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186^ 







THE ILLINOIS FARMER 



311 r 



TThe Illinois Farmer. 



BAILHACHE & BAKEB FITBLISHEBS 



11. L. DUNLAP, EDITOR. ■*■-■•■ - 



SPRINGFIELD^OCTOBER, 1862. 



Editor's Table. 



October, with her coronal of ripened fruits, is 

 again at hand, blithe, jocund October, full of 

 activity, the garnering up of nuts, of fruits and 

 of vegetables ; the busy days of preparation for 

 •winter. We look back through the records of 

 summer to the planting of spring, and now re- 

 alize all that the season and our labor and skill 

 have yielded. Those of us left to till the soil, 

 have no small task ; every hour must find us 

 busy with the autumn harvest and the prepara- 

 tion for winter. No one can now be idle. 



The war has drawn so largely from our farm- 

 ing population that it will, with our best efforts, 

 be impossible to secure all our crops ; but we 

 must begin early and work late and work to ad- 

 vantage. We cannot afford to throw away any 

 labor in the wrong direction, but it must be ap- 

 plied judiciously. Harvest the potatoes before 

 frost and when the ground is dry and in good 

 condition ; have the corn cut at once, all that is 

 intended for feeding. When the fodder is not to 

 be used, it is the cheapest to husk on the hill, 

 and haul in bulk to the cribs. See that the cribs 

 are well covered, as the losses of the last season 

 from this cause are too large to be overlooked. 

 The price of rejected has a wide margin attach- 

 ed to it. The potatoe crop is light and therefore 

 needs the better looking to. Sorting them at 

 the time of digging is but little trouble and will 

 save a large amount of labor — put the kinds sep- 

 arate and also sort out the small ones. Tou can 

 never do this work so well as at the time of dig- 

 ging nor one-fourth as cheap. 



Manure should be hauled out on the meadow, 

 where it has not been done, and have the yards 

 clear for the new supply. 



Those who have not given fall plowing a fair 

 trial should do so at once and they will be pleased 

 with it, as well as find it a great saving of labor. 



State Hort. Fair and the I. C. R. R. — We 

 have numerous letters of complaint in re- 

 gard to this road not extending half fare 

 tickets to parties wishing to attend, but 

 but who, in consequence, did cot attend. The 

 attendance was small from this line of road, but 

 if fares had been free, we do not think it would 

 have been larger. The truth is, people could 

 not find time to attend, to say nothing of the 

 cost. We cculd have wished that return passes 

 could have been given to those in attendance, 

 but to say that the Illinois Central Railroad have 

 done nothing, is wrong ; they gave material aid 

 in the way of freight and passes to get up the show 

 and to Ihose whose time was spent in making up 

 collections so far as asked, and so soon as the 

 officers are satisfied that a good attendance for 

 these pains can be had from the line of road, we 

 have no doubt they will grant the same facilities 

 that other roads have done. Several things can 

 be said on both sides of this question. 



We think that unless the roads can all grant 

 half fares it is useless to attempt to hold a fair at 

 any point. People will not attend unless they 

 can have a reduction from the usual r:ites, Hail- 

 road men can see this as well as well as we, and 

 will be very apt to work for their own interest. 

 It is true that an old fogy will occasionally get 

 into office on these roads, but their ru'e is gener- 

 ally short and they die an easy death. The State 

 Horticultural Society is now a live institution as 

 it has demonstrated that it can hold a fair on its 

 own merits, and will of course no longer play 

 second fiddle to any one. It will of course be re- 

 spected accordingly and be a party to contract 

 and to be contracted with. 



-*•>- 



The Pttlu fob Matresses. — In No. 5, of the 

 current volume of the Scientific American, I no- 

 tice you have copied from the New Bedford Mer- 

 cury an item on the biis'ness of the Sandwich 

 Islands, in which the writer speaks of pulu a3 

 bting a kind of brown thistle down. I have been 

 a resident of the Sandwich Islands for several 

 years, and know this be an error. Pulu is gath- 

 ered in great abundance, principally on the is- 

 land of Hawaii, the largest of the group. It 

 grows on the stalk or in the crotch of a species 

 of fern. This fern often grows to the heighth of 

 ten or twelve feet and has a body of from two to 



