72 



THE ILLINOIS FA.IIMER. 



Poor tillage will not produce good mel- 

 ons of any kind, much less of the finer 

 sorts. JDon't neglect to put out a patch, 

 however small, and thus compel your sons 

 to sneak abous and steal your moreindus- 

 trious or thoughtful neighbors': the sin 

 will lie at your own door, for the boys 

 will have them. If they can't get them 

 at home, they will steal them. 



Of Squashes, we have found the Hub- 

 bard the best. Plant the same distance 

 apart as for watermelons — same kind of 

 land. Tend the same, but be careful not 

 to plant them near together, or they will 

 mix and spoil both. 



§ ^Cucumbers, too, m\\ soon need atten- 

 tion ; they should be treated in all re- 

 spects as Skillman's fine netted melon, 

 but not planted near to each other. — 

 The Early White Spine is much the best 

 either for table use, 'or for jnckling. 



The little striped bug is the pest of all 

 these vines. We know of no remedy. 

 Sifting plaster over them while wet with 

 dew is the bcst,'but sometimes that fails, 

 and the vines are all destroyed. 



The pumpkin, too, is getting to be 

 worthy of more attention, especially as 

 it fails among corn, except on new or 

 sod land. And as our fruits are grow- 

 ing less and yet less, who would not like 

 to have a nice lot of sugar pumpkins for 



pies 



? Plant about ten or twelve feet 



apart each way, on" good rich land, and 

 tend well, without any other crop on the 

 ground, and you may expect to be well 

 repaid next autumn. 



The old yellow-fleshed muskmelon to- 

 gether with all the coarser kinds of other 

 melons, we consider unworthy of further 

 cultivation. G. S. Innis, In 



Ohio Cultivator. 



April 10, 1860. 



We have little to add to the above. 

 Early planting is our motto, and if a 

 frost is threatened, cover up the plants 

 with earth. This is to be taken off in 

 the morning. In this way a few hours 

 work will save the vines, and you will 

 have them early and out of the way 

 of the little striped marauders. We 

 sometimes use boxes made of clapboards 

 and cover with a pane of glass, but the 

 earth is the cheapest and the best. — 

 Boxes covered with millent answer a 

 good purpose for the squash family, 

 for which the striped bugs have a partic- 

 ular relish. For fall and early winter the 

 Boston Marrow is an excellent squash. 

 The Hubbard follows it in season. 



applied the principle, with progressive improve- 

 ments, to other descriptions of scales, until they 

 now furnish upwards of one hundred varities of 

 scales, the largest of which will weigh a loaded 

 canal boat of five hundred tons, and so down to 

 the nicest bank or jewel scale. 



The world-wide reputation of the Fairbanks' 

 Scales is owing, first, to the ingenious but sim- 

 ple mechanical arrangement, and next, to the 

 persistent determination of the proprictoi'S 

 alwaj'S to sell a first rate article, atid at a reason- 

 able j)rice. Hence their scales arc everywhere 

 the acknowledged standard, and at the same 

 time are sought for the commonest uses. By 

 this means they have built up a model town 

 around their father's old mill, its character an 

 honor to the State, and a desirable home for the 

 families of their several hundred workmen. 



[ From the New York Independent.] 



Fairbanks' Scales. — Two brothers, sons of 

 a miller in the northern part of Vermont, having 

 occasion for a more convenient method of weigh- 

 ing a bulky article than by the old fashioned 

 hay scales, contrived a more simple plan, for the 

 mechanism of which they took out a patent in 

 1830. The result was so satisfactory that they 



-••»- 



Prairie Cellari. 

 Editor Illinois Farmer : — Your 

 correspondent, Wm. S. Prose, asks how 

 he can make a cellar upon our prairies 

 so that the same will be dry, well ventila- 

 ted and secure from rats, frosts, &c. No 

 difficulty need be experienced in making 

 a cellar upon any place on our prairie 

 possessing all the requirements of Mr. 

 Prose. Brick for a wall, (if hard burn- 

 ed,) will answer a very good purpose in 

 the absence of that better material stone, 

 they are not as good as stone for the 

 reason, that they absorb a large amount 

 of moisture, (even if of the best quali- 

 ty,) rendering your wall less secure 

 against frost in consequence. The wall 

 should be not less than one foot in thick- 

 ness, and the foundation for the wall 

 should project one foot outside of main 

 wall, and be well laid in cement, the ob- 

 ject of which, is to prevent rats from 

 getting in from the outside, it is a well 

 known fact, that rats, in making their 

 entry into a cellar always follow ihe wall 

 until they reach the bottom, then go un- 

 der into the cellar; but if upon their ar- 

 rival at the bottom, they meet with the 

 projection, it is to them an insuperable 

 barrier ; as their sagacity is not suffi- 

 cient to enable them to surmount the 

 diflSculty. No cellar on our flat prairies 

 should be more than one foot below the 

 surface, if more, darrpness is the result. 

 To make a cellar secure against water, 

 tho wall should be well laid in cement as 

 high as the natural surface, and plaster- 

 ed upon the outside with the same mate- 

 rial ; and that too, iu as thorough man- 

 ner as would be done for a cistern — if 

 plastered upon the inside, the pressure 

 of the water will break it loose — the bot- 

 tom of your cellar should be excavated 

 in the form of inverted segment and 

 paved with brick or stone laid in cement 

 and then upon the inverted arch you can 

 fill in either with broken brick, stone or 

 coarse gravel, and grout the whole with 

 thin cement, which after being thorough- 

 ly set, may bo plastered ovor with one 

 coat of cement mixed, three parts sand 

 to one of cement, which when thorough- 

 ly dry will not only be rat proof, but 

 water proof — as no amount of pressure 



from underneath can effect it in the least. 

 As regards the cost of walls for cellars, 

 stone is nearly as cheap at Tuscola as 

 brick. Stone from Kankakee laid in 

 wall at Tuscola will cost seven dollars 

 per cubic yard of 27 cubic feet ; while 

 brick will cost $9 00 per thousand laid 

 up — 1,000 brick will lay one and 17-27 

 cubic yards — for instance the cost of a 

 wall of stone for a house 24 by 32, wall 

 6 1-2 feet deep and one foot thick, will 

 cost $189 00 complete — while brick 

 would cost of same dimension, ^147 42, 

 and will last perhaps fifteen years, while 

 stone will last for all time. Now who 

 would not pay the difference and have 

 stone ? To make it proof against frost, 

 it must be hollow above the ground, and 

 the better way to construct it is get your 

 underpinning stone about four inches in 

 thickness and about eighteen inches wide 

 and set them on edge with joints closely 

 pointed with good mortar and back up 

 with one course of brick upon the inside 

 leaving a clear space between the stone 

 and brick of four inches. A wall con- 

 structed in this manner is secure against 

 any frost we have in this latitude. One 

 word about filling around the house. If 

 you have plenty of room, (I make this 

 remark because land in all our western 

 towns is so very scarce that but little 

 room can be had,) make your fill one 

 foot for twenty feet from your house on 

 all sides making the slope of the edge of 

 your embankment one and one-half to 

 one, protecting it from washing by turf- 

 ing it with good blue grass sod. Then 

 fall back five feet or more, and make 

 another fill — turfing as before, and so on 

 until you have it raised to sufficient 

 height — sow the whole in blue grass and 

 in a short time you have a neat yard 

 around your house which is perfectly dry 

 and sufficiently elevated to secure to 

 your home that much desired appendage 

 health. It costs no more money to 

 build a cellar above described, than to 

 make excavation, while its advantages 

 are manifold. L. W. Walker. 



West Uebana, April 9, 1860. 



The above is just in time for those 

 contemplating to build, and not too late 

 for a large class who ought to raise their 

 houses to grade and put good cellars un- 

 der them. We think Mr, W. recom- 

 mends setting up pretty well, but as his 

 own dry, neat and well ventilated cellar 

 is so valuable, that we do not feel dis- 

 posed to quarrel with him. That stone 

 is better than brick, all must concede, 

 and the suggestions of Mr. W. in rela- 

 tion to hollow wall, with the economy of 

 making it, should not be overlooked. 



Ed. 



— A bad hat, takon to an evening party, 

 tVequently comes out the next day as good as 

 new. 



