!R*?- 



1861. 



THE ILLESrOIS FAEMEE. 



199 



[Written for Field Notes.] 



Beceipt for Black Baspberry Wine. 



Provide a barrel or cask with bung ; if it hold 

 more than you wish to make it is no matter. — 

 Take four quarts dry or five quarts wine measure 

 of good ripe berries for every gallon of wine you 

 wish to make. Mash or reduce to a fiae pumice 

 and add to the mass thiee pounds good sugar 

 (once refined) for every gallon of wine, with 

 warm soft water sufficient to make the mass li 

 quid. Prepare a barrel with holes in the bottom 

 and clean straw like a leach and put the mass to 

 drain through, and add to the pumice as it be- 

 comes dry, lukewarm soft water till you have the 

 desired quantity of clear liquor. Place the cask 

 in a secure place in a cool cellar. Make the bung 

 an inch and a half long and bore half ■ way 

 through it from the top with half inch bit and 

 the rest of the way with gimlet — insert half inch 

 lead tube ten or twelve inches long, and make 

 both bung and tube air tight in their places by 

 putty or wax. Now with a tumbler of water sit- 

 ting near the bung, bend the tube over till the 

 end dips under the water. In this way the gas 

 will escape in bubbles through the water, but 

 no air can rpach the wine, and if the bubbles 

 cease before about six weeks see to the putty 

 around the bung and tube. When the bubbles 

 cease it is fit tor use, but keep bunged tight with- 

 out racking off and it will improve by age. 



H. H. DOOLITTLE. 



Oaks Corners, Ontario Co., N. Y. 



Effects of War on Agriculture. 



The Springfield (Mass.) Republican has 

 been surveying the field of agricultural la- 

 bor, reasoning as to the influence of the war 

 thereupon, and closes up with the annexed 

 paragraph : 



More than a hundred thousand active Northern 

 men have rocently forsaken the ordinary pursuits 

 of agriculture, manufactures, and trade, for the 

 defense of their country, and the entire body of 

 those left at home are giving much time and 

 thought to the same object. The result must be 

 a greater demand for farm labor, a diminution of 

 crops for the coming harvest, and higher prices 

 for farm produce next year. The teeming mil- 

 lions of earth and all its armies depend solely 

 upon agriculture for bread. Food is the first and 

 daily requisite of every human being In time 

 of war there is always a sad waste of food, and 

 more is needed for the same number than in time 

 of peace. Buyers for the army may by whole 

 sale empty the markets, and thus seriously affect 

 prices. The demand for bread and meat will 

 consequently greatly increase. The States most 

 likely to be the scene of conflict will do but little 

 for their own support, for the spirit of war gives 

 a feeling of insecurity unfavorable to agricultu- 

 ral pursuits. The South, the present season, will 

 pi oduce but little, for both blacks and whites 



have something else to do. Added to this the 

 accounts from England of a wet spring, i*feoder- 

 ing planting impossible in man'j cases, will, rt^ is 

 thought, even with future favorable weather, re- 

 duce the crops fully one-third below the average. 



The Tornado in Champaign Country. 



The army worm had just subsided into his chry- 

 salis after destroying thousands of acres of meadow 

 and pasture, the chinch bug and grasshoppers 

 were preparing for new inroads of destruction, 

 when the elements made a grand combination, 

 determined at one fell swoop to close out the 

 growing crops and put the farmers into liquida- 

 tion, a result well nigh attained. Wednesday, 

 three o'clock p. m. of the 19th was set for the 

 onslaught, and which came off in a most grand, 

 imposing and destructive manner. We have not 

 been able to trace it to its place of beginning, 

 but it entered this county near its nojthwestern 

 corner, passing southeasterly, west of the city of 

 Champaign, giving the city a few scattering bail 

 and a sharp brush of wind, passing to the eastward 

 of Tolono in the same manner. It passed direct- 

 ly over our place, apparently parting and spread- 

 ing out to a greater width, with less destructive 

 powers, being more severe on both sides of us. 

 During the fore part of the day heavy thunder 

 showers had been seen to the north, the east and 

 the west, and at limes threatening us with a wet- 

 ting down, which, as a severe drouth had set in 

 for some days, was a much wished for infliction. 

 After noon the clouds became more and more 

 threatening, so much so that the teams were not 

 taken out; and about three o'clock the storm 

 cloud under the million horse power of the tor- 

 nado hove in sight, its dark masses rolling and 

 twisting with its giant forces bearing in its front 

 two bands of a light water color, the whole tinged 

 wijth a deep sea green and fringed with dark 

 masses relieved at intervals by flashes of light- 

 ning. 



Its approach was grand and appalling. The 

 wind, which had been blowing briskly from the 

 southeast, now died away to a dead calm, and all 

 eyes were turned toward the fearful tempest that 

 was approaching at the rate of two miles a min- 

 ute; windows were hastily shut, doors closed and 

 bolted ; men ran from the fields ; not a breath of 

 air stirring; no thunder broke its stillness ; no 

 mutterings from the cloud, for swift as sound on 

 it came, bearing in its van huge clouds of dust ; 

 a sweep with its rolling force — a dash of hail — a 

 closing in of darkness with the roar of a thous- 

 and cataracts — a fearful two minutes ard the de- 



