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THE ILLIISTOIS FA^HMER. 



SPRINGFIELD, MARCH 1, I860. 



BAILHACHE & BAKER, PubUshers. 



M. L. DUNLAP, Editor. 



March begins the active duties of the 

 ye<ar in this latitude, and everything is 

 preparing for the annual change. The 

 birds of passage are winding their vray 

 to the north, and the song warblers are 

 seeking out their summer homes. The 

 careful wife is overhauling the garden 

 seeds and considering the quantity to be 

 planted. The farmer has his mind 

 on spring wheat, grass and clover seeds 

 and barley; the pasture fence is repaired 

 and the stock is indulged in an occasion- 

 al airing, and when blue grass shall have 

 its full meed awarded it, they will need 

 little other feed after this time than 

 this succulent grass. The wood pile and 

 coal bin should be looked after, as the 

 farmer cannot afford to go to the timber 

 after a load of wood during harvest, nor 

 can he spare a hand to cut up the daily 

 supply when the crops need his at- 

 tention. 



During this month there are a thou- 

 sand things to be looked after, a thou- 

 sand cares on the farmer's hands. The 

 year's plows must be put into working 

 order, and the whole machinery set up 

 and put in motion. From this time forth 

 the duties are all of an active kind, "and 

 no laggards are wanted to clog the 

 wheels of progress. The useful and the 

 beautiful must be cultivated, that we 

 may not only labor but enjoy the pro- 

 ducts of that labor. The wife or 

 daughter who plants and cultivates 

 flowers, makes no dollars and cents out 

 of it, and to the sorded miser she throws 

 away her labor — but it must be remem- 

 bered that man was made for other pur- 

 poses than the love of dollars — a love of 

 the beautiful in nature and in art. Be- 

 fore man, was the garden, with its 

 beautiful walks, its trees, its flowers and 

 and its fruits — tended by celestials — but 

 out of which he was driven for his vault- 

 ing ambition; but his love of the beauti- 

 ful was left him, and now he is his own 

 gardener and in sweat shall he enjoy the 

 fruits of his labor. 



The past winter has been favorable 

 for farm work and to enable the farmer to 

 close up the last season's work, and to 



make adequate preparation for the new 

 year. 



We send our sympathies to our editor- 

 ial brethren of the agricultural press, 

 who are cooped up in the cities and who 

 have to write of good butter from the 

 recollections of last year; who think the 

 potato has degenerated because it has 

 lost the freshness of the country cellar; 

 that hens no longer lay fresh eggs, and 

 that milk is drawn from cows fed on 

 chalk; that vegetables have a withering 

 habit, and that flowers have lost the 



fragrance of spring. 



«•» 



The Culture of Potatoes. 

 Those near large cities grow large 

 quantities of this vegetables, which al- 

 ways affords a good proflt. There labor 

 is to be had at cheap rates, to keep down 

 the weeds and secure the crop ; but this 

 is not always the case on the farm, yet 

 the farmer not only should have a good 

 crop, but should not be compelled to 

 pick them out of a weed fallow, which 

 he so often does. It is well known that 

 south of the Terre Haute and Alton R. 

 R. the soil is not so well adapted to the 

 culture of potatoes, though very good 

 potatoes for summer and fall use can be 

 grown, yet for winter and spring use, 

 the quality is poor. Most farmers in 

 that part of the State prefer to purchase 

 seed at the north annually, under the 

 impression that it does much better, 

 which is doubtless the case. This seed 

 is grown in Michigan, and the counties 

 near Chicago, and occasionally a part of 

 the supply is from Wisconsin, but nearly 

 all of the supply is first sent to Chicago, 

 as a distributing center, and thence to 

 the points where wanted. Now, the 

 whole prairie region north of this road is 

 well adapted to the growth of this vege- 

 table, and when treated in a rational 

 way, cannot well fail to bring remunera- 

 tion. We can safely say, that as ordi- 

 narily cultivated, that every bushel of 

 potatoes grown in Central Illinois, costs 

 the farmer twice what they ought to have 

 done. Now, instead of going on in this 

 way, we should not only grow them at a 

 cheap rate for our home consumption, 

 but should supply the southern demand. 

 We have Springfield, Bloomington, De- 

 catur, Mattoon, Urbana and Kankakee, 

 natural and convenient centers, in which 

 to gather the crop for shipment to the 

 Bouth, and our farmers in this part of 



the State should secure the trade, that 

 now goes to Michigan. In fact, they 

 have imported thousands of bushels from 

 there annually, for home use and for 

 seed. To some extent, this has been 

 done under the impression that seed from 

 that locality is better adapted to the 

 prairie soil. To this we subscribe ; at 

 the same time we think that a change 

 of seed once in three or four years, from 

 our own timber lands equally valuable, 

 at the same time the cost of transporta- 

 tion is saved. That potatoes can be 

 grown at a large profit we are willing to 

 admit, but when we have counted up the 

 cost per bushel as usually grown and 

 secured for winter, we must admit that 

 they are after all rather an expensive 

 luxury. 



The planting of potatoes by our far- 

 mers is looked upon as a great drudgery. 

 To cover an acre of the seed, one hill at 

 a time with the hoe, to work them out 

 with a cultivator and then to hill them up 

 hill by hill, under the blaze of a June 

 sun, with the thermometer at ninety, is 

 rather more than the corn growing anti- 

 hoeing farmer can stand. Well, we do 

 not blame him, for we are free to confess 

 that it is not on the whole either a plea- 

 sant or desirable exercise. Because the 

 Michiganders or city gardeners choose 

 to use the hoe in the culture of the pota- 

 to, it does not follow that in prairie 

 farming the same routine must of neces- 

 sity follow ; but on the other hand we 

 have held that the prairie soil requires a 

 treatment peculiar to itself. If this be 

 so, it is time that we made up our own 

 formula for the cultivation of our crops. 

 We will now proceed to give our practice 

 in the cultivation of the potato. In the 

 first place, it is proper to say that the 

 potato is not to be planted indisciumi- 

 nately on all soils or after all kinds of 

 crops. It delights in a light, loamy, 

 rich soil, deep culture and a moderate 

 amount of moisture. The next crop 

 after a sod crop is the true place in the 

 rotation for the potato. It can be grown 

 to advantage on old land, that is land 

 that has been cropped three or four 

 years, only by the use of coarse stable 

 manure. The ground should be deeply 

 plowed in the fall, but when that has not 

 been done, it should be attended to at the 

 earliest possible moment in the spring. 

 Ten inches is not too deep, nor should 

 it be less than eight inches ; it would be 



