1862. 



THE ILLIKOIS FAEMEK. 



299 



crop at $2 a bushel, delivered at the station. 

 The prices would be thirty per cent higher, if 

 change were plenty. 



The natives are astonished, and they are going 

 to raise fruit. For the most part they will do 

 nothing ; they do not know enough to raise fruit. 

 One may think he knows how but that does not 

 help the matter. The greatest obstacle which 

 prevents many from succeeding, is the competi- 

 tion they meet with in men who knoV more than 

 they do. Industry is truly important, but alone 

 it will not win. Still it is by no means difficult 

 to raise fruit. I think that frequent visits to the 

 best orchards, and a good share of common 

 sense, will enable one to succeed. If he do fail, 

 he will be a fool if he does not try till success 

 crowns his efforts. 



Still, from various causes, not more than a 

 quarter of the fruit trees set out in our country 

 will amount to much. The price cf fruit has ad- 

 vanced during the last twenty years. In twenty 

 years more, if fruit growersare very industrious 

 and if too many children are not born, common 

 people may be able to buy early fruit ; and early 

 fruit may be ra sed as easily as late fruit. A 

 man who worka light, can afford to work for less 

 than one who works wrong. That is, if he have 

 the product of his industry to dispose of. 



Let a wike-awake Yankee come hither and set 

 out well known good varieties, and he will do 

 well. He will want ten or forty acres of good, 

 high land. Ten acres will do as well as forty for 

 many men. At South Pass, suitable sites sell 

 from $20 to $30 per acre. When covered with 

 bearing trees, they easily sell for $100 an acre. 

 There are farms which can be sold for $150 an 

 acre, and the trees are only four years old. They 

 make the trees bear at this age, often sooner. I 

 saw trees two years from the bud for which $5 

 were given for the fruit from eich tree. South 

 of the point named, good improved farms near 

 stations, and where peaches never fail, can be 

 bought for $15 an acre. I know of twenty or 

 thirty such chances. The railroad will sell suit- 

 able land, mostly timber, for less, and give long 

 time. They offer every inducement to fruit 

 growers. The freight that is psid them for an 

 acre of peaches, exceeds what they get for what 

 is paid for a hundred acres of wheat. The re- 

 ceipts from iive acres of peach trees in full bear- 

 ing, will buy a good farm. 



Pears do well here ; so do apples and straw- 

 berries. Plums, cherries, and currants do poor- 

 ly. Grapes are uncertain ; they rot. One man 

 expected to have twenty tuns ; he hopes to have 

 two. Much disappointment is felt regarding 

 certain varieties of peaches. The early York, 

 serrate was supposed to be the earliest and best; 

 it rotted. One man makes his loss $3,000 by 

 the early York, and yet his receipts will reach 

 $500. The early Troth rots. Crawfords early 

 is the finest peach, but it is so large that it does 

 not retail at a profit, and it is a shy bearer. The 

 first shipments were the early Tillotson, which 

 was about the 18th inst. The peach which 

 ripens first is wormy ; it ripens first because it i» 

 stung. The peach which now is esteemed most 

 for the qualities of earliness, size and color, is 

 the Honest John of New Jersey, and Western 



New York. The fruit is full siae, fair color, 

 mostly red, flavor good. 



Some wishing to come hither, would like to 

 know iow much money they ought to have. I 

 consider myself posted on this head. I answer 

 that with two to five hundred dollars, you can 

 start yourself handsomely. With five hundred 

 dollars you can do well. Some have commenced 

 with less, but whatever you have, you must have 

 earned it at some kind of labor or honest busi- 

 ness. If you have come by it without labor, 

 you probably will loose. If you have been 

 brought up idly, and have money but what is 

 given you, put it out at interest, and then come 

 and support yourself a year or so by days work, 

 when you can safely use it. The kind of busi- 

 ness you have been accustomed to is compara- 

 tively of little consequence. If one can walk to 

 the East, he can walk to the West. Some have 

 nothing to come with. It is difficult to advise 

 them. Industry and patience will go far. If 

 one has a family and no money, what can he do ! 

 Still, fair intelligence being given, one can work 

 wonders, providing he only has the constitution 

 of a horse and the energy of a lion. Such can 

 get money anywhere. These are the conditions. 



Some will want to know whether we have any 

 ague and game. We have some of the first, but 

 Ayer's ague cure soon disposes of it ; and we 

 have less of the latter. However, bring a gun. 

 If you cannot well do this, cary a lot of precus- 

 sion caps loose in your vest pocket, or buy a pair 

 of light bullet moulds, and keep them bright by 

 rubbing them in your fingers when in company. 



Timber tor Bee Pastlrfs — The Bee Journal 

 advises those wishing to improve their bee pas- 

 turage to plant maple, locust, chestnut, and lin- 

 den trees, and to encourage others to do so. In 

 setting out ornamental trees, it is surely worthy 

 one's attention to have regard to their honey- 

 producing power, and to select, with this end in 

 view, those blooming at different times, rather 

 than all of one kind, or those blooming at the 

 same time. We would like to know the compar- 

 ative value of these trees for producing honey, 

 and also which varieties of those mentioned are 

 the best. 



For timber, the yellow locust is the most val- 

 uable. It is extensively planted on the western 

 prairies, where it grows very rapidly, and is 

 chiefly used for railroad sleepers. In Southern 

 Ohio, bees, some years, galhtr a large portion of 

 their surplus honey from the locust. Their in- 

 dustry during the yield from the locust is sur- 

 prising. Where the trees grow in great num- 

 bers, they almost abandon all other sources of 

 supply. 



40» 



B^P'Gov. Curtin of Pennsylvonia, states that 

 75,000 men have responded to his call for the 

 defense of the State, and anticipates that the 

 number will be raised te 100,000. 



-••* 



._ in large assemblies there is more feeling 

 and less thought than in small ones. 



