42 



THE ILLINOIS FAKMER. 



Feb. 



We saw a very good washing machine at the 

 Macoupin county fair. It was made at Bunker 

 Hill. We have mislaid the card and therefore can- 

 not give the parties' names. It is the only machine 

 that we have seen that looks as though it had mer- 

 it, but even that we would not recommend you to 

 purchase except on a ^nonth's trial, to see what 

 effect it would have on the clothes. We have used 

 one of Putnam's wringers for over two years and 

 have no expectation of getting a better one. If 

 there is a better one we have not seen it. Th*^ 

 charge that the galvanized iron will rust th 

 clothes, has not in this case been discovered. 



In ridgiug up for the sweet potato with the Stat- 

 ford cultivator, place the shovels so that the earth 

 is thrown to the center. The plow is not used but 

 you make the ridges by going three to four times on 

 each row. You then turn and work down these 

 ridges, making the center over the deep furrow. 

 In this way the" ground is thoroughly pulverized 

 and ready for the plants. These are sprouts grown 

 in a hot bed, and set sixteen inches apart in the 

 ridge. 



The vine mentioned is doubtles the convolvulus 

 panduraius, sometimes called wild morning glory, 

 wild potato, or man of the earth. Where it once 

 gets a hold it is very troublesome. If the shovels 

 of your cultivator are kept sharp they must destroy 

 the most of them. We saw this weed in numerous 

 fields in Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee ; have 

 also seen it along the Wabash valley in Indiana. — 

 Ed. 



The Extent of damage to fruit trees 

 —Cotton Culture in the South of 

 the State. 



[Letter from Rural.] 

 Champaign, III., Jan. 25, 1864. 



The damage to the fruit crop by the severe cold 

 is yet an absorbing subject to all classes of people, 

 equal to those who buy and those who sell. We 

 will, therefore give all the facts so far as they ap- 

 pear. Of the fruit district about Cobden, Anna 

 and Makanda, we have spoken in our last letter, 

 with the exception of trees that were budded last 

 August and September. All of those budded above 

 the snow-line or say eight inches from the ground, 

 are killed ; while those below that line, protected 

 by the snow, are in good order. 



At Duquoin and St. Johns the trees are less in- 

 jured, though the blossom buds of the Peach and 

 Pear are all killed, with a portion of the Cherry 

 and Plum. The Apple to all appearances, are not 

 injured in the least. 



The following letter gives a gloomy account of 

 the fruit prospect at Ashley, which we hope is over- 

 drawn. 



"Ashley. 111., Jan. 22, 1864. 

 Mr. 'Rural' — Dear air — My peach trees are all 

 killed from one year to seven years old — killed to 

 the ground. Also all my buds inserted this last 

 Fall. An awful blow on all of us. My friend, 

 Joseph Barber, lost 7000 three year buds, just com- 

 ing into bearing. Very discouraging. I know not 

 where to get buds and scions to work from — have 

 you heai'd of any locality not killed West. All my 

 roses, most sorts of pear, peach, the finer kinds of 

 cherry, are all dead. 



Truly Yours, John M Hunter." 



In our own ground the blossom buds of the Al- 

 mond are all dead. All of the heart and duke cher- 

 ries, and about one third of the May cherry and 

 half of the common morello. This is the first time 

 that the May cherry has been injured during ruo 

 acquaintance with it. The peach trees do not ap- 

 pear to be much injured, at least much less than 

 further South. This is doubtless due to the drouth 

 that lessened the growth and ripened up the wood 

 before the early frost, that found the trees in the 

 south pare of the State in a more thrifty growing 

 condition. At Cobden the cold on the first d.iy of 

 the month was nearly the .same as here. Your 

 proof-reader transposed the figures making it colder 

 on the hills than in the valleys, which is not the 

 case. All of the peacli orchards near Cobden are 

 on the hills. They are never planted in the valley 

 or near the base of the hills. On the hills the 

 cold was eighteen, and in the valleys twenty-two 

 degrees below zero. At that point the cold is al- 

 ways the most intense in the valleys, while further 

 north it is the reverse. But to resume. The pear 

 trees are to some extent injured in the last years, 

 growth. This should be cut back to within three 

 or four buds of the old wood, when it is probale 

 that no serious result will follow. The apple, 

 plum and May cherry are not in the least injured 

 in the tree. Had the same degree of cold occured 

 a year ago, the apple trees in the nursery and prob- 

 ably the orchard trees would have suffered the 

 same as they did in the winter of 1856, as the 

 growth the preceding autumn was a rank spongy 

 one, illy adapted to stand the cold. If the drouth 

 and frost cut off our crops last season, it has made 

 us some compensation in protecting our fruit trees 

 from distruction. 



While in the south part of the State we found 

 among the people a wide difiference of opinion in 

 regard to the cold of previous years, Mr. Frick, of 

 Jonesborough, has a memorandum of the weather 

 for some years. In February, 1856, the thermom- 

 eter was down to 22 degrees below zero, and a few 

 days later to 14 degrees. The peach crop was kill- 

 ed and trees slightly injured. The same winter 

 nearly all the peach trees in the north and central 

 parts of the State were killed outright. Between 

 the years 1856 and '64 the thermometer seldom 

 went as low as 2 degrees below zero, and at this 

 point 12 degrees below, growing seven successive 

 crops of this fruit. We much doubt if any other 

 nf the whole country has done better than that. 



Last autumn nearly all the nurseries sold out 

 their entire stock of peach trees, there having been 

 an unusual demand for trees. As few of these trees 

 were set in orchards, but heeled i?i, they are now 

 in good order for planting. Nor do we believe there 

 is a large per centage of trees entirely killed ; there- 

 fore, with the exception of thft loss of the crop for 



