P^;' 



1862. 



THE ILLINOIS FAEMEE. 



117 



How we like to be Humbugged. 



It is a well established fact that the farmers, 

 as a class, like to be humbugged, nor is this dis 

 position patient to them alone. In the ways of 

 trees, and especially new varieties of fruitp, 

 seeds of all kinds, and flowering plants, all classes 

 of planters, whether farmers, mechanics or pro- 

 fessional men, are prone to the same. As evi- 

 dence of this we can adduce annual proof, run- 

 ning back to where the memory of man knoweth 

 not to the contrary. 



It is now about twenty years since the reign 

 of humbug crmmenced and took deep root in 

 this State. The first efforts in that line have 

 since been called gigantic swindles and for a time 

 completely surfeited the people, and real pro- 

 gress stood a^oof and paralyzed for fear of again 

 touching a humbug. We allude to Morus Multi- 

 caulis, that was to produce silk in such abundance 

 that cotton, wool, and flax, were to become mat- 

 ters of history, and it was said that Barnum had 

 specimens of these preserved in glass ca«' . iu 

 hand down to posterity, to show wh ■ arse, 

 common fabrics the old folks had ed them- 



selves with. The next in ord ,,8 China Tree 



corn, so profitable that en Ak produced four 



ears at the usual pla' -..i.d ten m re where the 

 tassel should be. . . d to these the Rohan pota- 

 toes that proJuxd such wonderful crops, and so 

 delicious withal that famine^ and short crops 

 would never again sadden the family of man. A 

 ten acre farm belted in with the Multicaulis would 

 furnish the silk for the largest family — a few 

 acres of the corn and potatoes would fattea the 

 beef, pork, chickens, and furnish food for the 

 family, and henceforth libor should go on a ben- 

 der, and we of the north should experience the 

 lazy, happy condition of the inhabitants of the 

 tropics, yet enjoying the cool, healihful zephyrs 

 of the north. Since that time we have had nu- 

 merous minor humbugs, such as Charter Oak 

 grapes, Chinese Yam, Rocky Mountain corn, 

 aqu&shes, ad infinitum. Hungarian grass, Bakara 

 clover, etc., etc. We have also had a good run of 

 French flowers sold through the country by Jean 

 Craps ; grass pinks picked up in our vil 

 lage at fifty cents a dozen, just as "specimens \'o 

 send to bonny France for zer gardeners to laf over " 

 but sold at the next village as rare carnations 

 with flowers three inches in diameter, at the 

 moderate price of two dollars a plant; lilies 

 more beautiful than those in which Solomon was 

 arrayed, at a dollar and a half, and thus through 

 the wholp list of plants, our French Jew pocket- 

 ing thousands of dollars for plants that had 



never been oat of the State, but gathered up from 

 the humble gardens, baptised with an unpro- 

 nouncable French name, and instantly down went 

 the dust. Occasionally a person stood aloof 

 eyeing the voluble stranger with distrust, but the 

 great mass attended the daily sales with a zest 

 that pleased the vendor, and gardens that had 

 never been graced with even grass pinks, forget- 

 me-nots, red peon'as, balsams and four o'clocks, 

 were refiolent with these, with French Dames of 

 portentious length and aristocratic significance. 

 The old blush and cinnamon roses, came in 

 for a share and commanded from two to three 

 dollars a slip. The old grass pinks and garden 

 roses, with their congeners, were kicked out of the 

 garden or given to some country cousin, so that 

 they could give place to the French flowers that 

 were soon to make gay the grounds of our city 

 and village friends. But, alas ! a few months 

 and the illusion vanished, and Mr. Jean Craps 

 was called by all sorts of naughty names. It 

 was then seen hov our small traveling trunks 

 could bold such an immense stock of plants, for 

 that was before the day of railroads, and staging 

 over the prairies in April was no slight task, and 

 yetlike the widow Cruise's oil jug, the truak was 

 never exhausted, and when he left Chicago as 

 the last point on the prarie to return e;ist, his 

 his stock was as ample as when he landed at 

 New Orleans in December. Great is humbug 

 and great is the confidence of the people 

 in strangers who have a supply of the 

 wonderful About this time some of t'ae At- 

 lantic nurseries which had become picthoric 

 with out of-date p'ants, scrubs of fruit trees and 

 all manner of trash, were emptied of their con- 

 tents on the prairies of the west, allundername — 

 mixed or miscellaneous. 



While this occurrence was taking place, the 

 "Old Doctor" was busy stocking his garden at 

 " The Grove " with both the beautiful and the 

 useful. With our innate love of flowers, culti- 

 vated by extensive toil and personal experie ce, 

 we gathered up the floral gems fri m all the reli- 

 able nurseries of the east, and while he sold 

 fine rose trees to some at twenty-five cents, the 

 people were filling their grounds from the bags of 

 peddlars with all manner of trash at from two to 

 eight times this amount. This game of tree and 

 plant swindling is about played out on this side 

 of the Mississippi, and has passed over to tie 

 hither side, and our friends thereaway are going 

 through the same process of incubation ; the 

 Frenchman has turned Yankee, and is now deal- 

 .ng altogether iu the reliable. A letter from a 



