266 



THE ILLINOIS FAKMEE. 



Sept 



of oak wood are sometimes placed in the troughs, 

 to render the action of the air more direct on the 

 liquor. By having several of these troughs, or a 

 long length in the aggregate, cider may be con- 

 verted into vinegar by once running through. — 

 Boston Cultivator. 



Sweet Apples for Cider. — ^I have a large lot of 

 sweet apples in my orchard, but they will not sell 

 in market ; what shall I do with them ? H. 



— Mix them with your cider apples at the rate 

 of one-fourth to three-fourths sour apples, and 

 you will have a richer and better cider. 



The sweet apple sent us is not Golden Sweet, but 

 similar in appearance to it and ripens a month la- 

 ter, it is called by some Late Golden Sweet. The 

 State Horticulturist Society has not recognized it 

 for the true name. It is a valuable sweet apple. 

 The tree has an upright, symmetrical head, while 

 the Golden Sweet has a spreading head. You will 

 thus see a decided difference in the growth of the 

 two. Thelatter is the most productive. We have 

 them in the nursery with a dozen or more large 

 apples each. 



State Geolosist. — Can you tell me what has 

 become of the State Geologist ? Pbter. 



/ — He is at Springfield, drawing his pay as regu- 

 / lar as the months come and go, and hard at work 

 / arranging his reports and specimens, but the Leg- 

 islature has not as yet seen fit to publish his re- 

 port, having been more engaged in private bills on 

 the account of members and in party tactics than 

 in the public good. "When the report shall be 

 printed, it will be found a valuable one, as we 

 know from having examined much of the copy. 



Thk New Sheep Book. — ^What has betome of 

 Kandell's promised sheep book ? ^ 



Wool Grower. 



— ^We hear that it is to be ready in a sli^ort time. 



Drop a line to D. D. T. Moore, Kochester, N. Y. 



-«•>- 



Best Trees for Orchards. — I ' want to set out 

 an orchard of ten acres in the fall, and would like 

 to know what varieties are best, and the proper 

 distance to set them. 



— ^You will find all of these points described in 

 previous numbers of the Faruer. Twenty to twen- 

 ty-four feet is a good distance ; at twenty feet it 

 will require 1,900 trees for the ten acres. You 

 should plant but a few varieties, and do not at- 

 tempt to get all that are the best but a few of 

 them. The trouble with most of our orchards is 



that they have too many sorts, all ripening at dif- 

 ferent times. You should consult the market in 

 regard to summer, fall or winter varieties. We in- 

 tend to plant thirty acres to apple orchard this 

 autumn, and shall set it all to summer fruits, as 

 these are now most wanted, as the great majori- 

 ty of orchards are set of ^winter varieties. 



Windfalls f«r Cider. — In making cider can I 

 use windfalls without any further preparation, or 

 will the cider work itself clear ? John Dunham. 



— Windfalls will need washing, and all rotten or 

 worm spots cut out, otherwise the cider will be 

 worthless. If the apples have arl)ad flavor it will 

 be imparted to the cider. 



Planting Sorghum in Autumn. — What do you 

 think of planting sorghum in the fall ? Strup. 



— For the past three or four years we have no- 

 ticed the best stand of sorghum and the most vig- 

 orous when it" has been self sown. We would 

 recommend the experiment of autumn planting, 

 and have great confidence that it will succeed. 

 The land should be plowed in narrow lands so as 

 to give it good drainage. We have some growing 

 of self planted that looks well. 



••» 



The White Willow. — ^I bought a lot of willow 

 cuttings of a reliable man last spring; most of the 

 cuttings are dead, and those growing have a rich 

 glossy look, different from a lot purchased by one 

 of my neighbors. What shall I do with my fence? 



— Take up the remaining plants in the fall and 

 bed them in. Prepare the land anew, and in the 

 spring reset the hedge. The plants you have are 

 not the white willow, but probably some large sort 

 which may be nearly as valuable as the white wil- 

 low for this purpose, these can be cut back and 

 reset a foot apart, and remaining space filled up 

 with cuttings. We have before said that the wil- 

 low is among the first trees to put forth in the 

 spring, and the cuttings should be put in the ground 

 as the frost is coming out. If set late they are 

 very uncertain. We intend to set over a mile of 

 willow fence next spring, but shall prepare the 

 ground this fall, we would not set them last spring 

 for the reason that the ground could not be 

 made ready in time. We have an abiding faith in 

 the value of the white willow for fencing, but we 

 must have the ground ready in the fall, and also 

 have large, well grown cuttings, none of your ped- 

 dlers pipe stems. More of this in another part of 

 the Farmer. 



Tanzt for Peach Trees. — Will tanzy planted 

 at the foot of peach trees keep out the borer ? , . , 



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