J c: ccccc cc,xc-^cc ~ czcccc cc CC' '«3e:jc <- ^'.< cc^ <«c ®. ^ (c^ ( «^ C C' ^7 ^CV:C C'< c cc • $1,210 1,094 88 19 • $2,305 07 15 Now, Sir, if one under such circumstances, with but little more than a theoretical knowledge of farming, has succeeded even thus well, hav- ing hired all the labor, and mostly at very high prices, how much larger profits might have been realized by a skilful and practical farmer de- voting his whole time and attention to his appropriate occupation? How much more successful thousands of farmers and farmers' sons on our Eastern seaboard, and in our Eastern States might be, were they, or could they, be induced to move on, and apply their skill, industry and economy in the cultivation of the rich and productive prairies of lUinois. Let them come, by thousands and tens of thousands — there is room enough — and examine the country. They will find rich lands and good water, and general health, almost everywhere. This is not a wilder- ness. They will find schools and churches springing up in almost every settlement made, and now being made, throughout the State. Illinois is not a moral desolation. It literally and spiritually " blossoms as the rose." Let them come to Chicago, and go to Galena, and visit Cairo. But let them not remain at either place, unless they choose. The Illinois Central Rail-Road and its branches traverse the finest por- tions of the globe. Let them glide through our State on these and other roads, now checkering almost the entire of this " garden of the Lord," and stop where they will, to " examine the land, of what sort it is," and they will no longer consent to digamong the rocks, and plough the sterile lands of their forefathers. But they will long bless the day when they found for themselves and their children such comfortable homes as they still may obtain, in this rich and beautiful prairie State, destined soon to compare with, nay, to surpass, in all the most desirable respects, the most prosperous State in the Union. I will now give you a concise history of the operations of Mr. Funk. Both before and since his marriage, he had made rails for his neighbors at twenty-five cents per 100. But when the lands where he lived came into market, 25 years ago, he had saved of his five years' earnings, $1,400, and says, if he had invested it all in lands he would now have been rich. With ^200 he bought his first quarter section, and loaned to his neighbors $800, to buy their homes ; and with the remaining 8400 he purchased a lot of cattle. With this beginning, Mr. Funk now owns 7,000 acres of land, has near 2,700 in cultivation, and his last year's sale of cattle and hogs, at the Chicago market, amounted to a little over $44,000. Mr. Isaac Funk, of Funk's Grove, nine miles distant from his brother Jesse, and ten miles northwest from Bloomington on the Mis- 16 sissippi and Chicago Rail-Road, began the world in Illinois at the same time, having a little the advantage of Jesse, so far as having a little bor- rowed capital. He now owns about 27,000 acres of land, has about 4,000 acres in cultivation, and his last sales of cattle at Chicago amounted to f 65,000. These families have enjoyed almost uninterrupted health. Mr. Isaac Funk has had 10 children, and Mr. Jesse Funk 8. In the family of Isaac, one died of fever ; and in that of Jesse, one by an accidental fall from a wagon. Yours, truly, JOHN S. BARGER. EXTRACT FROM A LETTER OF B. G. ROOT. "Fencing is the hardest work which a new settler here has to per- form. Good white oak rails, laid up in fence, where it is required, are worth from $2 to $3 per hundred. To lessen the cost of fencing, it is very desirable for several friends to settle together, so that the land at first may be enclosed in one common field. 4,704 rails will fence 20 acres ; 6,'720 will fence 40 acres; 13,440 rails will fence 160 acres; 28,880 rails will fence one section, or 640 acres. " The spring following that which the prairie sod is broken up, a Mac- lura hedge should be set out around the portion chosen by each indi- vidual. Many of ray neighbors make their own hedges, but as a man can always dispose of his labor to advantage here, I believe it cheaper to buy it than to make it. Hedging has become a trade, to which a class of men devote themselves. They furnish the plants, set them in the ground, and cultivate them for four years, at 15 cents per rod a year, making the whole cost of hedge 60 cents per rod. At the expira- tion of four years, when the last payment upon the hedge is due, it is a perfect barrier against bulls, pigs and all other animals. The rails of which the outside fence was made are then sold to somebody else, or used to make interior fences. They will last for twenty years, and I know not how much longer. Sixteen years ago, I purchased an old im- provement. Most of the rails with which it was ench.sed aie still good. "New prairie is broken to advantage from the 15th of April to the 10th of July, but I prefer to have it broken from the 10th of May to the 10th of June. That which is broken previous to the 10th of June, I 17 plant in corn, which yields from 20 to 45 bushels per acre. As it receives no cultivation after it is planted, it is more affected by good or bad seasons than crops which are cultivated. That which is broken up after the 10th of June is sown with wheat in September, and always yields well. Corn which is planted before the 20th of May is often cut up and wheat sown on the same ground in September or October ; but wheat which is sown so late is sure not to produce as well as that sown early. Oats do not do very well upon prairie, until the ground has been cultivated two or three years ; but the year following that on which it is first broken up, it is in excellent condition to produce wheat, barley, corn, flax-seed, castor beans,, and every kind of garden vegetable which is raised in New England, and excellent sweet potatoes in abundance. "With a good plough and two pairs of good horses, one man can break up one and a half acres per day, of the new prairie. Two good yoke of cattle will break up nearly the same quantity of ground, but in this case a boy is required to drive them. Three good yoke of cattle will break two acres per day. Previous to 1853, the customary price for breaking prairie was from $1 50 to $2 per acre; but in 1853 the common price was $2 50 per acre ; and, as the demand for labor always exceeds the supply, I think it will not be less than this sum for several years to come. " Common farm hands receive from $110 to $130 per annum, and their board. I employ a good practical working farmer, who takes charge of every thing pertaining to the farm. I furnish him house, garden and fruit trees, free of rent, and pay him $250 per annum. He, with the aid of a boy twelve years of age, five breeding mares and $10 worth of occasional aid, attends to forty acres in corn, ten in wheat, ten in oats, six in flax, (cultivated only for the seed,) ten in meadow of old ground, and breaks up and plants in sod corn twenty acres of new prairie. We commence planting corn from the 1st to the 20th of April, and finish from the 1st to the 10th of June. I once raised an excellent crop planted on the 23d of June. I cut up my corn stalks near the ground, before the frost comes, and shock it up. We pull the ears from that which is to be fed to dry cows and steers, who do well on the fodder and such nubbins as are left upon it. If we wish to fatten cattle in the winter, we give them the fodder with the ears all remaining on it. "At the stations on the rail-road we can sell every thing we can spare at nearly Chicago or New Orleans prices, less the cost of transportation. I believe the charge from here to Chicago is 24 cents per bushel. " We raise what is here called sugar-corn, to eat green. We have it fit 2 18 for cooking from the 20th of June till October. We raise two crops of this and one crop of turnips on the same ground in one season. We receive, in excellent condition, fresh fish from the lake, via Chicago, and tropical fruits via New Orleans and Cairo. The facility with which we dispose of whatever we have to sell, and procure whatever we wish to purchase, the mildness of the climate and the fertility of the soil, render this a most desirable residence. If you will once visit us, you will abandon all idea of settling in Iowa. You will learn all you wish to know respecting the terms upon which land can be procured, from the pamphlet which I send you. After your farm is once fenced, you will have very little use for timber land. Coal here is rapidly taking the place of wood, as fuel. If wood were furnished free at my door, in logs of ten feet, I could not aflPord to burn it. I buy coal at such a rate, that it is cheaper to burn it than to prepare wood for stoves and fire- places. Coal is so abundant that all southern Illinois will always be supplied at a low rate. " Numerous saw-mills are being erected in the timber along the rail- road, south of Big Muddy River. Some are completed, and lumber yards are established at almost every station, where the pine of the North meets the poplar, cypress, black walnut, sycamore, maple and oak, from the South. There are saw-mills in the smaller portions of timber which occur at short intervals in this part of the State, but they are fully occu- pied in supplying the demand in their immediate vicinity. "I planted an orchard of apple and peach trees in 1843. The peach trees commenced bearing in 1845, and the apple in 1847 ; and, although the yield is not uniform in amount, we have enough excellent fruit every year. My cherries, currants, gooseberries and grapes have received very little attention, but they yield abundantly. Clover is a difiicult crop to start, well, but when once well set, it thrives. Timothy, red orchard grass and blue grass, set easily after the prairie has been culti- vated, and yield well. The greatest difiiculty here is the want of labor. It is so easy to become the owner of land, that almost every man who is worth hiring, becomes the owner of a farm within a few years, and wants to hire laborers himself. " Very respectfully, «B. G. ROOT." I 19 LETTER FROM A. J. GALLOWAY. FABM IN THE VICINITY OF THE COMPANY'S LANDS. EwiNGTON, EfEngham Co., Illinois, "i February 12,1855, \ Charles M. Du Put, Esq., Land Agent Illinois Central Rail-Road : Dear Sir, — My residence in Illinois began in April, ISST. During the first four years I resided in WabasLi County, after -vvhicli I removed to the northern part of the State, and in 1842, purchased some lands in La Salle County. From that until the present time, I have been making, cultivating and extending my farm. The subsoil of the prairie land througliout the State, with a few exceptions, is a compact clay, through which water settles but slowly, thus securing great durability to the natural soil, as well as efiectually preventing the escape of artificial manures, by the process of leeching. Upon very level prairie, this characteristic causes the land to be too wet for the profitable cultivation of the several kinds of grain, without some special preparation ; this, however, may be almost universally overcome by manuring, and deep and thorough ploughing ; deep ploughing alone will prove effectual in a large majority of instances. South of the parallel of forty-one degrees north latitude, the staple production is, and must continue to be, Indian corn or maize, though almost all grain and vegetables, groAvn in a temperate climate, may be profitably cultivated, and should not be neglected. During my residence upon my farm in La Salle County, (fur average crop of corn, say on a field of eighty acres, did not vary much from fifty bushels per acre. Winter wheat, (for I think spring wheat a nuisance,) upon a field of thirty acres, varied in different years from nineteen to twenty-three bushels per acre, harvested with McCormick's Reaper, and threshed and separated by machines built at Alton, Illinois. Oats varied from forty to sixty bushels per acre, and in one instance, upon a small lot of four acres, I obtained almost one hundred bushels per acre. My estimate for the cost of production and preparation for market, previous to 1850, after allowing thirty-three per cent, of the crop for the use of the land, was forty cents per bushel for wheat, and about fifteen cents per bushel for corn and oats. I could usually obtain good farm hands (men) at one hundred to one hundred and twenty dollars per year, with board and lodging furnished. The many difficulties with which a single hand upon a farm has to 20 contend, render it hard to say what one man, with a pair of horses, can cultivate properly — certainly not to exceed forty acres ; whereas, two men, with four horses, could readily manage a hundred acres, and three men, with about five horses, one hundred and sixty acres, in addition to the usual amount of land devoted to meadow and grasses. In reply to your ninth interrogatory, I would say that south of the parallel I have mentioned, nearly one-half of the whole farm devoted to grain and vegetables, should be planted in corn, and three-fourths of the remainder in wheat and oats, in about equal quantities. The cultivation of barley, rye, potatoes, &c., should be governed by the character of the farm, its position in relation to markets, and somewhat by the tastes, education and habits of the farmer. In La Salle County, where wood land is not so plenty as it is in this region, a good common rail fence would cost about seventy-five cents per rod, but I have contracted for a number of miles of such fence, eight rails high, staked and riddered, with a sound block under each corner, to be built in this and some other counties for the Illinois Central Rail-Road, at the rate of fifty cents per rod. I have tried different methods of turning up or breaking prairie sod, and am fully satisfied that where the prairie is clear, that is, destitute of hazel bushes or other woody growth, a man who understands the busi- ness, with a good pair of horses and a plough properly constructed, such as was manufactured a few years since in Indian Town, Bureau County, can do the work better and cheaper than in any other way that has ever come under my observation. One acre and a half per day is a fair average fof such a team. Prairie should alwaj-s be broken between the 10th of May and the 20th of June, in the latitude of La Salle County. In this county the work should be completed as early as the 10th of June. For persons wishing to make a settlement in Illinois, I should advise about the same course for almost any part of the State with which I am acquainted. The first thing such person should do is to make a personal examination of the country, and select a location. Then if he should have the means to spare, and could purchase forty or eighty acres of good prairie land, not more than five miles from where materials for building, fencing and fuel can be obtained, at reasonable rates, and get a long credit upon three-fourths of the purchase money, I should advise him to secure it at once. He should then procure a good pair of horses and wagon, a cow, a few pigs, and some poultry, and two good ploughs, one for breaking prairie and 21 the other for cultivating land already subdued. Thus provided, it would be well if he could rent a small tenement with a few acres of improved land near his own, for a year or two, until he could get his farm under way. But if no such tenement could be obtained, ho should at once build a cheap house upon his own land, and push forward his improvements. Prairie sod broken in the manner and at the time heretofore stated, will be sufficiently rotten to cross plough as early as the tenth of August. This cross ploughing should not be neglected, and in the north of the State wheat should be sown broad-cast, and harrowed both ways, or drilled in by a proper machine, about the first of September. Wheat sown upon such land in this manner, rarely fails to produce an excellent crop. The next two years after the wheat is taken off the ground, two good crops of corn may be produced, with comparatively little labor. Oats is per- haps the proper grain for the fourth crop ; and by that time, if the new settler be a man of reasonably perceptive powers, he will have made himself sufficiently well acquainted with the soil, climate, rotation of crops, etc., to manage his farm to good advantage. Much may be learned from the many agricultural periodicals with which our country abounds, and no farmer should be without one or more of these valuable aids. But, to succeed well, he must thoroughly investigate the local pecuHari- ties of his own neighborhood, and especially those of his own farm. There is a general and growing disposition throughout the State to educate ; and in a very few years all the educational facilities which exist in the Eastern States will be at the command of the citizens of Illinois. There is little disease at any time in the State, which may not be traced, directly or indirectly, to derangement in the biliary organs, and much of this should, no doubt, be attributed to the free use of heavy bread, strong coflfee, and a large amount of animal food, to the partial or total exclusion of vegetable diet. I think I am free from prejudice wben I say that, ex- cept in the valleys of tbe larger streams, but more especially upon the high rolling prairies of middle and northern Illinois, a more healthy country is not to be found, even in the mountainous districts of the older States. In these hasty lines I have endeavored to answer some of your inter- rogatories as categorically as their nature would permit,without attempting to sustain my opinions by argument. If they should prove of the least service to you or others, I shall be more than compensated for the very little time and attention which I have felt at liberty to bestow upon them. Respectfully, Your ob't serv't, A. J. GALLOWAY. 22 LETTER FROM C. G. TAYLOR }E, Rock February 8th, 1855. Plkasakt Ridge, Rock Island Co., HI, ) Charles M. Du Put, Esq. : Dear Sir, — I was raised in Jefferson County, N. Y,, in and among the log cabins, stumps, rocks and snow banks. My father was a farmer. I know full well what it costs to farm in Northern New- York, from the felling of the first tree, to the farm under good cultivation. I moved to this State in the spring of 1844, and have been engaged in farming most of the time since. The soil of Illinois is a dark, rich mould, varying fi-om two to six feet in depth, of clay bottom. There is but little sandy soil in this part of the State. About one-tenth is covered with timber, and that usually on the borders of our rivers and small streams. Tim- ber land is held at from $10 to $50 per acre, according to location and quality. Our water is usually hard. There are not many springs, owing to the lowness of the land, but water is easily obtained by digging, and usually found in abundance, at the depth of from ten to twenty-five feet. There is, in general, a great supply of water for cattle, in our ravines and sloughs. Stone and brick for cellars are scarce on our prairies, but cement, plastered on a mud wall, answers very well, and makes a neat and dry cellar. Fencing materials are also scarce. Pine lumber and oak posts are now mostly used by the new settlers. This kind of fence can be put up at about 80 to 90 cents per rod ; depending, however, somewhat on the distance it has to be hauled. Materials for building are procured in rafts on our rivers, or at Chicago, and taken by team or rail-road, to any part of the State. The breaking of prairie is mostly done in May and June, and gener- ally with ox-teams of four or six yoke, — the plough cutting a furrow from sixteen to twenty-two inches wide and about three inches deep. Of late, however, so many improvements have been made in the form and draught of ploughs, that much of our vast prairie lands can easily be broken with one pair of horses, which can plough from one and a quarter to one and a half acres per day, which is preferable to that done with a large plough* This every farmer can do with his own team, and cheaper than to hire and pay $2 50 per acre. I broke fifteen acres last summer, at the rate of one and a half acres per day, with a pair of mares, each having colts, and did it to perfection. The ploughs are made at Moline, in this county, 23 at the rate of one hundred and fifty per week, by J. Drew. They are made of the best German steel for $10. A rolling coulter is better. These ploughs are scattered, by rail-roads, all over the State. Sod corn, if planted in the month of May, and the weather is not too warm, will yield, per acre, from twenty to forty bushels. The planting is done by sticking an ax or a spade between the layers of sod, and, after dropping the corn, apply the heel of the hoot freely. It needs no culture. If a very light crop of corn is raised, the stalks may be remov- ed and the ground sown with winter wheat. If a heavy crpp of corn is raised, it will take too much work to clear the ground of the stalks, and the stumps and roots will be a great hindrance to the hkrrow, as the corn roots are strongly set in the sod. As sod corn cannot be relied on with safety, it is, perhaps, better to let the sod lie until September, and then sow with wheat, and harrow thoroughly. This is almost invariably a sure crop, more so than any of the after ones, as the sod holds the roots dur- ing our usually dry and snowless winter. Or, the sod may lie till spring, and then be sown with spring wheat, and harrowed only. Let it be cross- ploughed, and we have what no field can be in the Eastern States, with all the manure combined. The soil being a black mould, and very mellow, any thing will grow in it that grows in this latitude. Spring wheat and oats are liable to grow too rank. They should be sown as soon as the frost is out of the ground, that the straw may have a stunted growth, If sown late, say after the first of April, too much straw is grown, which is liable to cause the wheat to blast, smut, &c. We have no summer fallows in this section, having seen none in Illinois. "We raise but little winter wheat after the first crop, on the first breaking, until we break up a tame meadow or pasture ; then again we have a fine crop. Our usual mode of raising spring wheat, oats and barley, is to sow on the fall plough- ing, or on corn ground without ploughing, only harrowing. I raised over twenty-five bushels per acre, of the best of wheat, last year, on corn ground, without ploughing, and sixty bushels of oats. One team can do the work on a farm of fifty or sixty acres, if all the breaking is done. All stubble land should be ploughed in the fall, and be ready for the small grain in the spring. One man and two horses can easily tend thirty to forty acres of corn, one ploughing for which is suflicient ; then mark off both ways, rows about three and a half feet wide, and plant the seed with a machine or a hoe. A man can cover four acres per day ; a small boy can drop the seed. Harrow with a three-cornered harrow, by knock- ing out the forward teeth, so soon as the corn is out of the ground, then use the cultivator or one-horse plough, and work it both ways ; twice work- 24 ing after harrowing is sufficient ; no hoeing required. A fair yield of winter wheat is about twenty-five bushels per acre ; spring wheat, twenty to thirty ; oats, forty to seventy-five ; barley, twenty to forty ; winter rye, twenty to thirty ; corn, forty to eighty; potatoes, 100 to 300. We commence to harvest our corn about the 10th of October. There is more harvested in December than in any other month. Corn can be raised and cribbed at 121 cents per bushel. Our small grain is all cut by machinery. A machine follov?ed by six binders cut and shock from ten to fifteen acres per day. Price of cutting, 50 to 62 1 cents per acre. To binders, we pay from $1 to $1 25 per day. As it is impossible to house all our grain, it is stacked. Threshing is also done by ma- chinery. This, with cleaning, will cost 5 cents per bushel for wheat ; oats, 21 cents. The straw is usually stacked, to which the cattle have free access during the winter. Our market is at Chicago or St. Louis, No part of our State is far from rail-road or steamboat shipping, having about 1,800 miles of the former now in good running order, and about 1,000 miles of river navigation. Our charges correspond with the Eastern market, with the freight charge deducted. Our soil is well calculated for the production of the tame grasses. Our meadows yield from one and a half to three tons per acre. Ground that has been mown for ten or fifteen years, i^roduces better crops than the new land, because the top soil, which is principally composed of de- cayed grass and the ashes deposited by annual burnings, is very loose and open. After deep ploughing, and comparatively using up this top soil, we obtain a more compact and fine soil, which will hold the roots of the grass firm and secure. Clover grows luxuriously, but the trouble is, there is not a suflficient quantity sown to supply the great demand. There has, until lately, but little attention been paid to the raising of stock. At this present time, we can boast of being equal to the other States, in some choice selections of the best stock in the Union. Only a small portion of our prairie is yet broken. The cattle roam as upon a " thousand hills" during the summer ; but in the winter are fed upon straw, standing corn stalks and prairie hay. Very little corn fodder is cut and cured, being too heavy to handle. Probably nine-tenths of our hay, as yet, is cut upon our prairies, which makes, if well cured, excel- lent feed. Any quantity of this hay can be cut in any section, yielding from one to three tons per acre. I have fed, for several winters, between sixty and ninety head of cattle upon prairie hay, and have not lost a 25 single one by disease. Our hay is cut by mowing machines at 50 to 62^ cents per acre. It costs, counting work, board of hands, &c., about one to two dollars per ton in the stack. The feed for a cow, aside from grain, will not exceed $3 per year. Our pasture is free. Our prairie grass is fully equal to tame grass for butter, cheese, &c., up to the time of frost, which is usually about the 10th of October. The product from my dairy of about thirty-five cows, for the last six years, has been on an average about $20 per cow, beside the slop for hogs, and the feed for nearly as many calves. Last year the price of butter in this part of the State was twelve and a half cents per pound ; cheese nine to twelve and a half cents. I think these figures will be near the standard for years to come. In regard to fruit, I would just mention that Whiteside County, Illi- nois, took the first prize at New- York last fall. Apple trees, to any amount and of all varieties, can be had in our nurseries from 121 to 15 cents a piece. No new or old settler should fail to raise the Osage Orange or Madura hedge. With proper care, in four years he will have a living fence, the entire cost of which will not have exceeded 25 cents per rod. How beautiful will our State aj)pear, in a few more years, with our farms surrounded by this evergreen shrub. There is no State in the Union that can support so large a population as Illinois. Now not more than one-twelfth part of the surface is under cultivation. There is scarcely an acre that can be called waste ground. We have no moun- tains nor rocks ; no stumps to grub out ; no stones to pick off", and seldom a snow bank to wallow through. I believe if this State were cultivated as New-York or Massachusetts, it would feed the Union. The popula- tion is about 1,000,000. A grant of one thirty-sixth part of land is set apart by Congress for public schools. Our State debt will all be paid in a few years, by the internal resources, without the increase of taxation. This debt has been a bug-bear to some of our Eastern friends, declining to locate with us, for fear of being obliged to help pay it. This objection is now removed. Why the Eastern emigrants seek a home in Nebraska, Minnesota or even Iowa, is strange to my mind. lUinois has all the ad- vantages that any reasonable man could desire. Our rail-roads are now so connected that we have access to any part of the Union, and the East- ern market is brought to our very doors. For the information of some who are desirous to know more definite particulars, I will here add the course pursued by my first neighbor, 26 William Waite, in starting his prairie farm. In the spring of 1853 he bought eighty acres of prairie, for $4,50 per acre, making Whole value of the entire farm to be only $360 Broke 60 acres, at $2 50 per acre 150 Fenced 60 acres, $1 per rod, 400 rods of board fence, 400 ■ Sowed 40 acres with winter wheat, l-J- bushels to the acre, at $1 per bushel, 60 Sowing and harrowing, "75 cents per acre, 30 Harvesting and marketing, $1 50 per acre, 60 Threshing and cleaning 1,100 bushels, at 10 cents per bushel, 110 ■ Hauling 15 miles to rail-road, 6 cents per bushel, 66 — $1,236 Planted twenty acres with corn : Ploughing 20 acres in the spring, at 75 cents, $15 Marking off and planting, 15 Cultivating, at $1 25 per acre 25 Harvesting, at $1 per acre 20 Threshing and hauling 15 miles, to rail-road, 1,000 bushels, at 10 cents per bushel, 100 Total cost of farm and crops, $1,411 1,100 bushels of wheat, at $1 15 per bushel $1,265 1,000 bushels of coru, at 28 cents per bushel 280 Total amount of crops $1,545 Profits of 60 acres, after paying all expenses, &c., $134 and 20 acres of land unbroken. This farm is now worth |25 per acre. EespectfuUy yours, C. G. TAYLOR. LETTER FROM W. H. MUNN, ESQ., MARSHALL CO., ILL. Mr. Du Puy : Dear Sir, — Yours of the 2d instant, containing many important questions relative to what an industrious farmer can do on the prairies of Illinois, has been received, and though I am very busy at this time grafting, I will not delay giving you a brief reply. You ask me to state my own case, but I wish to be excused, for I have devoted the most of my time and attention to the cultivation of the Madura hedge plant, ever since I have been a resident of the State. An industrious man, who has but a small capital ($200 to $400) to commence with, can soon have a farm, of one hundred and sixty acres, in good state of cultivation, provided he has health, and is a good economist. In the first place he must put up a shanty of some kind to live in ; then some kind of a cheap fence that will turn cattle and horses, (these being the only stock permitted to rim at large,) for four or five years, and by that time he can have a good living fence that will turn all kinds of stock, and be as durable almost as the land upon which it stands. 27 About the 1st of May is the time to commence breating prairie. A good pair of horses will turn from one and a half to two acres per day. What is not planted in corn should be sown in fall wheat, and will generally turn off about twenty bushels per acre. New land is the best for wheat, and the third crop is considered the best for corn. Prairie breaking is worth from |2 to $2 25 per acre. Good hands demand here, for the last two years, from $175 to $200 per annum. After the first year's crop, we get from ten to twenty bushels of wheat per acre, and from thirty to fifty of corn. An industrious man can manage eighty acres, by having a little help in seed time and harvest. The prairie grass makes excellent hay for cattle and horses. It is some- what difficult to sell the crop in the field, as every man has as much of his own raising to harvest as he can get done in good time. I have travelled considerably, but I know of no other State that affords to the farmer so many conveniences as this one. It costs but little to make a farm, and when it is made it is a good one — one that, with proper management, will always yield a good crop, which, delivered at some rail-road station, will always bring a good price. Improvements pay well, should you vdsh to sell the farm. The above was written in great haste, and the half is not told. You may use it if you think it will be of any service to you or any one. Yours, very respectfully, W. H. MUNN. LETTER FROM J. AMBROSE WIGHT, ESQ., EDITOR OF THE PRAIPaE FARMER, Charles M. Du Puy, Esq. : Dear Sir, — At your request I would state that, from an acquaintance with Illinois lands and Illinois farmers, of eighteen years, thirteen of which I have been engaged as editor of the Prairie Farmer, I am pre- pared to give the following as the rates of produce which may be had per acre, with ordinary culture : Winter wheat 15 to 25 bushels. Spring wheat, 10 to 20 " Indian corn, 40 to 70 " Oats 40 to 80 " Potatoes 100 to 200 " Grass, (timothy and clover,) li to 3 tons. " Ordinary culture " on prairie lands is not what is meant by the term in the Eastern or Middle States. It means, here, no manure ; and com- monly hut once, or, at most, twice ploughing, on perfectly smooth land, with long furrows, and no stones or obstructions ; when two acres per 28 day is no hard job for one team. It is often but very poor culture, with shallow ploughing, and without attention to weeds. I have known crops, not unfrequently, far greater than these, with but little variation in their treatment ; say forty to fifty bushels of winter wheat, sixty to eighty of oats, three hundred of potatoes, and one hun- dred of Indian corn. " Good culture,^'' which means rotation, deep ploughing, farms well stocked, and some manure, applied at intervals of from three to five years, would, in good seasons, very often approach these latter figures. Yours, truly, J. AMBROSE WIGHT. January 9, 1855. LETTER FROM H. H. HENDRICK. Batavia, Kane Co., 111., Feb. 21, 1856. Charles Du Put, Esq.': Dear Sir, — Your letter and circular of February 2d was received a few days since. Owing, I suppose, to the obstructions of the rail-roads by the snow, and further, as I have changed my place of residence, and purchased a small place near Batavia, your letter was first sent to Northville, and then back to Batavia, which retarded it still longer. But I will now endeavor to answer your questions, from my own expe- rience, as well as I can. When I first came to Illinois, in November, 1835, I had but small means to commence with in a new country. The next spring I went eighteen miles north of Chicago, and purchased a claim (as it was then called) of one hundred and sixty acres, and commenced improvement. I practiced surveying to some extent, which enabled me to purchase necessaries, till I could procure them from my own soil. After staying- there six years, not liking that portion of the country very well, I sold out, and purchased upwards of two hundred acres on the west side of Fox River, twenty miles above Ottowa, for which I paid a little less than $2 50 per acre. I then commenced improving it ; and as my means were still very limited, I was obliged to proceed with caution. However, I got up a house, fenced and broke up seventy acres in two seasons, with very little help. My plough cut about twenty or twenty- two inches, and I broke about two acres per day, with four yoke of cattle, the sod being very tough. I sometimes put on five yoke. I then sowed twenty acres with winter wheat, on ground from which one crop had been taken, and twenty acres of spring wheat, on new prairie, after the ground had been ploughed again in the spring. The whole was good, and yielded twenty 29 bushels per acre, of the first quality. But, as wheat was then, and for several years afterwards, very low, and we had to transport it a long- distance to market with teams, it little more than paid the expense of raising, &c. One year I had twenty-five bushels of wheat on ground from which one crop of corn had been taken ; and had the weather been not quite so hot a few days before harvest, I think it would have yielded thirty bushels. My average crops have been from fifteen to twenty-two bushels per acre ; one year, and only one, I had but thirteen and one half bushels. The best way, I think, to raise winter wheat on new prairie, is to break it in June very shallow, and cross-plough it a little deeper than it was broke, about the end of August ; then sow and harrow it well, and leave it as rough as you can. If among corn, sow about the last of August or first of September, and put it in with a double shovel plough, by going twice in a row. Stock must not be allowed to run on it, unless the ground is covered with snow. The stalks must be cut or broken down in the spring. To break them down, I take a pole, ten or twelve feet in length, and hitch a team to it so as to draw it sideways, when the snow is off", and the ground and stalks frozen, and break three rows at once. One man and team will break thirty acres in a day. I roll all my small grain in the spring, and think it grows evener, and know it is better harvesting. Wheat does well on the sod, if put in as I describe, often yielding twenty bushels or more per acre. Corn on sod is rather precarious. I have never tried to any extent, but some have raised twenty or thirty bushels per acre. My method of raising corn is to plough the ground deep, then mark it one way with my single shovel plough, about five inches deep, and about four feet apart, each way ; (any thing that will make a mark will do for one way ;) the corn is then dropped four kernels in a hill. I then take my two-shovel plough, and set the shovels apart, so as to drive the horse in the furrow, and turn the dirt from each side on the corn. This plan I find is very beneficial in wet weather, in carrying the surplus water off" the hills. Just as it is coming up, I take my harrow, and knock the centre teeth back so as not to drag up the corn ; I then take my team and drive with one horse on each side of the row, taking one row at a time, and harrow it all over. This leaves the ground in fine condi- tion. After a few days, I take my two-shovel plough, and go through it twice in a row, both ways; and if I have time, I go through it three times. This leaves the ground in fine order, and the corn, I think, fills out much better. I have grown corn, with stalks upwards of nine feet in length, and ears thirteen inches in length, and nine and a half inches 30 in circumference ; but these were extraordinary specimens, having grown where some straw had been burned the fall before. My corn is a larger kind than most of that grown throughout the country, and yields from fifty to seventy or eighty bushels per acre. The time for planting is from the first to the middle of May, or even earlier. One man can tend forty acres, provided he can have help to go through it with the plough the first time. I have raised fifty bushels of oats per acre, and nearly two hundred bushels of potatoes ; but they are not so sure. I find by experience that they do best planted about the middle of May, that they may be well advanced by the time the hot weather comes on ; or, not till after the middle of June, that they may have the benefit of the September rains. But last season late planted potatoes with us were almost an entire fail- ure. I find, by experience, that crops of all kinds do best put in early. For grazing, I think our lands may be ranked among the best, if right- ly managed. The dry land stock down with red clover, or timothy and clover, and the wet portions with red top. Clover does extremely well, and yields an abundant supply of feed. Timothy does better after the land has been cultivated for a short time. A slight dressing of manure, to change the nature of the soil, is a great help to it. Selling crops on the ground is not much practiced, but, as a general rule, I believe, about twice the freight from the station to Chicago, may be considered the difference in the price of produce at the station. Help last season was scarce, and wages very high, varj-ing from $14 to $18 per month, for seven or eight months together. The increase in value per acre would depend much on the size of the tract cultivated, A small farm would be worth more per acre, with the same improvements, than a very large one. 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