44 



THE ILLINOIS FARMER. 



Feb. 



New Staple Crops. 



SUGAR, TOBACCO AND COTTON IN ILLINOIS. 



(Correspondence of the N. Y. Tribune.) 



DoNGOLA, Union Co., 111., Oct., 29, 18G2. 

 I have visited many sections in Illinois south 

 of 40 deg. and some north of this latitude, and 

 will give the result of the experiments made this 

 year in the culture of our new staples. 



SUGAR-CANE. 



The amount of sugar-cane planted in this 

 State must exceed my estimate of 50,000 acres 

 last spring — it must exceed 100,000 acres. 

 I doubt not but more molasses will be produced 

 than we can consume. A few years ago when 

 the farmers first made molasses, it was often 

 poor — some could not use it, many were discour- 

 aged. Since then, with better methods and a 

 diflFusion of the experience of those who macle 

 good molasses, the culture has become as fixed 

 as corn. Large mills, run by steam for grind- 

 ing the cane for townships, are not as profitable 

 for the farmer as bis own small machines in 

 which his neighbors unite with him. Refiners 

 will do well. 



TOBACCO. 



I am surprised at the large breadth of tobacco 

 planted. There cannot be less than 10,000 acres 

 in addition to the usual crop, which is as much 

 more, for some counties on the Ohio River have 

 raised it many years. It will average a full crop 

 — perhaps more. On gooi^ ground and with 

 careful culture, there will be often 2,000 pounds 

 cured to the acre. So I am told. There is a 

 good deal of money in this. I will relate an an- 

 ecdote : A friend of mine has owed $400 sev- 

 eral years. He has had a greater sum owing to 

 him. He could neither collect nor pay. Fer 

 four years he has tried to get the money by rais- 

 ing wheat. The seasons were poor. Last year 

 he was determined to succeed. lie put in forty 

 acres on his own farm. The land was prime, 

 and I never saw ground in better order. On a 

 rented farm he had eighteen acres more. The 

 Hessian fly came. From the forty acres he 

 brought to the barn one wagon load in the straw; 

 from the eighteen acres, his share, in two com- 

 mon sacks. Last spring I induced him to raise 

 cotton and tobacco. He has an a"re of cotton, 

 which is fine, and two acres of tobacco. He will 

 pay ofiF the long standing debt and have money 

 to spare. This is in the latitude of thirty-seven 

 degrees thirty minutes. 



I will speak of a crop in a higher latitude. I 

 visited the nursery grounds of F. K. Phoenix at 

 Bloomington, McLean county, in 40 deg. 30min. 

 Here I saw three acres of as good tobacco as one 

 will find anywhere. It is true that, for want of 

 proper knowledge of its management, he will fail 

 of the largest returns, but, as it is, this little 

 spot will be worth fifty acres of corn. This is 

 on prairie soil ; there are millions of acres in the 

 State which will produce tobacco just as well. 

 The country owes much to Mr. Phoenix for this 



experiment. Look on the map and see how much 

 of Northern States lies south of this three 

 acres of tobacco. It is all the State of Missouri, 

 three-fourths of Illinois, three-fourths of Indiana, 

 more than half of Ohio, half of Pennsylvania, 

 and more than half of New Jersey. To show 

 what in time may be expected from our new 

 staples here in the West, we have but to mention 

 bow largely, for instance, the nursery business 

 is carried on. Mr. Phoenix has 100 acres of ap- 

 ple trees from one to three years old, all in the 

 most thrifty condition, I doubt whether there is 

 another collection in the world so extensive ; and 

 he is enlarging his grounds every year, because 

 people find western grown trees better than east- 

 ern ones. To do the work in this nursery from 

 twenty to 100 hands are required nine months in 

 the year; and for the packages for the shipment 

 of trees and flowers 100,000 feet of lumber are 

 consumed. I will add a little anecdote which 

 will please boys. Twenty-eight years ago Mr. 

 Phoenix was a poor boy, in Wyoming county, N. 

 Y., and in order that he might become a subscri- 

 ber to Mr. Greeley's New-Yorker, he hired as the 

 carrier of the county newspaper. 



The greatest obstacle to raising tobacco on 

 the prairies is the scarcity of lumber, for a 

 good sized house is required to cure the tobacco 

 in. It is astonishing how few barns there are. 

 But when it is seen how enormously profitable 

 this crop is, the want will be supplied, and I take 

 this occasion to prophesy, that in a few years 

 Illinois will excel Virginia. Were our country 

 at peace, and no great debt over us, I would be 

 willing to say more against this culture than I 

 am now saying for it. 



COTTON. 



My account of cotton may not be so favorable 

 as some will expect, it is more so than I had ex- 

 pected it would be. Last spring a difliculty ex- 

 isted which it was impossible to evercome. This 

 was a want of seed, and it led to some failures, 

 for when the seed did not come up — corn will not 

 always grow — no seed could be had to replant. 



In that region of Illinois lyiag south of thirty- 

 eight degrees, and comprising fourteen counties, 

 cotton was planted quite extensively last spring, 

 because many always had been in the habit of 

 raising it, ftill not one farmer in ten planted, 

 and now nine out of ten of these are sorry that 

 they did not — but they could not, for there was 

 no seed. The cotton bolls are now opening very 

 fast, and on an average of fifty six pounds of 

 clean cotton have been picked from an acre. 

 There will be three more pickings of fifty pounds 

 each. Every seed will be saved. So much for a 

 region long known as good for cotton. 



I come now to speak of an experiment made by 

 M. L. Dunlap, Esq., of Champaign, Champaign 

 county, in latitude forty degrees 14 minutes. 

 .Mr. Dunlap also is a nurseryman, and has three- 

 fourths of an ace of cotton. He says that he 

 will have at least one picking, that the yield will 

 be fully 200 pounds of clean cotton to the acre, 

 that this is as much as on an average can be raised 

 in the State of Mississippi, and the reason why as 



