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180 



THE ILLIKOIS FAEMER. 



June 



The Illinois Farmer. 



BAILHACHE & BAKER PUBLISHERS. 



M. L. DTJNLAP, EDITOR. 



SPRINGFIELD, JUNE 1861. 



Editor's Table. 



Five months of the year 1861 have fled, not on 

 angels wings, but amid the clash and din of 

 hasty preparation for grim visaged war. The 

 booming of cannon has been borue on its wings, 

 as the days sped on, and its echo is still rever- 

 berating through the present, nor will the old 

 notes cease until drowned out by a mightier din, 

 the combined baying of colambiads and huge 

 mortars, to which the Minie are but the faint 

 yelpings of a lady's poodle. Giant armies are 

 wheeling into line, but as yet have scarcely let 

 loose the dogs of war ; another month, and the 

 wailing of widows and the plaintive cry of the or- 

 phan may be heard — business ruined and thous- 

 ands of families accustomed to all the comforts 

 of a luxurious soil and sunny clime, driven from 

 their homes and sent out penniless into the wide 

 world to battle for their daily bread. Four hun- 

 dred thousand despots who would lord it over the 

 fair heritage of free labor and crush out the hap- 

 py homes of the sons of toil have betrayed their 

 country and turned it into one vast military 

 camp. We can but hope that the contest will be 

 short, followed by speedy punishment to the trai- 

 tors. Let them not continue to breathe the free 

 air of our country, but drive them out or give 

 them to their own buzzards. 



vVhile the government and our soldiers are pro- 

 tecting our institutions and making free homes 

 worth living for, it becomes us as cultivators of 

 the soil, to see to it that the great staples of life 

 shall be produced in abundance, to feed those 

 who are called to defend the country. So far as 

 we can learn our farmers have never exercised a 

 more judicious management than during the past 

 season, not only in their outlay, but in their dis- 

 position to pay off old debts, and thus place 

 themselves in an attitude of independence. One 



great difiBculty with many families in the coun- 

 try is to imitate some city relative or friend sup- 

 posed to be rich, but whose title deeds and claims 

 to the same are locked up in the vault of some 

 banker, labeled, "hypothecated." Could we lay 

 bare this mushroom gentry we would do our in- 

 dustrious sons and daughters a vast deal of 

 good, for they would then take warning. In these 

 times, especially, it is not in good taste for the 

 wife or daughter of the farmer or mechanic to in- 

 dulge in fine dresses ; shilling calico, and other 

 light but inexpressive goods are more in accord- 

 ance with their duty both to themselves and their 

 country. Where this contest will end, or what 

 may be its results, cannot be seen in the teeming 

 future ; we can but do our duty and take the 

 chances of what may lay before us. Let us 

 waste no time in idleness, nor squander our hard 

 earned money on baubles. Now is the time for 

 active, intelligent toil, the time to prepare for 

 reverses, should they come, or to enjoy the bless, 

 ings of peace, should such a happy event soon 

 occur. We have long since given up the idea of 

 a speedy yielding up of the traitors, they have 

 too complete possession of the Southern mind, 

 and all their eloquence and powers will be used 

 to continue the contest; their resources of the 

 munitions of war are ample for a vigorous de- 

 fense ; they will therefore hold . out until they 

 carry their fellow citizens with them in one wide 

 spread ruin. It is their aim, if fall they must, 

 to be considered as enemies of war rather than 

 as traitors to their country. We cannot, there- 

 fore, hold out to our farmers, the prospect of a 

 speedy close to the present state of things. Ag- 

 ricultural staples n7ust advance, especially meats 

 of all kinds and wheat. Corn, and the grosser 

 products of the farm will probably continue 

 about the same as at present. All cotton goods, 

 rice, and sugar, must rise in the scale of prices, 

 so of hardware, as the immense draft of this ma- 

 terial for war purposes will stimulate the produc- 

 tion, and whether the guns, shells and shot are 

 used, it matters but little, thousands of tons will 

 be made, employing a large army of mechanics 

 who will be drawn off from the production of 

 useful goods. It is with no pleasure that we con- 

 template this state of things. A lover of the 

 beautiful in nature and art, we can but look upon 

 this mad fratricidal war as a deep marring of our 

 picture. We prefer to see belts of waving forest 

 verdure and lines of hedgs, to glittering bayo- 

 nets and emblazoned banners— waving corn and 

 piles of golden grain, to the swaying of hostile 

 squadrons or mounds of deadly shells — the sound 

 of the merry "yo, heave," of the sailor, the go 



