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194 



THE ILLINOIS FAKMER. 



July 



look well to what we purchase, what we 

 plant and how we cultivate. 



Mattoon and its Surroundings. 



Mattoon is located at the crossing of the 

 Chict. go branch of the Illinois Central, with 

 the Terre Haute and Alton Kailroad, and 

 within a dozen miles of the southern Illi- 

 nois. Its elevation above the Ohio at Cairo, 

 is 460 feet, and consequently is near the 

 northern rim of the basin of Upper Egypt. 

 Located at a high elevation above the basin, 

 it forms the south border of the water shed 

 of Central Illinois. The cloud that float for 

 nearly a hundred and fifty miles over the 

 basin, pour out their favors on the deep, rich 

 loams of this plateau, and thus make it one 

 of the most fertile parts of the State, with 

 a remarkable exemption from drouth. This 

 section has long been noted for good crops 

 of wheat and most abundant ones of corn. 

 The country is rolling, well watered, and 

 with a very good supply of timber. Coles 

 county, of which this vicinity forms a part, 

 is one of the richest counties in the State. 



The best field of wheat that we have seen 

 this season is on the farm of the Messrs. 

 Page, Herkimer & Bro. It is afield of 180 

 acres, and at the time of our visit. May 26, 

 was fully headed out, and presented an even 

 surface. The seed was from Michigan and 

 ifl the Red Mediterranian. We doubt if 

 there is another field of the same number 

 of acres in the State that will yield as much 

 as this, if no casualty occurs to it. 



The farm contains 720 acres, or a section 

 and one- eighth, is slightly rolling, and loca- 

 ted a mile and a half northwest of the vil- 

 lage. Nature planted a small grove of about 

 five acres, which makes a conspicuous mark 

 in the landscape, and island gem in the sea 

 of verdure, that, until last year, waved in 

 all the grandeur of its aboriginal freedom. 



The wheat mentioned above was sown on 

 the prairie broken up last June and July ; 

 the sowing commenced the last of August 

 and closed near the middle of September. 



The early sowing was by drilling, but prairie 

 is not the best adopted to drilling, and the 

 remainder was sown by hand broadcast. We 

 cau see no difference in the part drilled and 

 that sown broadcast. This prairie had been 

 pastured by large herds of cattle, and was 

 in the best condition for breaking up. At 

 the time of sowing the soil was well rotted 

 and having been thoroughly harrowed the 

 wheat made a good growth in the fall, but 

 not so as to injure it by smothering out. It 

 is evident to our mind that this neighbor- 

 hood is well adapted to the growth of win- 

 ter wheat, if sown on a clover sward. Thus 

 clover, to be mown, and the stubble turned 

 under in August, and sown if not to be pas- 

 tured, during the first half of September. 

 In February, or the first of March, seed with 

 clover, this will make good autumn feed for 

 stock — mow the next season and treat as be- 

 fore. This will make a two course rotation 

 that, we think, will pay better than any 

 other at the present price of other farm pro- 

 ducts. After a few years if the crop should 

 fall off, add to the clover a portion of herds 

 grass — top-dress after cutting the clover and 

 continue in grass another year. Another 

 plan would be to alternate with corn : have 

 the corn follow the wheat, and follow this 

 with spring wheat sown on the corn stubble 

 the corn being cut low for this purpose, and 

 headed off during the winter. In this case 

 very early sowing will be required, say the 

 last of February and not later than the tenth 

 of March. The failure of spring wheat in 

 this part of the State is generally caused by 

 late sowing — it must have a start during the 

 spring rains, and be headed out before the 

 long hot days of June. We would especial- 

 ly call the attention of farmers along the 

 front edge of this water shed to the value 

 of winter wheat and clover. It is probable 

 that oats would follow wheat to good advan- 

 tage, but this would have to be followed 

 with corn and again with wheat, as it would 

 be difficult to seed down with oats unless 

 they were sown too thin for a heavy crop. 

 After all, a rotation of crops must, to a great 



