1861. 



THE ILLINOIS FAEMER. 



371 



The largest corn crop ever reported was that 

 of 1855, 87,587,434 bushels, or very nearly forty 

 bushels per acre. The average corn crup of Oh^o 

 for ten years preceding 18(50, was sixty-five mil 

 lions of bushels per year — exactly 64 910,358 — 

 so that the estimate for 1860 is very nearly forty 

 per cent, more than " an averace," while the es- 

 timate for 1861, if realized at harvest, wi.l be 

 considerably above it. 



It is curious to notice in connection vrith the 

 corn crop, that for ten years preceding 1860 

 there had been a regular alternation of a low 

 crop in the even year, with a good one the odd 

 year. The average crop, for example, for each 

 of the five even years, 1850, '52, '54, '56 W '58, 

 was 55,124,554 bushel?, while the averow^ for 

 each of the five odd years, 1851, '63, '55, '57 and 

 '59, was 74,696,162 — a difference in favor of the 

 latter, averaging twenty millions of bushels a 

 year. But the season of 1860 comes in to break 

 up this regularity of good and bad' crops, by a 

 return unprecedentedly great. — Country Gent. 



Cotton cn the Praihte. — In the January num- 

 ber we sha.l have considerable to say in regard 

 to cultivating this plant. We have beautiful 

 samples of cotton grown in Champaign and Chris- 

 tian counties, this season, where preparations are 

 making to plant several thousand acres next sea" 

 son. So far as we can learn, cotton has not failed 

 to fully mature in the central and south part of 

 the State at any time since the settlement of the 

 country. Corn has yielded to the laws of trade, 

 and its place must be filled by other products, 

 and among these we may count on Sorghum, Cot- 

 ton, Flax, and possibly Hemp, Tobacco and Cas- 

 tor Beans Fruit culture still needs our most 

 attentive care. 



*•.- 



Make up Clubs. 



This is the last number for the year. Now is 

 a good time to renew old clubs and to make up 

 new ones. We are giving the best publication 

 of its class in the West for the ieast money. 

 We have in view the one object of advancing and 

 elevating the farming interest. Our paper is 

 under the control of a practical man, whose in- 

 terests are identical with those for whom he 

 labors, and we trust the friends of the enter- 

 prise wj»ll be active in obtaining new subscri 

 bers for the new volame. See terms elsewhere. 



Publishers 



Prince db Joisyille. — This experienced sol 

 dier is in raptures over the grand review, al 

 loging that he never saw anything compared 

 with it in the Old World, when the regularity, 

 promptitude and harmony of the movements 

 are taken into consideration. — Wash. Cor. 

 rhU. I'ress. 



Pay Up. 



Our readers know that we do not often trouble 

 them with a "dun." Many of them are prompt 

 paying customer-, whom we have no occasioa to 

 address on the subject of (his notice. Others 

 are negleC ful and have allowed themselves to fall 

 behind, some one year, some two, and some three 

 years! Every man can see exactly how his ac- 

 count stands wiih us by eximining (he figures 

 placed at the end of his name cn the address- 

 label. We trust all who iind themselves in 

 arrears wiil take in^mediate measures to square 

 (heir accounts. Money sent by mail is at oar 

 risk if deposited in the presence of the Dost- 

 master at the office where it is mailed. 



Address: B.^ilhaci:£& Baker, publishers, 



Spriogfield, Ills. 



Blackbeert Wine. — Take one bushel ripe 

 blackberries, fifteen pounds best white sugar, 

 two gallons water. This will make about five 

 gallons of wine. 



The manner of making is as follows: 

 Take the bushel of blackberr;e3, bruise well in 

 a tub, and pour over them two gallons of boil- 

 ing water ; let it stand un:il cool, and then strain 

 or press. To each gallon of juice thus obtained, 

 add three pounds best white sugar. When the 

 sugar is dissolved, put the I'quid in a cask or 

 some other vessel that wiil just hold it, and let 

 it stand in a n oderately cool place, without cork- 

 ing, tt> ferment. The fermentation wiil threw off 

 the foreign matter from the liquid, by keeping 

 the cask or vessel fal', adding berry jaice or 

 water as the quantity is diminished by fermerta- 

 tion. When the fermentatin has nearly ceased 

 — which may be known by it ceasi»g to raake 

 any noise or but little effervescing — thfn cork 

 tightly, and let it «tand without being disturbed 

 in aay way until November o-r December. Then 

 rack off the liquid carefully and throw away the 

 dregG or lees, wash the cask clean, and return 

 the liquid, and add two ounces of mashed laisins 

 to each gallon ; cork tightly, and let it stand a 

 month or more, when you will have a wine of 

 good drinking quality. — Selected. 



A Monarchy for the Rebels. — Recent in- 

 tercepted letters indicate that there is much 

 apprehension of the establishment of a mon- 

 archy in the rebel Statts. The passage in Gov. 

 Pickens' message, calling for a "stronger Gov- 

 ernment," the action of the Richmond conven- 

 tion in restricting the right of suffrage, and 

 similar movements in Alabama and Louisiana, 

 seem to thoughtful Southerners to be regal pre- 

 cursOTS of the future. 



-«•»- 



|^"Counterfeit $5 bills on the Bank of Or- 

 angetown, N. T., are in circulation in northern 

 Illinois. Let our citizens Io<^ out for them. 



