180 



THE ILLINOIS FARMEE. 



JuifE 



True, grasses can be grown in the sunny South 

 by planting the ground with the seed every year, 

 as is done for other annual crops ; but when the 

 first crop is cut, rank and vile weeds spring up 

 that spoil the soil for mowing or pasturage. It is 

 impossible to fatten an animal on southern grass 

 or hay. It is without richness or nutriment. The 

 consequence is that in all these regions most ani- 

 mals browse from necessity on the foliage and buds 

 of trees and bushes, and are poor, withont size or 

 beauty. In our pastures and in our barns, cattle 

 and horses grow fat on grass and hay. This is be- 

 cause of the superior quality of northern grasses. 

 I never saw such charming fields and pastures of 

 rich grass as in Aroostook county, where the earth 

 in the vernal season is covered with compact white 

 clover, on which oxen may grow fat, and by means 

 of which the hearty cows will give the richest milk 

 for the sweetest butter in America. If you are a 

 farmer and would go where you would enjoy the 

 luxury of the richest feed and choicest butter, let 

 me advise you to turn your face from Secessia, and 

 go at once to the fertile and healthy valley of the 

 Aroostook, where the State will sell you land for 

 fifty cents per acre, and give you four years to pay 

 for it in labor on the roads, which the State will 

 make to your grounds. 



On the subject of the delicious and pulpy fruits, 

 let me say that these aflPord a still more striking 

 illustration of our principle. 



The apple, pear, peach, nectarine, plum, cherry, 

 currant, gooseberry, and other fruits, came origi- 

 nally from the South, but are never found in such 

 perfection there as here. The apple of the South 

 is an acid thing, not fit for the dessert or to be 

 cooked dry, or to be pressed for cider. Plums ne- 

 ver mature till they come north. They are quite 

 good in New York, but much better in Maine, es- 

 pecially in Bangor and the Penobscot valleys. The 

 peach of Carolina is a gummy and knotty thing, 

 ni'ver well flavored. It must travel north till it 

 reaches the latitude of Philadelphia before it comes 

 to perfection. There are no good grapes in the 

 South, though that is their native place. The for- 

 ests and swamps of Alabama and Louisina are full 

 of the vines which cover the tops of the loftiest 

 trees, but seldom or never is a grape found on 

 them. The excess of heat blights the fruit, and 

 no persons pretend to cultivate it there. We must 

 come north to find good grapes — to Ohio, Penn- 

 Fylvania, and New York. Some varieties that are 

 in perfection in those States would pass the line of 

 success by emigrating to Maine, though we have a 

 few acclimated kinds that are as prolific and as de- 

 licious as the Catawba at Cincinnati. 



By all this it would seem that Nature allows and 

 even requires her choicest products — both of field 

 and garden — to emigrate northward to meet the 

 homes of the hardy northmen, who are capable of 

 sagacious toil ; she does not make it necessary for 

 northern cultivators to emigrate south to meet 

 more perfect productions, imder a hotter sky. — 

 WpU would it be for our people if they would take 

 the hint from Nature's indications. The farmers 

 and gardeners of Maine can successfully grow all 

 the best meats, grains, vegetables, and pulpy fruits 

 which mother earth has produced for us and the 

 delight of man. We have all the elements of com- 

 fo t around us. It is a wise proverb to let well 

 enough alone. Let us do this, and instead of sigh- 

 ng for other and falsely believed better climates, 



set ourselves about a cheerful performance of the 

 duties, and reaping the benefits peculiar to the fer- 

 tile and salubrious section in which a beneficent 

 Providence has cast our lot. — W. A. Drew inN. Y. 

 Trib. 



—f 



Respect to the Memory of Hon. Chas. 

 B. Calvert. 



At a meeting of the Executive Committee of the 

 United States Agricultural Society, held at the 

 rooms of the Society, at the Capitol, on Tuesday, 

 May I'Tth, 1864— 



The President of the Society, Hon. B. B. French, 

 stated that he had called the meeting for the .pur- 

 pose of enabling those present to pay some proper 

 testimony of respect to the memory of their late 

 Vice President, of the State of Maryland, Hon. 

 Chas. B. Calvert. 



Mr Calvert, the President said, had been recent- 

 ly suddenly removed from his labors amongst us, in 

 the midst of his years and his usefulness. We were 

 called to mourn the loss of a good, a philanthropic, 

 an energetic, and a most deserving gentlemen — a 

 man who did with all his might whatever his hands 

 found to do. 



Mr. Calvert was one of the formers of the Uni- 

 ted States Agricultural Society, and it'had no more 

 energetic friend and supporter than he was. Ever 

 ardent and ever eloquent in the great cause of ag- 

 riculture, he advocated most powerfully the estab- 

 lishment at the seat of government of a Department 

 of Agriculture, and he lived to see such a depart- 

 ment in successful operation, although not posses- 

 sing those full powers of a department which he 

 desired. Through his influence and indomitable 

 energy the Agricultural College of Maryland was 

 established, and in his death it has lost one of its 

 most worthy founders and ardent friends. As a 

 member of the House of Representatives of the 

 Thirty-seventh Congress, Mr. Calveit proved him- 

 self a useful, business-like and eloquent Represent- 

 ative. 



I will close, said Mr. F., these brief remarks in 

 the eloquent words of another, so far as they apply 

 to our departed friend : 



"The messenger of death has been amongst us, 

 and has left a bitter token of his visit. He whose 

 counsels were wont to advise us, whose exainple 

 was our encouragement, whose virtues was our 

 pattern, has no longer a place save in our memo- 

 ries; the voice with which he uttered words of 

 wisdom and truth is dumb ; the eye that ever kin- 

 dled with kindness is closed ; the ear that was ever 

 open to the calls of distress is deaf; the heart of 

 sympathy has ceased to beat ; the hands that la- 

 bored so well and so faithfully are mouldering in 

 the grave ; the silver cord has been loosed and the 

 golden bowl broken." 



A good man has departed from amongst us ; let 

 us cherish his virtues in our memories, and imitate 

 them in our lives. 



Hon. Isaac Newton, the Head of the Department 

 of Agriculture, then offered the following resolu- 

 tions, which were read and unanimously adopted : 



Resolved^ That while we sincerely mourn the loss 

 of our late friend and co-laborer, the Hon. Charles 

 B. Calvert, Vice President of the Society, we sub- 

 mit with reverence to the decree of that All-wise 

 Being who has seen fit to remove him from amongst 



U8. 



