188 



THE ILLINOIS F-A-HISIEII. 



it is but tlie lapse of the lon^ier years 

 of decay which, in the sight of its Crea- 

 tor, distinguishes the mountain range 

 from the moth and the worm,' — Chicago 

 Journal. 



BAILHAOHE & BAKER, FubUshers. 



M. I- DUNLAP, Editor. 



SPRINGFIELD, NOVEMBER 1, 1860. 



The year eighteen hundred and sixty 

 will he long remembered for its abund- 

 ant products in the North-western 

 States, following, as it has, two seasons 

 of almost entire failures of crops. The 

 farmer had little to sell, and of course 

 could purchase little of the mechanic 

 and the merchant, the consequence was, 

 a wide-spread stagnation of business has 

 followed, the bad effects of which have 

 not fully passed away, but are very much 

 mitigated. We have never before had 

 so fully verified that agriculture is the 

 great arbiter of success in all the 

 departments of business as in the 

 past three years. The spirit of specu- 

 lation that had grown up with hot- 

 bed rapidity during the past five 

 years, including the year 1857, or rather 

 closing with August, of that year, came 

 to a most inglorious stand. The Ohio 

 Life and Trust Company, of New York, 

 blew up scattering financial ruin in 

 every direction, and was quickly fol- 

 lowed by general disaster throughout 

 the West. The crops of that season 

 were good, and in this respect there was 

 nothing alarming but the financial dis- 

 asters. So depressed was the price, that 

 large as the surplus was, it commanded 

 but a small amount of money being insuf- 

 ficient to pay the current expenses of 

 the farmer, and wholly inadequate to 

 discharge the largo liabities of the farm- 

 er for more land and farm implements 

 and machinery ; two seasons passed with 

 small crops, yet with fair prices, but in 

 the aggregate below the cost of produc- 

 tion. But with economy and prudence 

 our farmers have struggled on, carrying 

 a large load of debt with accumulated 

 interest. But the present fine crop with 

 good prices is working wonders, indebt- 

 edness is rapidly disappearing, and eve- 

 rywhere we see signs of returning thrift, 

 the railroad trains groa \ ui djr the ac- 

 iu:niilated loaJs, the rolling stock is 

 weiri g out instead of rusting out, and 



the pulsations of commerce is carrying 

 health to the whole body corporate. 



The North-west, as in times past, is 

 becoming the centre of attraction, new 

 farms are sought for, new homes are 

 being carved out, capital is seeking new 

 elements of trade, and everywhere busi- 

 ness is reviving, not rapidly, but steadi- 

 ly, and in a most healthy manner. 



With returning prosperity, also comes 

 a more intelligent system of farming, 

 people begin to think of making com- 

 fortable homes a place to live in, instead 

 of places to stay in, to follow after the 

 realities of life instead of growing rich 

 on empty bubbles. We think our peo- 

 ple have learned some valuable lessons, 

 and that they will be in no hurry to 

 again run into debt as before, either for 

 more land, more dry goods, or more farm 

 implements, but sell and buy on the 

 ready-pay system. 



During these past seasons, the stock- 

 growers have not felt the depression so 

 much as the small farmer, or those who 

 have depended on the small grains ; but 

 we should not argue from this point that 

 stock-growing is the most profitable, or 

 that the great mass of farmers should 

 pursue it, on the contrary, a mixed hus- 

 bandry is what we should aim at. If a 

 man would farm on a large scale, stock- 

 growing is the safest for him, but as the 

 groat mass of farmers are men of lim- 

 ited capital they must make up in labor 

 and good management for the want of 

 capital. To do this, they must divide 

 their means between land and the neces- 

 sary appliances to work it to advantege, 

 for a large farm is useless without the 

 means to cultivate it. 



In the south part of our State, no 

 great improvement has been made in a 

 judicious rotation of crops. Shallow 

 culture, the weed follows, winter wheat 

 and corn continue in their rounds of 

 shiftless farming. At the North, we see 

 many improvements, winter wheat, at 

 first the great western staple, has given 

 place to spring wheat, oats, corn, buck- 

 wheat, flax, vegetables, the cultivated 

 grasses and clover, these latter produc- 

 ing a large amount of seed for export. 

 In the central part of the State, at an 

 early day, corn and hemp were the 

 great staples, the hemp was shipped, the 

 corn fed out to stock, and driven East 

 or South, the market for hemp failed, 



and stock-growing became the great fea- 

 ture, but now with all our railroads that 

 have brought us within the reach of the 

 markets of the world, a vast change has 

 been inaugurated, and we leave the bea- 

 ten field of stock-growing to the hands 

 of the large farmers and enter upon a 

 system of rotation of crops. 



Spring wheat will soon become one of 

 the great staples, potatoes for shipping 

 South will hold no small place, fruit cul- 

 ture will be an important subject of traf- 

 fic with the North, while the hay crop 

 for both seed and hay will assume large 

 importance, not that we will send any 

 less fat cattle, pork, mules and horses 

 to market, but will add very many valu- 

 able products, mostly from the large 

 number of small farms that the new 

 condition of things has brought into ex- 

 istence. Our manufactures are becom- 

 ing of importance, giving employment 

 to thousands and creating a homo de- 

 mand for many of the most profitable 

 products of the soil. The restless dis- 

 position of the pioneer settlement ia 

 giving place to greater stability, and 

 society is assuming a more agreeable 

 and definite form, the farmers home is 

 becoming a place worthy the name, and 

 not as formerly a place to emigrate 

 from, a mere matter of trafl5c to be 

 shifted from time to time according to 

 the whim of the owner. With a few 

 more genial seasons of prosperity this 

 great State of ours can be made what it 

 really should be, the garden of the 

 world. 



Copeland's Broad Cast Seed Sower. 

 Many have been the attempts to produce 

 a good practicable broad cast seed sower, 

 but thus far, without valuable results. 

 Hatch, of Now York, took out a patent over 

 twenty years since, but he killed his bant- 

 ling with an unheard of price. Some ten 

 years since he spent a week with us in an 

 attempt to improve it, the patent having 

 run out, but without avail. His machine was 

 as good as the average of most made since, in 

 fact, it has stood the almost exact sample of 

 the race. But alaa ! poor Hatch went down 

 to a pauper's grave, where if he had sold 

 hia sower tor ten dollars they would have 

 made him rich, for the world was then all 

 agape for a patent aower, but no, it should 

 be sold, if sold at all, at seventy-five dollars, 

 and •' the farmer who would not pay that 

 was no patriot." A few years since a man 

 by the name of Cahoon, broke out in a ne^ 



