1863. 



THE ILLINOIS FAKMEE. 



209 



"Can I set out a bed of strawberries in August. 



LlZZEB." 



Tes, should a rainy time occur, if not the thing 

 cannot be done without a deal of watering. The 

 plants should be shaded with a light sprinkling of 

 straw over th m. April and May are the best 

 months in which to set out strawberry plants. In 

 well prepared beds they will give some fruit the 

 same season. ' ■ 



"What are onion sets, and how are they grown? 



■ Bob." 



Onion seed can be sowr any time in July and 



first of August, sow thickly, and when the bulbs 



are one fourth to an inch in diameter, can be 



pulled and laid on the ground a few days to cure, 



when they should be put in a dry place, free from 



much frost through the winter. Early in the 



spring these sets are planted, in well prepared 



soil by pressing them into the earth nearly even 



with the surface. This is one of the best modes to 



grow onions south of 40 ® latititude, and answer 



wall north of it. 



"Is sweet or sugar corn health ? My mother sayS 

 it gives us cUildreu the summer complaint. I hear 

 that in cities they make daily use of it. 



Benjamin." 



Just so, if your mother gives you now and then 

 a Sunday meal of it, you are apt to so gorge your- 

 self that the result is an attack of summer com- 

 plaint, but if you make a daily use of it, as you do 

 of new potatoes, no ill eiSt'ects will follow. We 

 plant it at several times, so as to have it fresh and 

 good until frost, and can later, for we cut and 

 shock it, and thus have it until November. We 

 could not think of doing without our sweet corn 

 for dinner and supper during its season. It is no 

 longer a, luxmy but a necessity. The first planting 



gregate weakli is estimated at no less than one 

 luousaiid millions of aoilars. 



is of the tarly variety, aud the other of Stowell's 



evergreeii. 



"1 have a ktter from brother John who is a sol- 

 dier at Vicksburg, tUat the Spanish moss is very 

 auuudani, auu lestoons the trees, and tuat the sol- 

 uieis make Occls of it. (Jan he send me the seed 

 so tuat it oau be grown here? Willie." 



Tne fcjpauisu moss is a lichen or parasite, and 

 feeilB Upon liie sap of the trees that it grows upon. 

 1l is only found in tlie river bottoms and along the 

 Bd^ ou. W e n^ve samples of it that we gathered 

 •»i Unickasaw Bayou, where so many of our brave 

 hoys fell, last December, in the attack under Sher- 

 man in the reai- of Vicksburg. We saw large num- 

 bers of beds luat had been made of it by the sol- 

 diers in tue uOOal.s, where they u.ust have laid 

 several days without tents. It cannot be grown 

 North. ■ • , . 



It requires some mechanical preparation before 

 it is fit for a matrass. It finally kills the tree that 

 it grows upon, a veritable parasite. In the win- 

 ter season it must give to the tree a ftmeral appear- 

 ance, while in summer it adds dignity to those 

 deep tangled forests that skirt^ the rivers and bay- 

 ous of the South. 



Peaelies in Egypt. 



To the Editor of the Illinois Farmer : . ^ ? 



This is July 20th. Peaches have now been sent 

 to market in very small quantities for ten days ; 

 but none have been really ripe and few sound. 

 They were peaches however. The prices have been 

 from seven to eight doUars a bushel. I think that 

 the first that ripened is called Honest John, other 

 next early York Serrate. The first is hardy, and 

 of fine color, both of about the same size, rather 

 small, but the latter rots very badly, as it did also 

 last year, and so far as our experience goes it is 

 hardly worth raising. The fact seems to be that 

 peaches which ripen so very carlo do so because 

 of their tendency to rot, the same as wormy defect- 

 ive fruits ripen sooner than some other specimens, 

 The Honest John, howevet, seems to be the only 

 exception. Really good eating peaches may not 

 be expected before the first of next month, 

 when the large Early York will be on hand, which, 

 for eating under the tree is perhaps as good as any 

 peach growing. The crop of the earliest kinds 

 will disappear by that time. 



There is a very great difference between early 

 market fruit raised for money, and a fruit which 

 has real merit. One must wait till the last and 

 not become impatient, the same as a man must 

 wait for the perfecting of his own good qualities. 

 Girls and boys, for instance, becoming all at once 

 men and women, being as tall and wearing as large 

 clothes and shoes as anybody, are men and women, 

 as the phrase goes, but too many have only an out- 

 side beauty and rosy cheeks, very like the Eaiiy 

 York Serrate, but when you pear and cut into 

 them, so to speak, you are disappointed. If you 

 let the young folks mature a spell, stand out in the 

 world's heat, become pelted by the storms, tossed 

 by the winds, shrouded in dark disappointment, as 

 in a nigkt, you may expect genuine fruit ; and if 

 cidtivation has been good, if the grubs of pride 

 and self conceit and envy have been exterminated, 

 and a decent, though not excessive shortening in 

 has been practiced, you will have added to the ex- 

 cellent internals a beautiful, enchanting exterior. 

 Such may be compared to the yellow French Rare' 



liiiiirn 



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