1861. 



THE ILLINOIS FABMEE. 



291 



The remainder is unbroken and used for prairie 

 hay and pasture. The farm is new, having been 

 commenced five years since, and from its own 

 products made the payments of the soil at five 

 dollars per acre, and also the present improve- 

 ments. Mr. A. is but an invalid and capable of 

 but little labor, but with the ai(ji of two small 

 boys and hired hand, with his good management 

 he has succeded even in the face of the hard 

 times, of which we have heard no inconsiderable 

 complaint during the years 1857-8-9, but during 

 all of those poor seasons Mr. A.'s crop was good, 

 mostof which was due to his bettermode of farm- 



ing. 



CULTURE OF SPRING WHEAT. 



So soon as the wheat is cured enough to stack, 

 it is hauled from the field and one of the boys 

 puts the team to the plow and the stumble is at 

 once turned under, and even now, at this early 

 date, about one-third of the grain land has been 

 turned over, while not over two-thirds of the 

 whole is cut. It is astonishing how soon the 

 seeds of weeds spring up after the grain is cut 

 and the sun allowed free access to the soil, and so 

 soon as they are well out of the ground Mr. A. 

 deems the best time to turn them under with the 

 stubble. The scattered grain at once springs up 

 and gives him a good supply of the best of fall 

 feed for his stock, and in spring the land is in 

 fine condition for corn, wheat or oats. His corn 

 is innocent of weeds and without further plow- 

 ing is ready for spring wheat. The nine acres of 

 oats will be followed with corn next season. He 

 sows his spring wheat before the frost is all out 

 of the ground, not waiting for the ground to be- 

 come dry and settled. August plowing and March 

 sowing is his essentials of success in the culture 

 of spring wheat, and from his success we must 

 admit that they are of no small value. 



OATS 



Are not to be sown so early, but the same sys- 

 tem of plowing is to be observed. Oats will rot 

 in the ground if sown too early, or when the 

 ground is muddy, but not so of wheat. He sows 

 four bushels of seed to the acre, of the Black 

 Tartarian, or as sometimes called horse mane or 

 side oats. Judging from the appearance of the 

 crop we think he uses too much seed, and would 

 do better with two and a half to three bushels to 

 the acre. The sowing is done broadcast with the 

 use of Gaboon's hand broadcast seed sower. 



WASHING OF WHEAT SMUT. 



The seed wheat had been washed in brine, but 



this had not been made as strong as it should 

 have been, for we observed more or less of oats 

 through the crop, and in the Rio Grande consid- 

 erable smut. Now, had the brine been strong 

 and the skimming process thorough, neither of 

 these would have been seen. There is no good 

 reason to have either oats or smut in spring 

 wheat while the remedy is so cheap and simple. 



CHINA TEA WHEAT. 



This is a beautiful variety of wheat and gives 

 promise of being the most valuable among our 

 spring wheats. The heads are long and well fill- 

 ed, the straw br ght and strong. We don't like 

 its long beards any better than the Rio Grande, 

 and it has the fault of shelling badly if left 

 standing too long before cutting. But for its fine 

 yield we shall make th^ Club give place to it next 

 spring, and shall endeavor to cut it so early that 

 we may not lose by its shelling propensity. Its 

 quality for flour stands at the head of the list. It 

 was said to have been taken from a chest of black 

 tea some fifteen years since, by a gentleman in 

 Rensalear county, New York, who obtained some 

 six or seven kernels at the time, and from which 

 the present supply has been derived. We saw 

 several fields of it in the neighborhood, and plen- 

 ty of it can be had for seed at the price of other 

 good seed wheat. 



THE HOT WIND. 



We have before mentioned the effects of the 

 two days of hot wind on the fruit trees near the 

 lake shore ; here its effect was to rust the foliage 

 of the wheat at the time of heading, and so se- 

 rious was the injury to the leaves that mo^t far^ 

 mers despaired of a crop, and the common report 

 was that the spring wheat crop of Northern Illi- 

 nois was ruined by the rust, but the stem and 

 head remained uninjured; and the result is, a 

 fair crop of wheat of an average quality. The 

 yield will range from eight to fifteen bushels, 

 while some fields like these of Mr. Arnold will 

 probably reach twenty bushels per acre. Fruit 

 and shade trees were injured at the same time ; 

 the heavy wind appeared to whip out the leaves 

 like the wearing away of a calico flag, doing more 

 damage from its force than from other causes. — 

 The orchard before noticed appeared to escape 

 its bad effects, while the locust trees thirty feet 

 high were pretty much denuded of the leaves. 



HARVEST BEER. 



While in the harvest field, Mrs. A. at ten, and 

 again at four o'clock sends out a lunch to the 

 harvesters. Accompanying the lunch is a jug of 



