1862. 



THE ILLINOIS FARMER. 



123 



Tbial of Farm Implements. — President Van 

 Epps has returned from Springfield where a meet- 

 ing of the executive board of the State Agricul- 

 tural Society was held last week. The next 

 fair will be held at Peoria in September, 



The executive board decided to award prem- 

 iums on reapers, mowers, threshing machines and 

 other agricultural implements only on a test of 

 merit by actual experiment. Herstofore these 

 awards have been made on the fair grounds by 

 committees who eould only judge of the merits 

 of the different machines on exhibition by their 

 appearance and unsatisfactory means afforded 

 for their operation on the grounds. It has long 

 been obvious to machinists that inventions of the 

 greatest merit are not always favored with prem- 

 iums, while the less worthy ars thus recommen- 

 ded to the farmers of Illinois and other States to 

 their injury, and the prejudice of other machines. 

 It is obvious to every farmer that the State Fair 

 grounds are no place to test the relative value of 

 farm implements, that must in the hands of the 

 farmer, be put in practical use among the hills 

 and ravines of the prairies, androots and stumps 

 of timber lands. 



The exhibition and trial of machines before 

 the executive committee preparatory to an award 

 of premiums at the State Ffir, will be held at 

 Dixon during the coming harvest. 



Corn Culture. — Clod Hopper writes us : 

 " Your article on Corn Culture — Hills vs. Drills, 

 is to the purpose. Can you tell me where I can 

 get Priudle's Drill Planter, and its cost? D. R. 

 Prindle, East Bethany, N. Y. 



As there is little demand as yet, for drill corn 

 planters at the west, Mr. P. has made no effort 

 to send them west, but as there is a growing dis- 

 position to use the drill in connection with the 

 two horse cultivators, it may soon be an object 

 for him to look after the matter. 



Clod Hopper thinks there is more net profit en 

 five acres of corn yielding five hundred bushels, 

 than on tweuty-six hundred bushels at the usual 

 rates. As he does not give the number of acres, 

 we suppose his experience is not of the satisfac- 

 tory nature. When our friend Clod Hopper 

 grows his hundred bushels to the acre, we shall 

 be pleased to hear of it and the net profits. 

 Mr. C. H. also wishes to know what crops, and 

 in what proportion will pay the best on forty or 

 eighty acre farms. To do this would require 

 more time than is at our disposal at this writing. 

 The most important crop to be planted is a good 

 supply of the small fruits, such as currants, 



gooseberries, raspberries, blackberries and es- 

 pecially strawberries. Next an oi chard of ap - 

 pies, pear, cherry, plum and peach. The gar- 

 den, begining with pie plant and running through 

 the series of staple vegetables ; then yon can 

 branch off into the fields, in which you must con- 

 sult soil, distance to market, prices, and facilities 

 of culture. In farming forty acres, use brainEi, 

 manure and muscle, and you will win. To run 

 over a thousand acres nefds nothing but brass 

 to run in debt, with a good supply of swagger. 

 How many of the great farmers would like to 

 swap chances with you, Mr. Clod Hopper, is not 

 for us to say, but we know of several if not more. 



8@„To prevent moths from eating clothes, 

 place camphor among them. 



contents: 



April «r 



The Potatoe Crop — Selection of Soil — Varieties. 98 



Culture of Cotton 99 



A Visit to the Peaeh Orchards of Egypt, etc., etc.lOO 



Some Things That I have Learned 104 



Justice to the Press ...105 



Vermin on Cattle „,..105 



All in the Rat Line 106 



Sorghum Mill and Refinery at Tuscola 106 



Tobacco Culture — Minute Directions to the Farm- 

 ers of the West 106 



Plant an Apple Orchard .....108 



Nine Days on a Gun Boat, etc., etc 108 



Substitntes and Adulterations of Coffee, etc., etc.. .115 



How we Like to be Humbugged 117 



Medical Examiner 1 18 



Architecture 118 



Bad Advice About Seeding 119 



Sprouting Red Cedar Seed 119 



Strawberries, etc 119 



Time to Prune Fruit Trees ...,120 



Grain and Stock Trade of Chicago 120 



Weather and Ciops ..120 



Editor's Table : 



Turner's Cultivator — Hardy Apple Trees 121 



Grove Nursery — Chicago Board of Trade — 

 Annual Report — Humbugs — Illinois Coffee — 

 Kendall's Tree Cotton— Died— Tobacco Culture.122 

 — Trial of Farm Implements — Coin Culture. ..12J 



D 



R. JOHN A. KENNICOTT. 



THE GROVE P. 0., COOK CO., ILL., 

 Will retail, at only 25 per cent, above cost of produc- 

 tion, Nursery Trees, Shrubbery, Flowering Plants, 

 Small Fruits, Large Evergreens, etc., of 600 sorts — 

 warranted good, true, and like to live. Price list and 

 infoemation, by mail, free. 

 marSt 



■EMPLOYMENT— A NEW ENTERPRISE. 



Tbe Frankltn Sewing Machine Comranv wait a nnmber of 

 active Local and Traveling Agents A liberal salary and ex- 

 penses paid, or comm-'sson allowed. Address, with stimp, 

 HARRIS BROTHERS, Boston, Mass. 

 (Clip this oat for reference.) 



