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THE ILLINOIS FAEMEJB:' 



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BAILHACHE & BAKEB - 



PUBLISHEES. 



M. L. DUNLAP, Kditor. 



SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, MARCH, 1863. 



. March has at last come upon the stage bringing 

 with it the first faint glimmerings of Spring. In 

 this latitude it ia a busy month. Husking must be 

 completed, and the stalks broken down and burned, 

 to prepare the ground for the coming crops. Our 

 Eastern friends know nothing of this, they 

 carefully cut up and house the corn stalks for 

 winter feed, while here as a general thing the corn 

 is husked on the hill, and the stock turned in to 

 feed on the leaves during pleasant weather. The 

 stalks are broken down by the use of a heavy pole 

 or railroad rail eighteen to twenty feet long, by 

 attaching a team at either end and then drawing it 

 sideways over the frozen ground. We often see 

 raking and burning the stalks, husking and plow- 

 ing the ground at the same time, but this is only 

 in the West where corn is the one great crop. 

 A few years and we shall see a jj^ixed husbandry. 

 The parallels of 39 and 40 ® are favorite ones for 

 the cereals and grasses. Sugar, tobacco, com, 

 wheat, potatoes and hay will rank high among the 

 field crops, while the orchard will teem with a 

 great variety of fruit. Let us then in the begin- 

 ning of the season, see that we make judicious 

 selections, it is better to risk on two or three crops 

 than on one. It is thus that what is called a mixed 

 husbandry proves the most profitable. 



At Home. — ^The editor has made up his plans of 

 the season to remain at home, and nothing will 

 draw him thence unless it be to settle some point 

 in regard to the culture of the soil, or something 

 new that will require a personal visit. To the sev- 

 eral railroad companies who have so generously 

 continued their kind favors to us, we return ovu- 

 thanks, and if we do not travel so much as usual 

 , we shall not be the less unmindful of the intimate 

 ielations that exist between them and the cultiva- 

 tors of the soil. With one single exception we 

 tender our thanks to the conductors of the Illinois 

 Central railroad. They have always proved them- 

 sdires gentlemen, and take a just pride in the good 

 na%e of the road ; and no man coming West to 

 8ee]£^ home but has been pleased with the kind 

 atte^^pn shown him on every occasion. We have 

 knowi^iem long and intimately. Nearly all of 

 them hate or are carving out homes for them- 

 selve^Sapt' thus have too much at stake to lightly 



neglect the duty they owe themselves and the pub- 

 lic. We do not claim to have a pattern farm or 

 to set up for a model. Whatever we sow or plant 

 is with a view of present or ultimate profit and 

 value. We have neither time or money to throw 

 away on fancy farm ing, and as we have a large 

 family to feed must study economy in all our ar- 

 rangements. Our place is now five years old, that 

 is the age of the oldest fence and orchard since 

 setting out as such, though the most of them are 

 but one two and three years, but we trust our 

 ground will compare well with any in the State 

 of the same age, and it shall now be our pride to 

 give them our personal supervision. 



*9>- 



AYaltiablk Subscriber. — 



" ToxjLON Feb. 14th 1863 



Mr Editor of the Ills Farmer 

 Dear Sir 



I Come to the Con elusion that I 

 would not take your paper a ny more for this reasin 

 I am Gowing to leave this part of this contrary I 

 am Gowing to stop farming in Illinois I ordited it 

 stop 2 year a go I dont in tend to pay you for the 

 last 2 years your servent 



S. P. Fast " 



— The above on the whole is rather honest, and 

 we much prefer an open confession of cheating than 

 your sneaking cur, who would steal your dinner and 

 sneak oflF through the buahes without ever a yelp 

 at you. We therefore take pleasure in putting 

 Mr. Fast on the record without marring in the least 

 the unique style in which he presents himself. Mr. 

 F. will be an acquisition to[any business to which he 

 may turn his hand, and the agricultural communi- 

 ty may feel proud at his retiring from the business 

 of farming in which doubtless he has made many 

 and great strides, for we can easily imagine that a 

 man who will coolly refuse to pay for his paper 

 after taking it two years, must have made an excel- 

 lent farmer and a most amiable neighbor, in the 

 way of brcechy, half-starved stock, prowling about 

 seeking what they might devour. 



Mr. F. shows some shrewdness after all, and will 

 doubtless find a change of business and of resi- 

 dence desirable, but he should go to some part of 

 the State where disloyalty and petty cheating are 

 more popular than among the farmers of Stark 

 county. Wherever he may turn up he will bear 

 watching. 



Tobacco Seed. — ^We have received a package 

 of Twist Bud tobacco seed from John M. Hunter, 

 Ashley, Washington county. This is a variety 

 highly commended by tobacco growers. We shall 

 give it a trial. Mr. Hunter recommends the Con- 

 necticut Seed Leaf as the best for this part of the 



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