1862. 



THE ILLINOIS FARMEE- 



207 



making numerous dead furrows, have good crops 

 of wheat on those dead levels ; and we saw three 

 or four large peach orchards planted on these 

 flats. We shall yet learn how to manage these 

 lands, though at present the formula is not very 

 distinct or certain in its results — a peculiar soil, 

 requiritig peculiar treatment. 



We contend that this soil is among the lichest 

 of the prairie formations, yet most people con- 

 sider it poor and thin, because it so much resem- 

 bles some of the sterile clays in appearance, but 

 this is not so, it is certainly rich in. all the ele- 

 ments of vegetable nutrition, and will yet be cul- 

 tivated more intelligently and produce much more 

 abundantly than at present. The long spells of 

 dry weather make it suffer, but with deep and 

 thorough tillage it must improve ; drain off the 

 surface water and clover must grow. The aver- 

 age crop of wheat for the last decade is smaller 

 than we dare write for the credit of the country, 

 but we think it can easily be doubled. The same 

 may be said of corn ; it is a shame and a sin to 

 grow so little corn to the acre as is grown here, 

 and to see its leaves rolled up day after day dur- 

 ing August and September ; we know there can 

 be found a remedy. Plant early and have the 

 surface well shaded long before the August drouth 

 drinks up the moisture. A few patches of com 

 along the north side of Crooked Creek, north of 

 Centralia, in size, approaches that with which we 

 parted over a hundred miles north, while it should 

 be double the size. Two degrees of latitude and 

 two hundred feet less elevation above the sea 

 should make a material difference in favor of 

 this point at this season. But the better farming 

 at the North is more than a match for the differ- 

 ence of climate. How long shall this hold good? 

 How long will Egypt be the laggard in the field 

 of progress? 



Along the north margin of the creek above 

 mentioned are several young orchards of the 

 peach, the trees of which look promising. Some 

 day we must make a closer inspection of them. 



THE AEMT WORM. 



In but one field of wheat do we hear of any of 

 this pestiferous insect, and that is a field of 

 eighty acres just west of Centralia, but they 

 have done no damage beyond stripping off the 

 leaves, which has not affected the yield in the 

 least. The wheat prospect at this point is said 

 to be good, and the fields, as we pass, bear ont 

 the testimony. Here night shut out the view 

 and we took to the sleeping cfir, and were soon 

 in the land of dreams, as ths train swept 



through the deep gorges and around the sharp 

 curves in the vall°y of the Drary, where the 

 peach orchards look down from the hills and nod- 

 ding their wealth of fruit in the moonlight as we 

 thunder past. We were dreaming of raspberries, 

 blackberries, and melting peaches, with blushing 

 cheeks — ^somewhere, it must have been just as we 

 passed the court of Pomona, where some one of 

 her attendants spied out our resting place and 

 whispered these pleasing dreams in our ear — but 

 she left us, and our dreams took another turn, 

 and found us in the river floods struggling with 

 floating trees, while the air was thick with flying 

 shel hissing through the haze from the misty wa- 

 ters. We woke up ; it was six o'clock; we could 

 not be mistaken, we were in Cairo, for there is 

 no other p'&ce like it in this round earth, but 

 this time it was Cairo dry ; when last we saw it 

 it was amphibious Csiro, on the style of Venice, 

 with one wide canal and the light gondola turned 

 to dug outs, and hastily improvised water craft. \ 

 Jtjsk 17. — Cairo will stand, a monument to all 

 time, if the Mississippi in some wild freak does 

 not dissolve it, like sugar in a cup of coffee, and 

 sweep it down, in this diluted state and add it to 

 the great prairies that are now being formed in 

 the Gulf, that one day will come up dripping 

 from the waters, to be added to our country — a 

 rumbling from the internal fires, a rolling back 

 of the sea — and the Gulf, where ships so lately 

 floated, is transformed into long slopes ready for 

 the plow so soon as the ooze-like soil shall hard- 

 en in the sun. Such may be the fate of Cairo, 

 and such the future of the gulf. 



The markets here are but poorly supplied, the 

 inhabitants being content with small favors in 

 this line. All the early vegetables near Jones- 

 boro and Oobden find a better market at the 

 North, and take that direction. The farmers of 

 Tennessee have had no time to grow vegetables, 

 and as yet send nothing to this market. An offi- 

 cer from Columbus informs us that potatoes, new 

 and large, are in sbunJa";ce at that point and at 

 Hickman, but here we have the Merino or Long 

 Johns of last year. 



WAITING FCR A BOAT. 



19th. — This waiting for a boat is, if possible, 

 worse than being stuck in a snow drift with a 

 railroad train. We have two strings to our bow. 

 The D. G. Taylor was due last evening, and the 

 Evansville was posted for noon, but any person 

 conversant with these river boatmen, make due 

 allowance, as the true tioie of starting is from 

 twelve hcurs to a week from that set on the 



