114 



THE ILLmOIS FAEMEK. 



April 



two cents and a half paid the farmer for the raw 

 stock, the total cost of the product of the mill is 

 iour cents a poand. Its market value may range 

 from nine to fifteen cents, according to qnaliy of 

 stock. The linen mills of Great Britain, annually 

 use one hundred thousand tons of flax, most of 

 which is imported, and our eastern mills chiefly 

 depend upon foreign supplies, importiaghnnually 

 about $200,000 worth of flax, at the average cost 

 of fifteen cents a pound. The plentiful produc- 

 tion of American flax, will readily turn man- 

 ufacturing capital to the erection of linen 

 mills near the field of supply. The material 

 when delivered to the linen factory in the silver, 

 is already half manufactured, and can be spun 

 and woven for less than three cents a pound — 

 the average cost of manufacturing cotton from 

 the bale. The plantation cost of cotton, at the 

 present value of slave labor, is not less than eight 

 cents a pound, and the market price averages 

 twelve cents. Taking into account the greater 

 density of flax, which requirt s about thirty per 

 cent, more weight of material than cotton, in 

 yarns of given fineness, we have in the foregoing 

 unmistakable assurance that linen fabrics can be 

 made as cheap as those of cotton. The greater 

 durability of linen makes it economical for use 

 at more than two-fold the price of the other. 



All the details of the^e new labor-saving pro- 

 cesses have been practically proved, and they af- 

 ford a basis, and the only one yet laid, on which 

 flax can successfully contend with cotton for the 

 "kingdom." But, to prosecute the business, at 

 the outset, on a scale to realize the minimum 

 cost of production, is beyond the usual limit of 

 individual means applied to new enterprises, and, 

 with all the promise of profitable investment, it 

 yet calls earnestly for a wide co-operation of the 

 friends of free labor. With such associated aid 

 the existing perfection of modern l.nen machin- 

 ery, and the ability, by the new system, to pre- 

 pare the material at trifling cost, soon can make 

 us independent of slave grown cotton. This 

 alone, it is believed, may afford a peaceful solu- 

 tion of the great question of our times. 



How to Save Frozen Trees. 



la the fall of 1854 we made a purchase of trees 

 at Syracuse, and in consequence of late shipping 

 and the crowded condition of the railroais they 

 did not arrive until late. Some four or five bales 

 of Dwarf Pears and Plums were sent to the wrong 

 warehouse and could not be found until the mid- 

 dle of January, and then on the north side of a 

 pile of coal in a yard near Weils street bridge, in 

 Chicago. They had been expo'ied to all the snows 

 and frost, but out of the sun, and from the time 

 of their freezing up had probably been in a fro- 

 zen state. The snow was then several inches 

 deep, the sleighing good and the weather clear 

 and cold. They were taken to our nursery then 

 at Leydon, the snow cleared ofi' from a space in 

 the garden, the crust of frost ^ome six inches 

 deep broken up, and the trees put in, the tops 



were slightly covered with earth and a thick coat- 

 ing of straw put on, and kept in place with rails 

 and billets of wood. la the spring these trees 

 come out in fine order, and we do not recollect 

 of losing one of them. Again, on the23d of No- 

 vember last, we received several packages of 

 dwarf pears, two hundred of which we re-packed 

 and shipped south. Before they left this station 

 they must have been frozen solid, for the ther- 

 mometer went eight degrees below zero. It was 

 nearlya week before their arrival at destination. 

 We had given instructions how to treat them, and 

 the direction was complied Y»ith, with the addition 

 of applying a quantity of half rotted manure, 

 which commenced heating before the trees were 

 taken out this sj ring. They appeared to have 

 sufi'ered none from any other cause than the ma- 

 nure, and but few of them from that. 



The conclusions that we derive from theFe and 

 other similar trials wh'ch we might give, is, [hat 

 it does nnt injure well packed trees if the frost 

 can be dravrn out in the ground, by covering up 

 root and branch. 



Oil Trad 3 and the Railroads. 



The 'pL'uing of the oil wells in Pennsylvania 

 and Ohio has I een the cause of materially iu- 

 creasinij; the receipts of the railroods. There is 

 no trlling how muci' fare has been received by 

 the difi'erent companies from people talking on 

 oil bus'inefs, but the gross sum mu.st be immense. 

 The Lake Shore road, from Eiie to Butfalo, has 

 reaped quite a little sum out of the tiaffic In 

 tl.e month <>f December 4,510 b.arri-'s ; J.inuary. 

 14, olG barrels, and in February 8,72U barrels, 

 making a total of 27,546 barrels of oil. werj 

 shipped hy this road to Buffalo and eastern mar- 

 kets. Think of twen'y-one car loiids, or 1,050 

 barrels of oil, an one train ! There have also 

 been shipped over this road two hundred and sev- 

 enty st am engines for jumping the oil. The 

 total value ot these shipments amounts to over 

 $400,000. 



As an item of interest to oil men, the Pitts- 

 burg Post says: "The importation of foreign 

 coal oil, under the new tariff, will be almost im- 

 possible This fact is of iuteret-t to numbers of 

 Pennsylvanians who have recently inves edinthe 

 oil business. The provisions of the new tariff 

 impose a cln'y 'on Kerosene oils, and all other 

 c^al oils, of ten cents per gallon.' Foreign pro- 

 ducers, uuder these circumstances, will have to 

 look elsewhere than the United States for a mar- 

 ket." 



Thi= oil business is playing smash with the 

 distiller ; the days of burning fluid is nearly past, 

 as' kerosene takes its place, giving a better light 

 and much more safe from accident. Every year 

 brings some new change, and the laggards are 

 behind. Slop feed beef and pork must give 

 place to the farm fattened, and the smoke of the 

 distillery will cease to go up, Ed. 



