f^l^ 



232 



THE ILLIJSrOIS FAKMEE. 



Aug. 



ing the necessary mail necessities. Congress may 

 accidentally pass two acts having an apparent con- 

 flict, but the rule of construction in such cases is 

 well known ; and that is, so to construe the acts 

 aa not to conflict with each other. 



Rather than be unfaithful to the duties demanded 

 of him by the act of Congress, and by the interests 

 of agriculture, the Commissioner has determined 

 to prepay all postage of his regular correspondents; 

 for to ask of them unpaid information, and to pay 

 their own postage, too, would be an act derogatory 

 to the dignity of this department and to the cour- 

 tesy which was due to them in their efforts to 

 advance the interests of agriculture. 



■•—- 



Iowa State Fair. 



This Fair is to be held this year at Dubuque, 

 September 15, 16, 17 and 18. 



That our Iowa friends will have a good show 

 there can be no doubt, as the institution is in ener" 

 getic hands. 



Farmers in the northeast part of our State will 

 doubtless give it their attention as well as exhibi- 

 tors from all parts of the State. Iowa is a good 

 customer to us, and besides she n: ust pay tribute 

 to our railroads and warehouses to send her pro- 

 duce to market. 



Mississippi at several points will bind our sister 

 State all the more closely to us, and give us a 

 deeper interest in all her doings. 



We should be pleased to accept Secretary Shaf- 

 fer's kind invitation to be present, but neither our 

 health or time will admit of it. We can therefore 

 only wish them a large attendance and delightful 

 weather. 



-—'- 



Preserving Fruit in Cold Air. — A late num- 

 ber of the Gardener's Moidldy contains a report 

 of the experiments of Fletcher, Williams, and Van 

 Camp, of Indianapolis, with Nice's patenti d method 

 of preserving fruit in air kept by ice within a few 

 degrees of freezing, and rendered dry by chlorid 

 of calcium. About a thousand bushels of apples 

 were experimented upon the first winter. They 

 kept till the following June in perfect condition. 

 The following s-ummer small fruits were tried. 

 Raspberries and blackberries kept eight weeks, and 

 then lost their flavor without decaying. Peaches, 

 after ten weeks, showed evidences of decay; Goose- 

 berries, currants and cherries kept much longer. 

 Of pears, two hundred and fifty bushels were tried, 

 of such sorts as Bartlett, Seckel and Flemish Beau- 

 ty, which, it is thought, may keep the winter 

 through. Grapes, as might be expected kept a year, 

 but they should, of course, be well grown and 

 thoroughly ripened -^ 



4 



Crops, Fruit and Birds at Dixon. 



Dixon, Lee Co., III., July 29, 1863. 

 To the Uditor of the Illinois Farmer : 



M. L. DuNLAP, Dear Sir: — The crops hereabouts 

 are good ; wheat all cut and most of it stacked. 

 Early planted potatoes suffered some from drouth, 

 but the late planted are fine. 



There will be a fine crop of apples: small fruits 

 almost a total failure, though the New Rochelle 

 blackberryjis doing nobly, (I like to have written 

 it Lawton); but the birds ! the birds ! what shall 

 be done with the birds ? They took all my Early 

 Richmond cherries, except enough for one pud- 

 ding, and all my raspberries and gooseberries, with 

 a large share of currants, and are now taking my 

 apples — robins, thrushes, catbirds, blue jays, cider 

 birds, orioles and almost every thing that can fly 

 — rather expensive friends. 



Yours truly, J. T. Little. 



— While friend Little, is thus afflicted by the 

 birds, we have to thank them for taking care of 

 the insects in our grounds. It is true that the 

 robins took a small toll out of our cherries and rasp- 

 berries, but as this crop was good and not in the 

 least disturbed by insects, we made no complaint. 

 We only fed those which properly belonged to our 

 grounds, as we are located over four miles from 

 . the grove, while our friend being in the edge of 

 the woodland had more than his share of feeders, 

 and thus has very good rea?©n to complain. Many 

 of these came inmei-ely as robbers, without return- 

 ing any consideration for their stealing. It ap- 

 pears to us that the cedar bird returns very little 

 at any time, but the others do so, if perhaps, we 

 except the blue jay. 



There must be some specal reason why the 

 birds are so very voracious at that point ; worms 

 and beetles must be scarce or they would be less 

 destructive on fruits, especially apples. We often 

 hear complaints of the woodpeckers among the 

 early apples, but this wholesale taking to the or- 

 chard is rather new to us. We think with the 

 late abundant rain, in that location, the birds will 

 be better fed on worms and other insects and leave 

 the orchard. The blackberries of the woodland 

 will call off the robbers to the shade and protec- 

 tion of the timber. Instances of the kind men- 

 tioned by friend Little, will occur, but even then 

 it would not be a safe rule to kill off the maraud- 

 ing birds, for at other times they may do much 

 good, though it is certainly provoking. We have 

 observed the formation of colonies of worms in our 

 trees and have left them' for some days to see if the 



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