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THE ILLINOIS FAKMEK. 



BETTEiSSEB, 



Here is a verj interesiing letter from M. L. Sul- 

 livant, the largest fanner in the United States, 

 which gives the detailed cost of procuring corn on 

 the Illinois prairie, by improved machinery. Pro- 

 -feably when steam is applied the cost will be much 

 less. Mr Sullivant says : 



Broadlands, by Homer, 111., July 6, '64. 



I have prepared and planted to com this season 

 1,335 acres of land. 844 acres were plowed in 

 our usual manner, say about four inches deep, at a 

 cost of 



445 days manual labor, at $1 50 JeST 50 



890 days horse labor at 50c 445 00 



Total 11,112 60 



Or $1 31 per acre. 

 . There were spaded (8 inches deep) with Com- 

 stock's rotary spader 404 acres, at a cost of 



80J- days manual labor, at $1 50 ... $133 81 



208 days horse labor, at 50c 104 00 



291 days ox labor, at 25c 15 15 



Total $310 62 



Or 63 cents per acre. 



I have had in operation two horse and three ox 

 machines. One machine was worked 33 days, 

 with the same team of four horses. At the end' of 

 the season their condition showed that they had 

 not been worked harder than in ordinary plowing. 

 The ox machines require a team of two or three 

 pairs of oxen each. A portion of the season I 

 worked two of the ox machines ganged with six 

 pairs of oxen, one man managing the team and 

 spaders readily. Four of the spaders are three 

 feet in width, each. For a few days in the latter 

 part of the season I had at work one three feet 

 eight inches wide, which is the usual width of our 

 corn rows. It is proposed to construct the most 

 of them hereafter this width, and attach a eelf-act- 

 ing corn-planter. This will be capable of spading 

 and planting one acre per hour, with a speed of 2J 

 miles, at a cost not exceeding 44 cents an acre, al- 

 lowing eight hours as a day's work. As a labor- 

 saving implement, and a deep and thorough tiller 

 of the soil, I am greatly pleased with it, and shall 

 watch with a great deal of interest the product of 

 the crop at maturity. At present there is no per- 

 ceptible difference in the appearance of the com 

 on the plowed and spaded land, but I shall expect 

 a yield of from 10 to 25 per cent in favor of the 

 latter." 



The Club will be very glad to have the result of 

 the yield. If the drouth has been as severe there 

 as it has here, the yield of the deep tilth will be 

 double that of the shallow, and more than ten fold 

 pay the cost. 



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Preedman's Bulletin. 



We have on our table No. 1 of this journal. 



"It is the the organ of the Northwestern Freed- 

 man's Aid Commission. It will be published once 

 in two months or oftener. The second number 

 will appear in September. 



It will concern itself chiefly with the|work of the 

 Commission which puts it forth ; but will have a 

 watchful eye upon the whole field of operations oc- 

 cupied by kindred organizations, and will hail their 

 successes as its own. 



It will not hesitate to discuss, furthermore, ques- 

 tions of public policy directly bearing upon the 

 welfare of the Freedmen. 



It will be regularly mailed free to all annual and 

 life electors, and to pastors who take collectious 

 for the treasury of the Commission, so far as their 

 addresses are known. Any such who fail to re- 

 ceive it will confer a favor by notifying the Edi- 

 tor." 



"All communications relating to the Bfllktin, 

 to secure attention, must be addressed — 'Rev. J. 

 R. Shipherd, Box 4617, Chicago, III.' Enclos- 

 ures of money are at the risk of the senders. 50 

 cents a year." 



Such a paper is much needed, not only for the 

 people at large but for the freedmen themselves, 

 thousands of whom are now learning to read. This 

 class of people must be educated and taught habits 

 of industry, or they will degenerate into a low con- 

 dition. We recollect the freedmen of New York, 

 along the Mohawk river. The schools were denied 

 th em and no pains taken to teach them habits of 

 economy, they became in most cases a perfect nui- 

 sance, idling their time away in summer, spending 

 their light earnings at the groceries and stealing 

 on all occasions. 



We shall look forward to a better state of things 

 now that schools are opened to them ; so soon as 

 they become a reading people they will be in the 

 highway of success. We always find a man that 

 we hire, a common laborer who is a reader, a much 

 more valuable hand than those who have no incli- 

 nation in that direction. Such men are always at 

 their post and have more genius to unravel a knot- 

 ty subject about their work. 



In education there is safety, but ignorance none. 

 Educated demagogues rule the masses of ignorant 

 people and mould them to their will. Were it not 

 for this, the non-slaveholders of the South would 

 have put down the rebellion long ago, without 

 Northern aid. This latter class are told that they 

 must set up a government for the South, while in 

 fact it is for the benefit of the slave owners, and 

 should they succeed this very class will be further 

 degraded, and the benefits of the common school 

 put further from them. 



In the course of time, if the colored population 

 become educated they will gradually emigrate 

 South, to a climate more suited to them, where 

 they may set up for themselves ; but they must go 

 through God's mill that grinds slow yet sure. — ^Ed. 



Evans' Rotary Cultivator. 



The Detroit Advertiser says of this new imple- 

 ment: 



Within the past year, two inventions have been 

 brought before the public, which are design- 

 ed to occupy the place of the spade, the plow and 

 the harrow. One of these is known as the Evans' 



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