1864. 



THE ILLINOIS FAEMEE. 



irs 



the aeeda are scattered quite thick, nearly covering 

 a space two inches in width. The drills are then 

 lightly covered with earth. Nothing more is nec- 

 essary hue to keep the rows hoed out and the weeds 

 from among the young plants, and by July the sets 

 are ready to harvest. Being planted thick the sets 

 are small; the smaller the better, say from the siie 

 of a pea to that of hickory-nut. The smallest seta 

 will make full size onions the following season, and 

 from being small no centre or seed-stalk is pro- 

 duced, which is detrimental to our " rareripe " 

 onions. These sets, and the " Top onions," are 

 generally retailed from 12.60 to 16 per bushel, 

 according to the supply. The trade in them is 

 often very large. 



The inquiry may be made, why will mot the osion 

 in the rich soil of the South and West, mature in 

 a single season from the seed ? The answer is, the 

 climate is too warm. No root crops succeed so 

 well there as in the cooler climate of New-England 

 and the Canadas. Hence early planting of all root 

 crops is in dispensable to tolerable success. Onions 

 in February, if the ground can be worked. Pota- 

 toes are also, and for the same reason, planted 

 early, and the best crops are matured in July. 

 The growth of all root crops is checked by the hot 

 weather if not cut short, for want of rain, which is 

 very common. 



In the more favorable locations for the onion, 

 the seeds for sets may be sown late, to avoid their 

 becoming too large. Yet late sowing will increase 

 the labor of weeding. But very thick sowing will 

 in some measure check the weeds, and the sets 

 will be of more desirable size. h. p. b. 



How to Trap Gophers. 



En. Iowa Hombstkad : — You wished to know how 

 I trap gophers. Take a small steel trap (such as 

 is used to catch mink,) and close to where they 

 have been throwing up fresh dirt, dig down until 

 comming to their hole, (you may have to dig four 

 or five times before finding it,) and then dig down 

 until the top of the trap will be even with the bot- 

 tom of the hole. Sprinkle fine dirt lightly over 

 the trap, then take one or two short boards, sii or 

 eight inches wide, and lean them over the trap so 

 as to let the top edge of the boards come just 

 above the hole ; then cover it all up closely with 

 fine dirt, and when the gentleman takes his next 

 round, he will be apt to get his foot fast, which 

 will be in the course of twelve or twenty-four hours. 

 I do not use any bait. — R. D. McKik, Taylor Co, 

 Iowa. 



Farming in Colorado. — Colorado cannot be re- 

 commended as an agricultunal State, since crops 

 can only be successfully grown by irrigation, which 

 much of the land will not admit of, owing to its to- 

 pography. But where it can be irrigated without 

 too much expense, farmers succeed in obtaining 

 crops of all kinds, particularly wheat, that pay 

 largely. Wheat is grown on some bottom lands 

 without irrigation. The quality of Colorado wheat 

 is represented as superior to that grown in Illinois. 

 The Denver Daily News, speaking of irrigation says: 



"Proper precaution being taken, and ample pre- 

 parations made for supplying his crop with water, 

 the farmer can plant with as good an assurance of 

 a crop in Colorado as anywhere else. Upon many 

 farms, probably a majority of those in the torrito- i 



ry, irrigation requires full as much labor in a series 

 of years as the planting and cultivation of the 

 crops in the same length of time. But when the 

 water is taken from small streams, in which dams 

 are not expensive, and easily kept in repair de- 

 cost of irrigation is much less. A great dealheid 

 pends, too, upon the lay of the ground. One »»- 

 or one farm may be very easily irrigated, while 

 other is quite difficult. Very rolling ground, 

 that which is cut up into small ridges with inter- 

 vening hollows, is hard to keep in good condition 

 for the growing crop. It is true that there cannot 

 be produced the variety that is found in some lo- 

 calities, nor can any one crop be made a speciality. 

 Neither can very large farms be seen here, nor 

 will it ever be profitable to make many such. The 

 secret of success lies in small farms well tilled. — 

 Upon such the profits can be made far greater than 

 upon five or ten times the quantity of land any- 

 where in the Atlantic and Mississippi Valley 

 States." 



Sorgo Sirttp. — Perhaps the opinion of such a 

 man as one of the Messrs. Belcher, sugar refiners 

 of St. Louis and Chicago, upon sorgo sirup, may 

 encourage some who are weak in the faith about its 

 value as a farm crop, and induce them to plant 

 more. The Wisconsin State Journal gives Mr. Bel- 

 cher's opinion as follows : 



"Mr. Belcher said there is no trouble in making 

 a first-rate article of golden sirup of any good, 

 light colored sorghum, and without much diminu- 

 tion or expense. That from ten to fifteen cents 

 per gallon would cover the whole cost and shrink- 

 age, and make an article that would sell in any 

 market of the world for a good price, and no one 

 could tell what it was made of. 



"That in the fall and winter of 1862 they refined 

 at their Chicago refinery many thousands of gallons 

 of sorghum sirup, and made of it an elegant article 

 of golden sirup that easily sold in the market at 

 good prices under various fancy names, not being 

 understood to be sorghum sirup at all. They sold 

 it as golden, rather than sorghum sirup, because it 

 really was a good article, and because golden sirup 

 had already an established reputation and sorghum 

 had not. 



"He said he had no doubt but what good sor- 

 ghum sirup would be worth six shillings per gal- 

 lon .It wholesale next fall, in any quantity that may 

 be offered, and that probably no country in the 

 world would, at least for a long time, be able to 

 produce a cheaper sirup than the rich prairies of 

 the West. 



"He thought the farmers ought to and would 

 grow it extensively as a commercial crop just as 

 soon as they come to realize its great value and 

 profitableness as a farm crop, not merely for sirup, 

 but for many other important purposes and uses to 

 which if would be put." 



Four Fxars. — G. W. Chase, in an article on the 

 selection of fruits in the Masi Ploughman, sayi 

 that if one can plant but a nnglt pear tree, that 

 one should be the Bartlett — if he can plant two, 

 the second be the Duchesse d' Angouleme — if three, 

 add the Vicar of Winkfield, and for the fourth, 

 Dearborn's Seedling. These four pears will furnish 

 a supply of fruit from the last of August to the first 

 of January. This selection is for Massachusetta. 



