1863. 



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THE ILLINOIS FARMER. 



69 



sward land. It will be to the great 

 farm staples what tlie clipper plow and 

 tlie reaper was at tlie time of their in- 

 ception, giving the west new powers 

 of competition and cheapening the 

 great staples of life. It is the business 

 of the West to furnish the world with 

 cheap food, and to do this we must have 

 the tools to do it with. We at least 

 have some of them, the steel clipper 

 plow, the reaper, and the power thi-esh- 

 er, and now we are receiving the two- 

 horse cultivator and the rotary spader. 



Red Cedar Seedlings and Fine Wool. 



Mr. J. A. Carpenter of South Pass, 

 (Cobden Station) Union county, en- 

 closing us an advertisement AATites as 

 follows : " Say, do tell the planters how 

 to make all their evergreens grow. 

 One of my customers says he plants 

 them on the north side of a fence with 

 good success ; another plants in open, 

 exposed situation, large trees, mulching 

 heavily, and placing a barrel with the 

 heads out around each the first season. 

 Others plant in the shade of trees. AU 

 that is required to ensure success is a 

 little well dh'ected care and attention. 



We suppose it is yom' business to 

 keep people out of trouble. I have a 

 small flock of South Downs, and an- 

 other of Spanish Merino. In 1861 the 

 wool was all carded for home use, but 

 the cards were not suitable for the fine 

 wool, hence spoiled the rolls of the Me- 

 rino. This year I consigned my wool 

 to a commission house in Chicago. 



I am told that fine wool is carded 

 near Springfield. Do you know this 

 to be a fact ? If so I wish to send my 

 wool to them. 



Nothing would add so much to the 

 value of the hiUs of Union county as 

 stocking them with fine wooled sheep, 



to be pastm-ed on clover in summer, 

 and rye pasture in winter. In this way 

 they will shear from six to twelve 

 pounds." 



We have received several thousand 

 Red Cedar SeedHngs of Mr. C, and 

 succeeded in growing about two-thirds 

 of them, which is a fair average. The 

 past season being wet, a much larger 

 proportion has been saved. We set 

 them under the shade of a row of close- 

 ly planted peach trees, with an arbor- 

 vitce protection four feet high to the 

 north of them. Thus sheltered, they 

 make a fine growth, the falling leaves 

 mulch them, and in the following spring 

 they are transferred to the nursery 

 rows in the orchard, which give them a 

 slight protection, having been three to 

 four vears set out. The red cedar will 

 not bear too much wind, and hence is 

 not so well adapted to bleak places as 

 the arborvitse. JSTearly or quite all 

 evergreens lose their symmetry when 

 exposed to the prahie winds, but 

 though adapted to low screens, we 

 should never recommend their planting 

 for outside belts. These seedling red 

 cedars should be planted out before the 

 buds start in the spring. .-. 



The use of old barrels may do to a 

 certain extent, but they are not always 

 at hand in sufficient quantity. We 

 would much rather set the trees in a 

 sheltered place for a year or two. Large 

 evergreens shoukl never be transferred 

 from the forest to the open ground, at 

 the same time there is no difiiculty with 

 large trees that have been two or three 

 times transplanted in the nursery. 



We knoAV of no carding mill in the 

 State doing custom work adapted to 

 the pure Merino wool, and it is doubt- 

 ful if any of the cloth mills of the 

 country can card it. On one occasion 



iiiiiilMirilir tirtri^^ 



