The Illinois Farmer 



VOL. VII. 



SPRINGFIELD, FEBRUARY 1862. 



NO. 2. 



February. 



The sun now begins to climb the southern 

 sky, and the active duties of the new year 

 are about to commence. January is but the 

 continuance of the holidays, and a time for 

 the general closing up of the old year, that 

 neutral ground being between the dead past 

 and the active future — a proper time for 

 retrospect and for the laying of plans for the 

 coming season, No general succeeds with 

 out a well matured plan, not even General 

 Trust-to-Luck, with all his energy, will ac- 

 complish but little in his hap-hazard efforts. 

 It is those who go to work with a purpose 

 that succeed, and this is especially true of 

 the farmer. 



Now, while the snow mantles the ground, 

 when no active duties call off our attention, 

 and the evenings are long, we will sit down 

 and reason together, and endeavor to settle 

 upon some, definite plans for the season's 

 operation. The graneries of the West are 

 full to repletion — the lines of transportation 

 are eating out the profits of the farmer ; 

 then why should we make an effort to add 

 to the heaping measure now overflowing 

 with cereal products? Why not stop tilling 

 the soil until the world shall be willing to 

 pay a remunerative price for our labor and 

 the use of our lands ? These are questions 

 that come to us from all quarters. If the 

 world did not move, if every seed time and 

 harvest brought an average acred product, 

 we might pause for a time, and resume work 

 at our good pleasure ; but He who holds 

 the destinies of nations in his hands, if He 

 has promised a seed time and harvest, He 

 has not promised a definite amount of bush- 



els of grain to the acre — He has not pro 

 mised that the wire worm or the grub shall 

 not cut down the log blades of the spring- 

 ing corn — He has not promised to withhold 

 the chinch bug from devastating the fields 

 — He has not promised to order the clouds 

 to send down to the thirsty earth regular 

 installments of rain — He has not promised 

 to withhold the chilling frost, or to cool 

 down the heated drouth ; it is, therefore, 

 possible that with our best efforts the grain- 

 ries may become exhausted, and want stare 

 us in the face. We should not forget that 

 one, two or three untoward seasons may not 

 bring us back to a little reliance on a strong- 

 er arm than that of mortal. 



To the West the year 1860 was a most 

 bountiful one, and revived the drooping 

 spirits of all classes — its large surplus of 

 cereals and meats wiped out millions of dol- 

 lars of indebtedness, and placed the prairie 

 States again on the high road to prosperity, 

 xhis was followed by a fair average crop in 

 1861,but the civil war now raging cut off the 

 usual markets at the South, and hence, the 

 products that had found a market by two 

 outlets, were forced upon one, and there is 

 nothing more natural than that prices of trans- 

 portation should, under such circumstances, 

 go up. We need not wonder at the result. 

 The Northern transportation lines that had 

 for the past few years been making little or 

 no profits, have all at once been enabled to 

 charge their own prices, however exhorbit- 

 ant, well knowing that this state of things 

 could not last ; but supposing it should, the 

 competition between lake and railroad would 

 soon bring down the price to a reasonable 



