364 



THE ILLINOIS FAEMEK. 



Dec. 



den is still rather ornamental than useful, at least 

 to the degree which ilr. Commissioner Newton 

 and Mr. SandiTs desire it to be. It contains, how- 

 ever, an immense number of fine grape vines of 

 countless varieties ; large beds of strawberries, 

 raised from seed of the very best kind, and a vari- 

 ety of other fruits, as well as experimental beds of 

 cereals, potatoes, &c., with a remarkably healthy 

 collection of greenhouse and other plants and 

 shrubs. But what really is needed, and for which 

 we trust Congress will provide at an early day, is 

 an experimental /arm, on which the value of all 

 new importations of seeds, roots, fruits, &c , can 

 be properly tested for a year or two betore their 

 distribution. The Agricultural Bureau can never 

 have fair play until it has such a field for the con- 

 ducting of its experiments. The site of such a 

 farm oujlit, of course, to be within very conven- 

 ient reat ii of the city, that persons from the coun- 

 try visitinsc Washington may be able to get to it 

 and obtain the information the director would be 

 able to impart. The Commissioner of Agriculture 

 is constai.tly reciving cereals and other valuable 

 growths from abroad, which, if they could be thor- 

 oughly tested under his own observation, might be 

 made of incalculable value to the country. But 

 the present garden is far too limited for such ope- 

 rations, nor is it favorably located. No one can 

 be more solicitous than Mr. Sanders to benefit as 

 well as to gratify visitors and the country, but 

 the scale is too small for the gratification of this 

 wish. Let us have an experimental farm, and the 

 whole country will be immeasurably and perma- 

 nently the gainer. — Sunday Chron. D. C. 



— Intelligent agriculturists have for a long time 

 seen the growing want of an experimental farm. 

 Model farms have come and gone without leaving 

 any good behind them, while the want of an ex- 

 perimental farm is more and more apparent. 



In the absence of this farm, or before one can 

 be provided, we suggest that the Commissioner 

 place these plants and seeds in the hands of par- 

 ties who will give them proper attention, and re- 

 port the results of the trial. In this way many 

 new things might have a trial and their value as- 

 certained without delay. By sending them to dif- 

 ferent States their hardiness and adaptation would 

 be the sooner discovered, and the plant thrown 

 aside as worthless, or at once assume a place among 

 other valuable products. 



The tea plants could be distributed to some ex- 

 tent among the greenhouses of the North and 

 West, where thev can have winter protection un- 

 der glass. It is probable that some of the seed- 

 ling plants may be found moderately hardy with 

 lis, where planted in well sheltered borders, at least 

 the trial should be made. We have the perennial 

 cotton of Peru making good growth under glass, 

 while several of the plants as yet hold their foli- 

 age well in the cellar, though all exposed to the 

 frost of Aug. 30th are dead . 



|^"There is no greater luxury than fresh veg- 

 etables. 



Small Fruits. 



Who will dare to say that the small fruits are 

 not the great fruits after ail ? The time is not 

 far distant when they will occupy an important 

 place in every garden. — lU. Farmer. 



" The time," friend Dunlap, will not be in our 

 day. Right in sight from our window, are farms, 

 the first settled, with hardly sufficient of the com- 

 mon currant for a mess. It is only here and there 

 that a farmer is growing small fruits sufficient for 

 his own family. Nor do they seem to manifest any 

 interest in the matter. Now and then a woman 

 will attempt the thing, after years of pleading in 

 vain. And then the chances are that the colts, 

 cows, or hogs will destroy the plants or bushes. 

 Farmers will raise pork, make a hog-yard of the 

 highway, gorge on fat, eat tobacco, drink whisky, 

 and become half animal, with incipient bristles on 

 the back, and go around squealing about not rais- 

 ing fruit in this country. Look at their orchards 

 and then at their small fruits. Grape vines un- 

 cultivated, unpruned, twenty years or more in the 

 ground, and bear not. CanH raise grapes ! Some 

 of these croakers have a few raspberry bushes, but 

 fork, hoe, or knife they have not known, and like 

 a snarl of hazel brnsh, they live in the corner 

 where they have been kicked out of the way. 

 '■^VanH raise raspiei-ries as we did East !" Look at 

 their currant bushes. Hardy, faithful, and sub- 

 mitting to the roughest fare and usage, they con- 

 test the day with grass and neglect, and furnish a 

 few messes of small, sour, inferior fruit. Ah ! one 

 of the croakers has a pear — a dwarf. It was stuck 

 into the ground. It has never been cultivated, 

 fed, or pruned. CanH raise pears J And so on to 

 the end of the chapter. People can raise hogs, 

 raise hops, raise the devil, even tobacto, but can- 

 not raise plenty of small fruits. Some have ho 

 time [false] ain't able — [ditto] never had any luck 

 — [true] can't raise fruits here successfully — [not 

 ditto.] And so these people, instead of putting 

 luxury, health, and happiness within reach of their 

 children at home, allow them to beg or steal the 

 fruit from others, or go without. But do these 

 people not love small fruits ? Put a dish of straw- 

 berries and cream, before them heaped up, or a 

 strawberry short cake before them, with a " few 

 more" berries at hand, encrusted with sugar and 

 cream ; or black caps ; or purple canes ; or Law- 

 tons ; or grapes ; or plums or pears, etc., and you 

 will be astonished to learn what a cavity there is 

 under their palates for such delicacies, long un- 

 occupied. 



But there are good souls scattered around. Dun- 

 lap, for company. Blessed be all such, for they 

 raise small fruits, and their children rise up and 

 call them blessed. — IFifs. Chief. 



Fruit— Apples. 



It requires no little tact and general information 

 to handle fruit well. Although our store in this 

 commodity is quite small, yet we know one or two 

 things it would be well to remember. Pears should 

 never be suflFered to remain on the trees till Tcry 

 ripe. Better pick them a week or ten days before 

 quite ripe, and let them ripen in the house. Late 

 autumn and winter varieties must be examined 



