At any rate, the protracted cold and snow which takes all pasturage out of the account in carrying stock, is making very heavy drafts on hay, grain, and fodder of all kinds and it looks now as if the big hay crop of this section will be fed out before spring. As for corn, the most of which is soft and has no grade and no sale as a merchantable commodity, except for feeding where it grew—is being very lavishly fed to stock of all kinds, as the most profitable way to get rid of it. Accounts from Nebraska and Northwest Kansas report corn in very little better condition than in Central Illinois, and dealers who bought and cribbed it early in the season are reputed badly caught. * * * * * There is nothing new to report in respect to the condition of winter wheat. So long as snow covers the ground it is safe; and after, it will come through if the weather is warm, or cold and wet, and there is little freezing and thawing to thaw it out of the ground. It is thought by those who have given the subject some attention, that though the buds of fruit trees may be killed or badly damaged by the intense cold, and though the wood was not thoroughly ripened last year, the ground not being frozen and the earth being covered by snow at the time, the vitality of the trees will remain unimpaired. It is the experience of Vermont and Maine orchardists, that if snow falls before the ground freezes to any considerable depth, apple trees effectually resist any degree of cold. * * * * * The latest contribution of facts going to establish the new departure in respect to the location of orchards, comes from a farmer of Geauga county, Ohio. He writes to the Country Gentleman of a late date as follows: “There was little fruit the past season, and as in many former years, orchards on high lands bore only a few defective apples. Such orchards have not borne much for several years, while orchards on low lands, somewhat protected, have borne large crops of fair fruit. My orchards on low land, protected by evergreens, have brought me several hundred dollars a year for several years, while the orchards on high lands, a little west, have not borne enough for family use for some years.” Who will tell THE PRAIRIE FARMER about the many orchards of Livingston county, Ill., which produced, last year, very remarkable crops of fine apples—a fact which raised the value of land in that county several dollars per acre? B. F. J. AN ELOQUENT TRIBUTE.