-r^~1,t^jmrj^p^^ 



276 



THE ILLmOIS FAEMEE. 



Sept. 



80 as to run down by the rains over the body, i 

 ■will keep the eggs of the borer and many other 

 insects from hatching, or at least from maturing; 

 but it will not of course kill those already lodged 

 in the tree. These must be taken out by the 

 other processes. 



I am fully satisfied also that large droves of 

 ducks, turkies, geese and hens, and flocks of birds 

 around a nursery or an orchard through the 

 early spring and fall months, do immense good, 

 in devouring insects of all sorts, and where there 

 is many fruit trees they more than pay for their 

 keeping in this way alone. And I think it might 

 be well to try the effect of coal oil moderately on 

 the worm that causes the gaps in the windpipes 

 of young chickens, but I never have done it. 



I still continue every year, without fail, to save 

 my' cucumbers and melon vines from the striped 

 bug, however abundant, by a small box put 

 round the hill six inches high and ten inches 

 square, with its upper edge covered with fresh 

 coal tar — though I see that some one or two oth- 

 ers have failed in this, propably from some detect 

 in the process. 



That hideous blight which I described some ten 

 years ago in the Horticuliuraiist, has re-appeared 

 in ih% pear leaves. The center of each leaf turns 

 black in spots and rots and falls out. 



The grapes also have rotted some. Fruit, corn 

 and crops of all sorts, with very few exceptions, 

 are fine. The weather is so warm that I hardly 

 think Parson Brownlow will fight the Sepoy reb- 

 els on his chosen field of ice this month ; for 

 I presume hell is not likely to freeze over so 

 long as the thermometer is about one hundred 

 degrees in the shade, on earth. 



I suppose I ought to apolog'ze to you for ob- 

 truding this loathsome subject of insects and 

 their remedies, for doubtless you know more 

 about it than I do, but these tiny creatures in 

 their multitudinous and microscopic, as well as 

 larger forms, so annoy the comfort, destroy the 

 health, and the works of man, that I feel that we 

 must all keep after them, and do what we can for 

 their destruction ; and while our learned and in- 

 defatigable friends in our natural history socie- 

 ty have been after theia''with their sharp and well 

 trained eyes, to give them a name in the world, 

 I have been trying to do a little ajso, as I could, 

 to find the best means to push them out of it, 

 and the several articles named above are the most 

 extensive I have ever found, out of a great mul- 

 titude of things tried. 



Yours truly, 



J. B. TuRSEE. 



P. S. — Since writing you the foregoing, your 

 remarks in regard to the "Cultivator," in the 

 August number are at hand. You are substan- 

 tially, though I think not wholly correct in your 

 remarks and strictures on the machine. It costs 

 too much I know, and had nlready concluded to 

 reduce it at least one-third. You and others dc 

 not want the knives, while others do, especially 

 in drilUd corn, when the land is in good order ; 

 so of the steering apparatus. But your idea of 

 simplicity and cheapness and the use of iron 

 drums are excellent, and shall be acted upon. — 

 I shall retain the patented principles and 

 cheapen and simplify my machine, make it 

 strong, firm and durable, as you suggest, before 

 another spring. I know that you will do me full 

 justice in the premises, and that next spring I 

 shall meet your full approbation as well as the 

 thousands of farmers who are sending in their 

 orders lor the cultivator. j. b. t. 



Jacksonville, Aug., 1861. 



Remarks. — Our readers will bear in mind that 

 Prof. Turner is the inventor of " Turner's Culti- 

 vator," or what we have denominated the " Illi- 

 nois Cultivator," from the fact that it is tl e king 

 of cultivators. But Mr. T. did not manufacture 

 them ; this was done by another party who got 

 them up at different shops as best he could, and 

 the result isthey were so poorly made tLey would 

 scarcely stand a year's work, and hence our re- 

 marks in the last number in regard to tbem. We 

 care not who sends out a half made farm imple- 

 ment, or under what pretext, we intend to make 

 it our duty to expose the cheat. Our farmeis 

 have been imposed upon with brittle, sappy ash 

 painted over, with rotten iron, with green tim- 

 ber and bad workmanship enough to now have a 

 stop put to it, and nothing shall prevent us from 

 exposing these deceptions hereafter. Why has 

 Brown's corn planter become bo popular ? not 

 that its principles are better than a dozen others, 

 but that it is honestly made. So of the Manny 

 reaper of Emerson & Co., of Eockford, so of the 

 shellers and field rollers of Attwater of Morris, 

 while the superior material and wcrkmanship of 

 the horse powers and threshers of Wheeler, Me- 

 lick & Co. of Albany, N. Y. have attained a na- 

 tional form. 



It is therefore useless for any new inventor to 

 attempt to foist on the public any of these gin~ 

 gerbread got up gimcracks. The farmers ask 

 and will have good and durable implements. We 

 have long known Prof. Turner, and have learped 

 to value him as a public benefactor, and it is only 



