time, besides boards and nails. Hedge for protection is very good, but does not equal the grey willow. It is cheaper to fence stock in. S. P. Boardman.-In the way of fencing, public interest in Central Illinois is now entirely concentered on hedge. Since the discovery and practice of plashing has come about, there are but few doubters as to the complete efficiency of the Osage hedge. Many of the old hedges (rather attempts at hedges) which were considered not only failures but nuisances, have been made, by plashing, to turn all kinds of stock. G. Harding. My experience is in favor of a live hedge fence of the Osage orange. It gives shelter to stock; is a good wind-break, and an everlasting and effectual fence, at a cost of 60 cents per rod, when large enough to turn stock, and an annual cost of two cents per rod to keep the same in repair. I consider it cheaper to fence out stock than to keep it up. The Osage is best for a live fence. If managed rightly, it will turn any kind of stock in 3 or 4 years from re-setting in the hedge-row. We have no machines for cutting hedges. The plan I have followed for preparing ground, setting, tending and trimming plants, is this: Prepare the ground in the fall, then break deep in the spring by throwing together several furrows. Run one furrow in the centre, set the plants in it eight inches apart, then cover the root to the same depth as in the nursery. If the ground is rough or cloddy, roll or harrow, or both. Plow well with the double shovel and hoe them well for the first and second years, then use the turning plow. If good-sized plants the first year, they may be plowed the second by the turning plow. I find a ditch on either side the hedge essential, to make the roots strike downward and not spread when the plow runs near them. If there is no ditch the roots will be broken by the plow and then sprout and spread. If the land is not tilled the ditch is unnecessary. If made at all it should be finished by the third year. I do not trim hedges until the third year, when, if of sufficient size, I cut the plants half off and bend them down along the row. The young shoots will again start where the plant is cut off, and when cut form the height of the fence, while the ones bent down stop all holes. If not well trimmed the young shoots will shade those bent down so much as to cause decay. The cost of hedge fence varies according to its width and the manner in which it is tended. As I set them it takes 2,000 to 80 rods, costing near here $2 50 per thousand, making $5 to 80 rods. The labor of setting, etc., about $6. Therefore it will cost about 20 cents per rod for setting hedge, including cost of plants. After being set it will cost 20 cents per rod to till and trim the hedge, which should be trimmed once or twice each year after the 3d or 4th year. With machines there would be little expense in keeping up the hedge once well started. I prefer rails for cross fences, as they are often moved. A rail fence costs at least $1 25 per rod, if made out of good rails, such as oak, ash, walnut and red elm. A board fence costs $1 35 or $1 40 per rod, if of oak; more if of pine lumber. Where one is fencing against cattle and horses only, a three-board fence will answer, and will last until a hedge fence can be made. Hedge fences are the cheapest the farmer can have, and afford good protection to stock and fruit. Orchard trees are much less liable to blow down when a hedge protects them from the wind. I think and am sure that in any part of the country where the land is not fenced, it would be much cheaper to fence for pasture to keep stock in, than to feuce the whole of the land in order to keep stock out of the farms. S. Butler.-Rail fence costs $5 per hundred. We, as a general thing, fence out stock, and keep it up if we choose. D. Gove. I have tried all kinds of wooden fences, and at best they require a great deal of repairing to make them safe. I have also had considerable experience in hedging; and it is just the fence for this prairie country. It will cost less to make it and keep it in repair than any other fence, and it bids defiance to high winds or any kind of stock. It can be made sufficiently strong to turn any kind of stock for 75 cents per rod, and can be kept in order for 10 cents per rod per annum; and if the wind blows your fence is in no danger; which is quite an item. 'As to fencing stock out or in," my theory is, to fence them in. If I own stock is it not just that I should keep them where they cannot injure my neighbor, who has no stock? J. G. Swann.-Eight rails high. Black and white oak. Staked and ridered. Costa 75 cents per rod. Stock kept up. E. A. Reihl.—It is much cheaper to fence stock in than to fence out. J. Balsiger.-My fences are the common rail fence. Having plenty of timber, and not so much capital at my disposal, these were more convenient for me than board fences. But I am now beginning to plant Osage orange hedges, believing them to be, when well raised and cared for, the most lasting and the cheapest fence; and requiring, when once grown, the least labor to keep it in order; and, moreover, serving as sheler belts against the blasting winds. We have in this neighborhood, many, I dare say, perfect hedges of Osage orange. I think it more advantageous to keep up stock than to let it run at large; though I know that fences, and keeping them in order, are a heavy charge on the farmer, as well for the work they demand, as for the timber they consume, especially rail fences, while board fences are very expensive. J. Y. Bothwell.-I have half a mile of Osage orange hedge. It is good. I set the plants 18 or 20 inches apart, and cultivate well until they are from an inch to an inch and a quarter in diameter; then lay them down close to the ground. In April, confiue them there by laying rails or poles on them. In July, remove the rails or poles. In one year the fence will turn any decent animal, and in another year it will turn anything. I also have two miles of plank fence, made as follows: Split white oak posts, split square, 7 1-2 feet long; set them top end of timber down. Use post augur 8 inches in diameter. Set the posts 5 feet apart. Use white oak plank 15 feet long, 1 inch by 4; use one nail and six planks to the panel. It makes a good tight fence, and costs $2 per rod here, where it is cheaper than a rail fence, as timber is cheap. The balance of my fencing, 5 1-2 miles, is made of rails, but I shall make no more such. The hedge is the fence; when it cannot be used, the style of plank fence I have described is the cheapest and best I have found. I do not trim my hedge at all, as I consider it time thrown away, and injurious to the health of the fence. Let it grow; it will not get very high, and if it should, 'twill make a good wind-break against the cold prairie winds. As for side trimming, it does not become very wide, the growth is chiefly upward. T. Engelmann.-The old worm-fence is slowly disappearing and plank fence taking its place. The cost of constructing a plank fence in this locality is about $1 85 per rod, to-wit: Two white oak or overcup posts, 25 cents each.. Nails and labor..... Total......... $.50 1.20 .15 $1.85 Osage orange hedges have been tried to some extent. With proper care they may afford sufficient protection, but on an average they have failed to give satisfaction. The land in St. Clair county being nearly all in cultivation-all, except comparatively small bodies of it in the river and creek bottoms-so that in a few localities only, the stock which was running at large was able to maintain a poor existence for a few months of the year, on the so-called common pasture. It has for many years back been a fact, well understood by all farmers, that the benefit derived from that pasture was insignificant in comparison to the costs of making and keeping up fences, and efforts have been made to compel the owners of stock, by legal enactment, to keep up the same; but they have always been defeated by the opposition of persons who own no land, or only small tracts of it, principally by the residents of towns and villages, until last fall, when a law to that effect was again submitted to the vote of the people, with a proviso, that in any election precinct in which the law would receive a majority of votes, it should be in force. In this way some of the eléction precincts have adopted the law, which went in force on the first of March, 1868; while in other and adjoining precincts the law has been defeated. It is to be seen how it will operate. 19. Capital, per acre, rcquired for good farming? H. Pierce-About $40 to $50 at present rates of fencing. Without having to fence more than was required for his own stock, $20 to $30 per acre. Basis of calculation, & farm of 160 acres. One could farm with a much smaller capital, but I estimated the cost of stock, etc. C. E. Barney.—As to the capital required for good farming, $12 per acre would be very desirable-some brains, and the ability to apply them to the soil, would be indispensable. A. Rankin.-It costs about $10 per acre for good farming here; that is, for grain. Root crops cost more. I last year spent $41 on an acre of potatoes, and got 241 bushels, which I sold for $1 per bushel. G. W. Minier.-$10 per acre is none too much. G. W. Vaughan.-It costs at least $5 or $6 per acre to farm land as it should be, exclusive of manures. D. Gove. With our mixed husbandry it takes about $10 per acre per annum, to pay all expenses. J. G. Swann.-$6 per acre. E. A. Riehl.-I have 160 acres ; 40 cleared, and have $10,000 invested (besides cost of land), and twice that amount would be more profitable. J. Balsiger.-I think that for good farming an available capital of nearly the same amount as the value of the land, would not be too much, though this depends on whether the land is already in cultivation, good order, etc. G. C. Eisenmeyer.-Good farming land in this section of St. Clair county, is worth from $80 to $115 per acre. I know of no farm cultivated by hired labor owners, who have not sufficient force within their own families to cultivate their farms, find it to their interest, since wages are so high, to lease out their farms to tenants, receiving one-third of the crop as rent. Land is in great demand at this rate, and hired labor is generally employed only in harvest time. For these reasons it is difficult to make an estimate of 'he capital required for good farming. AGRICULTURE AND THE MECHANIC ARTS IN THE EARLY DAYS OF ILLINOIS. It may be a matter of interest to review, so far as we can, the history and progress of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts in Illinois, from its first discovery up to the year 1830, or about a generation since. The value of the "Illinois country as an agricultural district was early noted by the French missionaries. In the narrative of Father Marquette, who descended the Mississippi in 1673, we find it stated of the Indians at the mouth of the Des Moines, who were probably identical with those of our own State, at least in their agriculture: that "they live by game, which is abundant in this country, and on Indian corn, of which they always gather a good crop, so that they have never suffered by famine. They also sow beans and melons, which are excellent, especially those with a red seed. Their squashes are not of the best: they dry them in the sun, to eat in the winter and spring." Father Allouez, in 1676, says of the "Kach-kach-kia" Indians-" they live on Indian corn and other fruits of the earth, which they cultivate on the prairies, like other Indians. They eat fourteen kinds of roots, which they find in the prairies; they made me eat them: I found them good and very sweet. They gather, on trees or plants, fruits of fortytwo different kinds, which are excellent. They catch twenty-five kinds of fish, including eels. They hunt cattle, deer, turkeys, cats, a kind of tiger, and other animals, of which they reckon twenty-two kinds, and forty kinds of game and birds." "It is the custom of these tribes," says Father Membre, 1679, "to put their Indian corn in caches, in order to keep it for summer, when meat easily spoils, and to go and pass the winter in hunting wild cattle and beaver, carrying very little grain." "The richness and fertility of the country," he adds in another place, "gives them fields everywhere." In 1680, he informs us: "As wine failed us for the celebration of the divine mysteries, we found means, toward the close of August, to get wild grapes which began to ripen, and we made very good wine, which served us to say mass till the second disaster, which happened a few days later. The clusters of these grapes are of prodigious size, of very agreeable taste, and have seeds larger than those of Europe." Charlevoix, who went down the Mississippi in 1721, has a few pertinent remarks to make upon the natural resources of Illinois. Being just below the present town of LaSalle, on the Illinois river, he says: "The largest of these [rivers] is called Pisticoni, and proceeds from the fine country of the Mascolins. At its mouth is a fall, or a rapid stream, which is called le Charboinere, or the Coal-pit, from the great quantity of sea coal found in the placers adjacent." Writing from Kaskaskia, he adds: "The soil is not only extremely proper for wheat, but besides, refuses nothing necessary or useful for human life. The climate is extremely temperate, lying in thirty-eight degrees thirty-nine minutes north latitude. Cattle and sheep would multiply here wonderfully. Even the wild buffaloes might be tamed, and great advantages drawn from a trade of their wool and hides, and from their supplying the inhabitants with food." "The highlands, and other kinds of soil not liable to be overflowed by the river, are even already very well adapted for producing corn, and if the trials made in some places have not succeeded because the corn has been blasted or mildewed, it is owing to this circumstance, that the country not being cleared, the wind bas not free access to disperse those noxious vapors which generate mildews. An evi. dent proof of which may be drawn from this: that amongst the Illinois, where there is more meadow than woodland, wheat thrives and ripens as well as in France." "The French in this place live pretty much at their ease. A Fleming who was a domestic of the Jesuits has taught them to sow wheat, which succeeds very well. They have black cattle and poultry. The Illinois, on their part, manure the ground after their fashion, and are very laborious. They likewise bring up poultry which they sell to the French. Their women are very neat-handed and industrious. They spin the wool of the buffalo, which they make as fine as that of the English sheep: nay, sometimes it might even be mistaken for silk. Of this they manufacture stuffs which are died black, yellow, or a deep red. Of these stuffs they make robes which they sew with thread made of the sinews of the roe-buck, The manner of making this thread is very simple. After stripping the flesh from the sinews of the roebuck, they expose them to the sun for the they beat them, and then without difficulty as that of Mechlin, but much stronger.” space of two days; after they are dry draw out a thread as white and as fine |