rived.

In addition to the cereals and seeds (to the amount of $7,900), already purchased and paid for, orders to the amount of $8,000 have been sent to Europe for additional new and valuable varieties, which will be ready for distribution to the members of both Houses early in the new year. An order has also been forwarded to China for a fresh supply of pure sorghum seed, to meet a very general demand throughout the Western States, where the growth of sorghum sugar and syrup is attended with the most gratifying success.

I have the honor to be
Your very obedient servant,

ISAAC NEWTON, Commissioner.

Sorghum.

MR EDITOR:-Sorghum has really become one of the chief absorbing topics of the day, and many of the skeptics of a year ago who could not believe in the success of Sorghum as a profitable crop, are already upon the anxious seat, and looking with much faith towards another season in which to make a trial.

I have manufactured about one thousand gallons of syrup, during the past fall, for myself and others. The cane was drawn to my machinery and piled up, as you would pile cord wood, without shelter. Some of the cane was much injured by the hard frosts after the first of October, by lying thus exposed. Heavy frosts will injure cane even after it is harvested. All cane for manufacturing purposes should be well sheltered as soon as the first of October.

In this vicinity only about one half the quantity of cane was grown that would have been, had the seed been good. Many had the sorrowful experience of labor without its equivalent-a crop. But so it is, and so it has been. Having had a similar experience myself, I thought to guard against a second defeat from the same cause. Consequently I sent to Missouri for a quantity of seed, and it proved to be of an excellent quality. The cane was, as far as I can learn, some earlier than from the seed grown here. In the growing of sorghum one very important thing is to have good seed. My advice to all who intend to raise Many are those who talk of planting enough cane the coming season, is to know that the for home consumption, so as not to be depend-seed is good before it is planted. No one can ent upon any Confederacy for the little sweet be too particular in this respect. that they may wish to use. It is true that the past year was very favorable to the growing of cane, and many from this fact have been induced to make a thorough trial as soon as winter shall have passed. And this is not all; many have learned from the experience of others that this will undoubtedly be a paying crop, and this is a great incentive to trial; besides, at the present time each man feels something of the necessity of bringing within the means of his own production as much of what is necessary to his comfort as he can. All things combined have so changed the operation of mind that it gives us a great prospect for a larger crop of cane the coming season by five

There are many things to be said upon the subject of Sorghum raising, and its manufacture into syrup and sugar, also in relation to the machinery to be used; and on this account I am glad that we are to have a State Convention for the purpose of talking over these matters, and thus becoming more enlightened as to the manner and way of growing this crop successfully, as well as manufacture it advantageously. Further; I hope that those who are somewhat experienced in the raising of Sorghum and its manufacture will make the FARMER a medium through which to give their experience and suggestions. PALMYRA, Jan. 18, 1862,

O. P. D.

God Speed the Plow.

God speed the plowshare! tell me not
Disgrace attends the toil

Of those who plow the dark green sod,

Or till the fruitful soil.

Why should the honest plowman shrink
From mingling in the van
Of learning and of wisdom, since

'Tis mind that makes the man.

God speed the plowshare, and the hands
That till the fruitful earth,

For there is in this world so wide

No gem like honest worth.
And though the hands are dark with toil,
And flushed the manly brow.
It matters not. for God will bless
The labors of the plow.

-Mark Lane Express.

The "White Willow."

waves of Lake Michigan. and possibly fire itself shall not be able to prevail! This, indeed, is to be its chief glory.

Well, we heartily wish all these things might be true, and would, by no means, discourage the purpose of many of our farmers to give this remarkable member of the Salix family a trial. But is there any need of going crazy over it, and buying it by the mile of irresponsible peddlers, who may or may not furnish you with the genuine article, and who, in any event will most likely charge you two prices for what they sell.

If the argument of rapid growth-six or

The farmers of the Sucker State and, to a eight inches in diameter in four or five years! more limited extent, of other states also, have-be good for anything, then you can afford been greatly exercised of late in relation to to begin moderately, and afterwards, when satthe newly discovered and wonderful qualities isfied of its value, plant out cuttings by the of the so-called " White," "Grey," or "Pow-mile from your own young trees. der" Willow, as it is variously called.

Some farmers in this vicinity have paid $40 per mile, when they could have got them just as well for $25.

Personally, we have no acquaintance with this new wonder, but are a little inclined to think it rather possible that its friends claim too much for it, when they represent that it is good for every conceivable and inconceivable use. If we are to believe all that is said, and just a little more, it will make, in a very few years, a tree compared with which the Cedar of Lebanon is but as a Dogwood sapling under the shadow of the giant Pines of California; the wood will be splendid for fuel, for building timber, for lumber, for shingles, for gunpow-preamble and resolution: der and paper; the juice will yield most excellent sugar, brandy, lamp-oil and turpentine; the bark will make corn-baskets, sap-troughs, clapboards, canoes and babies' cradles; the buds are to yield invaluable gums, balsams, resins and a capital substitute for Spaulding's glue; and the leaves shall be for the healing of the nations! Every part is, in and of itself, exclusively a "big thing,"-except the roots, and they can probably be coaxed to all grow of a shape suitable for sled-runners and ship

But, says one, the Illinois State Horticultural Society have investigated the qualities of this Willow and pronounced it a grand thing. Gently, neighbor. Let us see. In the Journal of the Illinois State Agricultural Society, Dec. No., page 30, we find the following:

THE GRAY OR POWDER WILLOW.-The Illi

nois State Horticultural Society, at the September meeting in Chicago, after a pretty full discussion of the subject, passed the following

knees!

Nor is this enough: It will, if the slips are planted near to each other, in a short time produce a live fence, or, more properly a living wall, against which the storms of heaven, the

Whereas, The impression seems to have gone out that this Society, in endorsing the Gray or Powder Willow, recommended it for a live fence,

Resolved, That in investigating the merits of this Willow, this Society never intended to recommend it for live fence, nor does it now.

This doesn't look to us as though the truth of its value for the purposes for which some of

our farmers are buying it at wholesale, were yet fully established; and accordingly, we say, Farmers, don't get unduly excited. Keep

cool!

The two great prerequisites to success in any calling are industry and a definite purpose in view. Industry alone is not enough. Many a man who is as industrious as his neighbor does not succeed half so well, simply because he works hap-hazard.

66

THE AMERICAN HARVESTER AS A SELF

RAKER.

This is a fast age, and the sons of sires who reaped with the sickle and at night bound up, after themselves, are not content to merely cut down and rake off with the hand into gavels, an amount of grain to harvest which fifteen men of the olden time might have bent their backs and grunted in vain. They must have machinery which will do its own raking.

Accordingly numerous devices have been contrived for adding this important work to the already great accomplishments of the Reaping Machine. Perhaps none of these have, as yet, given perfect satisfaction, but a number of them have been found to answer a good purpose, and are highly esteemed by those who use them.

think we have now found one which answers our expectations, and we shall be prepared to furnish it the coming season to such purchasers of the Kirby as may desire it. The above cut represents the Kirby machine with the selfraker attached. This raker has been tested on several machines during the past harvest, and It is very has given universal satisfaction. It delivers the simple, strong and efficient. gavels at the side of the machine, out of its way on the next round. The driver controls the size of the gavels without any alteration of the machinery for light or heavy grain. The machine is not injured or altered as a hand-raker, and in case of any accident to the self-raker, it is not necessary to stop work until it can be repaired, as is the case with all other self-rakers, but it may be detached by taking out three bolts, and the work go on with a hand rake, which is furnished with every machine. We consider this a very essential feature in a self-raker, for all machines are liable to accident, and there are some cases in which no self-raker can work well, and in such "There are many difficulties to be overcome cases it is almost indispensable to be able to in making a successful self-raker, and it will, detach the raker and substitute a hand rake. perhaps, be impossible to produce one that will While we have no desire to urge our self-raking do good work in all places. We have for the attachment upon any purchaser of the Kirby, past three years been experimenting and ex- we feel that we can recommend it as the best amining rakes, with a view of attaching one one that has yet been devised, and we are wilto the Kirby as soon as we could find one ling to allow every purchaser a fair trial of which we could confidently recommend. We the rake before he decides to keep it."

In relation to the rake adopted by the proprietors of the Kirby Reaper, we know but little from personal observation, and, therefore, allow them to speak of it in their own terms, which are at once modest and sensible.