Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1893-05-18
Hurrayville, Illinois.

about one-fourth of the usual crop OF
wheat, A few fields look well; but
most OF it is being plowed up, and much
of what is left will be more weeds and
wet in the fore part of the growing
season and clover caught better
than common; but much of it has
frozen out, and will have to be plowed
up where no timothy was sown with it.
Fruit will not be plentiful, as storm
and drouth last year prevented the
formation of fruit buds on the apple,
and this spring but few blossoms ap-
pear.
The canes of small fruit seemed to
have been injured also, and the only
fruit promising we'll, is the grape.
Few people have grapes set out; and
fewer still know how, or have the
patience, to dress and cultivate vines;
so that one of the most healthful and
delicious as well as the surest of our
fruits, is hard to get and dear on the
market. Grapes carried to market
here, are generally picked when half
ripe and unfit to eat. Last year your
writer tried the experiment of putting
one-pound paper sack over the bunch
es, when the berry was about the size
of buckshot, and had some of the finest
and most delicious grapes he ever grew.
If sacked in time they are not only free
from rot, but the birds do not pick and
spoil them. Bees are charged with de-
stroying grapes, but the skin of the
grapes must be broken by something
else, before the bee can work on them;
bee cannot do it. Here in Illinois, as
in Belleview, have always kept bees
near or among my grapes, and have
yet to see the first berry injured by a
honey bee. But we have two or three
species of birds that are very destruct-
i've in the vineyard, and we have so
many boys, and improved guns are SO
cheap, that the whole bird tribe is dis
appearing, except the English sparrow,
and that multiplies, though we had
mountain of legislature bring forth a
mouse of statute to secure its de-
struction. These sparrOws are OF two
kinds, the tile sparrow, that we could
very we'll spare, and the field sparrow,
which is regular bug-eater. The
former nests about buildings; the latter
will fill the side OF straw or hay stack
with nests. BY this time these little
immigrants must have reached your
mountains.
Last spring was SO particularly dis
heartening to farmers, as nearly the
whole month of May was so rainy that
no work could be done on the land
After the crops were. finally gotten in,
it became so drouthy, crops grew slow
corn from ripening. so that the frost
caught much of it green. 1t has been
SO wet through April this spring, that
little could be done; and for two weeks
everything has been at standstill.
Fields are covered with water; branch
es and gullies have washed out worse
than ever known before. Bridges are
gone and road-oficers are in a quanda-
ry, or, to express it more emph atically,
al, fhn md fho
deep sea-"
Stock still has to be fed, and the
country is over-run with horses. They
are not worth raising here now. Cat
tie have gone up from p to 81 cents,
for local butcher, and hogs and sheep
are fair. This springs pig crop how
ever will not pan out heavy, as the
tpigs die SO; and many sows have been
lost also, though the reason is unknown.
Potatatoes are rotting in the ground.
Last week the temperature averaged
but x46 and this week x49.
In some localities, on the 28th, hail
hammered off what few fruit buds
there were, and destroyed what little
garden truck was trying to grow. For
| two weeks, there has been hardly two
hours of sunshine, and every crop has
been injured but the mortgage CROP
that's blooming. Choke of your
..Puker weather prophet, Hicks. and
send US few sunbeams. This is dull
living. FARMER.
April 29th, 1898.