52 



THE ILLINOIS FAKMEK. 



Feb. 



Cotton in Illinois. 



It is stated that Messrs. Fentoii & Co.. of this 

 city, intend to plant 300 acres of cotton this sea- 

 son. The firm is satisfied from last year's experi- 

 ence that cotton can be made a profitable crop in 

 Southern Illinois, and are, therefore, preparing to 

 enter into the business upon an extensive scale. 

 At their gin in this county they have ginned and 

 pri'ssed twenty bales, and have at least tea more 

 to pre-;a — Cairo Oor. Chi. Trib. 



In the last number of the Farmer we stated what 



was doing in this direction at Cobden, 42 miles 



north of Cairo, and are now pleased to learn of fur 



Tther good news in this staple. There is plenty of 



■ seed to be had at the gins in the south part of the 



:State and at St. Louis. We have no fears of the 



result ; cotton and sweet potatoes will hereaftei be 



grown side by side in Egypt. 



^'*i — •• — — 11 ' 



Number of Sheep in Illinois. — In looking over 

 Randall's Practical Shepherd, we discover in the 

 chapter on Prairie Sheep Husbandry, he gives Illi- 

 nois credit for only 50,000 .sheep. On turning to 

 the table of comparison by States in an article on 

 the condition and prospects of Sheep Husbandry 

 in the Con'r of Agriculture's report, probably tak- 

 en from the census of 1860, we find that Illinois 

 had in 1860, 775,S20 sheep. With that number 

 ' in 1860, our State must now possess nearly or quite 

 1,000,000 head. 



We suppose Sangamon county must have from 

 75,000 to 100,000, and there are a number of coun- 

 ties which have as many as Mr. Randall has stated 

 to be the number owned by the entire State. We 

 have one man in the State who is wintering nine 

 thousand. — Prairie Farmer. 



Currants — Dried currents of commerce, as they 

 are miscalled, are in reality a grape, and free from 

 stones or pits ; they come from the Isthmus of Cor- 

 inth and several places in the Indian Archipelago. 

 A small Spanish current is sometimes sold in their 

 stead. It is the island of Zante which furnishes 

 the largest amount of these currents, and their cul- 

 tivation is materially lessening, as the jealousy of 

 the Ottomans does not allow large vessels to enter 

 ■ the gulf for their purchase. These currents grow 

 on vines like grapes; the leaves are somewhat the 

 same figure, and the grapes similar ; they are gath- 

 ered in August, and dried on the ground ; when 

 kegged they are trodden down closely with the 

 feet. Zante Island produced enough to load five 

 or six large vassels; Oephalonia three or four, and 

 other islands one. — Ex. 



A Flax Crop. — The Peoria (Illinois) Transcript 

 mentions the purchase of a flax-brcakiug machine 

 by Mr.McKinistry, of Delaware Prairie and says he 

 ' this year grew one hundred acres. His first at- 

 tempt in this direction was made last year, when 

 he put in twelve acres as an experiment. This net- 

 ted him $50 per acre from the seed, all of which 

 he sold in his neighborhood. Of the one hundred 

 acres of it sown this year, but seventy or eighty 

 will do to break, and from this at the present pri- 

 ces he thinks he will realize about |S,000. 



New Way to Patten Hogs. 



Farmers Plant Sweet Corn. — During our visit 

 at the East we we-e asked to look at some fatting 

 hogs in the sty of Dr. Caleb Plaistridge, of Leba- 

 non, N. H They are very fine ones, but not as 

 good we were told as the doctor usually raises. 

 His system is this: for twenty years past he has 

 planted one-fourth acre of sweet corn, and killed 

 three hogs. The hogs have a good large, airy sty, 

 with feeding trough so arranged that they cannot 

 interfere with each other at feeding time, and 

 free access to a large, yard, through which runs 

 a spring of clear water. When his sweet corn is 

 large enough to roast, he commences feeding it, 

 stalk and all, in the yard, giving them all the swill 

 they will eat. This he continues until they refuse 

 to eat the stalks, after which the ballance of the 

 corn is fed in the ear, and the fatting process fin- 

 ished with corn meal. During the whole twenty 

 years he has failed but twice of killiung hogs of 

 over five hundred pounds weight each, each and he 

 gives credit for most of the weight to the sweet 

 corn. He says properly fed it adds at least two 

 hundred pounds to each of his hogs. Until the 

 frost kills it, they will eat the iweet corn stalks 

 and all. — Pontiac Jacksonian. 



The Weather. 



The extreme cold of the first half of January has 

 been followed through Wisconsin and Minnesota 

 by numerous and heavy snow-sto' ras. but in the 

 greater portion of Iowa, Illinois and Indiana, the 

 the weather for three or four weeks has been very 

 fine, frosty at night most of the time, with mild 

 but not unsaesonably warm days, and with but few 

 storms of wind or rain ; the consequent .ictivity of 

 buisness in these last named States has been grati- 

 fying to all commercial interests. Monday night 

 the weather here changed suddenly from mild to 

 very cold and windy, but without indications of 

 long continued severity. — WtUs Commercial. 



•■ » ■»■ 



A Few Statistics of the Reaper Trade. — ^But 

 few persons not actually engaged in the enterprise 

 have any very definite idea of the immense propor- 

 tions the buisness of manifacturing reapers and 

 mowers is assuming in this country. We have re- 

 liable information that there were made for the 

 trade of 1862, 33,000 of these ftiachines; for that 

 of 1863 something oviH- 40,000, and tlio business 

 of the present year upward;" of 70,000 will be made. 

 Mark the wonderful inccreasij smce tin- war began. 

 Out of the 70,000 between 14,000 and 15,000 will 

 be manufactured in the State of Illinois. 



Seventy thousand machines at n average of 

 $130,00 each, (combined michiues soil ng the en- 

 suing season at $150,00 to ^160,00 or fvtn higher, 

 and mowers from $105,00 to $140,00,) and we have 

 the enormus amount of $9,100,000 [ aii b.v the agri- 

 culturists of the NoJth in a single s as'^n for a sin- 

 gle class of iiiipliments. Probably tlie repairs on 

 machines, old and new, will swell the amount to 

 nearly $11,000,000. Canany couiitr\ in the world 

 equal or even approach these figures ? — Ex 



It costs a great deal of labor, wear and tear, to 

 produce and haul to market a load of wheat or 

 corn, and it brings at best only from thirty to fortj 



