iwr^.T-— ^^T--' ■ ; j'"^- -^r :?* ■• '-««WTr">'-- ^^.~V-r ■ 



1862. 



THE ILLmOIS FARMER. 



305 



the mill. There can be no doubt that team work 

 has been seriously diminished also, by the large 

 number of horses taken for government purposes. 

 At Bloomington we were joined by C. D. Wil- 

 bur, secretary of the Illinois Natural History 

 Society, and wishing to see a little of the coun- 

 try off from the railroad line, at Mendota, char- 

 tered a team for a drive across the country to 

 the DJsou Air Line at Lane. In this drive of 

 thirty mile?, wc found the corn crop light, and 

 of inferior quality. The spring wheat was badly 

 filled, w^iih many fields not cut at all, and the 

 heavy rains of the past month has done no in- 

 considerable amount of damage to that in stack, 

 in cases where the farmers were thrashing, the 

 cloud of dust over the machine but too plainly 

 indicated a heavy loss by damp and damaged 

 fi 1 r.. Iu;V3 as before, little of the usual fall 

 plowing Las been, done, the farmers assuring us 

 that if hands cannot be had to drive the teams, 

 they vrould get contrabands, but these are out of 

 the question as far north as this point. Under 

 this state of things, it is easy to predict that a 

 narrow breadth of spring wheat will be sown in 

 the spring of 1803. Usually a large proportion 

 of the corn stubble can be sown to this grain 

 without re-plowing, bat the abundant hay crop, 

 coupled with the scarcity of hands to cut up and 

 eliockthe corn, together with the weedy condi- 

 tion of the fields, little or nolhing can be expec- 

 ted in this direction. The sorghum crop is good, 

 and a large share of tbe farm force is now busy 

 in securing it. The wooden rollers of last year 

 have pretty generally given pkce to heavy cast 

 iron ones, and in most cases better pans hav 

 been substituted, steam evaporaters we notice are 

 more coinmcn. "^Ve observed several farmers 

 who do not take the Tribune, and tiiese cut t>| 

 seed heads iroia the cane and let v. stan^'^ 



rapidly doteriorateu. bo long as V- , 



, , , ,, '"^"i out the 



m.ins uncut, so long must tn^ ^ ^^^^ ^.^^^ 



Stripping the leaves arresVen,ain in a healthy 

 heads are si ill requirgo fermentation, 

 lation, so that i^^ 

 condition ^^^ wniii: willow. 



HOW IT CAME HEEE. ' ' 



In the spring of the year 1847, several fami- 

 lies moved to this place from near Columbus, 

 Ohio, and one of the members brought w-th him 

 a willow cane. Cn arriving it was concluded to 

 make a land mark of this cane, and it was cut 

 into four pieces by our informant, Mr. Blair, -who 

 stuck them down in what was supposed the di- 

 vision line of the farms of the new emigrants. 

 Three of them grew, and from them cuttings 

 have been multiplied to that extent that ever a 

 hundred miles have been planted for timber belts 

 and for fencing, in the district mentioned. 



The first planting of these willows not being 

 on the line, weie cut down on the sale of one of 

 the farms to the present owner in the spring of 

 1853, and the cuttiu,,< \:t out one foot apart for 

 a distance of some twca ■. rods. The soil is 

 flat just above the overflow oi V/ilk'W Creek, is 

 dry and rich, and most admirably adapted to 

 the growth of this kind of tree ; the result is 

 that it has grown into a most substantial barrier 

 to all horned stock and horses. The sight of 

 this willow belt, now in its full foliage and tow- 

 ering proportions, is one of the most pleasing to 

 the eye of a farmer, whose home is upon t&e 

 prairie. Here is shade for his stock — a fence 

 that will restrain them — shelter for _i»i" ^mpa 

 from hi2h winds, an orchard ^ -^ °^" ^^P^^ growth, 

 and finally rails for.c-^ '^f f '' '^"'^ ^"^^ f<"- ^i^e 

 winter. We ^.-^['^^''^'^^f ore this, heard or 

 «een a f"-'- '^' ^^ ^^^ practical value ; 



"^^p^rf The fact stand'- "it m bold relief, (he 



ees^'that iovmf/"^'^^^^ ^^ growing wood, not 

 --ad growth, but sufSciently olo4 



. ^.^^ 'Moderate sizPf?,!;™., ._i. 



to i^ 



but p 



it is true., n , 



^a.Iou.n^oderate sized pig,, calves and 



- object of the dri 



ve over this route was to 



. . ' ^ ;^°; ^^^^ *'^^^ i^^rty feet in its cross sec 

 t.on and which would produce nearly or I'ta 



ches dmmeter at the base two fwf 



ground. The c^at o- tK," ^''°' *^« 



6 xne cost o. this was setting th° cut 



tings along side of f nr^of j ^ 



^:^»s::r;:/^r£Er"^'-^=- 



thence to near Lane Stat 

 to, is that on the far 

 low Creek, and th 

 State. 



and 



•on. The first we came 



™ of the postmaster at Wil- 



e oldest ia this part of the 



of H 7.T" *''* '''''' ^'°'''''^ tf^at portion 

 of the field. Within the past four years IZ 

 -mber of f..,ers, pJably overToo Lf 

 planted cuttings of this wiHow for fenep: 

 lOOmilesof which we sa.yestX;r 

 none of the recent planting Will tura'sto^tru; 



