1861. 



THE ILLINOIS FARMEE. 



369 



The Illinois Farmer. 



BAILHACHE & BAKEE PUBLISHERS. 



M. L. DUNLAP, EDITOR. 



aPRINGFIELD, DECEMBER, 1861. 



Editor's Table. 



We now set down to finish up the last number 

 of the Illinois FAEMEafoi the year 1861, com- 

 pleling our monthly visits to our readers. A 

 year that will fi.rm a new era in the history ot 

 our country, and one over which the fell demon 

 of war has stalked with destructive steps. At 

 the begiDuing of the year we were proud to 

 number among the subscribers aijd readers of the 

 Fakmkb, President Lincoln, Captain (now Gen- 

 eral) McClellan, Governor Yates, Governor Wood 

 and others, now so fully occupied with their ofiB- 

 cial duties that successive numbers of the Far- 

 mer must lie on their tables uncut. These were 

 no deid-head subscribers, but men who take a 

 deep interest in the agi'icultural prosperity of our 

 State, and who advise and encourage us to press 

 forward in the good work. When peace shall 

 again bless the land and they find a relief from 

 the pressing cares of the nation, they will turn 

 with pleasure to give a woifd of advice and en- 

 courag: ment to the hardy tillers of the soil — the 

 men who came up to their call to do battle for the 

 right and to save intact the government under 

 which they have carved out happy homes and 

 erected altais from which go up the blessings of 

 the sons of freedom. 



Bleak December is busy whirling the fallen 

 leaves into the wintery eddies, ana the horrors of 



war is laying low the flower of our rural popu- 

 lation, the winds moan through the branches of 

 the dismantled forest, and sweeps with sullen- 

 ness over the deserted lawn covering the new 

 made graves of those who have laid down their 

 lives for their country, wiih the leafy garniture 

 that autumn swept from the sylvan groves that 

 now bare themselves for the coming wintery 

 storms. The genial days of spring will return 

 and the leafy crown shall be added to tree and 

 shrub, to be kissed by the summer zephyrs, but 

 the kiss of the mother, the wife, or sister, shall 

 not again, this side of the great future, press the 

 lips of those who can only live in the hearts of 

 the loyal. We write in sadness, for among those 

 who return no more are many that we count 

 among our friends, and one has gone out from onr 

 household in all the pride and vigor of youth to 

 wield his trusty blade in the cause of his coun- 

 try. We fear not so much the enemy in battle as' 

 we do the fell destroyer who follows in tne camp 

 and counts his victims by the hundreds. We can 

 only pray that reason may come to the madden- 

 ed leaders of the South, who are calling down 

 quick destruction on the firesides of a people who 

 would otherwise be loyal. : 



-'m— 



An Address. — We have received a pamphlet 

 copy of an addrbss of Luther H. Tucker, editor 

 of the County Gentleman, delivered at the Oswego 

 County Fair, New York. It is a most excellent 

 practical address and well adapted to any lati- 

 tude. In speaking of the competition with the 

 AVest, he says : 



•' A somewhat similar compulsion, arising from 

 the virgin wealth of the vast prairies in our newer 

 States, when competing with our older and less 

 cheaply cultivated soils at the East — a compul- . 

 sion which bids fair, in any event, to become^ 

 constantly more and more urgent — has been for 

 some lime tending, I think, to give a simiLir im- 

 petus to improvement here: and now that we 

 have been placed amidst new circumstances to 

 derange our markets, and to reduce, for the time 

 bein^r at least, the money value of our crops, it , 

 becomes a matter of great practical interest for 

 us, to consider whether there is not a lesson of 

 farther good to be derived from the present con- 

 dition of affairs." * 



Upon the subject of profits in farming he re- ' 

 sumes in this wise : ■ 



"These questions are urged upon our atten- 

 tion, moreover, because there are certain state- 

 ments in ^current circulation, which are, as I ^ 

 lieve, partially unfounded, or very greatly ex- ^ 

 aggerated, and calculated to do injury rather than ' 

 good. One class of the statements alluded to 



