The Farmer’s Garden.
BY J. M. SMITH.
A few years ago it was necessary for me to call upon a gentleman upon some business. After my business was completed and I was about to leave, I started toward the garden. He called to me saying, “Do not go there—you can not get through the garden.” I arrived at the border and stopped. He had evidently complied with one of the necessities of a good garden, viz., plenty of manure, for it is simply impossible for weeds to grow at the rate, or attain the size they had there, except upon very rich land.
Rabbits would have been perfectly secure from foxes, and foxes from dogs, in that immense and tangled growth of weeds.
The owner of that garden was one the best and most enterprising farmers in the State. He had at one time been president of his State agricultural society.
Many years ago I visited a friend living upon a 160 acre farm. It was one of the most beautiful section farms that I have ever seen either in this or any other State. While there I was speaking of a splendid crop of melons that were then just ripening. He said, in rather a fretful manner, “I do not see why my melons do not grow. I know the land is rich, and there are no weeds in the hills. I hoed them all up only a few days ago.” I walked out to his garden with him, and there were his poor, puny vines struggling for life. As he said, there were no weeds in the hills, a little circle of perhaps two or three feet in diameter had been hoed out, and the balance of the land was covered with a dense growth of weeds from two to six feet in height.
He had a most industrious and refined lady for a wife, and young children growing up around him, and, as before stated, a most excellent as well as valuable farm. Yet not one early pea or one ear of sweet corn; not even early potatoes or a tomato, or, in fact, anything that by any stretch of the imagination could be called a garden bed—yet the man has been to college.
Another gentleman said in my presence, “In the spring, at the proper time, I purchase cabbage seed and sow them; when it is time to set them out I buy the plants and plant them; when it is time for cabbages they are there, and so I always have cabbages.”
He is among the very best farmers in the State. He teaches others how to farm, and does it well. The man who attacks him in a convention needs a strong cause and a ready tongue, or he will be apt to consider his own cause a very poor one before he gets through with it. This man has been president of a State dairymen’s association.
One case more: Another gentleman, who is far above the average farmer, and who has also been president of a State dairymen’s association, as well as a public teacher, as he was going out to attend a farmers’ meeting or convention, where he was expected to be a teacher, happened to look out over the place where his garden should have been, and saw an immense growth of weeds going to seed. He said to his sons and hired men, “Boys, bring out a team and hitch to the mower, and mow off the garden; I can not conscientiously go and teach others how to farm with that crop of weeds going to seed in my own garden.” The work was done. “There,” said he, “I can now go and teach without a troubled conscience. There are no weeds going to seed in my garden.”
I have strong hopes of this gentleman. He has a conscience. He attends church; and although I consider him intellectually as far superior to most of the preachers of the day, yet if the right man should become his pastor, I fully believe that there is salvation for him even in this life.
As to the other three the case seems at least to be a very doubtful one. One can not but be reminded of the anecdote of the three little boys who had commenced studying the catechism. Some one asked them if they had learned any of it? “Oh, yes,” says one of them, “I am past justification.” A second one says, “I am past sanctification.” The third jumps up and says, “I have beat them all; I am clear past redemption.” It is much to be feared that the three first described gentlemen are all of them clear past redemption.
Let us turn for a moment to a farmer’s garden of another order. He has a beautiful as well as an excellent farm. Around his house are quite a number of handsome trees that stood there when the Indians were the proprietors of the soil. The present owner has added such other trees as he thought would add both to its beauty and comfort. The house is a number of rods from the highway, and in the summer is one of the most beautiful rural homes that I ever saw. Back of, and near by, the house is his garden. It is so arranged that most of its crops can be cultivated with a horse and cultivator. A nice asparagus bed furnishes not only himself and family an abundant supply of this the first as well as one of the best of the products of the outdoor garden, but also a quantity to sell. His strawberry beds, containing only a few of the standard varieties and a very few plants of some of the most promising of the new ones, were models of both beauty and economy in their arrangement for cultivating both well and cheaply. The same was true of his peas, beans, sweet corn, cabbages, potatoes, etc. His raspberries, both red and black-caps, furnished an abundant supply for the family during their season. The same is true of his blackberries and grapes.
A short distance from these well cared-for necessaries and luxuries of his farm is a moderate-sized and well cared-for orchard. I have no doubt he can, if he wishes, have some of the products of his orchard or garden, or both, upon his table every day of the year.
The gentleman who owns and controls this farm has never been president of any State dairymen’s association, nor has he ever been sent to Congress. But, gentlemen, he is one of the most thoroughly wide awake and enterprising, as well as one of the very best farmers that Wisconsin can boast of; and we have some good ones.
The question very naturally arises, Why is it that so many, not only of our common, but of our very best farmers, fail to have anything that can be called even a poor garden? It is not because they do not like its products.
Time and again have men who were good farmers, when looking over my grounds, said: “Well, it is too bad that I have not had a decent garden; but I am determined to have one after this, and will neglect it no longer.” I have no recollection of any farmer’s family among my acquaintances who would not enjoy its products. Perhaps the best reason, and often the only one, that can be given for so many almost entire failures in this respect is the want of time. It is a well-known fact that almost all of our farmers are short of the help they really need to keep their farms in good condition. Something is sure to be neglected, and, in three cases out of four, if not in nine out of ten, the poor garden is the first thing that is left to care for itself, which it generally does by growing a tremendous crop of weeds.
It is perfectly useless to attempt to have a respectable garden, unless arrangements are made in the spring for its planting and cultivation with the same care that arrangements are made for the care of the wheat, oats, corn, or potato crop, or the care of the dairy.
When these arrangements are made and faithfully carried into execution during the season, then shall we see good gardens upon our farms; and not only that, but, as a rule, they will be the best paying pieces of land upon the farm, not only in the comfort they give to the family, but in the profit as well.
I do not propose at this time to give you a treatise upon gardening. A few hints that may be of value to those who wish to make some improvement, is all that will be attempted.
In the first place, select, if you can have a choice, a piece of light, loamy soil, with a little sand, if you can get it. A heavy clay soil will raise as large a crop as the one above mentioned, but it is not as early, and is much more expensive and different to work. In laying out a garden on a farm take plenty of room, and arrange the goods in such a manner that the greatest possible amount of work can be performed with the horse.
The selection of seeds is to me the most annoying and perplexing job of the season. The circulars come pouring in, and are filled with the names of new varieties of this and that and the other, each better than any other of its kind, and so very desirable that you are apt to think that you must have a few of the seeds just to try them.
Of course, there is occasionally some improvement made in vegetables and plants but it is safe to say that in nineteen cases out of twenty the farmer or the amateur who invests in some new varieties of seeds or plants upon the recommendation of his circular, loses both money and time by the operation. If I should record my own experience in this line during the past twenty-five years, the result would show that I have drawn an occasional prize and a marvelous number of blanks, and some of them very annoying, as well as expensive ones.
I will give you a list of such seeds as have proven themselves to be about the best that I can find, after years of experience:
Asparagus—Conover’s Colossal.
Beets—Early Egyptian for first early; Early Blood Turnip for fall and winter.
Carrots—Early Scarlet-Horn.
Parsnips—Common Dutch Hollow-crown.
Ruta Bagas—American purple top, imp.
Turnips—Flat Dutch.
Bush Beans—German Dwarf Black Wax.
Pole do.—Lima.
Cucumbers—White Spine.
Cabbage—First Early Jersey Wakefield; Fall and Winter, Prem. Flat Dutch.
Celery—Golden Dwarf.
Muskmelons—Early White, Japan, and Hackensack.
Watermelons—Mountain Sweet.
Cauliflower—Early Dwarf, Eurfart.
Peas—Extra early Dan O’Rourke, American Wonder, Champion of England.
Summer Squash—Round Scallop, American Turban, Hubbard.
Lettuce—Curled Simpson and Boston Market.
Pepper—Large Bell and Butternosed.
Tomato—Trophy and Acme.
Sweet Corn—Early Minn., Crosby’s Early, Stowell’s Evergreen. These if planted at same time will give proper succession.
Radishes—French Breakfast, and Covent Garden.
When we come to the small fruits I will recommend as follows: Strawberries—Wilson’s Albany seedling for main crop. If a few very large ones are wanted try the No. 30, and the Sharpless. With me they are both worthless except for the purpose of producing a few very large berries. To lengthen out the season the Kentucky is the best of any that I know of. Downer’s Prolific is also a fair bearer, of excellent quality. I am constantly trying those of the new varieties that seem to me most likely to do well, but almost invariably lose both time and money. I have some twelve or fifteen varieties of these now on trial, but presume the result with nearly or quite all, will be the same as with hundreds of others I have had during the last twenty-five years, viz., after two or three years of trouble and expense plow them under for manure.
For raspberries, the Doolittle and the Mammoth Cluster have done nicely among the black-caps. The Gregg is also highly recommended by those who have tried it. I have not tried it a sufficient time to tell what it will do with me. The Philadelphia is a standard among the reds, and justly so. After two or three years’ trial I think very highly of the Cuthbert, although with me it is not as hardy as the Philadelphia. In fact, they all do better for being covered in winter.
Blackberries. For this portion of the State I know of nothing that I believe would give better satisfaction than Stone’s Hardy.
Among currants, the Red and White Dutch are still the standards.
The Concord grape is yet among grapes about what the Wilson is among strawberries—the standard for the million. The Worden, a seedling of the Concord, is very promising, and may yet prove to be a strong competitor in the race. The Delaware does splendidly in the Fox River Valley, but is not as reliable in all parts of the State as the above-named varieties.
I have tried to recommend nothing but what will do well with good fair cultivation upon any good soil. Yet you will often be annoyed in selecting seed, from the fact that the same seed is sent out by different seedsmen under different names. For instance, I have had early peas sent to me under different names and by different seedsmen and all planted on the same day, side by side, all cared for precisely alike, and all alike claiming to be remarkably early and prolific as well as excellent in quality, and yet every one of them precisely like the old extra early Dan O’Rourke that I used to grow, I do not know how many years ago.
The American Wonder is the only one of the new varieties that I have tried in many years that really seems to be an acquisition to our list. It is a dwarf about second early, and with me a good bearer, and of excellent quality. I mention this to show the farmer that as a rule it is better for him to rely upon the old standard list, until some grower with whom he is acquainted has fairly tested the new variety, and ascertained whether or not they are worthy of cultivation, and some good common sense are all that is needed to insure a good farmers garden. In twenty-five years I have failed but once to harvest at least a paying crop of strawberries, and most of the time they have been both large and profitable. During that time I have failed once to have a corn crop, and have a number of times failed to have a paying crop of potatoes; in fact, I have failed oftener with my potatoes than with any other of the long list of crops that I attempt to grow. Yet if I should say to the farmers of this audience that they did not know how to grow a crop of potatoes, they would consider themselves insulted, though I presume that not one of them has had complete success with them for any long series of years.
Peas and onions should be put in as early as the land is in good condition to work in the spring. If the ground freezes hard soon after they are sprouted it will not injure them. Parsnips, beets, carrots, radishes, turnips, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, and salsify will all bear a little frost after they come up, but not much.
Corn, beans, peppers, tomatoes, vines of all kinds, require a warm soil and will do their best in no other.
A place for the wife and children’s flowers should not be forgotten or neglected. Give them a place, furnish help to prepare and care for it, and do not complain about the little time and expense it takes, either. Probably you will neither eat nor sell the flowers, but they will pay you better than a few extra bushels of wheat would. We are apt to hear complaints at our conventions that the young men will persist in leaving their farm home and seeking a new one in some of the towns or cities. Well, when I am traveling in our own and in other States and see so many desolate, dreary places that are called farmhouses—no trees, no shrubbery, no fruit, no flowers, no garden, in fact, nothing but a shell of a house, and some land, and it is fair to suppose that it is about as cheerless inside the house as it is dreary outside of it, I often wonder how, or why, any bright, active, wide-awake young man can stay there one day after he is at liberty to leave.
Gentlemen, I know that there are many beautiful exceptions to the above described homes, and that they are yearly becoming more numerous. If the exceptions could become the universal rule, what a glorious Northwest we should have! Presidents of State agricultural societies would not have to warn their friends against attempting to get through the tangled mass of weeds called the garden. The man who has been to college would no longer fret because his vines could not grow. The President of the State Dairymen’s Association would no longer buy cabbage plants or cabbage. Neither would he be compelled to order out his team and mow his garden before his conscience would allow him to teach others how to farm.
Instead of these, should be homes beautiful, homes bright, homes happy—so happy that the young would be loath to leave and glad to return. As our Northwest is the grandest portion of our republic, so should our homes be the most beautiful, and the inmates thereof the most intelligent as well as the happiest and most contented citizens of our wide domain.
[Our Future Orchards.]
Granting our Apple Orchards on High lands, Ridges, and Slopes are Suffering, or Starving from Insufficient Moisture, What will be our best course with them?
Number Four.
In the first place, it may be well to enlarge a little on the subject of deficient moisture the average orchard is liable to on prairie and all other Western soils of a drift origin, where the strata lie nearly parallel to the plane of the earth’s surface. Here there are, therefore, few, if any, of those springs or fountains of water which often supply abundant moisture to land of considerable slope and elevation. If this difference in geological conditions is taken into account, it will explain why, in many sections, orchards often do quite remarkably well on hillsides and mountain slopes.
There is little or no resemblance between the apple tree and the orange tree, when both are botanically considered; but considered from the point of view as a source of fruit, the one is the best product of warm climates, and the other of cold ones; both being esteemed nearly universally. The orange being a very juicy, and at the same time, a fruit in which sweet and sour are equally blended, requires a moist soil and a large supply of water, in addition to a relatively high temperature. Accordingly, when grown in warm but dry climates, as in Spain and along the north shore of the Mediterranean, the ground bearing orange trees is uniformly copiously irrigated two or three times a month, during the warm season, and every two months in the winter. The orange-producing portion of Louisiana is mostly confined to the sixty or seventy square miles of cultivatable land along the Mississippi river banks, south of New Orleans. Here the soil is alluvial and sandy, the rainfall sixty or seventy inches per annum, and the state of the atmosphere so continuously humid, as to drape all arboreal vegetation with moss. Florida has the same rainfall, the same humid atmosphere, the same moss, with the advantage of a soil quite as sandy, in which, as constitutes elements, phosphoric acid and potash abound in far greater proportions than in the alluvial of the Mississippi. And it is probably due to this happy association of heat, humidity, a sandy soil, rich in the phosphates of lime and salts of potash, that Florida oranges really are, and are regarded the best in the world. But in spite of these advantages, and another, no less important—that by capillary attraction, through the sand—the orange roots have direct and easy access to water beneath; it is found that the trees do better if mulched to prevent evaporation during the cool months—they being the dry season, while the summer months are the wet. The Louisiana orange-growers go farther; they not only mulch liberally with rice straw every year, but in addition, every third or fourth year, from eight inches to a foot of the earth under the trees is removed and new earth put in its place.
From these statements we get some idea of the amount of water the orange tree demands in the soil, and the measure of moisture in the atmosphere, to supply evaporation from its large evergreen leaf surface and fill its fruit with juice. An apple tree is not an orange tree, to be sure, but when in leaf, and bearing a heavy crop of fruit, the farmer must necessarily make large drafts on the soil to meet the surface evaporation and supply the required juice to its fruit. Every tree in leaf is a pump, constantly drawing on the soil and drying it, and in all reasonable probability the drafts are in proportion to fruit and foliage. Has any body calculated the daily demand for moisture a twenty-five-year old Northern Spy, or Baldwin, carrying twenty or thirty bushels of apples makes on the soil beneath and around it during the hot and dry months of August and September? The quantity probably is largely in excess of the common estimate, and perhaps not half required by the orange—but it is so much it affords a sufficient reason why such trees grow faster, are healthier, and bear more and better fruit, on lands that are moist, than on lands that are dry.
But orchards on high lands, or on slopes, or on slopes and ridges, suffering for moisture, can not be removed to low lands, nor can they be irrigated, except at an enormous expense. What then can be done? In the first place, the annual rainfall can be held to the space it falls upon, under the tree, by the throwing up a furrow or ridge around it, as far out as the limbs extend, where the ground is level, and by a dam on the lower side, when the ground slopes. The latter could also be made to stay a portion of the rain falling on the higher ground above. Further: a general system of mulching ought to be adopted; not for the purpose alone of keeping the surface moist, but also for supplying food to the roots as the mulch decays. If the orchard is in grass, clover, or weeds, they should be mowed at least twice a year, the burden suffered to lie on the ground and rot, or be thrown under the trees. After pruning, the wood removed should either be left where it falls, or piled in heaps about the orchard and suffered to rot as in the “hammock” land orange groves of Florida, where the under brush and extra timber is rarely burned, but piled in heaps to rot away.
If it is desirable to bring barren trees into bearing, or to rescue them from decay and death those in an unhealthy state, measures of a more radical and expensive character must be taken, measures similar to those which have been practiced for centuries with the grape vine, with complete success. These measures consist either in removing the earth under the trees and putting new and fresh earth in its place, as practiced with orange trees in Louisiana, and on the coffee plantations in the tropics, or in digging a deep and wide ditch around the tree, inside the outer diameter of the branches, and refilling it with near half the earth removed and half such mineral fertilizers and amendments as tree leaves and refuse decaying vegetable matter of any sort for the other half.
But nothing more than a general outline of the course to be pursued can be indicated here; and nothing more is necessary for the intelligent amateur, fruit-grower, or orchardist, who feels the strength of the proof, and accepts the situation.
In these latter days most of the diseases which afflict humanity are believed to be attributable to improper nutrition and faulty hygiene, and are relieved or cured by a more or less radical change in food and habitat.
In the animal world, the truth appears in a still stronger light; while in the vegetable kingdom, nutrition counts for almost everything. Still, in the case of the peach yellows and pear blight, both appear, on first sight, to be distinct diseases, neither yielding to any remedy yet applied to them, and both being attended with the present fashionable bacteria, which are made responsible for many diseases and all epidemics. But has anybody yet made the experiment whether water supplied copiously to the spare and thin roots of the pear will or will not prevent the blight, or tried the same thing with the peach? We all know the gigantic and venerable pear trees of the Wabash and Kaskaskia country were planted on the sandy second bottoms of the rivers named, where in their early youth, if not in their mature age, water was always within easy reach of their roots; and we have seen the item in the agricultural papers telling how one experimenter at least, has saved his pear trees from blight by copious watering. The prairie and timber country both are drying out and losing soil moisture very much faster than we have any conception of. Situations where moisture in the soil was abundant enough for all crop purposes twenty-five years ago, suffered quickly after a brief drought now, and would be benefited by irrigation where it would have been injurious fifty years before. Beside, we have borrowed many of our ideas from the fruit-growing experiences of the East, and they from the cooler and moister countries of Europe. And in that way the amount of right teaching has been too attenuated, until it is in many respects practically worthless.
B. F. J.
[The Model Illinois Nursery.]
We have visited in our time very many nurseries both East and West. We have seen those East where the elaboration of landscape gardening was made to add effect to and set off the nursery stock grown. We have seen West hundreds of acres covered with stock in a single nursery. Yet we have never seen the perfection of details coupled with strict accuracy as to name in the varieties of stock grown, united to evenness and vigor in growth, nor a stricter method displayed in adaptation of varieties suited to the climate of the West, added to the most perfect cultivation and handling of stock, than at the premium nurseries of Spaulding & Co., near Springfield, Ill.
These nurseries, covering 375 acres originally, of first-class land, were thoroughly tile-drained, at heavy expense before anything was planted thereon, the land having been first cleaned and stumped of its timber. Thus, the groundwork having been laid for a great and model nursery, under the management of Mr. J. B. Spaulding, a well-known nurseryman of many years’ standing in Illinois, and whose practical experience from a critical standpoint is perhaps broader than that of any man in the West, it is not strange that whenever entered for premium before the State Board of Agriculture, such should have been unanimously awarded by the committee of examination. This, however, the records of the board will show.
In speaking of the artistic adornment of some old and extensive nurseries East, we find this difference: In the nurseries of Mr. J. B. Spaulding the useful is never lost sight of. Mere ornament is not what strikes the visitor, and yet the nursery is one beautiful picture in its varied and blending colors of fruit, flowers, and foliage; for the orchard and garden are by no means neglected—the visitor can find the fruits themselves, the crucial test. It is worth the journey to see.
The immense stock, the ample building, the splendid drives, the office connected with the Western Union Telegraph lines by telephone, and everything pertaining to the great nursery, is kept in the most perfect condition. Blight and borers are strangers to their 10,000 orchard trees of pear, peach, chestnut, and apples, all of varieties unexcelled, and adapted to the soil and climate of the West. The real gist of the whole, however, lies in the record of sales of this nursery for the fall delivery just closed, which amounts to nearly $120,000.
The most gratifying success has attended the efforts of this firm in growing stock. Of 150,000 buds set the past season, comprising cherries, pears, plums, and peaches, almost no rebudding has been required, and their stand is unexampled. It is not strange that the firm have the approval of the State Board of Agriculture and nurserymen of experience East and West, especially from the large nurseries proprietors of Western New York. All unite in saying Spaulding & Co.’s grounds, comprising upward of 375 acres, thoroughly tile-drained, for the growing of nursery stock, are unsurpassed. The 1,500,000 one, two, and three-year old apple trees, and 175,000 one, two, and three-year old cherry trees—the latter budded on Mahaleb roots, imported from France—together with their enormous stock of evergreens, pears, roses, shrubs, etc., are matchless in their perfection of growth, whether it be from an Eastern or Western standpoint.
In driving through the nursery we were shown a large block of American chestnuts, from five to eight feet high, and thence were driven to the chestnut orchard nearly all in bearing. The chestnut here seems fully as much at home as any other plant cultivated.
For the protection of their patrons against outside imposition, each of their nearly one hundred selected salesmen are accredited with a certificate of agency.
The long experience of this firm, being nearly thirty years in the business at Springfield, Ill.; the reputation they enjoy; the approval and indorsement they receive from the State—all commend this nursery to the favorable attention of those who have ground upon which to plant shrubbery or trees.
[The Basket Willow.]
A correspondent wishes some information about the basket willow. In Onondaga county, Central New York, this willow is cultivated and manufactured on a large scale and is, in fact, a leading industry. The cultivation is increasing very rapidly and is a great benefit to this and neighboring counties. The baskets made from this willow are better and cheaper than the splint basket, and raising the stock is found to pay much better than other farm crops, while the manufacture gives employment to hundreds of men, women, and children, who would otherwise have nothing to do during the winter.
These willows are grown on high land and on low land, on wet and dry land, and on very cheap land, and on land that is worth one thousand dollars per acre. The crop needs to be planted but once, and an average yearly crop can not be worth less than one hundred dollars per acre. As the timber suitable for baskets is getting scarce and dear, it is plain that the demand for willow will increase every year. In most parts of the country are Germans who understand working the willow, and it is a great benefit to them and to their neighbors to have this industry introduced. Not one farmer in a dozen has on his place as many baskets as he needs, for the reason that they are scarce and dear. This willow is the easiest thing in the world to raise, and yet we import from Europe $5,000,000 worth a year.
About two hundred tons of willow are manufactured every year in one little village in this State. One man in Syracuse told me he should send to New York this winter one hundred and forty tons of peeled willow, mostly of his own growing. In all the large cities more or less willow is manufactured every year, and the amount thus worked in the city of Milwaukee is very large. This industry is a benefit to the whole community and deserves to be encouraged, and the West especially should take a deep interest in extending it. The fact that it gives employment to poor during the winter, thus making comfort take the place of want, should exert a great influence in its favor. Here then is a means by which the farmer can put money in his pocket and help his poor neighbor at the same time. I have no interest in this matter as I do not raise, buy, or sell, but I do know it has been a great blessing to our State. There is one variety grown here that is much preferred to any other, but I can not find out the true name for it. Even the man that brought it here does not know its name.
In a future number I will give directions for planting, etc.
A. M. Williams
Long Island, N. Y.
SEEDS, Etc.
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SEEDS
ALBERT DICKINSON,
Dealer in Timothy, Clover, Flax, Hungarian, Millet, Red Top, Blue Grass, Lawn Grass, Orchard Grass, Bird Seeds, &c.
POP CORN.
| Warehouses { | 115, 117 & 119 Kinzie St. |
| 104, 106, 108 & 110 Michigan St. |
Office. 115 Kinzie St. CHICAGO, ILL.
PUBLISHERS’ NOTICE.
THE PRAIRIE FARMER is printed and published by The Prairie Farmer Publishing Company, every Saturday, at No. 150 Monroe Street.
Subscription, $2.00 per year, in advance, postage prepaid.
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Advertising, 25 cents per line on inside pages; 30 cents per line on last page—agate measure; 14 lines to the inch. No less charge than $2.00.
All Communications, Remittances, &c., should be addressed to The Prairie Farmer Publishing Company, Chicago, Ill.
Entered at the Chicago Post Office as Second-Class Matter.
CHICAGO, FEBRUARY 2, 1884.
WHEN SUBSCRIPTIONS EXPIRE.
We have several calls for an explanation of the figures following the name of subscribers as printed upon this paper each week. The first two figures indicate the volume, and the last figure or figures the number of the last paper of that volume for which the subscriber has paid: EXAMPLE: John Smith, 56-26. John has paid for THE PRAIRIE FARMER to the first of July of the present year, volume 56. Any subscriber can at once tell when his subscription expires by referring to volume and number as given on first page of the paper.
OUR PREMIUM LIST.
Revised, extended, and properly illustrated will this week be sent to every subscriber. There must be something offered in it that every one needs or would like to have. The terms are the most liberal ever offered. All readers are hereby constituted agents to solicit subscriptions to The Prairie Farmer. If those who can not enlist in the work will hand the Premium List to some person who will do so, they will confer a great favor upon the publishers and editors. What we all want is to double our present list before the first day of April.
RENEW! RENEW!!
Remember that every yearly subscriber, either new or renewing, sending us $2, receives a splendid new map of the United States and Canada—58×41 inches—FREE. Or, if preferred, one of the books offered in another column. It is not necessary to wait until a subscription expires before renewing.
WE WANT AGENTS
in every locality. We offer very liberal terms and good pay. Send for sample copies and terms to agents.
[Transcriber’s Note: Original location of Table of Contents.]