'-?^f^#' 



-V.^^TO^-^ - 'T^-^ W 



*>.. 





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VOL. IX. 



SPRINGFIELD, ILL., APRIL, 1864. 



NO. 4. 



DEVOTED- TO THE' 



FARM, THE ORCHARD AI^^D THE GARDEN, 



PCBLISHED BY 



BAKER & PHILLIPS, i' 



SPEINGFIELD, ; - ^i. -> - - ILLmOTS. 

 .31:. Ij, I)XJ]Snj A.T>, Editor. 



All busitress letters slioald be addressed to the 

 ■publishers. :^ - ' '■; . ■.:',:','':-:.,",■-, 



j2^^ExcHAx<JES and all iDatters pertaining to the 

 editorial department, must be directed to Illinois 

 JPakmer, 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. 



*^* For terms see prospectus and special notices in 

 advertising department. 



April. 



, ."With a steady proj^ress the sun 

 mounts the- southern sky, the heat is 

 '^faduallj increased and the buds that 

 ■■Had swelled or bursted into tiny leaves 

 the past month, now appear in half 

 dress, while the vernal Flora begins to 

 spring up along the garden borders. 



The spring wheat and barley have 

 been sown, the grass and clover are 

 springing up, the last of the flax and 

 the oats are in the hands of the sower 

 and the teams aTe busy for. the crop of 

 corn, tree planting is continued with an 

 renewed vigor, for the expanding leaves 

 begin to admonish us of floorers soon 

 to come ; the vanguard of spring is 



past and we are now immersed in the 

 full tide of its rapidly increasing calls 

 for more active and unceasing toil. It 

 is no time to play the laggard, for if 

 we neglect our duties now, summer will 

 make not up the defect, nor autumn 

 give us the overflowing: srarners. 



The spring fever is often fatal to our 

 gardens, and leaves our orchard sites 

 btXre of trees ; it permits the house to 

 stand in the fflare of the summer heat 



as though more heat the better ; 



5 



it 



compels its subjects to neglect the gar- 

 den borders, and the thousand conven- 

 iences that make up the comforts and 

 pleasures of home. 



If you have the fever, break it at once ; 

 o'ccupy all your leisure in the garden, 

 the orchard or the house grounds, and 

 it will at once disappear! Plant the 

 small fruits, the vegetables and the 

 flower seeds that you may be pleased 

 in summer, and rich the whole vear 

 round. 



While the denizens of the city are 

 busy heaping up fortunes which they 

 one day hope to enjoy in the country, 

 let the farmer heap up comfort as his 

 w^ealth expands, and thus enjoy from 

 day to day the real pleasures of life. 



"Who would be idle? — who would 

 wish to rust out, or be loaded down 

 with mold and canker ? Rather keep 

 brJDjht with well directed industrv, and 

 cheerful with pteasant surroundijngs. 

 As we begin the spring, so may the 



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