1864. 



THE ILLmOIS FAEMEK. 



165 



consists a most essential diflference between the 

 idea associated with manual labor and that of all 

 other attempts made heretofore to combine manu- 

 al labor with study. Instead of the idea of poverty 

 and want being associated with those who labor, 

 that of laziness and worthlessness is associated 

 with those who refuse to work efficiently ; and the 

 experience of established institutions has already 

 most assuredly shown, that no young man, of whom 

 there is any hope for future usefulness in life, is 

 insensible to the disgrace which thus attaches to 

 the laay, who will work only as they are watched, 

 and cheat their fellow students by refusing to do 

 their share of the labor assigned them ; and noth- 

 ing is more conclusively settled than that those 

 students who are the most studious and industrious 

 in class, work the most efficiently and are the most 

 trustworthy in the performance of their daily 

 work. 



3d. As an Experimental Itutitution, our college 

 has an unbounded field for labor. The principles 

 of Agricultural Science, which shall ultimately 

 constitute the subject of instruction in its class- 

 rooms, will be a prominent and important branch 

 of it. The development of no other department 

 will yield richer and more lasting results, or confer 

 more substantial benefit upon agricultural prac- 

 tice than this. Much time, however, id required to 

 make thorough and reliable experiments — they 

 will not pay at once ; as well might the farmer ex- 

 pect to reap his crop the day he sows his grain. — 

 They will, however, ultimately pay a thousand 

 fold, as have the practical application of the sci- 

 ences of electricity, heat and optics, in the present 

 day, paid for the half century of apparently un- 

 practical, purely scientific investigations that led 

 to the results now obtained through them. 



GENEEAL WHEAT AND CORN CULTURE. 



Notwithstaflding the fact that the culture of 

 wheat in our State is not a crop which generally 

 pajs the producers as well as either of the staple 

 crops, it is one, when considered in the aggregate, 

 of great importance to our people, yet its produc- 

 tion, beyond a mere supply sufficient for home de- 

 mand, except in a few favored districts where cheap 

 transportation can be obtained, should have more 

 consideration than is generally given to it. Those 

 who depend on wheat as the main crop, and those 

 who neglect its cultivation altogether, are perhaps 

 equally out of the way. The extraordinary crops 

 which are common some seasons, and others equal 

 ly extraordinary, at occasional places, to be found 

 every season, seem to make it plain that the diffi- 

 culty lies not in the soil nor the climate, but in the 

 generally defective and imperfect manner and me- 

 thod ot cultivation. 



Requisites to a good yield of Com. — Of all other 

 crops grown by the farmers of Iowa, the produc- 

 tion of a fair crop of corn is generally best under- 

 stood. Still there is no other secret about it but 

 good seed and clean and careful cultivation. The 

 best crops of corn are raised in something like the 

 following manner : 



1st. The ground is plowed deeply in the fall, if 

 the previous crop was other than corn. 



2d. It is thoroughly harrowed, if the season is 

 dry. 



3d. If plowed in the fall mark off shallow in the 

 spring, thereby preventing the weeds which may 

 be covered in the fall from springing up in the hill. 



4th, Carefully selected seed is dropped and 

 covered. 



5th. It is rolled after planting, to give the b«st 

 chances for germinating. 



6th. It is harrowed just as the com is coming 

 up, that being the first assault upon the weeds. 



Yth It is plowed out one way. 



8th. It is plowed out the opposite way. 



9th. It is plowed out a second time the first 

 way. 



10th. It is plowed out a second time the second 

 way, and the com, even and completely, to the ex- 

 clusion of everything, takes full, and we may say 

 magnificent possessson of the ground. 



A crop with such or similar cultivation, suited 

 to the soil and the season, is harvested in time to 

 be out of reach of any ordinary frosts, yielding 

 from 60 to ^5 bushels per acre The corn crop has 

 been the foundation, and will long continue to be 

 the foundation of three-fourths of all the agricul- 

 tural prosperity ot our State. 



80R60 AND HCPHXX. 



The first official report we have of the growth of 

 Sorgo and Imphee, and its manufacture into sirup 

 and sugar in the State is obtained from the State 

 census for 1853. Its introduction into the State 

 was through the U. S. Patent Office in the year 

 1856 and 1857, and proved at once a success, so 

 much so that in 1862 it occupied over 86,000 

 acres. It probably reached that amount in 1861. 

 From the State censuses and that of the United 

 States, we have as follows : 



In 1858 were 5,606 acres, product, 416,774 galls. 



"1859 " 26,846 " " 1,993,774 " 



"1862 " 36,667 " " 8,012,396 " 



The product of sugar was, 21,469 lbs. 



The average product per acre of sorgo and im- 

 phee sirup is near seventy-eight and a haJf gallons. 



It is unfortunate that the information was not 

 obtained of the number of acres worked up to pro- 

 duce the amount of sirup reported, as it is a noto- 

 rious fact that on an average at least one-third of 

 the cane grown was not made into sirup, owing to 

 want of faciliiies for grinding and evaporating. It 

 is also an admitted fact that the crude machinery 

 used did not extract more than two-thirds of the 

 juice. Deducting the one-third as not worked up, 

 would make an average of 117 gallons per acre, as 

 the most profitable yield of sirup. If appropriate 

 machinery had been used, one hundred and fifty 

 gallons per acre would have been produced. 



The yield of 1863 was cut off at least three- 

 fourths by frost, and most of the syrup made was 

 of a quality inferior to that of the previous year, 

 the cane being injured by frost. 



The aggregate yield in Iowa in 1869 was nearly 

 one4hird of the whole product of the United States, 

 and exceeding either of the States of Illinois, Indi- 

 ana, Ohio and Missouri, more than 1,000,000 gal- 

 lons. These four States produced not quite one- 

 half of the whole crop, and the highest, Indiana, 

 was 827,777 gallons ; the lowest, Ohio, 707,416 

 gallons. In all the subsequent years Iowa has 

 continued in the lead, so far as we can learn from 

 reliable sources. Notwithstanding the very gen- 

 eral failure last year, our farmers generally are not 

 discouraged, and we should not be surprised that 

 we would have a yield exceeding that of any prev- 

 ious year, if well ripened and pure seed can be ob- 

 tained. In quality the simp from sorgo made in 



