208 



THE ILLINOIS FA.IIMEK. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



Another year baa rolled its "annual round;" a year rich tn 

 the products of the soil; a year of acttTe, tolling progress, 

 since we took charge of the Illibois Fabmbr. Twelve visits 

 have we made to the social circle that gathers at the fireside 

 of the industrial army, the tillers of the soil, and the mechan- 

 ic and the merchant who cultivate the broad acres of the 

 rolling prairie, the large garden or the small yard, with its 

 wealth of flowers; to all these hare we made our monthly 

 visits, bringing to them our own and the gathered experience 

 of others. It has not been our task to supply the news of the 

 day, to cater to the taste of the general reader, as that task 

 belongs to the dally and weekly press, whose duty It Is to 

 gather up and send out a history of the times. Our duty has 

 been to Induce a more careful and profitable culture of the 

 soil; to embeiish our homes, and to take a higher stand in the 

 field of progress. That we have not fnlflllad the expectations 

 of all our friends, we are free to admit; though we may claim 

 that the great majority have felt well repaid for the outlay. 

 Judging from the large increase of the readers of the Fabmbb. 

 Thus encouraged, we feel that we must press onward, never 

 to lay down our pen, so long as we find great truths underly- 

 ing our want«, not yet brought to the perception of the mass- 

 es. What short comings we may have been guilty of, we not 

 for the want of a desire to do more, or for the want of indus- 

 try, for we have had to make up the pages of the Farmer at 

 odd times, amid the more pressing busine^ of the farm, the 

 orchard, the nursery and the garden; added to this was no 

 ■mall amount of other incidental business that has occupied 

 much of our time, and required our best efforts We have 

 been compelled to travel thousands of milesf to be up late 

 and early, to accomplish the tasks that lay before us; but we 

 hope to begin the year with less of care, less of pressing busi- 

 ness, that shall take us from home, and should we continue 

 in charge of the Farmhr, we shall be able to give it more of 

 onr time, and by enlarging Its size make it much more useful. 

 Of this we shall speak more particularly in another part of 

 the paper. 



Amncal Register of Rural Affairs. — This little booklet 

 Is No. Seven of the series issued from the office of the Coun- 

 try Gentleman, at Albany, N. Y. It contains one hundred 

 and twenty -four pages, edited by J. J. Thomas, and embei- 

 Uhed with one hundred forty engravings of working-men's 

 cottages, plans of grounds, new agricultural implements, 

 fruits, eto. The chapter on noxious weeds is of itself wortii 

 more than the cost of the book, which is only twenty-five 

 cents, free by m4il. It should be in the hands of every farm- 

 er. Address Luther, Tucker & Son, Albany, N. Y., and In- 

 close the amount in postage stamps. 



Seed List. — We have received the wholesale seed list of 

 Oharlwood 4 Cummins, of 14 Tavistock Row, Covent Gar- 

 den, London, England. The list Is a very extensive one, and 

 to those who purchase English seeds the prices appear low. — 

 They report an advance in the price of many seeds In conse- 

 quence of the wet season. 



Thb Weather. — November has continued fine autumn 

 weathar until the, 22d, when we were treated with a snow 

 storm, which came up from the south-east, with but a short 

 notice, commencing atone o'clock, P. M. Tho snow fell 

 some fonr inches. The thermometer next day went down in 

 the close neighborhood of zero. Yesterday (the 2Cth) we had 

 a rain, and the ground is again nearly bare, witli a frost this 

 morning, and farmers now resume even husking. It is sel- 

 dom that we have such a sharp turn of weather so early in the 

 season. Stubbie land can he plowed, but the great hurry is 

 with the corn harvest, which, notwithstandinR tlie early ri- 

 pening of the crop, and the fine weather, is not one half 

 done. 



"The Gafdener'g Monthly for November, is before us, 

 and well filled with interesting gardening items we cannot do 

 our gardening friends a greater favor than to induce them to 

 order this valuable moutiily. We club with tho Fauuer at 

 one dollar and fifty cents the two. 



O'Riklly's American Terracultor. — This new invention 

 Is attracting considerable attention at the east; but from all 

 we can read of it, it will not disturb the equilibrium of our 

 present implements. Mr. 0. is the same person^ who gave 

 such an impetus to telegraphing, and is one of the most 

 energetic men now living, and if it Is possible to make this 

 rotary digger useful, he will .'spare no effort of money or brain 

 to do it; but our faith is very small indeed in its success. 



Macoupin County Fair. — Mr. Huggins writes us that in 

 farm products tliis county was ahead of the State Fair- This 

 we can easily believe, for any active man who took a deep 

 interest in the success of the Fair, and gave it his personal 



attention, could easily get up a better show in that depart- 

 ment than that which graced our State Fair. These things 

 require a little more than the mere printing and distributing 

 of the premium list. Individuals — the local press, and all 

 that must be evoked to fill up and perfect the show. We hope 

 nothing will prevent us from meeting our good friends of Ma- 

 coupin on the Fair ground next season. 



Gratuitous Advertising. 



WiLMiNQTON, Del., November, I960. 

 M. L. DuNLAP, Esq. — l>ear Sir : — gnclosed you will find 

 full scheme of Delaware State Lottery, Glass G20, to be drawn 

 on Saturday, Dec. 29, 1S09. Being anxious to sell the capi- 

 tal prize, and create an excitement in your locality, we havo 

 selected and now hold for you a package of 26 well arranged 

 tickets iu the enclosed scheme which can draw the four high- 

 est priaes, amounting to nearly 150,000. This package gives 



you the advantaKe of 932 50 worth of tickets, and will ba 

 sent you on sending us $20, (bills on any Bank good when at 

 home,) and to convince you of our confidence in its success, 

 we Will promise to send you another package in one of our 

 extra lotteries, free of cost, if the package we have selected 

 for you does not draw at least $3,000 more than you sent us. 

 We have made this offer in good faith, with a desire to sell 

 you the capital or some other good prize, and the only favor 

 in return we ask of you, is, that after you receive the 

 amount the package draws, you will use your influence 

 among your friends to increase our business In your neighbor- 

 hood. Enclose us $20, and the package will be sent you by 

 return mail. The official drawings with a written result of 

 the amount your package draws, will be sent you the day 

 after the drawing takes place. Hoping to hear from you 

 soon. Very respectfully yours, 



Wilmington, Del., Box 717. Smallwood i Co. 



P. 8. — All money sent by expresss comes at our expense. 



Remarks.— Gracious goodness I what nice, appreciating 

 gentleman these ticket venders are ! Just think of it I "We 

 have selected, sad now hold for yon," and all we have to do 

 is to send tbem the very small sum of $20, when we are to 

 have the tickets tliat can draw 150,000. Dear, considerate, 

 kind, philanthropic Messrs. Smallwood & Co. , could you not 

 have said will draw, just as easy as can? But we must set 

 It down to your modesty, for It Is not possible that you want 

 to tantalize us. Appreciating your great kindness and good 

 intentions to us, we have concluded to remit you the $20. — 

 Well, we have just returned from the Bank, and unfortunate- 

 ly, exchange is five per cent; well, five times twenty is one 

 hundred, making $21. But in looking over onr funds, we 

 have two dollars Bank of Aurora, ten of the State Bank, and 



the balance on the National Bank; and just at present we 

 cannot use the funds, but in a few days it will all be right; but 

 as so small a sum as $20 can be of but little object to such 

 large capitalists as yourselves, we propose that you charge us 

 the $21, which gives you $1 for exchange, and when we draw 

 the $50,0Oj prize, you can deduct it from the amount, and 

 send us the $4U,979 by a special messenger, and we shall al- 

 ways appreciate your kindness. To think that you should 

 have selected us as the recipient of this great boon; why, 

 bless your dear souls, we shall always remember your lotte- 

 ries, and siiall on all occasions recommend them to our 

 friends, especially the prizes. Tills $40,979 will make us rich, 

 and we shall now propose to retire to a jjrlvate life, 

 and we herewith give the publishers of the Farmer notice that 

 so soon as the special messenger arrives with the 8])ondulicks, 

 that they must thenceforth look out for another editor. But 

 in consideration of the great love that we have to our read- 

 ers, we liilenQ lo nave their subscriptions marked paid a year 

 In advance. And to the Messrs. Smallwood & Co. who have 

 been so magnanimous as to send us such a kind offer, and in 

 consideration that they have been at large expense to have 

 said letter lithographed, all except our humble address, we 

 shall be under everlasting gratitude to them, and to show our 

 appreciation of the favor, we have ordered a leather medal, 

 four inches in diameter and half an inch thick, in which the 

 Goddess uf Humbug stands rampant in a field of copper 

 bronze, with the motto, "Great is the Goddess of Hi'mbdo — 

 great th- Temple of the Delaware Lotteries — aud great 

 shall be the names of Messrs. Smallwood A Co. , their jirofits." 

 On the obverse, is the Fool Killer, slaying his thousands with- 

 out nercy, and Smallwood In the distance, running after 

 him and bogging him to stay his hand, calling out, "Oh, good 

 Fool Killer, stay, oh stay thy hand; ilost thou not know that 

 those are the friends and protectora^f our Great Temple; 

 may be one of them may yet draw the capital prize, and thus 

 become immortal ! Stop thy distructlve hand f" We are also 

 preparing the plan of a monument to their memory, to be 

 carved out of the giant Cottonwood, so as to hand down their 

 names to the latest ages. 

 P. S.— Since writing the above we learn that thousands of 



these special offera of great fortunes have besn mailed to the 

 rural population of our State, and we hope that all who re- 

 ceive this tempting offer will allow these liberal gentlemen to 

 deduct the twenty dollars from the prizes, and thus keep our 

 inconvertible currency at home. 



Rat Terbiers. — Mr. A. G. Hanford advertises this Invalu- 

 able animal in this number of the Farmer. Our farm and 

 grounds swarmed with rats, but fortunately we purchased 

 one of these rat killers (tan) and now there is scarcely a rat 

 on the premises, certainly none about our buildings. Mr. 

 Hanford can be depended on for what he says. 



The Columbus (Ohio) Nursery. — We have a letter from 

 A. G. Hanford, of Waukesha, Wis., informing us that he had 

 purchased an interest In the above establishment. We can 

 congratulate Mr. fiatcham upon his good fortune in obtaining 

 Mr. H. as a partner, and the tree-planting public will be the 

 gainers in thus coiabining so large an amount of talent, en- 

 ergy end capital in this business, so valuable to the new farms 

 of the west. This Nursery is now the largest and best ar- 

 ranged in the State of Ohio, and probably west of Rochester. 

 Over a hundre«l acres are closely planted, and present a most 

 thrifty growth of Nursery stocks. It was established five 

 years since, and the specimen trees are just coming into bear- 

 ing. The grounds are laid out in good taste, and the collec- 

 tion rellects the extended Pomologlcai skill of the manager, 

 Mr. B., under whose charge the Nursery has obtained its 

 present popularity. To those of our friends who wish to send 

 East for their trees we can most cordially commend this es- 

 tablisment. 



The Prairies or the Western States — Their Adtataobs. 

 ■~£l/ Charle* Lindsay.— Th\a Is a pamphlet of a hundred 

 pages of siiiall sice, in which the writer gives sage conclusions 

 in reference to the value of the plains. He landed at Milwau- 

 kee, passed to Prairie du Ohien, St. Paul thence to Daven- 

 port by steamboat— by rail to Mendota, Sandoval, St. Louis, 

 by steamer to Alton, went to Springfield, Tolono, Kankakee 

 and Chicago, occupying about two weeks, and strange to say, 

 he has been able to get op this very valuable work, showing 

 that the timber lands and eight months of winter In Canada 

 are more valuable than the prairies of Illinois, under more 

 genial skies. The writer could have made just as good a 

 book without spending time and money to visit the West, in 

 fact, from the mis-statements occurring throughout the work, 

 it might well be doubted whether he really made the trip. 

 He is pleased with nothing that is not either English or Cana- 

 dian, and for this reason makes the longest stop at Kankakee, 

 with the French Canadians. Everywhere his eye met the flat 

 prairie, and everywhere the dreaded ague and congestion 

 chills crossed his path. Wheat could not be grown, and 

 corn was of no value. Sickness and starvation were the rule 

 and good health the exception. 



We are probably indebted so some enterprising land com- 

 pany in the province, which Is ambitious to sell cheap wood- 

 lands, and who dislike to hear of our Illinois central railway 

 lands which have so roused their Ire, since the visit of Mr. 

 Carrol. 

 We have space for but little of this wonderful production. 

 From Burlinotok to Mendota. — "Scarcely any rolling 

 land occurs ; and in the entire distance of 120 miles we did 

 not cross more than one stream of any kind. The farmers 

 depend for water upon two sources ; what are called sloughs, 

 which, with very few exceptions, dry up at cert^n seasons, 

 and wells." 



* • • "But she can turn her com into beef; 

 and indeed this is about the only thing she can do with it ; a 

 fact which accounts for the existence of some considerable 

 droves of cattle which we passed between the Mississippi and 

 Mendota." 

 Rather rich, that. 



" The sloughs, before mentioned, produced malaria, in the 

 process of drying up. Everybody in Illinois, I found only too 

 familiar with the reputation of the congestive chill and Its 

 certain fatality in the third paroxysm. A clergyman, who 

 was lecturing at Mendota on ' ' War and Prophesy," told me 

 that he had known numerous Instances of this disease. It is 

 liable to occur at any season of the year ; and the strongest 

 are cut off In a few days. A friend of his, who lived north of 

 Mendota, was attacked with It In the previous November, one 

 night after supper. He hurried to bed ; but It was to the bed 

 of death ; he expired at the end of eight days." 



No wonder our traveler hurried out of the State as fast a 

 possible. 



Xi M»m>oT*.. — "Ilcro iho country is a dead level in all 

 directions. The effect is anything but agreeable. You seem 

 to be cramped up by the very extension of space, where there 

 are no prominent objects on wliich the eye can fix. The vis- 

 ion is bounded by the ilatnesa of the surface in this amplitude 

 of space ; for where the surface is level the eye cannot see 

 any portion of it at a great distance. The very fact cf being 

 level prevents that ; and as to Infinity of space, we can look 

 towards the sky on any clear day, be we where we may. The 

 effect of the prairie upon the vision is the reverse of that con- 

 ceived by those who tiave not seen it ; and where the land 

 has not been broken up, the effect is not agreeable." 



A SocKDOLQER. — " The bottom land of the Grand Prairie 

 may boost a soil of undoubted fertility ; but it is wanting in 

 two most important elements of civilization — wood and water 

 — the latter being also one oi the first necessities of existence. 

 Not a tree is to be seen ; not a stream occurs for hundreds of 

 miles ; not a drop of water is to be had but what the sloughs 

 present ; which is necessarily of the worst quality ; and, be- 

 sides, this source'fails every year, leaving malaria behind ; 

 with the whole train of diseases of which malaria is the 

 father : fever and ague, billious fever — which occurs in the 

 fall — the terrible congestive chill, and what is called " winter 

 fever," l)eing, according to some doctors, a compound of lung 

 fever, billious affection and erysipelas." 



Illinois Central R. R. Lands. — " Take them all in all — 

 considering the absence of wood and water, the uncertainty 

 of the climate, and the prevalence of malaria — should say 

 they are tlie least desirable lands In America for a settler to 

 purchase. But where only spring wheat can be grown, the 

 productive capacity of a country is not comparable to that of 

 a country like Upiter Canada ; and thus the advantage of 

 climate possessed by the latter, must be added to that of an 

 abundance of water, in living streams and timber. Where 

 all the water that exists on a farm occurs in sloughs, which 

 dry up in summer and leave malaria behind them ; where 

 there is no unfailing resource but wells, which have to be 

 sunk from twenty to thirty feet, and not unfrequently much 

 lower, the disadvantage is so marked that a country so situa- 

 ted cannot be compared to one like Canada which abounds 

 everywhere with living streams of pure water, from which 

 malaria is not generated." 



To a Canadian friend are we Indebted for this valuable 

 work on the explorations of our country in 1859, and which 

 is warm from the press. 



Mixed Corn. — Farmers will do well to sort their corn be- 

 fore sending to market, to suit the new grades, "pure white, 

 pure yellow and mixed." The mixed will sell several cents 

 a bushel below the other grades, rank with rejected, or No. 

 2. In cribbing, it would cost but little to separate the sorts. 



Adam's Corn Shbller. — This invaluable hand corn shellor 

 and separator, made at Sandwich, De Kalb county ,ls in great 

 demand by the farmers, and is well worthy of being brought 

 into general use. 



