' 266 



-"^^wp-^fl^PTT jr*V"-V'^'WI 



THE ILLINOIS FARMEli 



Septembbb 



Of all the farming months Septem- 

 ber gives us the most leisure — a sort of 

 half-way house, a beginning and end- 

 ing of many of the farm processes. We 

 have threshing, sowing of winter wheat 

 and rye. We also begin the working 

 of the sorgo crop, cutting up the corn, 

 and looking after the potatoes. 



In the orchard, the windfalls should 

 be worked into cider vinegar, and the 

 ripe fruit sent to market. Of course 

 none of the winter apples are ready 

 for the pickers. All excess of cooking 

 apples that are not marketed should 

 now be dried. 



But above all, the fall plowing 

 should not be neglected, for upon this 

 will depend to a great extent the suc- 

 cess of the next year's crop. 



In the garden we have little to do 

 but to luxuriate upon melons and oth- 

 er vegetables, provided always that we 

 have done our duty in the early part of 

 the season. Should you find the cab- 

 bage cracking open from excess of 

 growth, loosen the roots a little, and the 

 injury will abate. Of course you will 

 not allow the garden to be filled with 

 pig weed, bam grass, Spanish needles 

 or stramonium — not a bit of such trash, 

 though your neighbor Jenkins over 

 yonder, who does not take the Faemeb 

 will do all this, and more. Look thro' 

 your orchard and other trees for worm 

 nests, and destroy them. 



The hay and grain stacks should be 

 looked after and thatched with prairie 

 hay or corn stalks. There are plenty 

 of odds and ends to be looked after, to 

 keep one busy, though the hard work 

 of haying and harvest is past. Kext 

 month we will have plenty to do — real 

 hard work — but during the mild days 

 of September we may enjoy country 

 life with a zest. Let us make of Sep- 

 tember a happy month. 



Beaper Trial at Callin. 



(C 





u 



a 



a 



mower 



Some weeks since the Vermillion 

 county Agricultural Society offered the 

 following premiums : h*" ^ 



Ist premium $15 for the best reaper. 

 2d " 10 



1st " 15 



2d "10 

 To be competed for near Catlin, July 

 5th and 6th, 1864, entrance fee 10 per 

 cent., or $1 50 on each machine. 



We reached Catlin on the 5th at 5 p. 

 m., and found only twe reapers at 

 work: Champion's No. 1, made at 

 Springfield, Ohio, and entered by W. 

 H. Games, local agent ; the Buckeye, 

 made at Canton, Ohio, and entered by 

 Milton Davis, a farmer residing near 

 this place. The Champion was a self 

 raker and did first rate work. The 

 Buckeye did good cutting but the rak- 

 ng was poorly done. 



On the 6th onlv one mower entered : 

 the Buckeye, by the same parties. This 

 machine did excellent work and to the 

 satisfaction of the committee who will 

 make the proper award, - 



The most interesting part of the ex- 

 ercises of the second day was the trial 

 of the reaper and hand binder of 

 the Messrs. Marsh Bros. This is a 

 combined machine intended only for 

 grain, with the new patent binder at- 

 tached, on which ride two men to bind, 

 the grain being gathered and delivered 

 to the binders by endless aprons. The 

 trial was made in heavy winter wheat 

 that would turn at least thirty bushels 

 to the acre. The width of cut was five 

 feet, and during part of the trial the 

 machine was drawn by two horses, but 

 as the draft was three hundred and 

 eighty pounds, another team was add- 

 ed that made the work comparatiyely 



% 



