1864. 



THE ILLINOIS FAKMER. 



The report points out the strong inducements 

 that farmers have to increase all kinds of stock 

 that is falling off. The number of Sheep will be 

 increased by the lambs of the spring to nearly 

 thirty millions, or double what it was in 1859. 



The decrease in hogs is 914,323. This is an 

 important fact to provision dealers and farmers, 

 for it shows that but few hogs, if any, were kept 

 over on account of the loss of the corn crop, as 

 has generally been believed. The condition of hog 

 raising from 1861 to this time is examined, and 

 the opinion givea that even if there had been a 

 good corn crop there would have been a decrease 

 in the number of hogs packed. 



The number of fattening cattle reported is to be 

 30 per cent, less than last year in Pennsylvania, 

 Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, 25 per cent, less in 

 New York, Iowa and Illinois, and 20 per cent, less 

 in Missouri and Wisconsin. The general decrease 

 is nearly 30 per cent. 



The condition of nearly all stock is below the 

 usual spring average, especially of hogs, but sheep 

 are in excellent order, having received more than 

 ordinary attention. Hence the yield of wool per 

 head will be as much as usual. 



The condition of wheat and other crops sown 

 last fall is represented as indicating a largely 

 decreased product from the crop of last year, 

 but it is hoped they have improved from the 

 recent rains, and since the returns of the correspon- 

 dents were sent in, which was on the first of April. 

 The dryness of February and March retarded the 

 usual growth in these months. 



It is believed that the production of maple sugar 

 and molasses will be unusually large as the pre- 

 parations for it were greater than usual. 



Bees are reported as having suffered much dur- 

 ing the winter. The usual amount of statistics, 

 showing the trade in agricultural products, is given, 

 and the meteorological part of the report, prepared 

 at the Smithsonian Institute, is very full, and com- 

 pletely exhibits the phenomenon attending the 

 remarkable cold storms of the past winter. 



The rains have been heavy and general, retarding 

 much the putting in of spring wheat add othci- 

 crops; but whether the amount put in will be 

 materially lessened in consequence cannot now be 

 known. 



[From the Co. Gent, and Cultivator.] 

 Remedy for tlie Cureulio. 



Editors Co. Gent — ^The ravages of the cureulio, 

 in many portions of the State of New- York, as well 

 as other States, have become so disastrous to the 

 plum crop as to render it at least uncertain, and in 

 some localities an almost utter failure ; atld yet cul- 

 tivators appear to have failed hitherto either from 

 supineness or want of energy, in discovering some 

 means of staying the wide-spread destruction, or 

 checking the rapid increase of the destroyer. For 

 the benefit of your readers, I cut the following 

 from the Cincinnati Gazette, in the hope that it 

 may prove as successful in New-York as the writer 

 claims it has in Kentucky. It is not impossible 

 that it may prove alike beneficial as an extermina- 

 tor of the coleoptera which infest the vines of our 

 gardens. Clark C. Haskins. 



New Albany, Indiana. 



Mr. Winn Gunn of Shelbyville, Ky., sends us the 

 following interesting statement in reference to the 

 destruction of this pest of fruit: 



In the spring of 1860, 1 noticed some of my plums 

 punctured. Having succeded in catching the 

 striped bug that is so injurious to melon vines — by 

 placing wool on the hills around the young plants. 

 I concluded to try it around my plum trees. I re< 

 moved the grass about a foot around the tree —■ 

 placed trash-wool on the cleared ground, and wrap- 

 ped it around the forks of the tree. On looking 

 the next day, I found my trap had caught "a num- 

 ber of tJie enemi/," they having become entangled 

 in the wool. This tree produced a bountiful crop, 

 while the fruit on the others in twenty feet of it, 

 "came to naught." In 1861 I treated part of the 

 others the same way, with like result. Also in 1862. 

 In 1863 I treated all my trees the same way. A 

 more healthy and abundant crop of plums I never 

 saw. I have eight varieties ; I have a freestane 

 damson that deserves a place in every fruit-yard 

 being harby and very prolific — a superior fruit for 

 canning or drying. .-■,;>,;. 



— - — <•» ' 



Cheese per Gallon of Milk. — In family cheese- 

 making there is considerable diflPerence in the quan- 

 tity of cheese produced by different persons from a 

 given quantity of milk. A skillful manufacturer 

 should, during the season, average a pound of 

 pressed curd from a gallon of milk, idne measure, 

 or a pound of curd cheese from a gallon of milk, 

 beer measure. When at the factories in June, 1862, 

 I was told that 600 cows were then producing daily 

 about 1450 wine gallons of milk, which turned off 

 1250 pounds of pressed curd. The curd at this 

 factory was divided up and pressed into eight 

 cheeses. At another factory, where the milk of 

 some 400 cows was used, the produce was 965 gal- 

 lons, beer m.easure, making 1120 pounds of pressed 

 curd, or about 114 pounds of curd to 100 gallons 

 of milk, though I was told the quantity of curd va- 

 ried from day to day, some days being several 

 pounds less than in the proportion above stated. 



At this factory the curd was divided up into four 

 cheeses of about 280 pounds each. The shrinkage 

 on the cheese while curing, in the first factory 

 mentioned, would average, it was said, about five 

 per cent. Milk of course varies in quality at differ- 

 ent seasons of the year. In the fall as the quantity 

 decreases, it is richer, and some cheese manufactu- 

 rers deem its condition too thick to be worked with 

 the best advantage into cheese ; they therefore thin 

 it down by adding water at the rate of one gallon 

 to ten gallons milk. This dilution, it is claimed 

 produces a better curd.— X A. WilmoL in TranL 

 ofN. Y. Ag. Society. ' 



— = — *•*■ . 



Heavy Frost at Nashville. 



The temperature of the weather dropped down 

 on Monday night. May 2nd, to 32 degrees ; and aa 

 a consequence, there was yesterday morning a 

 heavy white frost. A gentleman from the country 

 assures us that on his strawberry bed it was as thick 

 and white as any he has seen in December. Ten- 

 der garden vegetables were killed outright, and it 

 is apprehended that fruits have gone the same way. 

 We hope, however, enough has been spared for all 

 useful purposes. We don't like the idea of giving 

 up the fruit crop. How could we do without our 

 usual supply in season, of strawberries, peaches 

 eic—NashviUe Union. . ' ** **'"'*^» 



',* 



■ ■ ■-.— — .1-^i.jh.i^ 



