1864. 



•■«■ 



THE ILLINOIS FAKMEE. 



m 



CONTENTS: 



Editorial: pase. 



January 1 



Air the Cellar 2 



Agriculture : 



Farm Labor and its Equivalent 3 



Climate and Production of Illinois 4 



Preserving Sweet Potatoes 5 



Chiccory 5 



Cotton raising in Iowa 6 



Horticulture : 



Illinois StateSociety— Winter Meeting 6 — 17 



Strawberries and Grapes at Pittsburg, Pa.. 17 — ^20 

 Grape Growing and Wine Making^n Han- 

 cock Co., Ill 20 



Packing Grapes for market 20 



The Yeddo Grape 21 



Grapes in Iowa 21 



The Concord Grape 21 



' Good Sorghum Crop 21 



Miscellaneous : 



An Editor Taking Lessons 22 



Sheep and Cows 22 



Materials of which Soils are Composed 23 



The Honey Bee of California...... 23 



Hogs and their Culture 23 



Poetry : 



The Planting of the Apple Tree ; 24 



Editor's Table : 



The year 1863 24 



Cut and House your Fire Wood 24 



Com Cribs 25 



Keport of the Commission on Agriculture 25 



At Alton 26 



To Clubs 26 



Just the Thing 26 



Hog Tamer .• — 27 



The Horticulturist 27 



The Ssientifie American 27 



Dr. Warder's Fruit Book 27 



Catalogues Received 28 



Christmas Tree — Carbon Coal Mines 28 



AeENTS. — ^We do not appoint any agents — all are 

 voluntary. Any person so disposed, can actasagen 

 in any place. 



ENLAHaE Your Club. — Will not the friends of 

 the Illinois Farmer inquire how many copies of 

 the Farmer are taken in their respective offices, and 

 pass around among those who ought to have their 

 names added to the list? Our terms are so low to 

 clubs of ten and twenty that we ought to have one 

 or the other made up at every office in the State, and 

 at every office in Central Illinois, one of twenty or 

 more. Will our friends, and the friends of practical 

 agriculture see to it, and thus lay us under renewed 

 obligations? ■' ; 



How TO Obtain Subscribers. — The best way"is to 

 send for sample numbers. Any young man by can- 

 vassing his neighborhood, can easily make up a club 

 of five, ten or twenty, but no time should be lost in 

 doing so, for your neighbors may send east for their 



paper which, though valuable there, is much less so 

 here, the difference of soil and climate putting them 

 out of their reckoning when attempting to teach us 

 Western farming. 



How TO Help. — The friends of the Illinois Far- 

 mer will find a prospectus in another column. We 

 desire to suggest a few ways in which they can use it 

 to advantage : 



1. Show the Farmer to those who are unacquaint- 

 ed with it, and tell them what you think of it. 



2. Send for prospectuses, and put them into the 

 hands of those who will use them, and place posters 

 where farmers will see them. 



3. Get post masters interested. They see every- 

 body, and ai-e efficient workers. 



4. Send us the names of persons in your town to 

 whom we can send prospectuses and sample num- 

 bers. '";- ^y '/-''^ .■■■:"'■-' ":. ■ '-. :''''\[: 



5. Begin now, before the agents of Eastern pa- 

 pers get up their clubs. , 



This last hint is especially important. Let us 

 hear from you soon. See terms elsewhere. 



^^* Clubs may be composed of persons in all 

 parts of the United States. It will be the same to 

 the publishers if they send papers to one or a hund- 

 red post offices. Additions made at any time at club 

 rates. We mail by printed slips, which are so cheaplj 

 placed on the papers, that it matters little whether 

 they go to one or a dozen offices. 



^^^ Correspondents will please be particular to 

 give the name of the post office, county and State. 



^^~Specimen numbers will be sent gratis, upon 

 application. -; 



^^^^ Address 



BAKER A PHILLIPS, 



Springfield, Illinois. 



Special Notice. — For terms see prospectus on 

 last page. All exchanges and communications for 

 the eye of the editor should be directed to Illinois 

 Farmer, Champaign, Illinois. Electrotypes and 

 business matters, and subscriptions, to the publishers, 

 Springfield, Illinois. Implements and models for ex- 

 amination should be sent to the editor. The editor 

 will, so far as it can be done personally, test and ex- 

 amine all new machines and improvements submitted 

 to his inspection. He will be found at home, on his 

 farm, nearly all of the time. So far as it is possiUe. 

 the conductors on the Illinois Central Railroad will 

 let off passengers at his place, which is directly on 

 the road, three and a half miles south of the Urbana 

 Station, now the city of Champaign. 



