262 



THE ILLmOIS FAEMER 



Sept. 



Agric'iltural Society, we will leave the subject 

 for (lie present. 



At ^!x o'clock a. m., of July 26th, we parted 

 with Mr. B. and took the train for Springfield, to 

 examine the 



rE.a ORCIIAKD OF JOKN S. BRADFORD, 



TiVhich i-; about one mile wesit of the State Capital. 

 Th»^ 1 1 d i.-- rather too flat for orcharding, and 

 liable t>) ilamage from late spring frosts. Mr 

 B. hns a f'l it of ten acres forming a desirable su- 

 burban i s dt-nce upon which he has ; laced a 

 fine rcsid' nee and ample out build iigs, and dur- 

 ing the hours of relaxation from active city busi- 

 ness he has made a small paradise, redolent with 

 rural he iiity and the subsiantials of gooi living. 

 The soil is a clay loam with rather a retentive 

 Bulsoil, but the whole is uuderdrained with brick 

 tile 10 the depth of two and a half leet (too v'shal- 

 low — shi'uld have been not less than ti ree feet,) 

 at a distance of twenty-tour feet, which, on the 

 whole makes pretty efficient drainage We w sh 

 that every farmer in the Stsi'e could see the rank | 

 growtli of corn and vegetables on this under- 

 draimd Imd, with ordinary culture and without 

 manurt', we think they would open their eyes a 

 little, ai:d possibly conclude that tile and the 

 Bpatle a e equal to a little more land. The dwarf 

 pears are set eight by twelve feet apart, a part 

 of tiieiii were two, and the remainder three years 

 old f.o:) tlie bud when set, and have been set 

 four ye^rs, and they number four hundred and 

 fifjy trees. Of course, ov this soil, and v.iih the 

 cul'uie they have received they are very thrifty. 

 Th.' trees were from the same nursery, of the 

 Bam ■ (jua'ity and procured at the same time with 

 those ot Mr. Yati s at Tamaroa. They are now 

 larger tind mere vigorous than the Litter, which 

 is to be uttributed to the effect of the perfect 

 dra nage. Mr. B. has cropped his grounds to 

 corn or vegetables, while vir. Y has cultivated 

 the trtes only. We prefer the orofping, espe- 

 cially in corn, but woulJ not plant nearer than 

 four left to the tree ; leave the stalks standing 

 until spr ng and then plow them under. The 

 corn prtpiecis the tree while growing from being 

 BwayeJ over to the northeast, and in winter mod- 

 ifii s the sudden changes. In this orchard, like 

 that of Mr. Yates, there is a large percentage of 

 ■vaiie'ies that apj ear to be of little \ali)e with us. 

 The BirJetts are, as usuhI, well loaded with 

 fruit, notwithstanding the coraplaiut of late frost. 

 The sf;me may be said of Swan's Orargc, Louise 

 Bonne de Jersey and Mada ine, while Stevens' 

 Genuesste, Summer Belle, Beurre Biel and AVin- 



ter Nt^li^ have a fair show cf fruit. The snme 

 worm that disfigured the f'-uit in the orchard of 

 Mr. Yates is al-o here, but to a much less ex- 

 tent. The trees are very healthy, and with the 

 single d awback of topography give promise of 

 rich returns. The umlerdraii.ing will to some 

 extent modify the (fleets of spring frost and sn^ 

 other season we shall hope to see the whole or- 

 chard loaded with rich clusters of melting fruit. 



DWABF APPLES. 



Mr. B has two hundred dwarf apple trees in 

 the saue grounds, set at the same time with the 

 pears. They have made a fine growth, but as 

 yet show no fruit' Certainly with the treatment 

 given, the d.varf apple on the prairie thus far 

 has proved a failure. 



It is r w Saturday, and we leave for home, 

 after looking into the publication office of the 

 Illinois Farmer, over whose threshold we have 

 not pas-ed since lite in December hist. The 

 publishers, the clerk, and the old fornnan, are 

 here, but the old familiar faces of the typos are 

 not — gone to the war to a man — and their pl-ices 

 filled with new hands, some of them we have 

 seen in other offices, but to most of them w-e are 

 a stranger, and now when in our sanctum, 

 eig'ity miles away from the busy fingers that 

 put our thoughts in type and send them out si- 

 lently to thousands of homes, we cannot but re- 

 flect upon the mutations and uncertainties of 

 human life and human destinies, the madness of 

 the South that is thus taking from the useful 

 walks of life, hundreds of thousands to goard 

 the eagle of liberty and to throw over our homes 

 the blessed boon of a free and intelligent govern- 

 ment. In our journeyings of the week we have 

 been greeted at every turn with mil'tary prepa- 

 rations, and at times we have almost been lev! to 

 distrust the value of our commission, but when 

 we look to the thousands of homes that stand out 

 in the glare of the noonday sun, when we see 

 thousands of children playii g at the roadside 

 and on the shady side of buildings, when we see 

 g; eat corn fieldsflankingand enclosing the dwell- 

 ing and usurping the garden, when we see the 

 pale faced mothe.' at the window around which 

 cluster no vine nor smiling flower, and the yard 

 grown up with noisome weeds — when we see the 

 well but a sink hole at the edge of the slough — 

 when the cistern is but an old barr;!, warped a"d 

 distorted in the sun — when the farm tools ^re un- 

 housed and the stock depending upon the friend- 

 ly shelter of a worm fence, we icel that there is 

 yet a mission for us, and that the agricultural 



