208 



THE ILLINOIS FAEMEK. 



July 



and we have full faith to believe it will be higher. 

 Beware of the speculators, as you wilUose Loih- 



There is very little doing in wool here at this 

 date. The nominal rate is 18a28 cents, while at 

 this time last year the market was active at 28a 

 42 cents. — Chiciqo Tribune. 



We tliink the above a correct view of the 

 subject, and hope our wool growers will con- 

 sider carefully before they part with their 

 wool. Another thing, beware of such bank 

 paper as may be paid you, for if anything 

 can be palmed off in place of specie funds 

 it will be done. Ed. 



From Home. 



The Grain and Fruit Prospect in Central and 

 Southern Illinois— Coal Mines— The Army Worm 

 —Mode of Farming— Camp Defiance. 



So little have we traveled this year that we had 

 almost lost the idea of progress, and begnn to 

 take to books and newspaper and to follow in the 

 footsteps of one Mr. Fogy, who busies himself 

 with musty volumes ami supposes his garden 

 boundary to be the outer wall of creation. A 

 few days since, as the soldiers say, we ordered 

 rations for a week, determined to see what was 

 doing south of us. 



THE CROPS AT HOME. 



The winter wheat was not very thick on the 

 ground in March, but it tillered out well and 

 gives promise of a good crop. The e-irly sown 

 spring wheat is also fine. A few persons sowed 

 late, some of them on land plowed this spring ; 

 of course these stand b'lt a slim chance, and by 

 next spring they will have more practical or at 

 least proiit .ble views of the time and mode of 

 growing spring wheat. Barley is good ; rye is 

 very fair, and a large breadth sown for " hog- 

 ging down ;" that is, the hogs are turned in to 

 do the harvesting This is becoming a profitable 

 and popular mode of early feeding, and to that 

 extent supercedes the use of corn; potatoes only 

 moderate, the cold rains having a bad effect on 

 those early planted ; broom corn, flax, beansand 

 sorghum are promising. The stand of corn is 

 the best that we have ever seen, in fact it is too 

 good, and most of it will have to be thinned out 

 with a hoe ; some farmers are now performing 

 this service. The army worm having furnished 

 an abundant supply of food for birds and other 

 vermin ; they have had no occasion to pull the 

 corn, nor has the cut-worm shown himself, as 

 usual, but even with this fine stand the land has 



broken up rather ungenial, and if this present 

 promise of a cold season continues the crop will 

 certainly be a light one, nor do we think the best 

 of weither, wiih this ungenial condition of the 

 soil will make more than a fair average crop. — 

 We are neither a croaker nor the son of a prophet, 

 but draw our conclusions from the well establish- 

 ed laws of nature. To overcome this condition 

 of the soil we have used the iron roller freely, 

 and in addition have made a one-horse roller that 

 will pass between the rows to crush the lumps, 

 and up to this time we have already worked our 

 corn three times, but with all this it is making 

 but a moderate growth. Corn dealers may draw 

 their own conclusions or even laugh at these no- 

 tions, which some of them have done, in private 

 conversation. July and August make the corn, 

 they say, but July and August never made a big 

 crop on lumpy, unpulverized soil. Last season 

 the soil was in the finest possible mechanical con~ 

 dition and a good crop could hardly be avoided. 

 We have long since learned to look more to the 

 condition of the soil than the weather, though 

 the latter has a decided effect upon the farm. 



THE CROPS IN EGYPT. 



We enter the great basin of Upper Egypt at 

 Neoga, and can see at a glance that tha same re- 

 marks hold good in regard to the corn crop ; in 

 fact, it is hardly as forward, even the best of it, 

 while much of that cut off by the army worm and 

 replanted is but just up. The roller must and 

 will be s^on added to the implements of corn cul- 

 ture in Egypt, if her farmers would keep pace 

 with the progress of cheapening its culture and 

 insuring its greater certainty. The winter wheat 

 and oats are here very fine. The Alabama or 

 May wheat is beginning to ripen as far north as 

 Mason, while che Blue Stem is ten days later ; at 

 Richview we meet the first of the harvest in a 

 solitary field of a few acres and another degree 

 of latitude is passed before the harvest becomes 

 general, even with the May wheat, being some 

 three weeks behind the usual time. 



AT CESTRALIA. 



The fruit crop at this point is exceedingly pro- 

 mising, and the young pear orchards are loaded 

 with fruit. The curculio has been less active 

 than usual, contenting himself with a part of the 

 plum crop a^'d leaving the peaches nearly un- 

 touched. This remark was found to hold good 

 throughout our trip; the lovers of good peaches 

 therefore will find those from Egyptfree from the 

 usual drawback of a guming outside and a worm 



