1863. 



THE ILLINOIS FAEMEE. 



240 



Fruit trees bear their own reward with them, and 

 annually tax themselves to remunerate us for our 

 toil. Not so with our forest trees. They stand in 

 symmetrical beauty, and challenge our admiration, 

 either for their symmetry or their utility. 



In most parts of our widely extended country, 

 the cultivation of forest trees is never thought of 

 So far from it indeed, that the thoughtful minds 

 have rather been devising ways to get rid of for- 

 ests rather than rearing them. But in such a 

 country as it is our good fortune to inhabit, the 

 thinking men are asking for ways and means to 

 grow trees with the greatest succefs, and in the 

 shortest time. So great indeed, has been this feel- 

 ing, that anything which promises a quick return, 

 has been greedily seized by the multitude. 



The black locust had its day, and the white wil- 

 low has its day now. It seems to be almost a part 

 of the human mind to be grasping after everything 

 "far fetched and dear bought," certainly it is a part 

 of the American mind. Our European neighbors 

 play some pranks with us on this principle. They 

 send us broken down dancers and opera players, 

 singers with cracked voices, and men with cracked 

 reputations, in the various professions, and we for- 

 sake our own lights and follow their jack o' lan- 

 terns. I will venture the opinion that even here, 

 in this "Celestial City," were some European doc- 

 tor to make his appearance, your old and well tried 

 men would be abandoned for a season, while you 

 would take a trot after the new M. D. 



But what has this to do with the tree planting ? 

 I think I hear my friends say. Why, just what we 

 are now doing. Chasing exotics, and neglecting 

 our own indigenous trees. I would persuade you 

 to plant those trees which will stand our climate, 

 and defy the attacks of our numerous inseot foes. 

 I shall in this paper recommend but four or five 

 vatrieties for extensive planting. And first of all 

 in importance is our well tried friend, the black 

 walnut, and next to him his german cousin, the 

 butternut or white walnut. 



^ Gather the nuts at maturity in October, plant 

 with the same care you would corn, and cultivate 

 the same and your forest will be limited only by 

 your efforts. The insects that sometimes attack 

 the leaves of the black walnut, do the tree no harm. 

 It is proof against the attacks of insects. Stock 

 won't bruise it, tramping does no harm. Nothing 

 but the axe will kill it, and it is the mahogony of 

 Illinois. The same may be said of the butternut, 

 except that the timber is better for some purposes 

 but not so good for others. 



Take next the maples. The hard maple or "su- 

 gar tree." The soft maple or "silver maple," and 

 the Ash-leaved maple, or "box elder." These 

 trees, especially the two last, are easily removed 

 from their native wilds, and made to grow in our 

 cultivated fields. Or the seed may easily be gath- 

 ered and the trees raised from the seed, and that 

 without the least fear of failure. I may add, that 

 all these maples are good sugar trees, rich in sac- 

 charine matter, and unequaled for the purpose of 

 fuel. What apology have we then, for letting 

 these naked fields stand shivering in our bleak win- 

 ters, or burning under our verticle sun ? 



Does not wisdom cry aloud ? She stands in ev- 

 ery gleu, on the hill tops, and beside every laugh- 

 ing rill, calling upon the people of Illinois to ac- 

 cept her bounties and enrich themselves. 



I beg you my friends, in conclusion, hot to think ( 



I would discard the more costly and luxurious ev- 

 ergreens or giant oak. I speak of such as will 

 certainly and speedily repay our toil and outlay. 



Geo. W. Minier. 



The above we cut from the Tazewell Republi- 

 can, being an address before the Tazewell County 

 Aoeticultural Society. 



Mr. M., is an enthusiast on the subject of native 

 forest trees, and has done much to call the atten- 

 tion of our farmers to their value. We think him 

 mistaken in leaf or soft maple a sugar making tree 

 as neither of them are of any value for that pur- 

 pose. The box elder may make sugar, but we 

 wouid never plant it for that purpose. 



The sugar maple is of little value for sugar when 

 planted in the open field, but needs the deep for- 

 est to yield the sugar. A native maple forest 

 cleared up so as to seed down with blue grass, we 

 think would be ruined for sugar making. Aside 

 from sugar making, the maples are valuable for 

 shade trees, and should be more generally plant- 

 ed. 



Our frtend is after the white willow, and we 

 think there will be some thousands of our farmers 

 after it, to fill the faults in the hedges made by 

 small cuttings. Ed. 



Effects of Mercury on Sheep. 



Professsor John Gamgee, in the Edinburgh Ve- 

 terinary Review, draws attention to the mischief 

 arising from the reckless use of mercurial ointment 

 as a dressing for scabby sheep. Sheep, he says, 

 and ruminants are more readily poisoned by mer- 

 cury than any other domestic animal ; and in some 

 instances, mercury appears to be the cause of 

 death directly, by its effects on the blood ; in oth- 

 ers it seems to kill by the varnish with which it 

 covers the skin, which binders the exhalations 

 from that organ, and engorges the lungs ; in oth- 

 ers, again, it seems to produce an enfeebling of the 

 dtgestive powers, so that a change to a better diet 

 proves fatal. Severe salivation and loosening of 

 the teeth are common occurrences. 



Button Sheep at the West. 



The United States Economist says : "In Illi- 

 nois and other parts of the West, where corn is 

 raised in such quantities that it is at times used as 

 fuel, the Leicester and Cotswold sheep would pay 

 a large profit to the grower, if raised and fed for 

 the mutton alone, leaving out of the account the 

 value of the fleece. Corn is a most excellent food 

 for fattening sheep, and there is no country on the 

 earth that can compete with the West in its pro • 



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