^iJ;.^!y,75c 



1864. 



THE ILLINOIS FAKMEK. 



233 



We.^t. To large farmers here I have nothing but 

 encourngeraeat ; they or their boys are seated on 

 their cultivators taking long, hot journeys, and they 

 are reall t doing a noble work. Still they are only 

 hair farmers ; the other half is the land speculator. 

 Bleaa t eir lar^e hearts; they intend a part for 

 thi ir boys and girls, and I am certain the boys and 

 girls will get them. Nor will they be worse for it. 

 One word more about corn these passing days. 

 Don't liank it up — don't. Work the ground level. 

 Keep the surface mellow and free from weeds. It 

 is too l<>te' now to work deep. When the brace 

 roots Starr, there is no more to be done. If there 

 are w^eds go through with the hoe, but keep out 

 the cultivator. You had better burn your plow to 

 ashes and old iron, than to be running through 

 your corn, rinping up the brace roots. In theear- 

 ly stages of corn the plow or cultivator cannot go 

 through it too often. In the latter stage they 

 should not go through at all. n. c. m. 



Dr. Meeker is a close observer, a truthful writer 

 and withal a practical, plain, everyday farmer. — 

 Our readers will therefore ask uo apology fur the 

 space so well occupied. 



The reaJer will be somewhat :<urprised in the 

 Doctor's strawberry experience. 



About Evergreens. 



That mattock does get so heavy and the hands 

 so weary ! Then, too, the sun is ou the rampage, 

 and the strong wind from the southwest is like 

 the breath from an oven. The sweut drops from 

 the brow, and it is voted to retire within our en- 

 trenchments for one hour, and dream of a day 

 when this group of evergreens shall lift their pyra- 

 mids of luxurient beauty skyward, in reward for 

 thi-< toil. 



When this group of evergreens was put out, the 

 press of other work called us from a full comple- 

 ti(m of the labor necessary to the largest success. 

 We gave them holes three feet in diameter, and 

 two feet deep ; set them in fine, rich mold, with 

 the proniiso of making the hole "all over" and 

 mulching them generously, when it should rain. 



But the rain comes not. So we wheeled up 

 twenty pails of water, added a heavy wheelbarrow 

 load of mulch, and then applied the mattock with 

 faith and zeal, giving the group a cultivated strip 

 six feet in width. 



"Dear me, who would ever dig so much for ev- 

 ergreens !" You would not, probably, but we 

 would — we do. And the reason is simple. If they 

 are worth setting, they are worth setting well.— 

 We set them to have them live and grow rankly 

 and be utifuUy ; not to linger feebly and die at 

 last. While hundreds we have noticed this spring, 

 just put out, are departing this life, ours are taking 

 hold of the soil with a will, and putting Out their 

 delicate new growth as if "at home." 



Four years since we put out some evergreens, 

 and the "vagary" furnished some wise ones a fine 

 opportunity to say smart things. "What a fool !" 

 May we remain a fool in such matters. Would 

 that our wise friends would exhibit a little of the 

 same folly. Some of the trees then put out are 

 now eight and ten feet high. Greenbacks could 



not buy them. 



It is not true that it is a difficult matter to make 

 evergreens live. Properly lifted, treated and set, 

 they are as sure as the apple. Torn up, roots dried 

 up, stuck in the turf like a post, and never mulch- 

 ed, they are sure to — die. And they ought to. — 

 They resent such barbarism. 



Here, sir ; you think a rootless evergreen can 

 grow and feed in sward. Take the mattock and 

 try a few square feet of this, thoroughly dried in 

 weeks of sun. It is almost as hard as brick, and 

 almost as destitute of moisture. To think of tak- 

 ing out a few spader of such soil, and expecting 

 an evergreen to live ! 



Nurserymen are not always to blame for the 

 death of trees. They weary of preaching a gospel 

 to people who will not heed it. The latter obtain 

 their evergreens, and with the least possible trou-"' 

 ble get them into the ground. This spring we met 

 a man with evergreens in hand, not an ounce ot 

 dirt on the roots, or anything else, the sun and 

 wind doing their work ;tt leisure The mnn will 

 think evergreens a failure ! 



Evergreens should be lifted with as much dirt as 

 possible, and if going far, carefully packed in moss, 

 or what is better each one put up in a sacking, 

 put out with care and generoujily mulched. Hu- 

 manly treated they are sure to live. Those who 

 cannot so treat them, no business to pet them. If 

 they do they deserve to lose them. — Wis. Chief. 

 Just so ; the sun and wind and want of elbowgreese 

 are killing the newly set evergreens. In driving thro' 

 the village we cm see them, in passing by the farm 

 they hold out their crisped up leaves. We had 

 sold three larches of large size some ten feet high ; 

 two are dead and the other will die. The same 

 day we set three of the same size in our ground ; 

 two are growing finely and the other is starting 

 with new vigor. All will make a fair growth. — 

 The six trees were planted in turf, ours mulched 

 and watered. But the roots were not dried while 

 the man was digging the holes. — En. 



The Useful and the Beautiful. 



"I am'so much of a utilitarian, that I can see no 

 practical value in such things." 



We were discoursing to a friend about ever- 

 greens ; about surrounding the home with thing.; 

 of beauty, and making it as attractive as possible. 

 This, we affirmed, was but a just acknowledgement 

 of the goodness of God in filling the world with 

 these beautiful things, and a duty we owed to our 

 children, friends, and to society. If not for beau- 

 tifying and rendering attractive to the eye and to 

 the thought, what were all these things created 

 for ? If an undevout astronomer was mad, what 

 shall we say of an undevout husbandman or horti- 

 culturist ? Are all things beautiful, valueless ? — 

 Has the Greater so blundered that He has filled a 

 universe with things to please and attract, without 

 plan or purpose ? The seed ; the casting into the 

 ground ; the germination and the fulfillment — is 

 not the whole process a miracle ? Men often doubt 

 the miracles of sacred history. Yet they live in 

 the midst of miracles. The concentrated genius 

 skill and perseverance of the human race, could 

 not perform one of the least of these. That an 



