds, a couple 

 of rows of peach trees around the out- 

 side will do this and furnish you fruit 

 besides. You may think this a large 

 garden, but you should recollect that 

 the garden is to be the most profitable 

 part of the farm. In it, you want beds 

 of strawberries, rows of currants, goose- 

 berries, blackberries, raspberries, rhu- 

 barb and asparagus. You must have 

 space for the vegetables usually planted 

 in beds, and then space for the vjnes, 

 and considerable space for early pota- 

 toes, early corn, early beans and early 

 cabbage. All these and more you want, 

 and if you want them cheaply and cer- 

 tainly, you must loss no time in laying 

 off the ground; trench plow it a foot 

 deep, so that the autumn rain can bury 

 the amonia into the soil, and that the 

 winter irost will prepaaa it for spring 

 planting. Set out the peach trees at 

 once, so that you will have tinje to 

 plant garden seeds in spring. Put 

 your strawberry beds and rows of small 

 Iruits across one end, so that they can 

 all be worked with a horse. This will 

 save you a large amount of labor. 

 Before spring we will show you how 

 to plant and cultivate your vegetables 

 with less than half the usual labor, 

 In the winter a liberal supply of well 

 rotted manure should be hauled on the 

 garden to be plowed under before 

 planting. 



THE YARD. 



Do not neglect to set out shade and 

 fruit trees in the yard, you will have 

 no time in the spring to do it, besides 

 it is better done now, if you did not 

 attend to it last month. Away up 

 north it is too late for this work in 



ordinary seasons, but here in Central 

 and Southern Illinois, we have the 

 open ground, with comparatively little 

 work to do. If you do not wish to go 

 to the nursery after shade trees, you will 

 find elm, linn, so/t mapie, buttonwood, 

 buckeye, ash and some of the oaks, val- 

 uable trees for this purpose Among 

 these should be set cherries, pears, 

 Siberian crab apples, babary, snowballs, 

 honeysuckles, syringas, mountain ash, 

 evergreens, etc., that your house 

 grounds will have a cheerful look, not 

 only in summer, but in winter also. It 

 is these living, moving, Avhispering mon- 

 uments that draw the family circle in 

 closer bonds of affection, and when^he 

 homestead is left far behind, the 

 thoughts of these will send memory 



back to the distant loved ones. 



Rural. 



The Year 185!). 



The year about to close has been one of 

 deep interest to all. The hard times had 

 full possession at its advent and has held on 

 with a pretty strong grip. The expectation 

 that the year's crops would improve the con- 

 dition of things, has to some extent been re- 

 alized. Early in the spring the winter 

 wheat crop gave poor promise, but on the 

 whole it is as good as the spring stand could 

 well warrant. Farmers who sow chess or 

 sow on land already filled with this pernici- 

 ous weed have no reason to complain. When 

 the stand of wheat is good and the growth 

 thrifty, chess makes no impression, but when 

 the stand is thin from any cause, the chess 

 plants swell out to wonderful proportion. — 

 For planting corn the season was rather wet, 

 and what with poor seed, the rats and other 

 vermin to prey upon the young plants, it 

 was a difficult matter to obtain a good stand, 

 but our farmers persevered nobly, and the 

 result is a good average crop throughout the 

 State. Some of the northern counties suffer- 

 ed by frost, but the great cornfields of central 

 Illinois have made good the defect. 



In the center and south part of the State the 

 potato crop is unusually good, and the same 

 may be said of the giirden vegetables, though 

 in some eases cabbage excepted. This in- 

 creased attention to the garden is highly 

 encouraging, and we shall hear loss of bil- 

 ious and other fevers in consequence. The 

 fruit crop has been light. Our farmers and 

 villagers should pay more attention to the 

 small fruits, such as strawberries, currants, 

 gooseberries, raspberries and blackberries; 

 not forgetting those valuable plants, the 

 rhubarb and asparagus. But little hemp, 

 flax, castor herns, tobacco or el ecse have 



