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306 



THE ILLINOIS FARMEE. 



Oct 



.1 



to dispose of their crops at lower rate=, specula- 

 tors who purchase! at war prices have to sell at 

 peace prices, and the result is, many failures and 

 general stagnation. Farmers who became really 

 or prospectively wealthy, and lived in a corre 

 spending style, find it difficult to conform to their 

 altered circumstances, and pay their debts, and 

 in this work they often have to be aided by the 

 sheriff. Only those who had the sagacity to look 

 forward to the probability of peace, and take in 

 sail, are able to weather the storm. 



What is there about the present war to cause a 

 different state of things than that which is found 

 to be the common result of war? In the first 

 place our Eastern cities lose their Southern trade, 

 and a good deal of money owned by Southern 

 creditors. This willaffect business in these cities, 

 and may perhaps more than counterba'ance the 

 extra activity which would be the natural result 

 of war, but cannot, I think, bring upon the conn- 

 try any very great or general embarrassment. 

 The farmers in some par's of the West usually 

 Bend their produce down the Mississippi, to find 

 a Southern market The blockade has of course 

 destroyed this market, and the result will be 

 somewhat injurious to the farmers of that section. 

 Bulky produce that will not pay for shipment 

 East must be necessarily low, but cattle snd all 

 things that can find an Eastern market will bring 

 remunerating prices. 



These are the only things that suggest them- 

 selves to my mind that will in any measure tend 

 to cause derangement of business, and in them I 

 see no cause for the great outcry that is now 

 being made. On the contrary, I think this will 

 be a year of prosperity, equal to any which the 

 farmers of America have enjoyed during the last 

 twenty years. A million of dollars is being ex- 

 pended every day by the government, and this 

 money is not sent abroad, but circulated among 

 the people in payment for provision, clothing, &c 

 Its influence must be felt for good, throughout all 

 the avenues of trade, and will jingle in the pocket 

 of many a farmer who now has a longf.ce, a 

 heavy heart and an empty pocket. But, some 

 say, we are ruiiing our country by the vast out- 

 lay of money now making by the government. 

 Such statements have been made, too, in the 

 English press, and Mr. Bright, of Manchester, in 

 an address in which he treated of American af- 

 fairs, showed that the expenses of the present 

 year of war in America are less than the ex- 

 penses of the British government in the year of 

 peace. We, who have so often boasted of the 

 strength and glory of our country, mustacknowl 

 edge what we have said and sung to be only an 

 idle boast, if we now consider that a year of ex- 

 pense, sueh as England endures every year, can 

 bring our favored land to the verge of ruin. 



I do not feel compf tent to treat of the war and 

 its effects, morally, politically, or commercially, 

 and only throw out these few hints for the bene- 

 fit of my brother farmers, who are now very un- 

 necessarily alarmed. One frightened man will 

 frighten a crowd, and one cowardly or fright- 

 ened regiment will cause confusion in an army. 



Old Farmee. 



Monroe Co., N. Y., 1861. 



Oregon Crops. 



Ihe prospect is — indeed it may be set down to 

 be certain — that there will be a great deficiency 

 in the crops of Oregon the present, as compared 

 with the last year. This has grown out of two 

 facts. There was a general belief in some quar- 

 ters last fall, that the raising of wheat would not 

 pay and no great effort was made to sow fall 

 wheat; the winter and spring proved to be unfa- 

 vorable for sowing, and much land intended for 

 wheat, was not sown. The same general facts 

 may be stated in relat on to other crops. The 

 result we believe wi'.l be that the crops of the 

 country the present season will not amount to 

 more than half as much in quantity as last year. 



In the meantime, new and enlarged markets are 

 opening fjr our wheat. The English market, 

 doubtful last year, the present will receive all we 

 can spare. The new market in Brazil, hitherto 

 supplied by Maryland and Virginia, will furnish 

 an extensive market for the Pacific coast. Our 

 wheat is really better suited for the Brazilian 

 market than the wheat of the Middle or North- 

 western States. Besides these markets, others 

 are opening at various points on the Pacific. 



We endeavored to impress our readers last sea- 

 son with the present anticipated state of things. 

 Oregon is a wheat country. If she will keep up 

 her supplies of wheat, she will find good and 

 constantly increasing purchasers. If it should 

 be known that cargoes of wheat and flour could 

 be had at this point we should have merchants 

 and ships to carry it off. We never shall have 

 markets until we have large and reliable surplus 

 crops of wheat. That man who because he can- 

 not make himself rich out of a chance Ciop of 

 wheat, will stop its cultivation, will nevej: get rich 

 anywhere. — Oregon Farmer. 



Durability of Mulberry for Fence Posts. — 

 Nine years ago, says a correspondent of the Co. 

 Gent, I spent a few weeks in Connecticut, and 

 Capt. J. Peck, Greenwich, showed me a mulberry 

 post whicn had been standing on one side of his 

 barn yard for more than forty years. As I was 

 visiting him in the month of June, in 1861, I in- 

 quired more particularly about that post, which 

 is now standing in the some place. It was a 

 green post, about eight inches square, when it 

 was first set ; and although it stood in a very un- 

 favorable place to put its durability to a fair test 

 — where manure was piled around it during more 

 than half the year — still, it stood more than fifty 

 years, before it rotted off near the surface of the 

 ground. It has been re-set, as it was a tall one, 

 and as it is now well seasoned, it will without 

 doubt last sixty or seventy years longer. 



Were mulberry posts thoroughly sersoned be- 

 fore they are set, and smeared with a good coat 

 of coal tar near the surface of the ground, they 

 would doubtless last one hundred years, or even 

 more. 



-«»^ 



— Found it Out. — "We have found out the 

 difficulty in Kentucky. She is the "half horse, 

 half aligator " State. The horse pulls North, 

 the aligator pulls South, and one or the other 

 must soon carry the State. 



