86 



THE ILLINOIS FAEMER. 



Maech 



pounds white sugar, cool, add half pint French 

 brandy. Take a table spoonful three or four times 

 a day, eating sparingly. " 



BAKEE & PHILLItS 



- PUBLISHERS. 



M. L. DUNLAP, Ij^ditor. 

 SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, MARCH, 1864. 



March is called the month of winds, of frost, of 

 sleety storms and deep mud. To these charges it 

 must in part plead guilty, yet March has many 

 redeeming qualities, many prominent virtues that 

 end.'ar us to its long days, though filled with no 

 little amount of fickleness. "It is in this month that 

 we lay the solid foundations of the season's opera- 

 tions, both on the farm and in the garden ; nor can 

 we allow the orchard to go unheeded — pruning and 

 planting, plowing and sowing is the order of the 

 day, to the full capacity of the muscles employed. 

 The stormy days of March are all needed in the 

 wood house, the barn or the cellar. 



Cast Iron Rollers and Corn Planter. — The 

 advance in pig iron, in coal and in labor is so gi-eat 

 that we fear that these useful implements will not 

 be on sale at such prices that the farmer will feel 

 warranted in buying. A six section roller, twenty- 

 two inches in diameter and seven feet four inches 

 long, (the length for two rows of corn,) will weigh 

 six hundred and seventy pounds, add to this one 

 hundred and thirty pounds wrought iron, and we 

 have eight hundred pounds of iron. This at eight 

 cents a pound would cost S64 ; to this must be 

 added, ten dollars for frame and smith work, mak- 

 <^ ing the cost seventy -four dollars. Pig iron is worth 

 about three cents a pound, and it is probable that 

 the rou2;h castings can be furnished at six cents a 

 pound at the foundry at wholesale. Will some of 

 our foundry men put us right on this subject, if out 

 of the way in our estimates? Allowing the cost 

 of the roller to be $50, and the planter $15, which 

 is liberal, wc can have a roller and planter at $65, 

 allowing the dealer fifteen dollars, the machine 

 completed will be only $80. 



"We are assured that several of these will be 

 made for this year's crop, when if they succeed as 

 anticipated, the present system of corn planting 

 will bo changed. 



Ret. J. Knox — Grapes and Small Fruits. — The 

 card of this establishment will be found in this 

 number of the Farmer. An account of a visit to 

 the grounds of Mr. K. may be found in a previous 

 number. I'rom what Dr. "Warder says, the public 



may be assured of well grown plants, as well as 

 those true to name, both points of no small impor- 

 tance. 



Burson's Grain Binder. — "We have numerous 

 inquiries in regard to this binder, how it worked 

 last season ? and if they are again in the market ? 



Since the State Fair we have heard nothing in 

 regard to the matter. At the Fair Mr. Burson as- 

 sured us that all the machines sent out that proved 

 defective, would be made to do good work, which 

 we presume will be the case. "We have faith in the 

 ability of this machine to do good work, but of the 

 cost of wire per acre and the liability to get out of 

 repair we know nothing. The fact that little is 

 said in the papers in regard to an implement of 

 this kind argues nothing in regard to it, as many 

 manufacturers of implements depend upon canvass- 

 ing for sales rather than advertising. The sys- 

 tem of a free canvassing of the merits or 

 demerits of implements in^ the columns of our 

 agricultural journals has had too much to do with 

 this state of things. The public have become dis- 

 gusted with this indiscriminating paid puffing, 

 that it is of little value. The result is that some 

 of oui best implements are little advertised. 



HrsKiNG Corn. — Our readers have doubtless 

 heard of big days' work in corn husking, but the 

 following, will perhaps be found to be the largest 

 of them all. "We give it place because we think it 

 the largest day's work of the kind on record, and 

 because we also think it true. 



Daniel Oyler, a farmer residing seven miles west 

 of the city of Champaign is the hero of the corn 

 field, and until a man is found to beat him must be 

 entitled to wear the busker's belt. 



Mr. made a bet of his time against a yoke of 

 oxen with a neighbor, a deacon in some church, 

 that he could husk one hundred bushels of corn in 

 twelve hours and put the same in cribs in good 

 order. The rows of corn were seventy rods long ; 

 at each end of the rows cribs were made for the 

 convenience of handling the corn. At 6 o'clock, 

 on the morning of October 26th, 1861, he com- 

 menced work, attended by two men to see that no 

 cheating was practised, but who in no way were to 

 assist him. In husking he only husked one row 

 at a time, and that on the left hand side of the 

 wagon. His team was trained to the work, and 

 moved along at the word of command without hii 

 touching the lines. At the end of the row the corn 

 was shoveled into the crib. At five o'clock and 

 fifty-five minutes p. m., he quit work, being five 

 minutes before the time. 



Here was near twelve hours constant work for 

 the time spent in eating was very limited. 



