288 



THE ILLINOIS FAEMER. 



Sept. 



sucli covers as is customary. The truth is : 

 no farmer can afford to put his corn in any- 

 thing but a good, well made crib with water- 

 proof roof. TVe put up a crib last winter 

 thirty-two by twenty-eight feet. Crib eight 

 feet wide with a waggon house twelve 

 by thirty two feet in the center, and floor 

 over head for storage, for §100. The ca- 

 pacity for corn is 2,000 bushels, or a cost of 

 five cents a bushel for one year, and after 

 that, the house is ready and paid for. We 

 have no doubt that the average loss on corn 

 thus exposed the past season, is not less 

 than ten cents on the bushel — a sum double 

 that of the cost of a good crib with waggon 

 shed thrown in. 



Now is the time to attend to this matter, 

 before the husking is commenced. It is 

 true the past season has been unusually wet, 

 and of course more destructive to the cribb- 

 ed corn, but to offset this, much of the 

 corn this season is too late, and will not be 

 well ripened, and if put in the usual sized 

 cribs or rail pens, will most assuredly niold, 

 and become more or less damaged. We 

 hope the last season's experience is sufficient 

 to induce a change for the better. We 

 would prefer half of our corn in a good safe 

 crib, than the whole of it out of doors — bet- 

 ter sell half for the lumber, than to risk it 

 out. On the whole, no farmer can afford to 

 do without good corn cribs for his entire 

 crop. 



The bean crop will be of value this sea- 

 son, and will pay to look after. We have 

 given ample direction in this regard, in pre- 

 vious numbers of the Farmer. The dif- 

 ferance between a prime article of beans 

 and those slightly damaged by rains, is 

 rather large and should be avoided, 



The profits of farming, to a great extent, 

 depends upon the harvesting of the autumn 

 crops. It is of little use to grow farm pro- 

 ducts unless we take good care of them. 

 The differance between good and indiferent 

 care, can be counted up in dollars and cents. 

 No month of the year has more active duties 



than this, yet it is not a month of severe 

 labor. The weather is generally of the most 

 charming descripion. The days are short, 

 cool, and invigorating. Add to this the 

 pleasure of seeing, day alter day, the stor- 

 ing away of the products that ardent sum- 

 mer has thrown into the lap of autumn, is 

 sufficient to cheer us on, and to induce us to 

 activity and care. 



At The Old Homestead. 



After an absence of four and a half years, 

 we again set at our old desk, in our old 

 home, to write for the press. Here we 

 wrote our first article on farming, and from 

 here we have held converse with the outside 

 world, until we have passed the period when 

 men are drafted for the war. Trees — great 

 trees have grown up around our old home, 

 and the autumn winds come to us through 

 the barrier that forms a living wall around 

 us. During the five summers' of our ab- 

 sence, the trees have kept on growing with- 

 out much regard to the absencfi of their 

 owner J but the fence, the buildings, and 

 the old smiling aspects of . tb'e iplace, have 

 sadly faded out, and need the hand of the 

 owner spread out toward them. The fruit 

 trees, wrecked during the winter of '54 and 

 '55, have nearly disappeared, while the 

 hardy ones have kept on, adding growth 

 after growth, until they bend beneath the 

 loads ^of fruit, counting hundreds of bushels 

 that find a ready sale, thus adding value and 

 beauty to the place. The pear trees that 

 nestle underth? shelter of the house ground, 

 are loaded with beautiful fruit, while scarcely 

 a stump remains of over two hundred plan- 

 ted in the open orchard — another witness to 

 the long array of the value of shelter. 



In the orchard, the Keswick's Codlin 

 holds the first place as a profitable market 

 apple, and so fully are we satisfied of this 

 fact, that we now intend to set a new orchard 

 of one thousand traes of this variety ; but 

 our readers raust bear in mind that this old 



