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VOLUME V. 



SPRINGFIELD, ILL., FEBRUARY, 1860. 



NUMBER 2. 



THE ILLINOIS FARMER. 



PUBLISHED MONTHLT, 



BT ■■■ 



BAILHACHE & BAKER, 



JocBKAi. Office, Spbingfield, Illikois. 



M. L. DUNLAP, Editor. 



TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION. ^ 



One copy, one year, in advance $1 00 



Five copies, " " 8 76 



Ten " and one to the person getting up club. .... 7 50 

 Fifteen copies and OTsr, 62^ cents each, and one to person 

 getting up club. 



CASH RXTES OF ADVEBTISINO : 



One dollar per square of ten lines, each insertion. 



Special Notice. 



Letters connected with the business department of this paper 

 must be directed to the publishers in Springfield. Those in- 

 tended for the eye of the Editor should be addressed to him at 

 West Urbana. 



CONTEXTS. 



r ebruary 1 7 



Are you Insured ... IS 



Address delivered before the Southern Illinois Pomolo^cal 

 and Horticultural Society, by Hon. M. L. Dunlap, at 

 the Second 'Annual Fair, held at Tamaroa, Illinois, 



December 20th, 1859 18 



Fawkes' St-eatn Plow as it is and what it may be 21 



Meeting of the Executive Committee of the State Agricul- 

 tural Society, Jan. 5th 22 



Com 24 



Advertising Gratis 24 



State Horticultural Society 25 



The Household 31 



Give your Dogs water and keep off Hydrophobia 32 



Wheeler's Improved Patents 32 



Reaper Trial 82 



Underdraining 33 



Steam Plows 83 



Prepared Glue 33 



EDITOR'S TABLE : 



Errata 84 



Our Paper 34 



Horse Taming 34 



Silver Maple Seedlings 34 



Clinton County Agricultural Society 84 



Genessee Farmer 34 



Fawkes' Steam Plow 34 



Engravings of Stock 34 



The Weather 34 



MuKC 84 



Agricultural Implements 84 



Rooms of the IlUnoia State Agricultural Society 34 



The Gardener's Monthly 84 



Horticultural Matters 84 



Fleishman's New Mode of Plowing 34 



Bloomington Nursery .84 



Good Butter 84 



Ohio Farmer 34 



Western Trees 84 



The Horticulturalist 85 



Sweet Potatoes 85 



Are the Peaches Killed Si 



MABKEIS 85 



Febrnary. 



Behold, the joyous winter daya 

 Frosty, succeed; and thro' the blue serene 

 For sight too fine, the etherial mitre flies ; 

 Killing infectious damps, and the spent eit 

 Storing afresh with elemental life. 



THOMPSOir. 



Many fanners complain of the severity of 

 winter and wish tor its more mild and 

 genial reign, but there is a mean to be ob- 

 served in all things, and though we may 

 complain of the severity of winter, the 

 drenching rain and the long summer drouth- 

 yet all these are a part of the universal sys- 

 tem of Him who holds the.worlds In his b&l- 

 lance. The long severe drouth of 1857 de; 

 pressed the hopes of the farmer, which being 

 followed in '58 by long continued rains, al- 

 most crushed out his energies; the spring of 

 '59 was dry and wet alternately, and the plow 

 turned up the sodden land in clods the most 

 unpromising that we had seen for years. 

 The elements of fertility appeared locked up 

 in the unkindly soil, and it was with difficul- 

 ty that a stand of any of the Cereals could 

 be obtained. The summer came and the 

 wheat harvest was gathered; the thin stand 

 had sent up long heads, but the fructifying 

 elements were partially dormant, and the 

 grains were thinly set; but a wonderous 

 change was rapidly advancing with the sea- 

 son, and the kernals were filled to their ut- 

 most, thus making the quality good, and pre- 

 senting a singular anamoly in this crop; 

 "a light harvest with superior quality of 

 grain." The soil became more friable, as dis- 

 integration advanced, its fertility was readily 

 yielded to the growing plants, the result was 

 an unusual crop of potatoes, including all 

 garden vegetables, and the corn crop, so un- 

 promising early in the season, came forward 

 rapidly and produced long, well filled ears. 

 The yield per acre was not extraordinarily 

 large, only as we take into consideration its 

 unpromising aspect early in the season. Per- 

 haps forty bushels per acre may be set down 

 as an average, when ordinary culture was 

 used. The chinch bug had made fearful 

 ravages in the late spring wheat, and nearly 

 destroyed the Hungarian grass, which had 

 been largely sown. The soil was never in 

 better condition for working after the first . 



of August, and it so continued until the last 

 Autumn furrow was turned. 



The severe winter of '54-5, though destruc- 

 tive to orchard trees and shrubbery, was 

 equally as severe on the insect tribes and 

 small vermin, which were swarming in such 

 myriads that the farmer and the orchardist 

 became justly alarmed, and with the excep- 

 tion of the chinch bug last season, and in 

 .some few localities the Hessian fly, we have 

 since been almost wholly exempt, but the 

 two past mild winters have had the effect to 

 renew their hoards to a large extent, which, 

 with the now friable condition of the soil, 

 only wanted a mild, open winter to again 

 allow them to swarm in destructive numbers; 

 but the long continued severity of the winter 

 will have the effect to thin off their ranks 

 and hold them in check. This cycle of sea- 

 sons is therefore wisely ordained, and pre- 

 sented to the reasoning faculties of man, that 

 in spite of all his genius, in spite of his 

 scientific attainments he muststill "eat bread 

 in the sweat of his brow." We cannot pre- 

 dict the result of the incoming season with 

 certainty, for the blighting cold, the whirl- 

 wind and the summer drouth, are held like 

 thunderbolts in the hand of the Almighty, 

 who will send them through space at his 

 appointed time, and lay low at his good 

 pleasure the hopes of years and "scourge 

 the nations at his will." But under the 

 present aspect of affairs, with the genial 

 condition of the soil, the probable absence of 

 either excessive rains or drouth, we may 

 look forward with cheering hope to a most 

 fruitful season. The northern counties of 

 the State have been less fortunate, and from 

 a somewhat attentive observation of the 

 seasons for the past twenty years, we are in- 

 clined to the opinion that the cycle of 

 seasons for that part of the State and of 

 Wisconsin, vary from the central and south 

 part of our State. The Illinois and Miasis- 

 sippi river belts of timber; the elevation of 

 that portion of the country, so change the 

 air current coming from the south, which 

 with the aid of Lake Michigan produce a 

 more marked continental climate, than in 



