VOLUME V. 



SPRINGFIELD, ILL., JANUARY, 1860. 



NUMBER I. 



TH E ILLINOIS FARM ER. 



PUBLIBUBD MOWTHLT, 

 BT 



BAILHACHE & BAKER, 



JouKN/u. Ofriox, Spiukofmls, Ilusoib. 



M.L. DUNLAP, Editor. 



<•»■ — - 



TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION. 



One eopT, one year, ia advance...-- _— (1 00 



FlTe copieB, " " 3 79 



Ten " and one to the person petting npclnb .. 7 60 

 Fifteen copies and over, 62*/^ cents each, andone to person 

 getlioK up club, 



OIBB R&T1I OF ADTIIlTIsmO : 



One dollar par *qaar* of ten lioes, each iniertlon. 

 CONTENTS. 



January.... - 1 



More about tho Hog and its history 2 



Town and country 3 



Queries about Wheat 3 



Sowing Mountain Ash Seed 4 



Farmers what do you lire for f 4 



Farinvrs Ice houses ....« • 5 



The Locust 5 



Durham BuU— Chicago Duke 6 



Poisonous Plants of Ohio ^...._ 6 



Care of Qouse Plants 6 



The i^iary „ — 7 



To the friends of Horticulture 7 



Important discovery .7 



ChlnchBng 7 



Premium Currant Wine .....7 



The New York Ledger 7 



Editorial Bow 8 



Bize Wins 8 



What variety of Apples shall we plant ? „...8 



Sorghum in Iowa 9 



Magnolia Glaaca .9 



Autumn work in the Orchard 9 



About wintering Stock ».9 



Concord and Delaware Grapes 9 



Crops — Advantages of Fall Plowing 10 



Sugar Cane Convention 10 



Amount of lain in 1868 , 10 



French Merino f'heep 10 



noUTICnLTURAL. 



Annual Meeting of the Southern Illinois Pomological 

 and Horticultural Society, held atTamaros, Perry 



county, 111 , December 'iOth, Slst. 1859 11 



Fruit trees for ornamental purposes 12 



The Egyptians moving ., :„ 13 



Texas .'. 13 



Another competitor far the (500 Premium of (be 111. Cent. 



Railroad Company, for the best Ditching Machine 13 



How to Preserre Fence Posts 13 



Difference between Eastern and Western Farming 13 



THE KDIXOH'a TABLE, 



The crops of 1869 - 14 



How corn shrinks ; 14 



• United SUtes Fair at Chicago 14 



Pawkes' Steam Plow 14 



. Illustrating the Farmer 14 



To Nurseoymen 14 



Our Kxchanges..^ 14 



The Prairie Fruit cult^rist 14 



Fawkes' Stfam Plow 14 



The Horticulturist 14 



Plowing by gleam 14 



State Horticultural Society 14 



More about tWe Hog and its History 14 



Engravings for the Farmer , 14 



A New Fence. ....14 



Culture of Fruit „ 16 



Engravings of Stock 16 



Prince's Melo'ieons 16 



Geological Bnrvey 15 



MARKETS ....15 



January. 



Oh Wintsri rnler of the inverted year. 



Thy scattered hair with sl«et-<lika ashes flU'd, 



Thy breath congeal'd upon thy lipt, thy cheeks, 



Fringed with a beard made white with other snows, 



Than those of age; thy forehead wrapt in clouds, 



A leallMS branch thy sceptre, and thy throne, 



A sliding car indebted to no wheels. 



But urged by storms along a slipp'ry way;] 



I love tbee, all unlovely as thou aeem'st, 



And drcadtd m thou art. 



^ Cbwper'i Task. 



January not only has its uses but its 

 beauties, and to the thrifty farmer is an in- 

 teresting period of the year. It is the be- 

 ginning of a new era, a development of new 

 plans — a time for study and domestic ease. 

 December closed the year, and concluded 

 with the holydays, a fitting finale to its var- 

 ied labors. 



If January comes in with its icy breath, it 

 hath its fireside enjoyments; no active duties 

 have yet been inaugurated; no bending to 

 the arduous labors of the new born year. 

 With the thrifty farmer the stock is well 

 cared for, the cellar is stored with vegetables, 

 the wood ia under cover, and the whole list 

 of farm implements well housed and in re- 

 pair. The fruits, alas! a great number of 

 even our thrifty farms have not the benefit 

 of this health giving food, but their young 

 orchards give promise of rich harvests. 

 It could not be expected that the prairie 

 slopes, whose solitudes have been so lately 

 broken, would yet teem with the golden 

 glories of her orb-like gifts. Yet a few 

 more years and the January cellars of the 

 thrifty farmer will be redolent of ripened 

 fruit, covered with its gold and crimson, laid 

 on by the Master's pencil, and out-vieing 

 the painter's brush. There is no clime in 

 which January can bring richer gifts to the 

 farmer's fireside than our own prairie land. 

 It combines all the energies of the north, 

 with many of the luxuries of the south, 

 with all the useful and the beautiful of the 

 temperate zone. The shout of the Anglo- 

 Saxon has broken its solitude, and his un- 

 tiring energy is carving out homes, rich in 

 all that go to fill up the cup of human hap- 

 piness. 



The plans of the year were partially laid 



when the plow was first put to the autumn 



J stubble to make ready for the spring grain 



— ^when the seeds from the vegetable and 

 flower garden were carefully laid away— 

 when the seed corn was gathered, and the 

 seed grain put in separate bins. These plana 

 were all crude, made up in the hurry of the 

 autumn work, and must now be reviewed 

 and their outlines clearly defined. The 

 acres of spring wheat, of barley, of oats, of 

 hemp, of flax, of potatoes and of com, must 

 be figured up, so that when the time for 

 sowing and of planting arrives that each be 

 attended to in its proper season and in a 

 workmanlike manner. 



January too is the time to look after the 

 district school, that bulwark of cur liberties 

 and of our social progress. It should be visit- 

 ed often, not only to see that the teachers at- 

 tend to their duties, but that the directors do 

 theirs, in having the house in good order, 

 with plenty of suitable fuel, books, maps 

 and blackboards. 



January is the time for reading, for no 

 month brings so much of ease or such a re- 

 spite from the active toils of life. You need 

 new books for yourself, for your wife, your 

 sons and daughters. You should recollect 

 that the food of the mind is as essential as 

 the food of the body, and it is right that you 

 supply that (^mand. You may think to find 

 an excuse in the hard times, but this is a 

 lame excuse; as well might you say that you 

 can dispense with the plowing of your land. 

 You cannot afford to do without them, and if 

 you fail in this respect, rank weeds will fill 

 the place of the one, or uncultivated thought 

 the other. If you wish your children to be 

 restless and unsteady, cut off the supply of 

 reading matter or direct them to read such 

 works as are of no interest to them, and you 

 will succeed most perfectly. 



The farmer should be a general reader. 

 He should be well posted in the general 

 affairs of the outside world, and none but the 

 shiftless and the indolent will say: "I am 

 too busy and have no time to read even an 

 agricultural paper.'' .;;;'H J' 



When we enter a farm house and find no 



newspapers, no agricultural journals, we 



I know that the hand t)f want is busy in that 



":-*w*«r^'- 



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