180 



THE ILLINOIS FAEMEE. 



Mat 



ahead of Early Tobolsk and Myatts Victo- 

 ria ; we now use Lineous for early instead of 

 the Tobolsk, while for the main crop we 

 have an abiding faith in the Myatts Victo- 

 ria. Many people have purchased Victoria 

 supposing they have the genuine, but seed- 

 lint^s of the Myatts Victoria have, in num- 

 berless cases been sold, when the purchasers 

 supposed they were getting the genuine. 

 The demand for grape vines have been large, 

 and we shall hope to see grapes in abun- 

 dance at no distant day. In fact all the 

 small fruits are receiving universal attention 

 this spring. No man can long be considered 

 a good farmer without a good vegetable gar 

 den, plenty of small fruits and a good 

 orchard. 



The Value of Trees on Climate. 



Spring is now here ! Slowly she came 

 came up from the South, later by two weeks 

 than her wont. She could not pass the 

 blockade at Island No. 10, and was delayed 

 in making a flanking detour to gain her line 

 of march ; but that she is here, we have the 

 most indutable evidence, for the bulbus 

 venal flora is springing up along the garden 

 borders, the winter wheat is sending up its 

 tillering shoots, and the farmer is busy har- 

 rowing in the spring wheat. Barley and oats, 

 are being sown, grass and clover seed are in 

 requisition to replace the failing prairie grass 

 that a few years since waved its wild luxuri- 

 ance over the long stretches of prairie. The 

 native grass like the native Indian, cannot 

 withstand the march of the white man's 

 flocks, or the music of the reaper. Timothy 

 and clover must follow the footsteps of the 

 one, and take the place of the pasturage of 

 the other. 



The changes that have come over the 

 prairies in the past twenty-five years, is won- 

 derful, and yet a large part of the prairie 

 homes lack many elements of the useful and 

 the beautiful. A home standing out upon 

 the wide sweeps of prairie is a pleasant 



sight, when it is bordered in by the wild 

 prairie grass, and the emigrant has just un- 

 boxed his goods ; but when broad acres have 

 been subdued by the plow, when long lines 

 of fences mark the boundaries of the ample 

 fielf^s, when the white school house stands 

 at the parting roads, when the onward sweep 

 of civilization has laid down the iron rail 

 that brings it within the charmed circle of 

 the telegraph, of social privileges and of 

 markets; such a home loses its charms, the 

 waving grass is gone, the plow has made a 

 grave for the tall prairie flowers t'lai waved... 

 their wild luxuriance around its j urtals, and 

 unless some new beauties shall come forth' 

 to take their place, .the home will no longer , 

 have attractions for its inmates, and will 

 cease to please the beholder. Trees that 

 wave their summer foilage in tbe sunlight- 

 trees that shut out the noouday sun, when 

 the farmer comes in from his harvest toil 

 and would recruit his wearied muicles, so as ' 

 to keep .time to the music of tlie reaper as it . 

 lays low the serried ranl;.«! of bristling' 

 spikelets of the ripened grain. Trees that 

 shut out the rude blast that would visit the 

 homestead too roughly — trees tnat protect 

 the tender flowers that the wife or liauc^hter 

 plant around their home to eutice the genius 

 of love to linger and shed bis blessing over 

 all — trees along the highway to shelter the 

 weary traveler and to beautiiy the home- 

 stead — trees to belt in the farm with a band 

 of living verdure to protect the crops from 

 sudden changes and damage from high 

 winds — trees around the orcbarrl to shield it 

 from frost and prevent the blowing rtf of the 

 half ''grown fruit — trees aronud thj barnyard 

 to ward off the driving sleet an J chilly win- 

 try winds from the patient herd — trees amid 

 whose leafy boughs the birds build their nest, 

 and from whence they pour fort i their song to 

 cheer the sons of toil, and I'.ake constant 

 forays on the insect tribes that would other- 

 wise destroy our crops — trees lor fruit, both 

 for winter and summer-r— trees to pi. ase the 

 eyes of old and young, the farmer who ought 

 to have an eye for the beautiful > n nature, and 



