90 



THE ILLINOIS FAKMEE. 



Maech 



on the farm for timber, hutts and screens, and 

 will furnish aiarge supply of timber for rails and 

 fuel in a very few years. There is little danger 

 of planting too many trees on the prairie. The 

 cutting will be quite sure to grow. It is among 

 the most rapid growing trees. 



A Fallacy Exploded. — We had always heard 

 it asserted iht^x it was impossible to " make a 

 whistle from ^f ig's tail ;" but ia this age of in- 

 vention, improvement, progress, the obstacles 

 which lay in the way of accomplishing this feat 

 have been removeii, and we acknowledge a 

 Christmas present of a whistle made from a Pig's 

 Tail. The successful man is a Vermont Yankee 

 — one not known to fame in this region as the 

 most untiring and accomplished AVriting Teacher 

 in the West. The article shows ingenuity and 

 inventive genius. Accompanying his whistle was 

 the following letter: 



Mr. Editor: — You will be presented in the 

 coming holidays with fat Turkeys and good 

 things in abundance. You will be wished a 

 " Merry Christmas" and " Happy New Year," 

 aad to make it so, I present you with a whistle, 

 ma.de of — a Piff's T.iil — to whistle dull care away 

 with during the holidays, and enjoy yourself 

 in the coming new year. 



I have whittled it out during my spare mo- 

 ments, to answer that standing objectien of the 

 Old Fogy— *' You can't make a whistle out of 

 a pig's tail.'"' You see the thing can be did. 



Yours truly, 



Thos. E. Hill. 



Gazette, Waukegan. 



— When a boy we saw the same feat accom- 

 plished, but the value of the whistle when made, 

 bore no proportion to the labor expended upon 

 it, and the maker concluded it would not pay. 

 We may concede that the fallacy has been explo- 

 ded, but cannot be turned to any useful purpose. 

 We therefore, answer, that a whistle can be 

 made out of a pig's tail, but would not recom- 

 mend any of our friends to go largely into the 

 business with the expectation that it will prove 

 a paying investment. 



-*—- 



The Horticulturist — The February number 

 of this valuable Journal is on our table. The 

 Frontispiece is the Gladiolus, and is a superb 

 engraving, and the coloring (in colored edition) 

 truthfully done. By the way this colored edition 

 is worth more than the difference in the price, 

 $2 plain, $5 colored. Address Mead & Wood- 

 word, N. Y., or club with the Fabmeb at $2 50. 



Illinois Central Railroad. — The earnings 

 of this road for January has fallen ofiF nearly 

 one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. This is 

 mainly on account of the loss of its southern 

 terminations. It is certain that the Company 

 cannot long hold out with such a constant drain 

 upon its resources. The officers have been un- 

 tiring in their endeavors to economise in the ex- 

 penses, and the President, W. H. Osborn, Esq., 

 has removed to Chicago, where he is giving the 

 whole of his energies to the work. Mr. 0. is 

 one of the ablest financiers of the day, and will 

 do all in his power to save the credit of the com- 

 > any. There is no enterprise in the State that 

 ha3 done so much to develop its resources as this 

 road, and now in its need let it be treated kindly, 

 do not kill the goose that lays the golden egg, 

 but cherish her that she may continue to lay du- 

 ring long years. The falling off to the State of 

 the seven per cent, will be about ten thousand 

 dollars, or at the rate of over one hundred thou- 

 sand dollars per annum, a loss that the State will 

 fjel. We hope for the sake of the Company, for 

 the sake of ihe State treasury, and for the sake 

 the country, that this state of things may not 

 continue for a long time. The demand for lands 

 of the Company is steadily on the increase, es- 

 pecially in the south part of the State, for fruit 

 culture. Should cotton prove eucceS5ful, they 

 would soon iispose of all their lands in the basin 

 of Egypt. 



From Wisconsin. — 0. S. Willey, of Madison, 

 >Vis., writes ns under date of February 12th, 

 that they are having a fine winter, with snow 

 two feet deep, and more coming, and thinks we 

 Suckers don't know half the delights of winter. 

 Everything is well mulched with Nature's winter 

 blanket — trees all right, with sound buds — when 

 March comes, then comes the tug of war. 



Well, friend Willey, we prefer less of what 

 you call Nature's blanket. While you Badgers 

 have been enjoying your two feet of snow, and 

 more coming, the farmers hereaway have been 

 enjoying good roads, with fine weather for corn 

 husking, and as the mercury has only marked 

 6 ° below zero, our fruit buds, peach included, 

 are all right, and as sound as though we bad 

 a dozen feet of snow. March, why, March is a 

 spring month with us, sending out the buds into 

 young leaves, shooting up the tillering spikes of 

 the winter wheat, with the forest made varied 

 with returned songster. 



