1863. 



THE ILLINOIS FARMER 



2IT 



butter cloth the best decoy. I am informed by mv 

 son, who was stationed at Bermuda, that a convict 

 was rewarded for revealing his secret for aiiraci- 

 ing rats, which was cantharides steeped in brandy, 

 (Tr. Lyttae ;) but I cannot make out the number 

 of drops used. The best way to catch rats with a 

 steel trap is to put the guard up, and lay the trap 

 down as if set ; feed the rats for a few day, always 

 putting the meat on the kettle-board; they will eat 

 it and get quite familiar to it ; then all at once be- 

 gin and catch them ; wait upon the trap, and if 

 they have been well fed, they may be tak^n nearly 

 as fast as it can be sot. I have taken by thi^ 

 me;ins seventeen in one hour, and at one time I 

 had two — one by the nose and the other by the 

 fore foot — and I had only one trap set. 



Prospective Prices for WooL 



Messrs Editors — I have just been reading "Out 

 West's" answer to "Small Farmer's" communica- 

 tiim with regard to "Out West's" first letter, with 

 respect to to prospective price of wool. I must 

 say, Messrs. Editors, that " Out West" crawls ter- 

 ribly. "Out West" wants to know how it hap- 

 pens that we never hear any growling about the 

 price o wheat by wheat-growers. Will "Out 

 West" please look at the difference in which wool 

 and wheat are marketed? If "Out West' has 

 watched the wool market as long as I have, he has 

 discovered some things peculiar to it, and very 

 much unlike the marketing of any other crop. 

 There is no other staple crop grown in the United 

 States of Amerii-a which is bought by so few hands, 

 or which passes out of growers' hands in so short 

 a space of time as the wool crop. How does it 

 h:ippen then, "Out West," that it is particularly 

 necessary for Eastern manufacturers and out West 

 woolgrowers to anticipate the market by a week 

 or two, and give sm ill farmers a chance to get 

 rid of their crops at a big figure ? 



You know, "Out West," that we have been ter- 

 ribly taken in, (^ui ing the last two years, and is it 

 at all strange that we hang tight to our wool and 

 view with distrust all attempts of all out west cor- 

 respondents to seduce us to part with our wool at 

 a low figure ? I feel, "Out West," that "Small 

 Farmers" has sufficiently answered your first let- 

 ter ; I am only talking about your answer to his 

 communication. 



I live out West too, but no one has ever yet giv- 

 en me a commission to buy wool for a cent (a 

 whole cent !) per pound, for they know me better, 

 or can find me out. I have got 2,250 fleeces of 

 my own raising stacked up, for which I expect to 

 get 75 cents per pound, and it will take two or 

 three "Out Wests" to persuade me that I ought to 

 sell at 50 or 55 cents per pound. 



I would give you, Messrs. Editors, and "Out 

 West," a good many reasons why I think buyers 

 are not offering enough for wool — even siuce the 

 fall of Vicksburg — but I refrain What men could 

 be influenced by the talk of "Out West" have al- 

 ready sold their wool, (and some one has got a cent 

 per pound for buying it,) and such as believe as I 

 do, have got their wool stored in thier wool-rooms, 

 and "don't care whether school keeps or not." 



Fair play is a jewel, and all I wish, is that the 

 "bulls" in the wool market may have a fair show 

 with the "bears." 



We may or may not be deceived as to what wool 



ought to be worth at present, but I calculate that 

 in the present instance we can see as far into a 

 millstone as the men who pick a hole in it. Can 

 you Messrs. Editors, or can any other man, see into 

 the future three weeks ? If you can, I wish yott 

 would set up a prophecy column. 



I would like to hear from some well qualified 

 correspondent, on this question of selling wool. I 

 would like to have him run back over the past 

 twenty-five years, and sho-v us the particular 

 years in which we "took in" these benevolent and 

 well disposed men — wool-buyers and manufactur- 

 cTs. A Western Wool-Growee, 



Logan Co., 111. in Country Gent. 



New England Weather and Crops. 



During the past morith, there has fallen in this 

 section of country, rain equivalent to more than 

 twelve inches upon a level, and the ground is com- 

 pletely saturated with water. So much moisture, 

 unit' d with the full average heat of the season, 

 has given an unusual growth to the grass in the 

 pastures, and has had a most favorable eff'ct upon 

 vegetation generally. Upon fi Ids mown early in 

 the season, the second crop has started in many 

 places with a luxuriance almost equal to that of 

 early spring and the prospect now seems to be very 

 favorabli' for .making up in "rowen," a good part of 

 the deficiency in the fi:st crop of hay. 



Throughout New England the dairy prospects 

 were never better, and the abundance of feed can- 

 not f lil to have a most important influence in the 

 abundant production not only of butter and cheese, . 

 but also of fi.t beef and mutton for tlie autumn 

 markets. If any crop has suffered from the super- 

 abundance of wet weather, we think it is Indian 

 corn. The crop was very backward in conse- 

 quence of the cold and drought of June, and now, 

 although it is of good color and has a thrifty look 

 generally, we think it has not that stocky appear- 

 ance which it usually presents when the season is 

 altogether favorable. However it is too early yet 

 to determine fully how much, if any, it will fall 

 short, but we know that very much still depends 

 upon a spell of hot dry weather. 



Potatoes are looking finely, and the early kinds 

 are coming to market. Of course they are not 

 fully ripe, but generally preferred by city people 

 to old ones, they meet with ready sale at good 

 prices. As yet we hear nothing of the rot from 

 any quarter, and unless we should have a success- 

 ion of moist hot days while the tubers are ripen- 

 ing, we may hope to have an a,verage exemption 

 from that disease which has in recent years proved 

 so serious a loss to the agriculturists on both sides 

 of the Atlantic. 



The small grains are now ripening with us, and 

 we think more than an average crop will be real- 

 ized in New England. We have never seen rye^ 

 oats and barley looking better than at the present 

 time, and as a larger breadth of ground has been 

 sown with these grains the prest season than usual, 

 the increased production and excellent qu litv will 

 go very far to make up deficiencies that have re- 

 sulted from the very uneven distribution of 

 drought and moisture during this very peculiar 

 season. 



On the whole, in this midsummer of the year, 

 whether their observations are prospective or 

 retrospective, we think that the farmers of New 





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