1861. 



THE ILLINOIS FARMEE. 



333 



well be over looked. The fruit is valuable fjr 

 both the table and cooking, its large size, fine 

 form, and beautiful outside wi 1 always make it 

 attractive in the market. Cooper's Early White 

 is a productive young bearer, but we would not 

 plant it largely, it being a fall variety ; so of the 

 fall Winesap, its season of keeping is too short 

 Tbe "Tompkins" we have not fruited under 

 that name. The Willow Twig is to take the 

 highest stand among our valuable winter fruits. 

 The Wagner has not been extensively testtd in 

 the West, but it gires fair promise. Sweet Ro- 

 man! te and Turner's Seek-no-further are local 

 names, and not much known. Domine and Wine- 

 sap are becoming great favorites. 



We have now come to consider some settled 

 facts in regard t fruit culture on the prairie, 

 amcug which is shelter, drainage, aspect, selection 

 of varieties, low heads aud thorough culture. We 

 want more such facts a^ the above, with which 

 to ftir up our people in regard to this important 

 subject of fruit growing. 



The "Grey Willow" is a forest tree of the 

 Middle States, its growth is rapid, and as it splits 

 fine, and is rather durable, is valuable for prairie 

 farms. Ed. 



summer, and were triumphanntly shown a crop 

 of winter wheat estimated at thirty bushels to 

 the acre that was the seventeenth crop in suc- 

 cession. Thia shows that we have a most endur- 

 ing soil, but it must yield in time. 



The army worm had done it a great kindness 

 by eating out the che^s, and next season the crop 

 will again be clean. An occasional crop of clover 

 would go far to husband the resources of this 

 soil. Ed. 



Rotation of Crops. 



The Country Gentleman says that James Bcatty 

 and Sons successful farmers in Cayug«, counry 

 N. Y., adopt the following rotation: 



Their fields successively lie in meadow two 

 years, in pasture the third, the fourth corn is 

 planted on the sod, the manure having been ap- 

 plied the previous autumn, and the sod plowed 

 just before the planting. Corn is followed the 

 fifth year by barley, which is seeded to clover by 

 rolli g. This clover is pastured with sheep, the 

 pasture thus obtaintd being equal to the exp nse 

 of seeding until the following summer, when it is 

 converted to summer fallow for wheat. The 

 droppings of the sheep, and the crop of clover 

 fu^ni^h an excellent preparation for this grain, 

 which IS harvested the sixth year. It is follow- 

 ed by a growth of timothy and clover, which 

 constitutes meadow two years and pasture one 

 year, as already mentioned. 



Underdraining and this rotation "have more 

 than double the crops in the aggregate," during 

 the last ten years. 



Our farmers pay too little attention to rotation, 

 in many cases, wheat is sown after wheat for a 

 generation. On the Mississippi bottom, below 

 Quiucy, this practice has been continued, that 

 the memory of man runneth not to the contrary. 

 In one case, on a farm that we Tisited the pa?t 



Cheap Threshing Machine "Wanted. 



We have machinery for assisting in the per- 

 formance of a great variety of farm operation?, 

 but yet there is one which remains to be supplied. 

 Whoever will take upon himself to supply this 

 want, will become a public benefactor. 



We have many farmers in Ohio, especially in 

 the eastern and southern portions of the State, 

 nf limited means, possessed only of a few acres. 

 They are enabled, with economy and industry, 

 to raise enough of small grain to "bread " their 

 families, witn perhaps a very little to spare, r.nd 

 to furni h the requisite amount to feed their 

 stock. Their crop, in this particular, even in 

 the most nbuodant seasons, is not sufficient to 

 justify the expense of securing the ihreshars 

 usually employed, and hence the only w<y th«y 

 have to get out their grain, to use tLe farmer's 

 language, is either to employ horses in tramping 

 it out — a most filthy and dlsagreeaMe way — or 

 r>^8ort to the tte old fashioned and now generally 

 abandoned flail. 



Now, what is wanted is a cheap, easily con- 

 structed, portable, light power thresher — a ma- 

 chine the farmer can take on to his barn floor, 

 in the fall or winter, or on wet days, at seasons 

 when to labor out doors is impraciicable, and 

 which, with his own unaided strength, with per- 

 haps the assistarce of a boy to feed it, will ena- 

 ble him to thresh, or get out twenty, thirty, or 

 forty bushels of small grain a day. 



Whoever will put his wits to work and bring 

 forth from his brain such a machine, even if it 

 should on the first attempt be somewhat crude 

 and imperfect, will live in history among the 

 most notable, worthy, nnd deserving inventors of 

 the age. He will have accomplished as much, if, 

 not more, for agriculture as McCormi( k or Man- 

 ny, or any of the inventots whose mower- and 

 reapers are doing Sj much to alleviite the labor 

 and enlarge the industrial operations of the 

 country. — Field Notes. 



— Such a machine has been invented years ago, 

 and is now in use in many parts of the West. 

 We, of course, refer to the endless chain railway 

 horse power thresher, known as the " Wheeler 

 patent." For use in a barn there is no other 

 power that compares with them. They are com- 

 pact, strong and durable. A half a dozen farm- 

 ers can club together and purchase one of these, 

 and which will do the threshing of a small neigh- 



