THE ILLINOIS F^Ii:iSIEIl. 



Ill 



part of our State. For strawberry culture, 

 it is the place of places. Almost any loca- 

 tion south of the Big Muddy river to Cairo 

 is the place to locate the great strawberry 

 fields that are yet to supply the north with 

 this most delicious fruit. We cannot too 

 strongly urge upon all who have not as yet 

 located themselves for Iruit growing to visit 

 that part of the State. We know of no 

 business that will pay better than strawberry 

 culture, when entered upon with zeal, 

 prudence, economy and capital, in that 

 Italy of the west, the romantic hillsides of 

 pomonal Egypt. Messrs. Newhall & Clark, 

 G. H. Baker, Col. Bainbridge, H. C. Free- 

 man, Mr. Carpenter, Mr. Vaneil and others, 

 have fine plantations of fruit at South Pass, 

 and will take pleasure in showing visitors 

 their grounds at any time. A visit there, at 

 this time, to see the immense crop of black- 

 berries and other early fruits, will well repay 

 the trip. Take a look at Egypt good friends 

 who intend to make fruitgrowing a business. 



Amount of Rain for '§^, 



January 2,.33S6. 



February 2,9845. 



March 2,lU03. 



April 3,8991. 



May 5,7125. 



June 5,3378. 



July 2,.^740. 



August 4,42'22. 



September .5,1737. 



October 3,1956. 



November 1,6621. 



December .2,3129. 



Inches 41,7(533. 



Average of the Seasons 43,0000. 



Deficit — inches 3,2317. 



Amount for '58. 



The rainy season 50,1323. 



Excess 12,132:}. 



Difference in the two seasons — inches .16,3040. 



By relereiice to page ten of the January number, the 

 amount of raiu for '5S will he seen. The difference of the 

 two scasouo wa3 not so much la the amount of rain, ai in 

 the lower temperature preventing evaporation. 



The Value of Deep Plowing for Corn. 

 Mr. J. W. Prose, of Tuscola, Doug- 

 las county, informs us that last year he 

 raised one hundred and ninety bushels 

 of corn from three acres of ground, 

 ■nhile his neighbors that had eight and 

 ten acres, did not get more. He plowed 

 his ground ten inches deep, laid it 

 off about three feet, and planted the 

 same distance apart in the row, two ker- 

 nels in each hill. The ground -was 

 prairie, plowed for the second time. — 

 The seed used was common ^vhite corn. 

 This shows rhat can be done by deep 

 plowing and thorough culture. "We can 

 point out any number of farmers who 

 had thirty and forty acres of corn last 

 year, who did not get more than thirty 

 bushels to the acre, when if they had 

 planted only one half as much, and had 



tahen care of it would have had the 

 same amount of corn and not had to 

 run over a large field to get a poor re- 

 turn for a poor investment. IE \fe had 

 thirty acres of corn planted, and found 

 that we could only cultivate twenty acres 

 and do it well, we would let the ten acres 

 go or plow it up, and seed down with 



timothy and clover, 



-•• -^^'.:'\ 



^From the Homestead, Hartford, Conn. 



The Cattle Disease. 



FALSE ALARM. 



Certain timorous souls have, it would 

 seem, heen frightened out of all propri- 

 ety, by exaggerated rumors that this dis- 

 ease had come, or was gradually advanc- 

 ing over the State, and there have been a 

 class of people, perhaps from superior 

 wisdom, or from constitutional conserv- 

 atism, who have scouted the idea, and 

 have clearly perceived, even as it has 

 now proved, that there was no danger 

 at all, or next to none ; "there is every 

 reason,'' say they, "to suppose that it 

 will die out before long ;'' that if now 

 it is virulent, soon it will be found to 

 yield to remedies, like small pox, etc. 

 Others say, it arises from close stables, 

 and is catching if animals have been 

 kept in unventilated stalls, but not 

 otherwise; others, that have known the 

 disease for years, and 'doctored' it with 

 success, and that this slaughtering of 

 well animals, or those slightly diseased, 

 is perfectly barbarous. 



Well, so these wise ones talk; and 

 they act, too. In the Legislature they 

 pull wires, and work to convince those 

 W'ho are anxious for the security of the 

 millions of neat cattle in the State, that 

 the danger is confined to few; that it 

 will not come near them; and they ridi- 

 cule the idea of a whole county going 

 distracted over a sick cow, etc., etc. 



:;// ANOTHER SIDE. : : 



But let us not be too hasty, and now 

 that our legislators have really acted, 

 and we have a law, let us deliberately 

 consider the facts, and we can judge 

 whether the action of the commissioners 

 is judicious or not, — for their powers 

 are such that the court they most fear 

 will be that of public opinion, and they 

 will depend in no small measure upon an 

 enlightened public sentiment for the 

 ability to efficiently carry out the meas- 

 ures which they decide upon. 



In whatever way we approach the 

 consideration of this disease, we are met 

 with the fact that it is new in this coun- 

 try, and well known in many parts of 

 Europe. Cattle maladies defying medi- 

 cinal treatment, in many cases, and 

 spreading either as epidemics or by con- 

 tagion or infection are very unusual in 

 this country. The catarrhal murrain, 

 or murrain proper, is not known in this 



country, so far as we are aware; typhus 

 fever is sometimes very deadly and ap- 

 parently infectious, many cattle in the 

 same or associated herds dying of it ; 

 lung fever is not unfre'][uently epidemic 

 in England and we have no doubt it 

 may be so here. Then, too, som« bowel 

 complaints are more or less epidemic, or 

 supposed to be so; and diseases of the 

 «kin we all know are apt to run through 

 a herd when affected animals are not 

 isolated. But these are all well known 

 diseases, treated, to be sure, in various 

 ways, and under almost every variety of 

 names by the "cow doctors." This 

 disease is something new. We have be- 

 fore specified the symptoms at length, 

 and now would only recall a few promi- 

 nent points. 



Usually the animal has the disease 

 upon it at least eight weeks before it 

 becomes so unwell as to excite special 

 attention; and it may be months after 

 this that it gets along very comforta- 

 bly, the appetite good, and nothing un- 

 usual observable, except, perhaps, oc- 

 casionally being "out of sorts.'* It has 

 a cough whieli is peculiar — not a husky, 

 olowing cough, but one quick and deep- 

 seated, caught suddenly, and as if the 

 animal had no wind to spare; as the 

 disease increases the peculiarity of this 

 cough does likewise. It has even been 

 noticed that animals laboring under this 

 disease improve in flesh, and we can 

 easily' see how this may be the case, 

 as the disease is not a painful one, 

 but gradually diminishes the capacity 

 of the lungs, and narrow-chested, small- 

 lunged animals are, it is well known, 

 most apt to take on fat. When they 

 finally fall, it is as evidently very sick 

 animals, and they die finally of the 

 gradual filling up of the lungs, causing 

 suffocation, combined with inflamation, 

 or fever of the lungs, sometimes the 

 lungs becoming even partially decom- 

 posed. . ".: : ■^■. : '•■,-■■■ 



The thickening of the enveloping 

 membrane of the lungs, and the adhe- 

 sion more or less to the walls of the 

 cavity of the chest; the filled-up, in a 

 measure solidified, state of the lungs; 

 the thickened edges of the lobes of the 

 lungs, and often portions of the lung 

 of a liver-like character; considerable 

 watery fluid in the cavity of the chest, 

 and the soft, flabby condition of the 

 heart; are unmistakeable symptoms of 

 this disease, seen upon the dissection 

 of the animals, and which no butcher 

 who is a careful observer will claim he 

 is familiar with in combination, as pre- 

 sented in this disease. 



It is then, a foreign disease, beyond 

 all question; and moreover, it has only 

 recently been known in England, unless 

 the disease which raged there lUO years 

 ago (1756) was the same disease, as it 

 probably was. r v 



