About the middle of September, the corn-fields are again entered to gather the "blades"-the leaves-which are stripped from the stalks below the ears, properly dried, bound in bundles, and saved for fodder. This is the common, rough food, in addition to corn, given to horses, calves, etc. The stalks are sometimes topped and saved.

Corn is frequently planted late in June, and even the first week in July, and cut up before frost for winter food for cattle; and it furnishes a cheap and nutritious diet for stock. The husks are appropriated to a similar purpose.

In breaking up prairie after the grass starts in the spring, which is the best time to subdue the tough sward, corn is sometimes dropped in every fourth furrow, or planted in the newly turned up soil, by striking an axe into the sod and dropping the grain, where it is left to grow spontaneously. Sometimes large quantities of fodder are thus obtained.

Hemp is an indigenous plant in the southern part of this State, as it is in Missouri, It has not been extensively cultivated, but whenever tried is found very productive, and of an excellent quality. It might be made a staple of the country.

Tobacco, though a filthy and noxious weed which no human being ought ever to use, can be produced in any quantity, and of the first quality, in Illinois.

From the county of Wayne a good many hogsheads have been annually exported, for some years past, and the result of the experiment has been altogether satisfactory. It has been raised to some extent throughout the southern counties. A few hogsheads, which were sent from Randolph county to New Orleans, some years since, was pronounced by the inspector to be the best ever brought to that market. We could not adduce a stronger proof than this in favor of our soil and climate. The tobacco plant, although coarse in its appearance, is one of the most delicate in the vegetable kingdom. It thrives only in a rich, light and warm soil. It requires to be planted early in the spring, and gathered late in autumn.

Cotton, for many years, has been successfully cultivated in this State for domestic use, and some for exportation. Two or three spinning factories are in operation, and produce cotton yarn from the growth of the country with promising success. Flax is produced, and of a tolerable quality, but not equal to that of the northern States. It is said to be productive and good in the northern counties.

Barley is raised in St. Clair county for the St. Louis breweries. It yields well, is a sure crop, and sells in St. Louis from thirty-seven and a half to fifty cents per bushel.

The Palma Christi, or castor oil bean, is produced in considerable quantities in Madison, Randolph and other counties, and large quantities of oil are expressed and sent abroad. About twelve thousand gallons will be made in Edwardsville the present season. The bean is a more profitable crop to the farmer than corn, finds a ready market, and sells from seventy-five cents to one dollar per bushel.

Sweet potatoes are a delicious root and yield abundantly, especially on the American bottom, and rich, sandy prairies.

But little has been done to introduce cultivated grasses. The prairie grass looks coarse and unsavory, and yet our horses and cattle will leave the best timothy for it. It is already known to the reader that this grass disappears when the settlements extend round a prairie, and the cattle eat off the young growth in the spring. Consequently, in a few years the natural grass no longer exists. This, however, can be preserved by fencing in a tract of fresh prairie and mowing it regularly every season, or burning it over in the fall. In this way excellent meadows can be kept forever.

It is thought by some that the seed might be gathered in the fall, sown on land that had been kept free from weeds, and by these means meadows of the natural grass of the country might be formed.

Timothy grass begins to be cultivated with success. For the first three or four years of my residence in this country, it was doubtful whether clover, timothy or any other cultivated grasses could be made profitable for meadows in this rich soil and dry climate. I observed that, in attempts to make meadows, the weeds soon overrun the grass. But this notion was entirely incorrect. To produce timothy with success, the ground must be well cultivated in the summer, either by an early crop or by fallowing, and the seed sown about the 20th of September at the rate of ten or twelve quarts of clean seed to the acre, and lightly brushed in. If the season is in any way favorable, it will get a rapid start before winter. By the last week in June, it will produce from a ton and a half to two tons per acre of the finest of hay. It then requires an annual dressing of stable manure, and occasionally the turf may be scratched with a harrow, to prevent the roots from binding too hard. By this process timothy meadows may be made and preserved. There are meadows in St. Clair county which have yielded heavy crops of hay in succession for seven years, and bid fair to continue for an indefinite period.

Cattle, and especially horses, should never be permitted to run in meadows in Illinois. The fall grass may be cropped down by calves and colts. There is but little more labor required to produce a crop of timothy than a crop of oats and as there is not a stone or a pebble to interrupt, the soil may be turned up every third or fourth year for corn, and afterwards laid down to grass again.

A species of blue grass is cultivated by some farmers for pastures. If well set and not eaten down in summer, blue grass pastures may be kept fresh and green till late in autumn or even in the winter. The English spire grass has been cultivated with success in the Wabash country.

Of the trefoil or clover, there is but little cultivated. A prejudice exists against it, as it is imagined to injure horses by affecting the glands of the mouth and causing them to slaver. It grows luxuriantly, and may be cut for hay early in June. The white clover comes in naturally where the ground has been cultivated and thrown by, or along the sides of old roads and paths.

The following outline of Gallatin saline and works has been politely furnished by Gen. Leonard White, clerk of the county:

There are nine furnaces containing on an average, sixty kettles each, holding from thirty-six to sixty gallons, and which make upwards of three thousand bushels per week, averaging about 130,000 bushels per annum, after deducting lost time. The works are carried on by Messrs. B. White, J. Davis, John Crenshaw, W. Weed and C. Guard. Salt sells at the works from thirty-seven and a half to fifty cents per bushel. A bushel of salt is fifty pounds. About one-half of the salt manufactured here is exchanged for corn, corn meal, flour, beef, pork, potatoes, onions and every article that can be raised in the country. The usual rates of exchange are two bushels of corn for one of salt, one and a half bushels of corn meal for one of salt. Four bushels of salt are given for one hundred pounds of beef, six bushels for one hundred pounds of pork, four bushels for one hundred pounds of flour, and the same in proportion for other articles of produce. Thus the farmers are supplied with salt at a cheap rate, and find a market for all their products at home.

As to the salt works at this place (Brownsville), there is one furnace with fiftyfive kettles, that boil thirty-five gallons each, and which make one hundred bushels

of salt per week. In the present situation of the works, it takes three hundred gallons of water to make one bushel of salt. This is owing to the well being tubed, and the fresh water not being excluded, which will be effected during the present year. The well is two hundred and three feet deep, and the fountain is so strong that it gushes six feet above the surface of the ground, and in quantity sufficient to run five furnaces. Salt water can be had in many places in this county, and it is my opinion that much better water can be had by boring deeper, than in any other part of the State.

Mr. William H. Nielson has commenced boring for salt water one mile below Brownsville, on the banks of the Big Muddy river, and has gotten down one hundred and thirty-seven feet, at which distance he has plenty of water, fully as strong as mine. He intends boring three hundred feet deep, unless he gets water sufficiently strong at a less distance. He will erect this summer two furnaces of the following description: Two pans of twenty feet in length and five feet in width, which will hold about twelve hundred gallons of water, and thirty kettles in each furnace of sixty gallons, all of which, together with copper tubes for the well, and sundry other articles necessary for the furnaces have arrived at the place. The salt made here is superior to that made at the Ohio saline, near Shawneetown, and I have no doubt there will be large quantities made in a few years. Mr. Nielson has opened a very extensive coal bank about four miles above Brownsville. The mine is inexhaustible, as far as the experiment has been tried, and the coal equal to that at Pittsburg in quality.

He is preparing to send off ten boats loaded with coal this season, and contemplates sending sixty boats next season. Mr. Nielson's coal bank is immediately in the banks of the Big Muddy river, and is so convenient that the coal can be thrown from the bank into the boats. There are a number of beds of coal in this county, and equally good.

Castor oil. Considerable quantities of this article are manufactured in Illinois. There is one castor oil press in Edwards county, three in Randolph county, and two at Edwardsville, in Madison county.

The manufacture of this article at Edwardsville was commenced by Mr. John Adams, in 1825; in which season he made five hundred gallons, which sold at the rate of $2 50 per gallon. In 1826, he made eight hundred gallons, at the price of $1 50; in 1827, one thousand gallons, at $1 25; in 1828, eighteen hundred gallons, which sold for $1 00; in 1829, he made five hundred and twenty-eight gallons, at the price of $1 12; in 1830, two presses were started and made ten thousand gallons, from 75 to 87 cents per gallon. The present season he will make about twelve thousand five hundred gallons, and the wholesale price is about seventy-five cents.

One bushel of the castor bean or palma christi will yield about seven quarts and a half pint of oil.

The beans are cleaned and well dried or heated in a furnace, put in a cylinder, and the screw, which is an immense one of wood, forces down a follower with great power. The screw is turned by a horse and a large lever, precisely similar to that of a cider mill, in New England called a nut mill.

Beans are purchased from the farmers for seventy-five cents per bushel.