FT- 



288 



THE ILLINOIS FAEMEE. 



Oct. 



ers already look to this and reuqire no 

 jogging up on this point, for already 

 thousands of acres have come under 

 the influence of the steel clipper. 



The light crops are timely for light 

 hands, and we shall be enabled to close 

 up the farm work in good season. 



The dry season has taught us the 

 value of autumn for setting of trees, 

 and we should not let it pass without 

 attention. Plow the land deeply and 

 bank up the tree with the spade at least 

 a foot high, and the frost will not dis- 

 turb them ; they will be ready to grow 

 in the spring, and become established 

 before the summer drouth, that so often 

 proves disastrous to our newly set trees. 

 Small plants, such as roses, raspberries, 

 etc , had better be "heeled in" until 

 spring. We are now preparing the 

 land for an addition of thirty acres to 

 our orchard, and plow it into lands of 

 twenty feet; by back-furrowing, this 

 will give good surface drainage, and 

 slightly raise the ground where the 

 trees will stand; in fact, the trees when 

 set will be nearly on the original sur- 

 face. One or two plowings towards 

 the trees in the succeeding years will 

 complete the drainage as the trees ad- 

 vance in size. 



The White Willow for Fencing. 



It has become a well settled axiom, 

 that all new discoveries in agriculture 

 require time to adopt them into gener- 

 al use. It has required nearly twenty 

 years to learn how, (that is for the farm- 

 er in general,) to make a fence of the 

 (Jsage orange, and even now more than 

 half the attempts are failures. Because 

 thousands of farmers fail to grow fruit , 

 is that any reason why no fruit should 

 be grown ? 



In no one thing have our farmer 



made less progress than in cheap and 

 durable fences. In a country where 

 timber is plenty, the old Yirginia fence 

 is yet the most popular, and to this day 

 our groves bear testimony to the waste- 

 ful uses of timber for this kind of enclo- 

 sure. There is no part of the West 

 where the farmers can afford to use up 

 their timber in so Wasteful a manner. 

 The post and board fence is less objec- 

 tionable, only because it requires less 

 of the raw material. Live fences must 

 take the place of dead ones as a general 

 thing, not only for their cheapness but 

 for the effect they will have on the cli- 

 mate and in the production of better 

 crops. 



For a substantial hedge the Osage 

 orange stands at the head of the list, 

 but this plant will only thrive on well 

 drained land. It is therefore of impor- 

 tance that we seek some other tree that 

 will adapt itself to our great variety of 

 soils and situations. Thus far the white 

 willow gives promise of being the most 

 valuable for this purpose. It is at home 

 in the woodland swamp, in the prairie 

 slough, and on the high rolling land, 

 where alone can grow the Osage. On 

 the very dry land its growth is not so 

 rapid as in the low land, yet it is no 

 less hardy. Cuttings put down early 

 in the spring, in all kinds of soil will 

 grow, and need not fail. The tree does 

 not sucker, but can be easily trained 

 into a good fence. To know how to 

 do this, is of no small importance. 

 There is a general impression among 

 people that willow cuttings, cut at any 

 season after the leaves have fallen will 

 grow if set at almost any time in the 

 spring, but this is not the case. 



The demand for live fences is greater 

 than at any former period, and if Osage 

 plants could be had, millions of them 



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