1862. 



THE ILLINOIS FARMER 



87 



Strawberry Culture and Wine Making. 



We have before us a letter to a friend of ours 

 from a fruit grower in Indiana which states that 

 the writer received six hundred doUarsfrom half 

 an acre of strawberries made into strawberry 

 wine, it selling by the barrel at two and a half 

 dollars per gallon. This gentleman _says he is 

 80 confident that the crop will pay that he intends 

 to make seventy five or a hundred barrels of the 

 wine this year. He has forty acres of strawber- 

 ries, half of which are at Aurora and the other 

 half in Egypt, where he also has in small fruits 

 and peaches fifty-five acres, the peach orchard 

 containing six thousand trees just coming into 

 bearing. These at sixteen feet apait the usual 

 distance cover tLirty-five acres. One would sup- 

 pose that forty acres of strawberries and tliirty- 

 five of peaches would be sufficient to keep one 

 man busy, but it appears this gentleman thinks 

 differently, as he intends to put out sixty acres 

 more of the strawberry. The largest cultivator 

 of the strawberry that we know of is Mr. Knox, 

 at Pittsburg, who has sixty acres, but we have 

 no objection to have our own State ahead in this 

 line. It is certainly expensive for Mr. Knox to 

 send his fruits all the way by rail from Pitts- 

 burg some five hundred miles to Chicago, and it 

 is but proper that some of our cultivators step 

 in and relieve him of so much expense, and the 

 furiher anxiety in regard to the market. From 

 present appearances we may confidently antici- 

 pate a fair show of fruit in our markets at no 

 distant day. It is not probable that strawberry 

 wine will command $2 50 a gallon at wholesale 

 for any great length of time. Mr. Knox says he 

 grows three hundrsd bushels of strawberries per 

 acre, but the letter in question says one hundred 

 and forty is a good crop, but we doubt if one hun 

 dred is not more than an average, even with good 

 culture. Most people would be satisfied with 

 two hundred and forty gallons of wine to the 

 acre, especially if it would sell for seventy dol- 

 lars a barrel of thirty gallons. 



There can be no question that the profit on 

 email fruits is large, or the culture would not be 

 80 rapidly extended. Some years since we call- 

 ed them the " great fruits, " from the important 

 position that they held. 



Willson's Albany and Triomphe de Gand and 

 the Austin are the varieties recommended by this 

 fruit grower. His statements that he has real- 

 ized six hundred dollars nett profit from half an 

 acre of strawberries made into wine is certainly 

 arge, if true of which at the price stated is 



rather probable, though we suspect some sugar 

 must have been used. 



The Willson should be planted in rows two feet 

 apart and one foot in the row ; these can be 

 worked with a scuttle hoe with one horse. This 

 is a cheap way of keeping out the weeds, gives 

 the ground good culture and leaves the plants in 

 a position for easy picking. 



Hog Cholera. 



Now is a good time to provide against the hog 

 cholera, which is so disastrous to the hog crop 

 in the west. 



We have never heard of a farmer losing hogs 

 by this disease who kept them in a good clover 

 pasture through the summer. Now is the time 

 to sow clover seed, and fence off the hog lot; 

 give it a trial, and you will find that you have 

 fenced in your hogs where they are cheaply pas- 

 tured, and fenced out that scourge tnat is so 

 fatal to hogs running in the woods and barrens, 

 picking up such feed as they can find. No won- 

 der that they have the cholera. 



We have seen many cures for this disease, 

 none of them very high in favor. Camphor in 

 small doses, or sulphur, are doubtless the best, 

 but the prevention is better than all. Put your 

 hogs in clover pastures, ring their noses, give 

 a moderate feed of corn through the summer, 

 and you will have little trouble to fat them in 

 the fall, free of the hog cholera. 



Journal of the State Agriculutral Society. 

 The initial number of this journal is at hand, and 

 cannot fail of meeting the public expectation. 

 Without interfering with the agricultural journals 

 of the State, it will prove a valuable aid, not 

 only to the farmer and mechanic, but the State 

 Agricultural Society. The prospectus will be 

 found in our advertising columns. 



Iowa Homestead. — The Northwestern Farmer 

 has been removed to DesMoines, Iowa, and re- 

 named as above, and published weekly. Marsh 

 Millar is editor and publisher. It is a valua- 

 ble paper, and if the Hawkeyes do not give it a 

 good patronage, they will be blind to their own 

 interests. $2 a year. 



-*»- 



Gardner's Monthly. — This journal continues 

 to improve, if improvement is possible, where 

 all the numbers have been good. We club it 

 with the farmer for %\ 50. 



