1862. 



THE ILLINOIS FAEMER. 



41 



in your location. But we sheuld not like to 

 throw away such a good site for fruit on the 

 dwarf apple, how muchsoever we might wiah to 

 sell out our stock of dwarf tr^es. If you wish 

 to cultivate dwarfs, take standard trees two or 

 three years old, with heads near the ground, 

 treat theaa as dwarfs, set twelve feet apart each 

 way, and when they grow too thick, cut out the 

 poorest. By planting a portion of early bearer?, 

 such as Keswick's Codlin, Early Pennock, Hol- 

 land Pippin, Yellow lugestree, Scow and Stan- 

 nard, you will have a good supply of fruit in 

 three or four years,. 



Of course, you would want Bellflowers, Rawle's 

 Janet, White Pippins, etc., to complete your list, 

 with a few standard pears, of such varieties as 

 the Bartlett, White Doyenne, Madeline, Osband's 

 Summer, Steven's Genessee, Flemish Beauty, and 

 Louise Bonne de Jerseiy, with a row of the May 

 cherry for a border. 



We are pleased to see the labors of the farm 

 committee so well appreciated, especially in the 

 number of valuable facts that they gathered in 

 their progress through the State. Ed. 



•*mf 



Plowing by Steam. 



The attempt to plow by steam on the prairie 

 is again to be essayed. In this case an English 

 apparatus is to be used. Jonathan has run the 

 thing into the ground, and left it in disgust, but 

 John Bull, nothing daunted, is to give it another 

 trial. " Fowler's Patent Steam Plowing and 

 Cultivating Machinery " is to be sent to Cham- 

 paign county on the opening of spring, and to 

 be set to work in prairie breaking. 



There are to be no premiums, simply a com- 

 mittee of the State Agriculturnl Society to exam- 

 ing and report on its value. Of course, we shall 

 be a committee of one on the part of the press, 

 to report to the power behind the throne the do- 

 ings of his plowship. 



This plow is in charge of Mr. Robert Eddison, 

 who dees not claim that it will compete with 

 teams .n light work, but is unrivaled in prairie 

 breaking and in all cases of deep tillage, where 

 extra power is required. He says : " Few, even 

 among practical farmers, are aware of the ad- 

 vantages of deep cultivation. By stirring up the 

 soil at a lower level, the influence of the atmos> 

 phere penetrates further, and the drainage is 

 better effected. The roots of the crops develop 

 themselves in their natural direction, and are 

 able to reach a depth where they find moisture 

 in the dryest seasons. By deep plowing, we often 



expose a soil which never before saw the light, 

 rich by natural or by the drainings of former 

 manurings. Deep cultivation by animal power 

 presents many difficulties; both men and horses 

 are exhausted by it, and the better crop is pur- 

 chased at a great expense of muscle. By steam 

 power it is done with ease and certainty, and 

 soil, unproductive under shallow cultivation, may 

 be made profitable by burning a little extra 

 coal." 



The engine is to be stationary, drawing the 

 plows by a wire rope that winds around a drum, 

 and draws t> e pilows back an I forward across 

 the field, say forty rods wide. 



It is possible that this machine may prove 

 valuable in deep plowing, say twelve to sixteen 

 inches deep for orchard and vineyard p anting, 

 and such crops as need such deep preparation. 

 It will have advantages over the traction engine 

 for while it can move itself along the ha land, 

 yet when drawing the plows it is stationary, thus 

 making it effective on rolling land and through 

 low places. 



It is also possible that it may prove of som 

 value iu mole draining, more especially should 

 it prove on trial the mo'e draining can be per- 

 formed during the summer on upland, at a time 

 when the soil is not charged with water. 



We have no idea that steam can take the place 

 of horses, in any case where three horses can 

 do the work, bat in deep trenching in heavy 

 clays, as it is in this class of soil in England hat 

 the machine has been found the most valuable. 



We like the spirit m which Mr.| Eddison en- 

 ter on the experiment of prairie plowing with his 

 ''avorite machine, he asks nothing more than an 

 opportunity to give it a fair an impartial trial in 

 prairie breaking,^and in such deep plowing, as 

 from the nature of our soil, would warrant the 

 outlay. We intend to give the public a fair and 

 impartial account of the trial, when made. 



->•— 



Bean Sorter and Cleaner. — Having about 

 fifty bushels of beans, nearly pure navy, a neigh- 

 bor, Mr. J. B. Phinney, sent us one of Sandford 

 Adams' bean sorter and cleaner, made at Boston, 

 Mass. This is composed of a series of screens, 

 and CO sum up is just the thing with which to 

 clean up the bean crop. We shall not attempt to 

 describe it further than to say it costs five dol- 

 lars, and no person growing or dealing in beans 

 can afford to do without it. 



«•» 



__ A Scotch regiment, now organizing at 

 Chicago, advertises for pipers. 



