1861. 



THE ILLmOIS FAEMEE. 



239 



and which disfigures the fruit. There iB no ap- 

 parent 'njury to the texture of the fruit ; hand 

 picking would be a cheap and effectual remedy, 

 but most of the mischief was done before being 

 observed. 



We woiild suggest instead of so many plowings 

 the use of the roller and the harrow. In this 

 soil all trees throw their roots deeply in the soil 

 and you can plow close to the trunk with impu- 

 nity. 



PEACH AND APPLE ORCHAED. 



The apple trees were set two rods, or thirty 

 feet apart each W"y, and intermediate rows of 

 peach trees set through them both ways, making 

 the squares sixteen and a half feet. These are 

 also culiivated with the single plow and mule, 

 but receive less attention than the pears. The 

 trees have beeen set four years. The apples 

 have not made remarkable growth, from bad 

 handling in the first place by the nurserym »n ; 

 few of them have fruit. The peach trees are 

 loaded down, and the orchard of a thousand trees 

 will furnish several hundred bushels for market, 

 and cannot fail of making good returns for the 

 outlay. Oi the varieties we shall speak in an- 

 other place. 



THE CHINCH BUG. 



The chinch bug has become a permanent ene- 

 my and irakes his annual inroads into the field 

 crops. From the wheat stubble he attacks the 

 corn and continue!= with it the remainder of the 

 season. A constant stirring of the soil is the 

 best remedy now known to protect the corn ; he 

 does not like to be covered in dry dirt at all. — 

 The late Hungarian grass affords the most pleas- 

 ant food for him. 



THE WHEAT MULGO. 



We had hoped that we would have been spared 

 the infliction of this pest, but it appears that we 

 are not, lor he is reported here in already un- 

 comfortable 1 umbers. Early sowing is the best 

 known remedy — but then comes the Hessian fiy, 

 with this early seeding. Here we have another 

 incentive to try the early seeding and pasturing 

 which we have before recommended. The May, 

 or Alabama wheat, from its earliness, has in 

 most cases escaped them. 



The yield is good, and from the best evidence 

 that we can get, will average thirty bushels to 

 the acre. 



THE PEACH GRUB, 



Mr. Yales finds the peach grub somewhat 

 troublesome. His remedy is to take them out 



with a knife in October, they are then small and 

 to work in the bark. With a garden trowel he 

 lays the collar of the tree bare, and with a knife 

 takes out the young grub. The process is not a 

 very laborious one and should not be neglected. 



THE FAMILT MEDICINE CHEST. 



The vegetable garden is the great medicine 

 chest of the farmer, and it should be well filled 

 with good, thrifty, well cultivated plants. No 

 labor on the farm will pay so good percentage as 

 that devoted to the production of a good vegeta- 

 ble girden to the extent required by the family. 



MANURE. 



On this large fruit farm no regard is had to 

 the saving of manure, and certainly the pear and 

 peach trees, with thorough culture, do not need 

 it, yet the old apple orchard now in grass would 

 well repay the outlay for a reasonable supply. — 

 The small fruits need it for mulching, and it 

 would be valuable in the garden if not on the 

 corn, but its use is, we believe, entirely over- 

 looked. 



We arrived in Centralia in the afternoon and 

 had the pleasure to meet Mr. A. P. Crosby, wait- 

 ing for us with a carriage. His farm is about 

 one and a half miles southeast of the station, 

 on a gentle slope overlooking the village. The 

 apple orchard which he had entered for the pre- 

 mium was almost level, gently siopitig to the 

 southeast just enough for surface drainage. The 

 trees when planted were three years old, an^i 

 have been set six years. The culture has beei. 

 of the best, otherwise there would have been 

 no orchard, for the trees in the first place were 

 badly grown in the nursery and wo"-'" handled, 

 giving them a set back on transplanting that 

 required some two years of generous care to 

 bring them up to grade. They are i.ow in the 

 most thrifty condition and presenting a fair show 

 of fruit for such a selection of varieties. The 

 trees are set thirty-two feet apart, on a level sur- 

 face, and the ordinary level culture is adopted. 

 A crop of buckwheat is now some two inches 

 high. 



VABIETIES. 



As we enter the orchard from the north side 

 we are greeted with two rows of Bed June, rich 

 in the deep red of their pomonal beauties; twen- 

 ty-one of the5e marshaled into line loaded with 

 fruit, now ripe, would gladden the heart of all 

 the school boys of the more tardy north. Twenty 



