22 



THE ILLINOIS FAKMER 



jAir. 



The Illinois Farmer. 



BAILLACHE & BAKEB - - - PUBLISHEBS. 



M. I. DUNLAP, EDITOR. 



SPRINGFIELD, JANUARY, 1863. 



Editor's Table. 



The year 1863 has come greeting, making an- 

 other mark on the check-roll of time — a year 

 pregnant with great events to the Western 

 ■world. We hope to see the rebellion crumble 

 away as its days and weeks march on, and before 

 the plow shall be again afield; that the vast 

 armies now facing each other, may return to the 

 eolture of the soil, and to the varioup industrial 

 parsuits of life. 



The whole of this great struggle has grownup 

 ftt the beck of a few ambitious politicians, who 

 hare fired the public heart and instilled into the 

 nasBes their own bad principles. Those men 

 wo hope to see brought to a speedy punishment 

 of their crimes ; but this will not bring back the 

 thousands of lives that have and will yet be 

 sacrificed in this cause. It will take years of 

 prosperous peace to wipe out and repair the 

 damage done in this short war. 



Should the war continue, laborers will be 

 Boarce and wages high. It is, therefore, of no 

 small importance that we economize the labor at 

 hand. If we cannot work all of our lands, se- 

 lect the best, and during the winter, seed the re- 

 mainder down to hurdss-grass and clover. 



It is batter to till a hundred acres well than 

 to ran over two hundred poorly. 



The fact is, with a scarcity of labor we can- 

 not afford to cultivate poorly. It is only when 

 abor is cheap and taxes low, that we can afford 

 to half till our crops. With dear labor, we must 



cultivate more highly or we will find a small if 

 any margin for profits. 



With the opening of the Mississippi, we may 

 expect an advance on the price of our farm pro> 

 ducts, the profits of which are now swallowed 

 up in freight by the Eastern lines of transporta- 

 tion that are now gorged with our staples, ^•^^• 



This state of things cannot long continue, and 

 the great river must be opened. We do not be- ' 

 lieve the temper of the river States can mnoh 

 longer be safely tampered with. It may suit the 

 Eastern railroads and Eastern manufacturers to 

 continue this state of thin^is, but it is our duty 

 to tell them that every day's delay is estranging 

 the West from them. Let them take heed in 

 time. 



The West has poured out its blood on every 

 battle field of the war, while Vicksburgh has 

 been left standing to bar our transit to the mar- 

 kets of the world. Let Vicksburg fall and give 

 an outlet to the west, and tha west will be able 

 to pay her taxes, to purchase largely of the east 

 and continue her immense contributions to the 

 war. 



We hope no effort will be spared by those in 

 power, to see that the west has justice done her, 

 in the early fall of that nefarious city ; that a 

 healthly competition may again grow up between 

 the various lines '■ f transportation , that a small 

 share of profits of farm products may be left to 

 the producer. 



'^f 



Flax Cotton. — This enterprise has not died 

 out, but is being pushed forward. Mr. Clemens 

 of Rockford, has moved his headquarters to Chi- 

 cago, and is now receiving the raw staple to 

 work UD in flax cotton, ready for the manufac- 

 turer. We met him a few days since at Bloom- 

 ington, engaged in purchasing flax straw, a large 

 amount of which he had already secured. Small 

 breaking machines will be sent into the country 

 to divest the straw of a large share of the woody 

 stalk when it is pressed into bales and shipped 

 to the city, where it will undergo the chemical 

 processes to prepare it for the spinner. 



We are not sanguine that it can be made 

 cheaper than cotton or supersede it where the 

 latter is as valuable, but there are many uses 

 for linen that cotton cannot fully supply ; these 

 will, at least, be benefited in the present con- 

 dition of things, and we therefore wish the en- 

 terprise a full meed of success. 



Wo have promised to visit the works soon, and 

 shall hope to have a good report of them. 



