1861. 



THE TLLEN'OIS FARMEE. 



213 



The Illinois Farmer. 



BAHHACHE & BAKEE PUBLISHEES. 



M. L. DUNLAP. EDITOR. 



SPRINGFIELD, JULY 1861. 



Editor's Table. 



June always was an interesting month to the 

 cultivator, and one on which his hopes for the 

 season may in a great measure be said to rest, 

 for if we attend to our duty this month we may 

 expect to merit a due reward. June, though, to 

 the poet, is the month of roses, and in many of 

 its aspects the most pleasing and lovely of the 

 year, is often tilled with dark spots in the es- 

 cutcheon of the farmer, for during this month 

 the insect tribes love to revel in mischief, and in 

 this month the hail storm often plays sad havoc 

 in beating down the crops. This year the army 

 worm has been the most busy since 1842, a peri- 

 od of nineteen years, sweeping off thousands 

 upon thousanis of acres of meadow, of pasture, 

 and of corn. The Hessian fly has in this month 

 completed his transformations, and is now ready 

 to lay his egg?, but his career will be short, and 

 we no longer fear him as of old. The chinch bug 

 is ready to do us damage, but cold seasons like 

 the present do not suit him, and he must await a 

 more genial sun. The army worm has supplied 

 food in abundance to the feathered tribe and 

 other vermin that delight to pull up the farmer's 

 corn, and never have we seen so perfect a stand 

 as this season ; we have not seen or heard of a 

 8ingle hill that has been pulled by any of these 

 niarauders that usually prey upon the young corn. 

 From this we may take a hint, feed them with 

 worms, by plowing, or sow corn for their use and 

 ■ffe will have less complaint of them. Hail storms 

 have been unusually abundant this season, and 

 on the whole the season cold and back- 

 ward, yet we look forward to fair crops. The 

 "war continues to disarrange business, while it 

 may in fact be said to be at a dead halt. The 



war has ruined the currency and the currency 

 has ruined the banks, but from the general for- 

 bearance of the people to each we shall look to 

 less disastrous results than under ordinary 

 circumstances. Values of all kinds are sorely 

 at fault, and it is difficult to put up any estimate 

 for the future. No one can predict the end, and 

 it therefore behooves each to use the utmost econ- 

 omy in his business and to especially avoid going 

 into debt. 



Our Hail Stokm. — Reader, did you ever own 

 a hail storm or have one pay you a friendly visit, 

 harvest your cereals, cut off your garden vegeta- 

 bles and play all sorts of pranks with your trees 

 and favorite plants ? If you have not you are 

 fortunate indeed, but if you have you can sym- 

 pathize with us. The storm of the 19th, of which 

 a n?ore full account is given elsewhere, done as 

 no small amount of damage. In looking over the 

 farm we count the loss of twenty-five acres of 

 spring wheat in full bloom, a dozen acres of , rye 

 just filling out. This rye was sown early in Au- 

 gust, and had been pastured, thus demonstrating 

 that we can sow early and pasture and yet grow 

 a fine crop of grain upon the same mode now be- 

 ing practised in Oregon *ith what is called June 

 wheat. We never saw a better crop of rye, and 

 old farmers here say it was the best that they 

 had ever seen. Not a blade of either rye or 

 wheat is left standing. Two acres of black Tar- 

 tarian oats went the same way ; four acres of 

 navy beans, just ready for the cultivator, were 

 swept off, and ha^/e been replanted; melons, 

 squashes, cucumbers and pumpkins gone beyond 

 hope of renewal. Early potatoes, and all early 

 garden vegetables, nearly ruined ; corn set back 

 as by a frost, fences blown down and buildings 

 more or less injured; a total loss of fruits of all 

 kinds, the destruction of flowers we may well 

 count in the category of ills. All these, and 

 many more we have to mourn as a farmer, and 

 in which we have the sympathy of the farmers. 

 But when we go into the orchard and find over 

 thirty acres of fine young trees just bearing their 

 first crop of apples, of pears, of cherries, of 

 plums, of apricots, of almonds and of peaches, 

 almost denuded of leaves and fruit, with trunk 

 and limbs sadly marred, we can find few who can 

 fully appreciate our loss. In the nursery we 

 have less to mourn, for by severe cutting back 

 we shall soon make amends, and again all right 

 and fair. We had been ambitious to wipe out 

 the popular fallacy that fruits would not thrire 

 on the prairie, and wtre in a fair way to do it. 



