124 



THE ILLINOIS F^HMER. 



hours, could accomplish so much. In the 

 yard we made the acquaintance of a pure 

 bred rat tarrier, a very fine and useful an- 

 imal in these parts whore rats do abound. 

 The Dwarf Pears were all fine, we particu- 

 larly noticed some twenty trees set last fall, 

 loaded with fruit. We could not of course 

 decide where those trees were grown, but 

 certainly they are the best grown trees that 

 we have seen. (Well, they ought to be, for 

 Charley selected them himself out of our 

 nursery — Ed.) The grapes in the sun 

 were fine, but in the shade slightly mildew- 

 ed. The ground is kept loose under the 

 trees by the use of a many pronged fork. A 

 large apricot against the woodshed was load- 

 ed with fruit, now ripe, (28th June.) 



The garden of Mr. Pease is another fine 

 specimen of what may be done in this Italia 

 of the west, as you, Mr. Editor, call it, but 

 we glory in the name of Egypt. This gar- 

 den has been planted three years, and now 

 produces good cropsofCherrieis, Plums, Ap- 

 ricots, Peaches, Dwarf Apples, the early 

 Harvest, now ripe, aLso, several of the 

 Pears, such as Madaline. etc. Uncle Ben 

 now put on his spectacles, and after giving 

 the fruit a critical examination, declared that 

 they were as fine as any grown in Lower 

 Egypt. Mr. Pease said he would show us 

 a contrast to his fruit in another garden, and 

 truly there was a vast difierence I "What 

 can make this?" asked Uncle Ben. ^^Under- 

 draining,'' said Mr. P. and the scales fell 

 from our eyes "and we saw clearly." Egypt! 

 thou land of Pomona; the hand of man must 

 finish thee, and in sweat surely qhall ho 

 eat fruit. 



Mr. Hawley, of the Centralia Hou8e,took us 

 to their farm a mile distant to the west. At this 

 farm, three years ago, they kept two hundred 

 breeding sows, but tliey found the number 

 too large, and now keep less and give them 

 better attention. They have at this time 

 some forty, of various breeds, including 

 Berkshires, Cumberlands, Irish Grazier, 

 Byfield, Suffolk and Essex. The finest lot 

 is that of the Suffolk and Essex. His Cum- 

 berland boar cost him S70. The food, 

 much of it is steamed, and the corn when 

 fed whole is shelled. The pens have good 

 plank floors; with good pasture near by. 

 Messrs. Hutchinson & Hawley are doing a 

 good thing, not only for themselves but the 

 farmers, in improving the breeds of hogs in 

 this part of the State. To this farm is added 

 a large vegetable garden, from which they 

 draw the supplies for their hotel. We re- 

 gretted when we heard the coming train, for 

 we should have been pleased to have spent a 

 few more hours among the new fruit gardens, 



just outside of the city. Egypt. 

 1». 



Tamobva, Periy county, 111., July 12, 1860. 



Editor Illinois Farmer: Your June 

 number is before me. Speaking of the 

 Southern Illinois Horticultural Society, 

 you say : "Last year when the fair was 

 at Jonesboro, Superintendent Arthur 

 took an active part. He issued over 

 one hundred and fifty free passes to per- 

 sons attending the fair, not half of which 

 were used on that occasion, but most of 

 them afterwards, and with all this lib- 

 erality on the part of the Illinois Cen- 

 tral Railway,[thG Fair was but a partial 



success.'' I know something about that 

 Jonesboro Fair, The officers of the So- 

 ciety applied to such officers of the Illi- 

 nois Central Railroad Company, as they 

 had access to asking for half fare tick- 

 ets for persons attending the fair. No 

 definite answerjwas received until during 

 the second day of the fair. I then re- 

 ceived a package of nine (9) return 

 passes filled out with the names of the 

 members of the Executive Committee. 

 About half of these were used by mem- 

 bers of the committee in returning from 

 the fair. Some of them were never 

 used. This is the whole amount of free 

 passes that were issued /or the benefit of 

 the Society on that occasion. If that 

 fair was but o, partial success j our State 

 Fairs for six years past have been but 

 very partial successes. The citizens of 

 Jonesbero liberally furnished for the use 

 of the society, the largest hall in their 

 town, which was well arranged to receive 

 articles on exhibition. Every foot of 

 space upon the tables was filled — was 

 crowded. The visitors were so numerous 

 that I was obliged to say to them from 

 time to time, th^|; they would much ob- 

 lige the Society if they would examine 

 the articles as much as thev wished and 

 pass out as soon as they had done so, be- 

 cause others were wishing to come in. 



President Overmann of the State Hor- 

 ticultural Society, declared that he was 

 both astonished and delighted by the 

 number and the excellence of the arti- 

 cles on exhibition — that the fair was a 

 complete success, far 8urpassing|what 

 could have been anticipated. Dr. War- 

 der of Cincinnati, and many other Hor- 

 ticulturalists expressed similar feelings. 



Pecuniarily it more than met the ex- 

 pectation of the officers. It paid its own 

 expenses. And its beneficial effects are 

 still felt throughout Egypt. 



B. G Roots. 



Remarks. — Our information in rela- 

 tion to the free passes, was derived from 

 Mr. Arthur himself, i and we think we 

 have correctly represented what he said 

 in relation to it, but we may be in error 

 as to the number of them. Mr. Arthur 

 did not state that these passes were han- 

 ded to officers of the Societ}^ but on the 

 contrary we have the impression that he 

 gave them out through individuals. We 

 have good reason to know that Mr. Ar- 

 thur did take an active part in that Fair 

 and it is probable that our friend. Presi- 

 dent Roots, may not have been cognizant 

 of all his doings. Now if the Jonesboro 

 Fair was a success, with only nine return 

 passes, is it fair to charge the present 

 failure to the Railroad Company, De- 

 cause they would not issue half fare 

 tickets ? Most certainly not. 



We are not disposed to wrangle over 

 the matter. If our statement was an 

 error, w« cheerfully give room for the 

 correction. We did not attend the 

 Jonesboro Fair, and we are glad to know 

 that it was more of a success ^than we 

 had supposed from what we had heard at 

 the time. In the case of Fairs and ex- 

 cursions, we have no doubt that the rail- 

 roads would consult their interest to en- 

 courage them by granting return passes 

 free, but the extra expense of issueing 

 tickets and orders to conductors, has 

 been a serious annoyance, and^ unless 

 some more convenient system can be de- 

 vised, we shall not blame them for re- 

 fusing on ordinary occasions to enter 

 into the arrangement. 



We have a plan that we think will an- 

 swer the purpose. First and foremost 

 is the free carriage of articles of exhibi- 

 tion. We look upon this as of the most 

 value. In the place of half fare tickets 

 use the common ticket, and supply the 

 conductors with blank tickets printed: 



These tickets the conductor will filljup 

 at all times when requested by the pas- 

 senger, in accordance wkh his ticket. — 

 The tickets to be of no further value 

 than to show that the person did pay 

 and pass over certain portions of the 

 road, and in case free return passes are 

 granted, would be the evidence upon 

 which they would be issued. The re- 

 turn passes could be signed in^blank by 

 the general ticket agent or Superinten- 

 dent; and left in the hands of some re- 

 sponsible officer to deliver, he taking up 

 at the same time the conductor's ticket 

 as above. In this way no fraud could 

 be committed upon the road, for in the 

 conductor's ticket they would have the 

 evidence that the person has paid one 

 way, and as the officer of the Society 

 could only give return passes correspon- 

 ding to them; a strict compliance would 

 be secured. In this case no instruction 

 to the ticket agents or conductors would 

 bo required, and a large amount of la- 

 bor in making returns, would be saved. 

 No special ticket would-be needed, as a 

 general ticket would answer for all occa- 

 sions, and of courso no loss for extra 

 printing. These same tickets could be 

 used for State Fairs as well, and no 

 doubt save a large expense for printing. 

 We hope that our Egyptian friends 



