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206 



THE ILLINOIS FAEMER. 



^ July 



He invites the attention of farmers to the inves- 

 tigation of this subject, and requests them to ex- 

 amine the under side of the leaves during the lat- 

 ter part of July and first of August, to see if the 

 leaf-hopper is present, and also to note whether 

 the trees are not afterwards attacked with what is 

 known as the fire-blight. 



— We take the above from a correspondence of 

 the Chicago Tribune, of the Natural History So- 

 ciety at Bloomington. 



We have apparently two kinds of fire-blight ; one 

 of the leaf, in which the bark is soon involved, 

 and one of the bark and wood, in which the leaf is 

 at once destroyed. In the former, the leaf is of 

 a dark brown, and the latter nearly a black color, 

 There is another leaf blight, in which the leaves 

 turn spotted and fall oS". Sometimes a new growth 

 is made and the tree lingers for a year or two and 

 then dies. This has proved the most destructive 

 to us of all the blights, destroying our pears, plums 

 and quinces. We received it among a lot of im- 

 ported pear trees, and also in a lot of plums from 

 Cleveland. We have been free from this latter 

 blight for some years. Last year we lost a few 

 pear trees from the fire blight. We have heard 

 farmers call it sun scald, from its sudden appear- 

 appearance. In seasons like tl.'is in which the air 

 is well charged with electricity, we think it less 

 common. We have always attributed it to elec- 

 tricity. This may in fact be true, and yet not 

 conflict with the views of Gen. Walsh. 



The rapid breeding of these small insects, may 

 be due in a great measure, to electrical agency, 

 and thus give our idea some appearance of fact. 

 We shall await further developments before we 

 come to full conclusions in regard to the matter. 



Ed. 



Labor Saving Machinery.- 



By the aid of improved machiaery, one man can 

 now spin four hundred times more cetton yarn 

 than the best cotton spinner could in 1769, when 

 Arkwright took out his first patent. In grinding 

 grain and making flour, one man can now do one 

 hundred and fifty times more work than he could 

 a century ago. One woman can now manufacture 

 as much lace in a day, as a hundred women could 

 a hundred years ago. It now requires as many 

 days to refine sugar, as it did months thirty years 

 ago. Only forty minutes arc now required to fix 

 an amalgum of mercury and tin on a large looking 

 glass, which once occupied six weeks. The en- 

 gines of a first class ironclad frigate perform as 

 much work in twenty-four hours as forty-two thou- 

 sand horses. 



T— If I argue with a man who is in a house on 

 the other side of the street, why can't we ever 

 agree ? Because we aigue from diflferent 

 premises. 



Importance of Our Sheep Husbandry. 



The United States Economic contains an elabo- 

 rate and well-written article on the importance of 

 sheep husbandry to the loyal States, from which 

 we condense some interesting ideas which are wor- 

 thy of the attention of all our readers : 



"For years past the quantity of wool manufac- 

 tured in the United States has averaged full 125 

 millions of pounds. Of this quantity not more 

 than one half has been grown here. While we 

 have been exporting grain and provisions to an 

 immense amount, we have imported W0'.l from 

 Australia, the Cape of Good Hope, South America, 

 China, Russia, India, and in short from every oth- 

 er quarter of the globe, and are doing so to-day, 

 though it is an indisputable firct that no country 

 on earth is better adapted to sheep husbandry than 

 the North West. Should the agriculturist neglect 

 to grow ;i sufficient quantity of wheat and com to 

 supply our home demand, it would be regarded as 

 a most surprising evidence of lack of enterprise , 

 and yet facilities of soil and climate are no better 

 for producing corn and wheat than they are for 

 the growing of sheep. In Australia and the Cape 

 of Good Hope, where sheep husbandry is carried 

 on extensively and at a large profit, the climate is 

 not so favorable, the soil is barren, and there is no 

 market for mutton ; while in the West the soil is 

 rich, the climate dry and cool, and our large cities 

 furnish a ready market for mutton, at higher prices 

 than in London and Paris. For years past the 

 people of the West have seen the wool-buyer run- 

 ning through the country eager to contract for 

 wool "on the sheep's back." How much more will 

 they be in the future, when the consumption of 

 wool has increased fifty per cent., as it is likely to 

 be ! Although the clip of wool will be larger this 

 year than upon any former occasion, still our Wes- 

 tern farmers do not realize the immense increase 

 of the demand which will be created for this great 

 staple by the cutting-short of the cotton supply. 

 We have at present in the loyal States twenty-five 

 millions of sheep, and we beheve that this number 

 could be doubled without producing a sufficient 

 quantity of wool or multon to supply the demand 

 for the next five years. There is no mystery about 

 sheep husbandry. All that is required to conduct 

 the business successfully is an exercise of plain 

 common sense, which dictates that all domestic an- 

 imals (and sheep in particular,) to thrive well, re- 

 quire to be well fed, to have plenty of room and to 

 be protected from storms. The soil and climate 

 of the North Western States are admirably adapt- 

 ed to sheep husbandry, and the farmers of that sec- 

 tion could not possibly turn their attention to a 

 more profitable branch of agriculture. The sheep 

 best adapted to the production of worsted are the 

 Leicester and Cotswold breeds, and can b% obtain- 

 in Canada to any extent and at reasonable prices. 

 The carcasses are large and the fleeces of long sta- 

 ple, which makes these breeds more valuable both 

 for the clip and mutton." *--• - ■ 



— »«• 



— What is the only thing that a mean man 

 does not keep ? His word. 



.iJiisSsJL 



