242 



THE ILLINOIS FAEMER. 



Attg. 



Machinery and Hand Labor. 



Not such a great while ago our thread was spun 

 between the thumb and the finger, and all our cloth 

 woven in the clumsiest of hand-looms. Now, bj 

 means of a spinning jenny and weaving machinery, 

 one person will make as much as two hundred yards 

 of cloth in a day. Before the inveutiou of the cot- 

 ton gin, one person would not prepare one pound 

 of cotton so easily as he can now prepare one hun- 

 dred pounds. Our grandmothers could barely knit 

 •ne pair of socks in a day — now, by jaeans of a 

 machine, one little girl can turn out a hundred 

 dollars' worth of knitted materiajk in a day. A few 

 years ago we were told that it tbojj seventeen men 

 to make a complete pin ; now the machine is fed 

 with the raw material, which is not touched again 

 until rolled up in papers of pins. In Providence, 

 R. I., there is to-day a machine that takes a strip of 

 metal from a coil, and makes two hundred and thir- 

 ty inches of pelicate chain out of it in a day. The 

 metals are no longer worked by hand — a slow, 

 wearing p"ocess; they are shaved, sawed, bored 

 and hammered, with the greatest ease and accura- 

 cy, as much as if they were of the softest pine. 



An instrument has been contrived and perfected 

 of exceedingly delicate powers, which measures 

 '.he operation of the mind itself — tells the exact 

 rime it takes for a sensation from the linger to aeach 

 •he brain — two-tenths of a secoifd ! Go into a cer- 

 tain hidiarubber store in New York, and you will 

 'ind a hundred different articles made of that one 

 i.taple — only a few years ago good for notliingonly 

 »o rub out marks, and furnish active-jawed young 

 ;>ersons something to chew. As wood gives out, 

 ■ oal pits are found everywhere. We begin to fear 

 »br lights with which to illuminate our homes, and 

 nake all things cheerful ; when lo ! oil is distilled 

 roni coai, and we even have streams of it spouting 

 )Ut of the firound for us to fill our lamps with ! 

 Joal tar. once regarded as useless, ie now manufac- 

 ; ured into many different merchantable articles, 

 ome of them of great value. — Scientefic Amer. 



The Crops for May and June. 



We have the report of Commissioner Newton 

 "or the above months, from which we copy below 



he result. This is the first report of the kind, 

 ■.nd will be found full of interest. Circulars are 



gain out for the crop prospect July. Ed. 



THE TABLES OF CROPS FOR MAT AND JUNE. 



Winter wheat. — The appearance of this crop in 



Tune varied in different localities. In Nebraska 



Territory it was destroyed by the winter, and in 



Mew Hampshire from the same cause. But the 



general appearance is but one-tenth below an av- 



rage. In the great wheat producing States of II- 



'inois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, New 



fork, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, the average 



•s still better, being but a half-tenth below it. Ohio 



3 the only large wheat-producing State that falls 



,elow the general average, being two-tenths be- 



3W. The injuries from Hessian fly, rust, freezing 



ut, >and all other casualties are so small as to 



mount to but one and one-third tenth. Against 



.his we have in the table for May a tenth more 



land sowed than in 1862, which was the largest 

 crop ever grown in this country. 



Spring wheat. — This presents a better general 

 average, being but three-fourths of a tenth below 

 the average of a good crop, and having sustained 

 but one-tenth injury from all causes. 



BarUy. — This crop is excellent, being one-tenth 

 more than an average in the amount sown, and but 

 a half-tenth below it in appearance. 



Corn. — This, our national crop, is reported as 

 generally small in size on account of the drought 

 of the latter part of May and the first half June, 

 in some States, and nearly the whole cf it in oth- 

 ers. The entire injury it sustained from worms, 

 drought, and all other causes, is but one and a half 

 tenth, and its appearance is but one-tenth below 

 the standard of a good crop. This crop is tried 

 hardest in the usual July drought, but every ap- 

 pearance of the weather, which is now generally 

 favorable from the fall of warm and abundant 

 rains, gives assurance that there will be no July 

 drought. 



Oats. — ^This crop has undoubtedly suffered much 

 from drought. If it escapes the rust it may still 

 be better than the crop of last year. New York 

 and Pennsylvania are the great oat-producing 

 States, and in the first of these this crop has not 

 suffered much. 



Tobacco. — On accoont of the war this has in- 

 creased rapidly in the loyal States. The amount 

 planted this year, as shown by the table for June, 

 is seventy-five per cent, over that of last year. 

 In appearance it is nearly an average, being but 

 one-tenth below it. 



Grans. — This crop is certainly injured very much 

 from drought generally, and, in certain localities, 

 Irom freezing out. The table for June shows it to 

 be two-tenths below the standard appearance of a 

 good crop. But great as is the value of the hay 

 crop, being second only to that of corn, yet its de- 

 ficit is always supplied by greater saving of the 

 wheat and oat straw, and cutting up and topping 

 corn. 



Flax. — As was expected, this crop has increased 

 over that of last year, in the amount sown, one 

 hundred and twenty per cent, being in the June ta- 

 ble 22, or twelve above the average of last year's 

 crop. Should the drouth permanently injure it so 

 as to decrease the yield per acre of lint, yet, from 

 this great increase in acreage, there is no doubt 

 that the country will still have a good supply of 

 lint out of which cotton flax may be made, should 

 the experiments now making by this depftrt- 

 ment prove successful for the conversion of lint 

 into flax cotton. The quantity of seed will be 

 largely increased. 



Wool. — The tables show an increase in the num- 

 ber of sheep over those of last year of twenty per 

 cent. Much has been said of the great clip of 

 wool this season, many placing it as high as one 

 hundred million of pounds. It is necessary to 

 show what the increase is, and what is the crop of 

 wool. 



The number of sheep, by the census report of 

 1860, is 24,823,666, and'the pounds of wool, 60,- 

 511,343. From this number of sheep is to be de- 

 ducted 1,116,200 for mistake in the census report 

 of those for Indiana. The rebel States produced 

 5,'71'7,58'? of the whole number, which must be de- 

 ducted from it, as they are now represented in the 



