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THE ILLIlSrOIS FARMER. 



9 



Sorghum in Iowa. 



The Keokuck Gate City has the follow- 

 ing encouraging news with regard to the 

 growing of Sorghum in Iowa: Estimating 

 the value of the crop by the known amount 

 in a few counties, we think it entieely safe 

 to say, that over one million dollars will be 

 saved to the State of Iowa this year in con- 

 sequence of the introduction of the Chinese 

 cane among us. A million of dollars saved 

 in this way is equal to two millions earned. 

 The production is yet but just emerged 

 from an experiment. If they save a million 

 this year, next year they will save two mil- 

 lions. The Dubuque Times remarking on 

 the same subject, says: that a tour through 

 nine counties in that section showed an aver- 

 age of one sugar mill to about four farmers. 

 The crop of molasses in Jefferson county is 

 estimated this year at 60,000 gallons. Tama 

 county last year produced 11,000 gallons; 

 this year the crop is estimated at 20,000 

 gallons. Jasper county raised 18,700 last 

 year, and the amount estimated this year is 

 nearly 60,000 gallons. The price of the 

 syrup ranges from fifty to sixty cents per 

 gallon. : , 



The cultivation of Sorghum is slowly, hut 

 surely, working its way to public favor. It 

 is now fully demonstrated that it will make 

 a good syrup. This, of itself, will give it a 

 prominent place among the valuable pro- 

 ducts of the farm. We shall endeavor to 

 give some practical figures in relation to the 

 crop of this season in the February number. 



The farmers of Iowa have rather taken 

 the lead in growing this cane, probably from 

 the fact that syrup in the interior, owning 

 to expensive land carriage, has been rather 

 dear. Ep. 



Cleteland, Ohio, 1859. 



M. L. Dunlap, Dear Sir: — Enclosed 

 find seeds of the Magnolia Crlauca — 

 with slight protection for a year or two, 

 I have no doubt would prove hardy with 

 you. I have one with a large and 

 spreading top more than twenty feet 

 high, which annually yields hundreds of 

 flowers every day in succession for six 

 weeks. It is now loaded with seeds. — 

 It is enjirafted on the M. Acuminata. 

 Sow the seeds in a cold frame and cover 

 them one inch deep with vegetable loam 

 and sand. This should be done Avithout 

 delay. With the best respect of 



J. P. KiNTAND. 



The seeds came safe to hand, and 

 were duly planted, manj thanks to your 

 kindness Doctor. We hope yet to set 

 under the shade of the waving leaflet of 

 your kind gift. If this beautiful shrub 

 is hardy at Cleveland, it ought to be in 

 central and certainly in southern Illi- 

 nois. Who of all our nurserymen have 

 this tree for sale ? Phoenix or Ellsworth 

 can probably answer. No man in the 

 West has done more for western hoti- 



culture than Professor Kitland, and yet 

 his efibrts have always been so unselfish 

 and so marked with a love of the useful 

 and the beautiful, that he has become 

 well known among the benefactors of 

 the race. In his last letter he complains 

 of ill health, but we hope he will be 



spared to us for many long years. Ed. 



— ■ «•• — 



• ' "/ From the Prairie Farmer, 



Antumn Work In the Orchard. 



Eds. Prairie Farmer: — Since the cal- 

 amity to fruit trees in the winter of '55-6, 

 very many trees have died each year from 

 the efiects of that winter, and many more 

 will die this and the coming season, which 

 will have to be replaced by young trees. I 

 would advise those who have shared in this 

 calamity (for such I view it,) with your 

 humble servant, to dig out those dead trees, 

 and those nearly so, (that are only living at 

 a poor dying rate) this fall, and fore part of 

 winter, if the ground keeps open, and leave 

 the borders open to the effects of the frost 

 and air during the winter. It will do much 

 to ameliorate the soil for the reception of the 

 new tree 



Examine the newly planted tree; see that 

 there are no grass or weeds around the roots 

 for mice to borough in. Mice work under 

 cover, and gnaw the bark from the trunk of 

 the tree at the ground, which is charged to 

 the rahbit's account many times. It is an 

 excellent plan to raise a mound of earth 

 around the trunk from eight to twelve 

 inches, it serves two purposes, it keeps wind 

 from swaying the tree during the winter, and 

 mice from gnawing them. 



Above all things see that your trees do not 

 lean to the north-east. If they do the sun 

 will scald them on the south-west side both 

 winter and summer, which causes the death 

 of three-fourths of all the fruit trees planted. 

 Right them up; drive a stake one foot from 

 the tree on the south-west side, then take 

 straw, or slough grass, which is better; make 

 a band, twist it hard, put it first around the 

 tree, then put the band together, twist it 

 hard for six or eight inches, then open the 

 strands and tie it firmly around the stake. 

 The band being twisted between the tree 

 and stake prevents the stake from chafing 

 the tree. This should be practised with all 

 new set trees. S. G-. Minkler. 



We have known Mr. Minkler for many 

 years, and are indebted to him for many val- 

 uable items in orchard culture. He is one 

 of the most careful, and consequently suc- 

 cessful orchardists, in the north part of the 

 State. Ed, 



Jg^^'^'At a Fair down East, the re- 

 porter under the head of domestic ar- 

 rangements, gives the following item : 

 Best bed comforter — Miss Susan Thomp- 



son. 



-«•»- 



About WlDterlng Stock. 

 Under this head a correspondent of 

 the New Yorker, gives some seasonable 

 advice which we would commend to our 

 western farmers: ;. 



"As much has been said about the 

 scarcity of fodder, I wish to give the 

 public, through your paper, a sure way 

 to "help it hold out." It has been my 

 experience that Btock kept warm and 

 dry, will thrive with one- fourth less feed 

 than when exposed to "the fury of a 

 winter's storm." Now, brother farmers, 

 if you are short of fodder, instead of buy- 

 ing hay at exhorbitant prices, to be fed 

 out of doors and perhaps trampled in 

 the mud, just expend a trifling sum for 

 lumber, and batten up all the crevices 

 about your stables, and make some good 

 mangers, and underpin your bam — mak- 

 ing it, as sailors say, "all taut,'' — then 

 keep your cattle in there most of the 

 time while the snow is on the ground. 

 Having done this, go and expend two, 

 three, or five dollars more for blankets 

 for your horses, and employ an idle hour 

 fastening on suitable straps and buckles 

 to keep them on, and you are rigged to 

 brave a hard winter with thirty tons of 

 hay, where before you needed forty. 



Every winter the county press brings 

 us tidings of loss of stock from the cold 

 and from want of food. This is not in 

 accordance with good farming. We 

 knew a breeder of choice durham stock 

 turn them into a field of constalks with 

 the thermometer below lero; the result 

 was the loss of several head of valuable 

 animals. He is now going out of the 

 business, being disgusted with the prof- 

 its. ,. Ed. 



-»m^ 



^^ Two thousand nine hundred 

 silk- worms produce one pound of silk ; 

 but it would require 27,999 spiders, all 

 females, to produce one pound of web. 



Concord and Delaware Srapei, 

 At the Pomological Meeting recently 

 held at Zanesville, Ohio, the following 

 was said about the two varieties of the 

 grape. The Concord and Delaware are 

 unquestionably the grapes for this lati- 

 tude: .'iv;.;;. ■ --■■■■■..•■ ■■^\, \ -!/■ 

 Concord. — Specimens'^of this grape 

 were presented by Mr. Carpenter ; and 

 in answer to calls for information re- 

 specting it, Messrs. Warder, Carpenter, 

 Bateham and others corroborated what 

 has before been published, that it is 

 profitable as an early, hardy variety, es- 

 pecially valuable as a market grape, and 

 for farmers and others, who are willing 

 to bestow care and labor in cultivation. 

 Delaware. — Specimens of this grape 

 were exhibited at the Fair by H. C. 

 Nnblo and M. B. Bateham, of Colum- 

 bus, and Geo. W. Campbell, of Dela- 

 ware. Mr. Campbell also distributed 

 some at the meeting, which disappeared 



