88 



THE ILLmOIS FARMER. 



March 



The Illinois Parmer. 



BAILHACHE & BAKEE PUBLISHEES. 



M. L. DUNLAP, EDITOR. 



SPRINGFIELD, MARCH, 1862. 



Editor's Table. 



The plans for the season are now, or at least 

 should have been laid, and the farmers are busy 

 in their development. Seldom has so thick a 

 wall of impenetrable mystery hung over the fu- 

 ture of the farmer's prospects, as now. The best 

 crops to plant are but guess work, the last two 

 crops of corn have not paid the cost of their pro- 

 duction, or at least all that portion sold since the 

 first of May last. This gives a dark picture to 

 the corn grown and will have the effect to largely 

 curtail the breadth of the next crop. Broom 

 corn is only in moderate request, showing that 

 the prairies can easily glut the markets of the 

 world with this staple. Spring wheat presents 

 the most sure basis and has become the cheap 

 food, that pleases the million, but thus far this 

 crop has been mainly confined to the north, when 

 fall plowing and early seeding is the order of the 

 day, when farmers read and reflect, when they 

 farm it with both brains and muscle. In the cen- 

 tral portion of the State winter wheat is much 

 more popular than the spring, and we believe 

 will be proven as certain of a good yield. Far^ 

 mers are stepping out of the old beaten paths and 

 aiding brains to manure and muscle, with an ex- 

 cellent promise of success. Cotton, tobacco, 

 castor beans and sorghum appear destined to yet 

 figure largely in the staple products of our State. 

 The south half the State is legitimately within 



the cotton zone. Tobacco, as is well known, can 

 be grown in all parts of the State. Castor beans 

 have been largely grown in the central counties 

 but from some cause that we have not as yet in- 

 vestigated passed off the stage. Sorghum is be- 

 yond all doubts a success, and must remain so 

 apparently to all time. The crops to be planted 

 are to some extent already decided upon, but no 

 approximate figures can be fixed upon, as the 

 value of the products, all in that direction lies 

 shroud' d behind that black pall that hangs over 

 our political horizon. 



— — — 



Garden Seeds — Do not purchase eastern gar- 

 den seeds, put up by parties that you know noth- 

 ing about. The large city seed stores undergo 

 an annual cleaning out and these old seeds are 

 purchased cheaply by parties who put them up 

 in small paper packages of ab> ut one hundred 

 and fifty of the e to a box and trade them off to 

 the country stores, who supposing them from the 

 labels, to be fresh seeds, innocently sell them to 

 their deluded customers. This accounts for the 

 failure of garden seed to a great extent. The 

 men who put these seeds up, either sell them un- 

 der the name of some spurious seed grown or 

 counterfeit some well known establishment. You 

 can almost alwavs depend on good fre«h seeds 

 from the large city dealers, for they know it will 

 not answer to send poor seed to their customers, 

 especially when there is so neat a way provided 

 to get rid of the old stock. The seed dealers not 

 a thousand miles from Chicago have no", been as 

 wise and sell more or less indifferently, but the 

 demacd for the past two seasons has been so brisk 

 that we think they must have an entire new stock 

 at this time, whether out of the annual clearing 

 of Eastern seed stores or from the fresh supply 

 we know not, and personally care less, for we 

 have sti'l loo vivid recollections of bad seeds 

 from that quarter, to return until we are assured 

 of a little more discrimination in the selections. 

 For our own use we draw on Wilber, of Momence, 

 and the Eastern dealers whom we know send o it 

 good seed. As the postage on seeds is but six- 

 teen cents a pound we general'y gain more in 

 price than we lose in freight. Our motto is home 

 patronage, but we cannot afford to have part of 

 our grounds grow up to weeds, to assist someone 

 to make a few shillings. 



Cotton Seed — How Much Will Plant an 

 Acre ? — A bushel of the Tennessee green seed 

 will weigh twenty-two pounds, and contains in 

 round numbers about 93,000 seeds to the bushel. 



