1861. 



THE ILLINOIS FAPtMEE. 



217 



Prepare for tour Cane Crop. — Now is the 

 time to be getting your arrangements made for 

 cane mills and evaporators. Farmers should not 

 wait until the season comes for working up this 

 important crop before getting their mill and 

 evaporator, as a little delay may lose them the 

 whole crop. The best machinery is always the 

 cheapest. For evaporators, sheet metal is far 

 preferable to cast iron, it is more sensitive to 

 heat and is not liable to crack. 



In the evaporator line the truly valuable 

 Cook's Portable Evaporator is held in high es- 

 teem. It has given unbounded satisfaction every- 

 where ; has been thoroughly tested by thousands, 

 and it is accorded that it works more rapidly 

 and makes as good if not better syrup and sugur 

 than can be made in any other way. We advise 

 fanners not to throw away money upon experi- 

 mental machinery. The syrup which took the 

 first premium of §15 at the last State Fair was 

 taken from a lot of G64 gallons made upon it by 

 Mr. Samuel Murray, of Murraysville. See ad- 

 vertisement on another page. 



Buckwheat. — From the 1st to the l5th of the 

 month is the time to sow this grain. Last year 

 the crop was a pretty general failure, and in con- 

 sequence the seed is scarce and high in price. — 

 Unless you can follow buckwheat with oats we 

 would never fdvise its sowing. It is useless to 

 plant corn or potatoes after this crop, as a poor 

 crop will follow. We wou'd not recommend the 

 sowing of large fields of this grain in this part 

 of the State. We confess to a partiality for 

 slap-jacks in winter, yet when we have grown a 

 supply for home use we are content, Wisconsin, 

 Northern Michignn and Minnesota is the home 

 of the buckwheat crop. There also the millers 

 better understand it. In fact, so expert have 

 they become, that last year when the crop was cut 

 off ihey supplied the market from the shorts of 

 spring extras, but after all it was a poor sell, and 

 they would do well not to repeat it. 



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Turnips. — We never fail to sow one or two 

 acres of turnips, arjd with the excepti n of last 

 year, have not failed of a crop for several years. 

 We prefer low land, the second or third year af- 

 ter being broke up. Landreth's Strap Leaf and 

 Skirving's Purple Top have been our favorites, 

 the first for early feeding and the latter for win- 

 ter. The ground should be deeply plowed so as 

 to bury the seeds of weeds ; roll after plowing, 

 sow and harrow in and again roll. The rolling 



will crush the lumps at a much cheaper rate than 

 the harrow, and without having the land in fine 

 tilth it is useless to sow. We usually sow broad- 

 cast a pound of seed to the acre from the first to 

 the middle of July. If too thick they must be 

 thinned out, and all large weeds kept down. 



Handling of Bees. — A writer in the Homestead 

 condemns the practice of handling the bees by 

 taking out the movable frames. He has a new 

 hive that he says the moths cannot get in, and if 

 they should do so they would fall out without 

 help. That may do with the Connecticut moths, 

 but our kind stick like wax when they once ob- 

 tain a lodgement. 



Horticulturist tor June. — This work is be- 

 coming more and more valuable as the practical 

 and the useful predominate over the intensely 

 artistic , at least so to the AVestern reader, who 

 is compelled to have an eye to econoaiy. C. M. 

 Siitou & Barker, 25 Park Row, New York, $2, 

 or $2 50 with the Illinois Farmer. 



Farm Premiums. — The book of entries is now 

 in the hands of the chairman of the committee, 

 and a programme of the routes and time will 

 soon be made up, and competitors for both farms 

 and nurseries will have notice of the time as near 

 as it is possible to make it out The committee 

 will make their visit at an early day. 



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The Poultry House should be whitewashed 

 inside and out ; change the nests and get, if pos- 

 sible, sassafras poles for the roosts. Throw in 

 gravel and lime or coarse sand for the bens to 

 roll in. Lice are bred in the hen house, and care 

 should be taken to keep them out. 



«». 



Two-HORSK Cultivators. — We intended to have 

 said something on this head, but must wait un- 

 til next mouth, when we shall take down in- 

 ventors and manufacturers not less than two 

 or three pegs. The piinciple is the true one, 

 but such botching is a shame to the age. 



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The Gardener's Monthly, for June, is a val- 

 uable number. This work should have a wide 

 circulation; $1 50 with the Illinois Farmer. 



Bebs. — Look well to your bees for the bee 

 moth. Ours were neglected for a few days, when 

 one swarm was found nearly destroyed with 

 them. 



