106 



THE ILLIISrOIS F^I^IMER. 



the second brood of caterpillars that they 

 have since died. We believe that by trans- 

 planting the bushes immediately alter the 

 crop is gathered, and then spading the 

 ground where the bushes grew two feet 

 deep, putting the surface containing the 

 caterpillers a7id their cocoons, at the bottom 

 of the trench, we shall destroy the great 

 portion ; and then by a little attention the 

 next year we can still raise currants and 

 gooseberries. 



This insect, though comparatively new 

 here, is a very old enemy in England, 

 where, however, by care and attention, it has 

 been so far destroyed that it does but little 

 injury. Such will, we hope and believe, be 

 the case in this country. 



Remaks. — In the above is a whole volume 

 of warning to those who, without any regard 

 to the result, purchase trees and plants of tree 

 peddlers and others at the east. The im- 

 mense demand for trees and plants has in- 

 duced our large nurserymen to purchase 

 largely of European nurserymen, and in 

 doing so liave with their importations 

 brought many of their most destructive of 

 the insect tribes to our country. ]iut such 

 firms as Elwangcr &, Barry, A. Frost & Co. 

 and many others, know too well that it will 

 not do to send out with the plants tliese new 

 depredators, and thus make an unceasing 

 war upon them as fast as they are discovered, 

 at the same time others pay no regard to the 

 subject, their object being the most money 

 for the least value. The Bark Louse has 

 nearly destroyed the apple orchards in 

 Wisconsin and in the north part of this 

 State, and we may well be excused from 

 wishing immunity from the insects describ- 

 ed above. We believe that our western 

 nurseries are yet clear of this pest, and we 

 trust they will remain so, by refusing to 

 send for a single plant in the infected dis- 

 trict; emigrants from the east will bring 

 them soon enough without the nurserymen 

 sending them broadcast over the land. 



Farmers cannot be too careful of what 



they purchase in the way of seeds. At an 



early day a friend of ours seeded his farm 



nicely with yellow dock, sorrell, charlack and 



white daisy, purchased with his llochcster 



grass seed ; and we had a fine show of white 



daisy and yellow dock sown with winter rye, 



from Long Island. Since then we have 



been suspicious of new importations of 



seeds. A fine plum orchard of ours was 



ruined by the plum leaf blight, purciiased 



ten years ago at Cleveland, and which could 



be directly traced to the French nurseries. 



We are now rid of it, but not until the last 



plum tree was dead. The pear leaf blight 



was imported, and for a long time proved 



disasterous, but it is now nearly or quite 



eradicated, and we hope that the west will 



keep clear of it. People cannot be too 



careful what they plant. Apple trees grown 

 in the outskirts of our groves are generally 

 well filled with embryo borers, which will 

 cut down the orchard in due time. All 

 such importations of insects are all the more 

 destructive in this country, from the fact that 

 their natural enemies the ichneumons, are 

 not imported with them to feed on them and 

 thus check their rapid progress. 



Farmers and planters should see to it that 

 they deal with responsible parties and not 

 with every itinerant who may ply them with 

 plausible stories. Ed. 



-—^ 



ricshman's Xcw Mode of Plowing. 



1500 K FARMING. 

 We have a class of agricultural writers, 

 who without any claims to practical experi- 

 ence, set themselves up par excellence as 

 the oracles of wisdom in all that pertains to 

 the improvement of the soil. We have be- 

 fore us a pamphlet of twenty-one pages, 

 with the above title, and which we place 

 under its appropriate head — hook /armiufj!. 

 The writer, without even claiming that he 

 has seen the prairies of the west, draws 

 comparisons between them and ths strjipes of 

 Southern llussia, and prescribes what he 

 calls a new mode of culture. We have re- 

 produced his illustrationa,and will give them 

 without further comment, as they need none 

 toehow our farmers their true value. We 

 do' this to show our readers what kind 

 friends they have among this class of phil- 

 anthropists. When the new plow, that is 

 to produce the wonderful revolution in 

 prairie culture arrives, we will post them up 

 so that its superlative advantages may not 

 hi lost. The noval manner in which it is to 

 operate, with the ease of draft, will no doubt 

 soon make it a favorite — with the inventor. 

 We have only room for a few of the argu 

 ments advanced : 



''But we cannot convince ourselves tiat 

 the stcam-pIow will become general in its 

 application, and that it will entirely replace 

 working cj'.ttle, especially as long as wc arc 

 obliged to keep cattle to produce the neces- 

 sary manure; as long as we have to carry 

 that manure into the fields, to gather and 

 house the crops, to transport grain to 

 market, and to perform many other jobs 

 about the farm. When chemistry discovers 

 a clieap and convenient fertilizer, steam- 

 plowing miglit then be more advantageous; 

 but as long as such a discovery has not been 

 made, the steam-plow will be only instru- 

 mental, by our present mode of exhaustion, 

 in deteriorating our fertile lands faster, and 

 hastening the ruin of the western States. 

 It would make rich fathers, but many poor 

 sons, and a number of depopulated States. 



The apnlication of steau* to plowing will 

 be limited, and the small farmers have little 

 to fear from a depression of prices caused by 

 an excessive production by moans of steam- | 

 plows. To escape that influence entirely | 



they must endeavor to find means to produce 

 cheaper, in order to bo able to compete with 

 their rivals in foreign wheat markets. 



However, the question is not yet settled, 

 whether the United States is in "reality a 

 wheat producing country, and if she will be 

 able to calculate much upon exportation, 

 especially if the ruinous effect upon that 

 crop shall continue, as it has of late years." 



Well, Mr. Fawkes. what do you think of 

 that, eh? And Fields, with your rotary 

 digger, pulverizing the soit a couple of feet 

 deep, just stop and take breath, wont you ? 



With a dozen millions of bushels of wheat 

 exported from the little village of Chicago 

 annually, it will be difficult to convince the 

 western farmer that he cannot grow wheat, 

 and especially when the culturo of clover is 

 more fully introduced. 



** The principal staple of the country is 

 Indian corn, which is mostly consumed at 

 home, finding little demand from abroad.'' 



Yes, and goes abroad in the form of pork, 



beef and hi<j;h wines. 



" This new mode of plowing consists in 

 opening a wide furrow, say from eighteen 

 to twenty four inches or more, and four 

 inches deep, splitting the slice in two, and 

 turning one part of it it to the right and 

 the other to the left of the furrow. The 

 next furrow is to be opened parallel to the 

 first one, and care must be had that the 

 slices are j)Iaccd side by side, to give the 

 plowed field the appearance represented in 

 fig. 1. 



Fig. 1. 



The new plow with which we execute this 

 mode of plowing, has in the rear another 

 double mould board plow, which is set six 

 to eight inches below the main plow, thus 

 opening, in one and the same operation, a 

 smaller but deeper furrow, giving the field 

 the appearance in fig. 2. 



Fig. 2. 



The first and wide furrow being four 

 inches deep, the small one eight, makes the 

 centre furrow twelve inches in depth. The 

 soil thrown out from the centre furrow is 

 placed on each side of it, in the wide fur- 

 row, and leaves thus the place wherein the. 

 corn is to be planted exposed to the influence 

 of the light, air and warmth, to change not 

 only the physical constitution of the soil, but 

 attlie same time weathering its minerals and 

 promoting the decay of its organic constitu- 

 ents, and facilitating the proper interming- 

 ling of the various kinds of soil, in the exact 

 proportion as the one or the other .soil may re- 

 quire it. When thus the land has been pre- 

 pared, and exposed during the winter or for 

 some time, the harrow is passed over the 

 furrows, and the loose soil from the slices 

 overlying the intact strips is mixed with the 

 subsoil thrown out from the centre furrows, 

 and thus mingled together and carried back 



