The Illinois Farmer 



VOL. IX. 



SPRINGFIELD, ILL., FEB., 1864. 



NO. 2. 



DEVOTED TO THE 



FARM, THE OHCIIARD KID THE GARDEl^, 



PUBLISHED BY 



BAKER & PHILLIPS, 

 SPRDJGFIELD, ----- ILLINOIS. 

 M:. X.. DTJNL^I*, Editor. 



All business letters should bo addressed to the 

 publishers. 



^^~ExcHANGES and all matters pertaining to the 



editorial department, must be directed to Illinois 



Farmer, Champaign, 111., as the editor resides at 



that point, and is seldom at the office of publication, 



from which he is distant over eighty miles. 



*4f.* For terms see prospectus and special notices in 

 advertising department. 



February. 



The new year is slowly marching on. 

 The great store house of Arctic cold was 

 opened npon her, at her incoming, but 

 this is now yielding to more genial 

 days. • .„ ■'..:'■■■, ., ■ 



The great wave of cold, if of short 

 duration, was crushing, and left the 

 traces of death in its pathway. The 

 stalwart mm fell before it, when ex- 

 posed to its deadly touch ; the maiden, 

 though wrapped in thick robes of the 

 shaggy buffalo, could not indure its vis- 

 itation, when the driving storm blinded 

 the team that wandered on the trackless 

 prairie; the sturdy school boy of seven- 

 teen, with his younger brothers could 

 not stem its fierce onset, that came 



drifting from the direction of their 

 home. One just budding into beauty 

 sets againsi a shock of corn stiff and 

 stark, while in vonder drift folded in 

 the robe of winter, lies the little boy 

 with his school basket under tim with 

 his shawl over his head. 



Such scenes marked the track of the 

 storm, as it rolled its wave of snow and 

 cold ; cold, deep freezing, deathly cold, 

 down the long stretches of prairie. — 

 Dead horses, cattle, sheep and swine, 

 piled in fearful winrows, to be counted 

 by thousands but added to the desola- 

 tion. The embryo blossoms of the 

 peach, the apricot, the nectarine, the 

 almond, the pear, the plum and the 

 cherry, nearly all died at the touch, only 

 a few of the two latter left to give 

 promise of fruit. The summer drouth 

 and the early frosts had so ripened the 

 apple that its buds are nearly unharm- 

 ed. The covering of snow that came 

 with the wave of cold, saved many a 

 tender plant which otherwise would 

 have been destroyed. 



This sudden change and its conse- 

 quences have taught us many lessons, 

 some ofwhich are fearful ones. Let us 

 therefore take them as they are, and 

 learn to guard against their influences 

 as much as possible. 



It is our purpose to study the subject 

 in all its bearings and we shall from 

 time to time give the result to our 

 readers. 



