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THE ILLINOIS FA.I11MER. 



145 



to any section of the country where de- 

 px'ession prevails ; on the contrary, in 

 nearly every part of the Union, business 

 was never so extensive, so sound, or so 

 generally remunerative. Of course the 

 Western States must be regarded as 

 standing more or less in exception to 

 this remark. The extent to which the 

 resources of that section have been dim- 

 inished may be inferred from the large 

 decrease in the exports of provisions 

 and breadstufiFs which has occurred dur- 

 ing the two last fiscal year: 



EXPOKTS OP FBCVISIONS AND BBEAOSTUFFS FBOM 1854 TO 1859. 



1854 165,941,323 



1855 83,895,848 



1856 7T,187,30l 



1857 ■ 74,667,852 



1858 60,678,285 



1859 88,305,991 



The exports from July 1st, 1857, to 

 June 30, 1859, amounted in round num- 

 bers to $89,000,000, whilst for the two 

 preceding years they reached the sum 

 of $151,800,000. When it is considered 

 what a large proportion of the exports 

 of breadstuffs and provisions is supplied 

 by the West, it is not difficult to compre- 

 hend how such an immense decrease in 

 1858 and 1859 should be followed by the 

 financial difficulties and the trading 

 stagnation which have prevailed there 

 during that time. In addition to the 

 failure of the produce supplies, the 

 West has been in the trying position of 

 having its money capital withdrawn as 

 much as possible by Eastern creditors, 

 who have been anxious to withdraw from 

 what they nerviously deemed unsafe in- 

 vestments. Under such circumstances, 

 the wonder is not that the Western 

 States have been so much depressed, but 

 that they have not been vastly more 

 damaged, and that they are recovering 

 80 rapidly. It is gratifying to observe a 

 strong upward tendency in the receipts 

 of breadstufis at the Western centers. 

 The receipts of wheat at Chicago since 

 the first of August last are nearly double 

 those for the same period of the preced- 

 ing year ; in flour, also, a similar in- 

 crease is observable ; whilst the receipts 

 of corn are four times the amount to 

 those of the years 1858-9. The receipts 

 of cattle and hogs at the same point 

 since January 1st are also nearly twice 

 the amount of those for the same time of 

 last year. These facts will serve as an 

 indication of the recovery which has 

 been vigorously initiated in the W^est, 

 and it is reassuring to find that there is 

 every improvement being well sustained 

 by the present crops, which are uniform- 

 ly represented as covering a larger acre- 

 age than ever before, and having a 

 healthy and promising aspect. We have 

 therefore no further cause for uneasiness 

 about the inabilities of our Western 

 neighbors ; and we may henceforth hope 

 for much from them. 



The South it is thought has so far 

 overstocked herself during her late pros- 

 perity as to make it certain that she will 



need to curtail her fall purchases of the 

 North. This impression can of course 

 rest on nothing more than vague and ill- 

 supported rumors, which would appear 

 to have but little probability to support 

 them in face of the fact that the pur- 

 chases of the South during the last two 

 or three seasons have not increased 

 more largely than has the produce of 

 that section, and that the fall will close 

 up a year of cotton receipts 25 per cent, 

 larger than that of any pervious period. 

 Certain it is that this section has never 

 during its history accumulated wealth so 

 rapidly as during the two last years, and 

 that fact cannot but tell largely upon 

 the demand for goods. It is quite possi- 

 ble that in some few exceptional cases, 

 second or third rate traders may have 

 been induced to buy beyond their means 

 by those of our city jobbers who have 

 endeavored to make up from the South 

 the deficiences of their Western sales ; 

 but the proportion of that rank of buy- 

 ers is so small that such cases can have 

 no appreciable effect upon the aggregate 

 of our sales to the Southern States. 



The condition of the Middle and 

 Eastern States is sufficiently healthy to 

 warrant anticipations of a good demand 

 for merchandise from those quarters. 

 The cotton and woolen mills of the East 

 are making unprecedented profits and 

 their operatives all employed on re- 

 munerative wages. The strike in the 

 shoe trade has subsided, and the hands 

 are again employed, mostly on improv- 

 ed earnings. In short every section of 

 the country and, almost without excep- 

 tion, every industrial or trading inter- 

 est is in a sound and hopeful condi- 

 tion. Money is superabundant, and 

 notwithstanding the remarkably low 

 rates at which it is offered, there is no 

 rash speculation to take it up — ^a most 

 satisfactory and assuring sign of the 

 times. Upon the whole, therefore, 

 there would appear to be a season of 

 unequalled activity in trade : whether 

 sales will prove as profitable as they 

 are large must depend entirely upon 

 whether traders, through being over 

 sanguine, aremduced to overstock them- 

 selves. 



Remarks. — After three years of de- 

 pression it is gratifying to know that 

 the prospect of a return of the usual 

 prosperity is at hand. With good crops, 

 good prices and good health, the farmers 

 of our state may dismiss the fear of hard 

 times. With prudence and economy we 

 may regain all that we have lost in the 

 past thi'ee years, and if we enter On no 

 speculations or extravagant notions of 

 living, we shall be able to put our farms 

 in fine order. We need more and better 

 barns, more and better fences, better 



culture ; but we want less land. Too 

 many of us are land poor, and no pros- 

 perous times wall make us better off in 

 this respect. The excess of land not 

 needed for culture is only wwth what 

 it will Bell for, and we would advise its 

 sale to the first man who will make a 

 good neighbor. -^ -^ : ■ ■-.;■'' Ed. 



Hybrid Perpetual or Monthly Roses. 

 As these roses are becoming common 

 in many parts of the country, perhaps a 

 few words in relation to their culture 

 will not be out of place. Many people 

 fail to keep them in bloom all the time, 

 and thus often think that they have been 

 cheated, and this is no doubt very often 

 too true, where trees are bought of 

 itinerant tree peddlers ; but the fault 

 generally lies in their culture, and not in 

 the plant. A friend of ours complained 

 that the rose he purchased was not a 

 monthly. We asked him what he had 

 done to it to make it bloom. " Why, 

 nothing," said he, *'I set it out along 

 with the currant bushes, but it did not 

 bloom but once!" He expected & 

 delicate rose to keep up a constant show 

 of flowers, and with no other care than 

 that bestowed upon a currant bush, and 

 that none of the best. After a rose 

 begins to fade take your knife and cut 

 it off below the seed ball, then, if the 

 plant is a very vigorous grower, head it 

 in or layer the longer shoots, make a 

 basin around it and pour on soap suds, 

 (grapes and trees like soap suds too,) 

 and you will have no difficulty about 

 flowers. We have seen just as good a 

 show of flowers when treated this way, 

 in September as in June. Roses need 

 pruning as much as an apple tree, and a 

 judicious application of the knife alone 

 will keep them in bloom. There are 

 several hundred varieties of hardy per- 

 petuals, most of them need a little 

 covering in winter, in fact, any rose will 

 do better to be covered. We cover 

 them with earth, cut them back to 

 within a few inches of the ground, and 

 then with a spade make a email mound 

 of earth over them. After danger from 

 frost is past in the spring this earth is 

 removed. As roses bloom on the new 

 wood, we will soon have a show of 

 flowers, and this cutting back gives us a 

 stro^er growth and of course better 

 booms. 



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