116 



THE ILLmOIS FAKMER. 



April 



The Illinois Farmer. 



BAILHACHE & BAKER PUBLISHEES. 



M. L. DTJNLAP, EDITOR. 

 SPRINGFIELD, APRIL 1861. 



Editor's Table. 



The Administration Organ. — We hope our 

 readers will appreciate the selection of the Illi- 

 nois Farmer as the pet organ of the rail split- 

 ting party. Politicians may go to grass while 

 the Farmer presents the working programme of 

 the administration. Our party is not a sectional 

 one. the term rail splitter only having reference 

 to the early settlement of the country before 

 board fences and hedges came into use, and it 

 now includes all, whether they use rails as in the 

 primitive time, hedges, boards and posts, or the 

 wire, whether put up in straight rods or woven 

 into fanciful forms. While the political papers 

 are all groping in the dark we have the pleasure 

 to lay before oar readers the plans and actual in- 

 tentions of the cabinet, together with no incon- 

 siderable advice what course should be pursued. 

 Coercion is decided upon and is to be incorpora- 

 ted in every department. Farmers should at 

 once enlist their companies and have them duly 

 officered and put in course of training. The first 

 fire should be made upon the corn fields after the 

 stalks and rubbish have been raked up into breast- 

 works Do not play the midnight marauder, but 

 when the eun has made the rubbish dry apply the 

 torch and thus sweep away the hiding places of 

 your enemies, the chinch bugs and other con- 

 temptible insects that feed upon your crops. As 

 yon are to invade the south early in the autumn, 

 you will plant largely of corn, oats, wheat, pota- 

 toes, etc. You can grow corn and ship it to the 

 sonth cheaper than they can grow it, or rather as 

 other products pay them better, they will grow 

 cotton, sugar, etc., and purchase corn of >ou, so 

 of flour, potatoes and other products that delight 

 la the rich drift soils ot the prairie. 



It would appear that Cairo is m more natural 

 depot for your supplies than New Orleans. As we 

 have set forth in another place, it is the natural 



point to which you should consign your southern 

 supplies, and from whence you should receive the 

 plunder obtained from thefairfields of the sunny 

 south, whether in the shape of cotton or grocer- 

 ies. The northern array of manufacturers who 

 are busy arming the commercial battalions will 

 receive their supplies through Chicago and To- 

 ledo as usual. The administration is particularly 

 anxious at this time that you look well to your 

 neat stock, for between hay and grass is always 

 more or less a critical time. If you let them out 

 in the fields or on the prairie through the day, 

 see that they are well fed at night and carefully 

 protected from cold storms; remember that the 

 good name of Illinois beef is not to suffer in Ihe 

 markets of the world. The Presi 'ent assures us 

 in a private dispatch that our ministers and con- 

 suls will be instructed to look after this matter, 

 and by dining alternately on Illinois and foreign 

 beef to keep well posted as to its quality. We 

 have recommended to the Secretary of War to 

 direct the building of additional fortifications at 

 Cairo for the storage of grain and its more con- 

 venient handling, and to the Secretary of the 

 Navy that the craft on the Mississippi be so con- 

 structed that they hereafter carry grain in bulk 

 instead of in gunnies, as at present. 



On the subject of seeding down to grass, "what 

 crop shall we seed with " has created a regular 

 rebellion, or at least a state of anarchy exists. 

 As this is rather a local question the cabinet will 

 take no part in it at present, but continue to re- 

 ceive reports. The one from a " Farmer of Du- 

 page county," in the last Prairie Farmer, they 

 look upon as pacific in its character, at the same 

 time they look upon the subject as a little mixed. 

 They would suggest that April is rather late 

 to sow with oats in central Illinois, but would 

 rather risk plowing the stubble and sowing in 

 August. Old seed is to be looked upon with sus- 

 picion. We think the question will find a peace- 

 ful solution, and our farmers I e hereafter saved 

 from serious loss in seeding and our seedsmen re- 

 ceive less condemnation- for bad seed. The plant- 

 ing of orchards, the improvement of our homes, 

 more barns and farm buildings, the covering of 

 corn cribs, the housing of implements and an 

 economical outlay of labor have been the subject 

 of several cabinet councils, and it is hoped thai 

 improvement on all these subjects will receive 

 prompt attention. The south, the north and the 

 east have their eyes turned toward the teeming 

 prairies of our State, and even now they are 

 spieing out our weak places. If we are judicious 

 and treat these new comers with kindness we will 



