917,73
1 1 eig
A Guide to the Illinois Central Rail-
road Lands . ... offer for sale over
1,400,000 acres ... (1859)
ILLINOIS HISTORICAL SURVEY
A GUIDE
ILLINOIS CENTRAL
Tno Illinois Central Railroad Company offer Tor sale over 1,400, ()()()
Acres selected. Prairie and. "Wood Lands, in Tracts of l^oi-ty
acres and. Tip'vvards, sxiitalale foi- Farms, on loiif* credits
and lo-w prices, sitxiated on. eacK side of tlieir Kail-
road, extending throixgli tlie State of Illinois.
CHICAGO:
ILLINOIS CENTRAL R A I L R.O A D OFFICE.
1859.
I
i
.0 n UL & WISCONSIN S.llNE
EXPLANATION
R R.ia Operation.
........ R.H. Progressing.
IAf fieaxy sAaeftny stairs f/ie boundary of tAc
leaidf of IheJl/mois Central
) A*7
r
IB larger than Pennsylvania and New Jersey together;
and is nearly eight times as large as Massachusetts. It
is larger than England by 5,000 square miles, and near-
ly half as large as the entire kingdom of Great Britain ;
and with its resources as well developed, could sustain a
population of 15,000,000. It is more than twice as large
as Belgium and Holland together, and nearly one-fourth
as large as the entire Empire of Austria.
The grant of land to the Illinois Central Railroad
Company embraces 4,055 square miles, very nearly as
large an area as that comprised within the State of Con-
necticut, twice as large as Delaware, more than half as
large as Massachusetts, about the same size as the Elec-
torate of Hesse-Cassel, three-fourths as large as the Grand
Duchy of Baden, and half as large as the Grand Duchy
of Tuscany.
Illinois must always occupy a commanding position in
the union of States, forming as she does the water-shed
between the valley of the Mississippi and that of the St.
Lawrence. In the intercourse and traffic, thus far but
imperfectly developed, between these two great valleys, THE
ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD must be regarded as a most
important part of the great thoroughfare which is now
opened to the Gulf of Mexico, by which Chicago is made
as accessible to New Orleans and Mobile, as she is to
Boston, New York, and Philadelphia.
COMMERCIAL FACILITIES.
The means of intercommunication provided by nature
are unsurpassed. The State is bounded on the West and
South by two great navigable rivers, and for fifty miles on
the Northeast by Lake Michigan ; while the interior is
penetrated for more than two hundred miles by the Illi-
nois river, whose waters are connected with the lake by
the Illinois and Michigan Canal. About two-thirds of
the boundaries of the State is made up of navigable riv-
ers, amounting to about 1,000 miles in length.
.The artificial communications are not less complete.
"Within less than ten years, there have been constructed
2,682 miles of railway, at a cost of $96,284,445, by which,
with one or two exceptions, every county seat is brought
within fifteen miles of some great thoroughfare. The
population has increased from 477,000 in 1840, to 855,384
in 1850, to 1,300,251 in 1855, and to probably 1,700,000
in 1859. Illinois is now the fourth State in the Union in
numerical force.
FACE OF THE COUNTRY.
The profile of the country, adjacent to THE ILLINOIS CEN-
TRAL RAILKOAD, does not present one uniform dead level,
but a succession of gentle undulations and depressions
which have been not inaptly compared to the swells of
the ocean. The culminating points, which are in the
northwestern part of the State, attain an elevation of about
800 feet above the Ohio river at Cairo, and about 400 feet
above the level of Lake Michigan. The valleys are val-
leys of denudation, cutting through the superficial depos-
its, and occasionally exposing the rocky strata beneath ;
while from the main channels start numerous ravines, like
the intervals between the fingers when the hand is ex-
tended. These are everywhere bordered with timber, and
occasional isolated clumps are seen, known in the lan-
guage of the country as groves; while the plains are
clothed with a luxuriant growth of prairie grass. The
Chicago branch, 250 miles in length, runs through the
Grand Prairie, which, with the exception of occasional
groves, presents an almost interminable plain, of which
the natural product is prairie-grass. Here the similitude
of the ocean becomes more striking. The timber belts
resemble wooded shores, while the clumps may be likened
to islands rising up from a wide expanse of waving green.
The surface is covered with superficial materials con-
sisting of yellow loam, blue clay, the latter always subor-
dinate, sand and pebbles, rudely stratified, with occasional
6
boulders of granite, upon which reposes a rich vegetable
mould from eighteen inches to two feet thick, constitut-
ing an almost inexhaustible supply of nutriment for crops,
for all time.
The swales, or sloughs (provincially slues), as well as
the more level portions of the prairie, contain a dark
sandy soil, intermixed with much organic matter ; while
along the streams and ravines the soil is a light yellow
loam. These distinctive differences are well understood
by every settler, and the term " prairie soil " to him con-
veys a precise meaning. It is a popular but mistaken
belief that this region was once densely, covered with
trees, and that their disappearance is to be ascribed to the
annual fires that swept over it, long before it became
known to the whites, consuming every form of vegeta-
tion, except where it was protected by the streams and
ravines. There is no evidence that, in the previous phys-
ical history of this region, the arborescent vegetation was
more extended than it is now. The prairies result from
the character of the soil, and their origin is no more of a
mystery than that of the steppes of Northern Asia, the
pampas of Brazil, or the llanos of Venezuela. In the
rich black mould of the plains the prairie-grass finds its
appropriate nourishment to the exclusion of other forms
of vegetation ; but this in its turn is supplanted by many
of the tame grasses. On the other hand, the yellow soil
along the ravines and alluvial bottoms gives sustenance to
a growth of trees, the commonest of which are burr, jack
and white oak, hickory, black walnut, linden, poplar, and
honey locust. As we proceed south, to the region below
the Terre Haute and Alton Railroad, the groves begin
to encroach upon the prairies until finally the whole re-
gion becomes densely wooded. Below Carbondale, the
country is covered with a primeval forest, except where
the axe of the settler has leveled it to the ground.
The changes in the soil are not less marked. Passing
from the rich black mould of Urbana, as we approach
Effingham, the soil begins to assume a greyish, tint, and
thence by imperceptible gradations, passes into a light
yellow or reddish loam. These soils produce the finest
varieties of winter wheat, and those scourges of other
regions the weevil and the blight are comparatively
unknown.
CLASSIFICATION OF SOILS.
There are well-marked differences in the soils of the
Illinois Central Railroad Lands.
1. Black Prairie Soil, consisting of a dark-colored,
friable mould, often two feet deep, and containing a large
amount of organic matter, intermixed with potash derived
from the annual burnings of the prairie-grass, from time
immemorial. The substratum is a mixture of clay and
gravel, well calculated to retain moisture; but not so much
so as to cause it to bake when exposed to the sun, or to
render the surface st>il cold and wet. The prairie soil
makes first-class corn lands, and is so rich in organic mat-
ter that it may be cropped for years without showing
any signs of exhaustion. Spring wheat, barley, oats, po-
tatoes, and the domestic grasses, here find appropriate food.
The prairies afford admirable grazing farms, and there are
farmers who fatten yearly more than a thousand head of
cattle.
The sloughs, when drained and sowed with grasses, will
make the finest meadow lands known, far surpassing the
uplands in fertility.
This kind of soil largely predominates on the Chicago
Branch, as well as on the Main Line, in the central portion
of the State.
2. Grey Prairie Soil. Between Nioga and Effingham
on the Branch, and below Pana, on the Main Line, we
notice a change in the soil, the black mould giving place
to a grey soil, which, though not so prolific in Indian corn,
produces excellent crops of winter wheat, and is a supe-
rior fruit-growing region. ,The lines between the two
8
classes of soil are not well marked, but there is a gradual
blending along the borders. The prairies become smaller
in extent, and the groves more numerous. This soil is
susceptible of a fine mechanical division, and by many is
esteemed quite as highly as the black mould of the more
northerly prairies.
3. Wood Soil. This soil, which predominates in the
southern part of the State, consists of a fine yellowish, or red-
dish loam, or a mixture of sand and clay, in about the propor-
tions to form brick, and is sufficiently porous to enable the
water to leach through, and the rootlets of trees to penetrate
it. It does not bake when exposed to the heats of summer,
or form a water-bearing stratum during the rains of spring
and fall. It is not unusual to find this soil covered with ha-
zel brush, which is the precursor of the hickory, gum, oak,
linden, etc., etc. This soil is well adapted to the culture
of winter, or flint wheat, and the choicest varieties are pro-
duced. The harvest comes off as early as the tenth of June,
and by July or August, it is ready for market. The mar.
ket value of this wheat is 12 to 15 cents above the ordinary
varieties, and it is sought for by millers from Tew York,
St. Louis and Ohio. It was not until the opening of the
Illinois Central Railroad that wheat was cultivated to any
considerable extent; it now forms the great staple of the
region, and has been the means of conferring upon the
farmer, uncounted wealth. Their experience has been that
winter-wheat is a sure and remunerative crop. Samples of
white winter-wheat from the counties of Union, Perry and
Pulaski are now in the Land Department. The berry is
large and plump, and weighs upwards of 60 Ibs. to the
bushel, and the yield was more than 40 bushels to the acre.
This soil is the natural habitat for the apple, peach, pear,
plum and grape, and the culture of these fruits is rapidly
extending. ISTear Makanda, Jonesboro', and Cobden, there
are thousands of acres devoted to the cultivation of peaches-
The apples produced are large, fair and plump ; and look
very differently from their eastern relations.
Mr. C. T. Chase, a practical horticulturalist, in a work*
recently published, thus speaks of this region:
"Much of the soil of Southern Illinois is also admirably adapted to
trait. Such is the texture in many locations that drainage is of less
importance than in the North. The heavily timbered lands of that
section, including a series of elevated ridges extending entirely across
the State, and into the adjoining States, combine essential qualifications
of soil, climate, elevation and exposure, that fit them in an eminent
degree for successful fruit-culture. In these regions, the highest knobs
are at present preferred. As the timber is cleared away, the frost
lines will probably follow down the hill-sides, and many fine situations
for fruit will be developed which are now unfit. The indications point
to a time, at no distant period, when by judicious culture, Southern
Illinois and a part of Missouri will become the fruit-garden of the West."
4. Alluvial Soil. The immediate valley of the Missis-
sippi consists of a wide belt of level land, occasionally
subject to overflow, known as "The American Bottom."
The soil is a highly comminuted loam, rich in organic
matter, the result of successive depositions of the river.
It has all of the fertility of that of the Nile, and is well
adapted to the growth of Indian corn, broom corn, sor-
ghum, tobacco, hemp, and all those crops which are sup-
posed to exhaust its fertility. Cotton was formerly grown
here, and as far north even, as Sangamon county, in suffi-
cient quantities for all domestic purposes ; and there is no
apparent reason why its culture might not be successfully
resumed.
COMPOSITION OF SOILS.
In many parts of the world, it is found necessary to im-
prove the soil by mixing and combining different earths :
and also, by adding to the organic matter. But Nature,
so far as relates to the soils of Illinois, has kindly per-
formed these offices for man. Experience has shown that
a soil, composed of one earth alone, whether it be sand,
clay, or lime, is unproductive ; but that the best soil con-
sists of a due admixture of all these earths.
In examining the mechanical texture of the soils of Illi-
nois, we find that the proportion of clay varies from 18 to
*The Prairie Fruit Culturalist.
64 per-cent.; of sand, from 25 to 75 per-cent.; and of lime,
from 1.3 to 3.3 per-cent. ; but what is most note-worthy
with regard to them, is the remarkably fine state of subdi-
vision in the particles. The soil, when dried and crushed,
crumbles into an almost impalpable powder, and hence is
in the best condition to afford nutriment to plants.
Most soils, too, require the addition of organized matter,
or manures, to preserve their fertility. In England, and
in the Atlantic States, this annual application of manures
often costs more per acre, than the fee of the Illinois lands.
The mechanical analysis of these soils shows that there is
present from 5 to 10 per-cent. of orgarfic matter ; while
the chemical analysis indicates from .18 to .33 per-cent.
of nitrogen. It would take a half century of cropping
to exhaust this accumulation of organic matter.
Mr. James Caird, M. P., the Times Commissioner of
Agriculture, and the highest agricultural authority in
England, in the fall of 1858, passed over the lands adjacent
to the Illinois Central Railroad, and after speaking of
the inexhaustible fertility of the soil, he proceeds to add :
"Its chemical composition has been ascertained for me by Professor
Voelcker, consulting chemist to the Royal Agricultural Society of
England, to whom I sent four samples of prairie soil for analysis,
brought by me from different and distant points of the lands belonging
to the Illinois Central Railway Company. They bear out completely
the high character for fertility which practice and experience had
already proved these soils to possess. The most noticeable feature in
the analysis, as it appears to me, is the very large quantity of nitro-
gen which each of these soils contains, nearly twice as much as the
most fertile soils of Britain. In each case, taking the soil at an ave-
rage depth of ten inches, an acre of these prairies will contain upwards
of three tons of nitrogen, and as a heavy crop of wheat with its straw
contains about fifty-two pounds of nitrogen, there is thus a natural
store of ammonia in this soil sufficient for more than a hundred wheat
crops. In Dr. Voelcker 's words, ' it is the large amount of nitrogen,
and the beautiful state of division, that impart a peculiar character
to these soils, and distinguish them so favorably.' They are soils upon
which flax, I imagine, could be grown in perfection, supposing the cli-
mate to be otherwise favorable. / have never before analyzed soils
which contained so much nitrogen, nor do I Jind any record of soils
richer in nitrogen than these." Prairie Farming, pp. 77, 78.
Lond. Ed.
11
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V.
AEEA OF CULTIVABLE LAND.
It is supposed by many, who have not investigated the
climatology of the West, that the rich prairies, like those
of Illinois, continue to the base of the Rocky Mountains.
The really desirable lands lie east of longitude 95, and
embrace Illinois, the Eastern and Southern portions of
Iowa, the Eastern portion of Kansas, and Southern Minne-
sota and Southern Wisconsin. They have already passed
out of the possession of the General Government. After
having crossed the Missouri river, we enter upon a series
of plains, whose prevailing vegetation is the artemisia and
the buffalo grass types characteristic of an arid climate.
Almost the only form of arborescent vegetation is the
cotton-wood, which is restricted to the immediate val-
leys of the streams. From the conditions of climate,
this vast region, embracing at least 25 of longitude, must
forever remain sparsely inhabited.
" The most marked single feature " (says Blodgett, in his Climatol-
ogy of the United States, p. 155) " is the absence of atmospheric
moisture, or the low measure of humidity, when rain is not absolutely
falling. This arid character begins to be felt at the 95th meridian,
and at the 98th or 100th, it causes an abrupt contrast with the coun-
try east."
Starting from the 95th degree, the rains diminish rapidly
as we proceed westward, until, before reaching the Rocky
Mountains, they disappear almost altogether. This dry-
ness of the atmosphere gives rise to a variety of climatic
conditions, which are unobserved to the eastward : abrupt
transitions in the temperature, the thermometer rising to
75 or 80 at mid-day, and falling below the freezing
point at night, or before sunrise. These sudden changes
are fatal to the growth of all those plants, of which Indian
corn is the type.
If we consult the rain-charts, which have been construct-
ed from the observations of the officers at the various
military posts, and from those of scientific explorers, we
13
shall find that, while the mean distribution of rain for the
year in Illinois is 42 inches in the northern, and 45 inches
in the southern part of the State, the gradations, as we
proceed west, are rapid to 35, 30, 25, 20, 15 and 10. The
belt where the annual fall is intermediate between 40 and
30 inches, is less than 50 miles wide. It may be safely
assumed that, for successful agriculture, the annual fall
of rain should amount to 35 inches, and inside of this limit
is comprised the great grain-growing region of the United
States. If we trace this line upon the map, we shall find
that it is subject to abrupt curvatures. Starting at Chi-
cago, it bears northwesterly to Fort Winnebago, then
sweeps round and crosses the Mississippi, near the north
boundary of Iowa, then trends southwesterly, a hundred
miles east of Fort Des Moines and Fort Leavenworth, and
thence is protracted into Texas.
We thus see that there are physical conditions which
interpose an effectual barrier to the progress of settlement
to the westward. Emigration has already reached the line
where it must pause. It needs no prophetic vision to
predict the time, and that not far distant, when every rood
of desirable land in Illinois will be appropriated and im-
proved.
THE ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD.
This is the longest continuous line of road, under the
control of a single corporation, in the United States, the
entire length being 706 miles. It traverses the whole
State, from north to south, intersecting, in its course,
every railway in the State. It starts from Cairo, at the
junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and pursues a
course nearly north 111 miles to Centralia ; at a point
four miles north, the road branches the one pursuing a
northeasterly course to Chicago, 250 miles distant; while
the other pursues a northerly course to Mendota, and
thence bears northwesterly to Galena and Dunleith on the
Mississippi river, opposite Dubuque : the distance be-
14
tween the northern and southern terminus being 454
miles.
This road traverses nearly 6 of latitude (from 37 N. to
42| IS".), embracing the most favored portion of the
northern temperate zone. Above this belt, the season is
not long enough to raise the most profitable varieties of
corn ; below it, the climate is warm enough to grow cot-
ton. Thus it is midway between the biting frosts of the
North and the sultry heats of the South. The moisture is
so equally diffused, that, however unpropitious the season,
there is always a surplus of the great staples grown. The
variation of climate between Galena and Cairo is as great
as between Boston and Richmond. Migration usually
follows lines of latitude. Illinois will, therefore, con-
tinue to receive the tide of population from the over-
crowded districts of the Old and New World, until her
immense capacity for occupation and expansion is fully
tested.
The main line of the road has been in operation four
years, and the branches less than three. There is already
a population of 500,000 adjacent thereto, and at intervals
of not greater than ten miles, there are flourishing vil-
lages, some of which contain from 4,000 to 15 000 inhabi-
tants. Churches have been planted, and school districts
organized, so that the benefits of religious and intellectual
culture are provided for all.
15
Table (A), appended to this Pamphlet, will exhibit at a
glance the progress of settlement since the opening of
this line.
The road is built in a substantial manner, and is equipped
with superior locomotives and cars. Two passenger trains
pass over the line each way daily, while the freight trains
have a passenger car attached. Commodious passenger
and freight houses have been erected at nearly every sta-
tion, and there is a telegraphic line coterminous with the
road, by which the farmer is daily advised of the state of
the markets.
ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD LANDS.
These lands were granted by the General Government
to the State, in aid of the construction of a railroad from
Chicago to Cairo, and from Cairo to Dunleith ; and by
the State were transferred to the Central Railroad Com-
pany upon certain conditions, which have been fully com-
plied with. The grant comprised every alternate section*
of even numbers, for six sections in width on each side of
the road and branches, and in case of deficiency, by rea-
son of sale or preemption, the agent of the State was
*NOTE. To those who are unacquainted with the system of the Gov-
ernment surveys of the public lands, it would be well to state that the
territory is laid out by rectilinear lines, into towns, ranges, and sec-
tions, and these sections are subdivided into eighths. A township em-
braces thirty-six sections, and is six miles square, or includes thirty-six
square miles. A section is one mile square, 640 acres, and is subdi-
vided into halves, 320 acres; quarters, 160 acres; and eighths, 40
acres, which is the lowest Grovernment subdivision. The ranges are
laid off East and West from a principal meridian, running due North
and South, and the townships are laid off North and South from a
base line running due East and West. In a timber-region, the section
corners are blazed on the trees ; but in a prairie-region, they are indi-
cated by mounds containing charcoal, into which a stake is driven.
Thus, ordinarily, the bounds of every forty-acre tract are well defined.
In numbering sections, you commence in the northeast corner of a
township, and proceed from right to left, along the first tier, and from
left to right through the second tier, and so on.
16
authorized to select an equal amount from alternate sec-
tions of Government land, within fifteen miles of the road.
The grant thus bestowed was 2,595,000 acres.
Of which there have been apppropri-
ated to secure the payment of $17,-
000,000 of Construction bonds, 2,000,000 acres.
To secure the payment of interest
on said bonds, 250,000 acres.
To secure the payment of $3,000,000
of Free-land bonds, - - 345,000 acres.
2,595,000 acres.
Hence, the Company's lands are respectively designated
as CONSTRUCTION, FREE-LANDS, and INTEREST LANDS.
The Indenture with the Trustees prescribes that there
shall be set apart,
50,000 at $20 per acre, until there be realized $1,000,000.
350,000 at 15 " " " 5,200,000.
1,300,000 at 8 " " " 10,400,000.
300,000 at 5 " " " 1,500,000.
The Company have already sold about 1,200,000 acres
of land, comprised in this grant, for the sum of $15,600,-
000 ; this is less than one-half of the grant, and the unsold
portion will undoubtedly bring a sum equal to that of
the portion sold.
PRICES AND TERMS OF PAYMENT.
These vary according to location, quality, distance from
stations, villages, &c., &c.
Lands immediately "adjoining town sites, or in proximity
to the road, are, of course, held at higher prices, and on
somewhat shorter credits; but the best farming lands, in the
most desirable localities, can be purchased at from $6 to
$25 per acre.
The terms of sale for the bulk jf these lands will be one
year's interest in advance, at six per cent, per annum ; and
six interest notes at six per cent, payable respectively in
17
one, two, three, four, five, and six years from date of sale ;
and four notes for principal, payable in four, five, six, and
seven years from date of sale; the contract stipulating
that one-tenth of the tract purchased shall he fenced and
cultivated, each and every year, for five years from the date
of sale, so that at the end of five years, one-half shall be
fenced and under cultivation.
Twenty per cent, will be deducted from the valuation for
cash, except the same should be at six dollars per acre,
when the cash price will be five dollars per acre.
A purchaser's account would stand as follows, supposing
he contracted for eighty acres of land at $10 per acre, on
March 1, 1859.
TOTALS.
March 1, 1859, Cash Payment, 1 year's interest in advance,
at 6 per cent. - $ 48 00
PRINCIPAL NOTES. INTEREST NOTES.
1860, - $48 00 - 48 00
1861, - - - - 48 00 - - 48 00
1862, - - 48 00 - 48 00
1863, - $200 00 - - 36 00 - - 236 00
1864, - 200 00 - - 24 00 - - 224 00
1865, - 200 00 - - 12 00 - - 212 00
1866, - 200 00 - - 200 00
Upon these terms about 1,100,000 acres are offered for
sale.
It is believed that the low price and long credit charged
for these lands will enable a man of small capital, and
with due industry, in ordinary seasons, to meet the pay-
ments as they become due, from the products of the soil ;
while the rapid settlement and development of the country
will greatly enhance their value.
Certain tracts immediately adjoining stations, or for
other causes specially valuable, are offered upon " Canal
Terms ; " the terms are :
The payment of one-quarter cash, and interest on the
balance for one year in advance, at six per cent, per an-
num, and three notes for the principal payable in one,
18
two, and three years from the date of the agreement, with
interest at six per cent, per annum in advance, added to
the first and second.
Ten per cent, will be deducted from the valuation for
full cash payment.
A purchaser's account would stand as follows, suppos-
ing he contracted for 80 acres of land at $10 per acre, on
March 1st, 1859 :
March 1, 1859, Cash Payment, i principal $200, and interest
on balance, 1 year at 6 per cent., 36, $236 00
1860, " " " 224 00
1861, " " " " 212 00
1862, Cash Payment, i principal, - 200 00
Upon these terms about 85,000 acres are offered for
sale, no improvement clause being inserted in the con-
tracts.
Town Lots, when the amount of sale is fifty dol-
lars, or less, will be sold for one-half cash, and interest
on the balance for one year in advance, at six per cent,
per annum; the other one-half of principal payable in
one year from the date of agreement. When the amount
of sale is more than fifty dollars, the terms of sale will be
one-third cash, and interest on the balance for one year in
advance at six per cent, per annum ; the remainder of the
principal beiiig payable in one and two years, with inter-
est for one year in advance at six per cent, added to the
first note.
Ten per cent, will be deducted from the valuation for
full cash payment.
A deduction in the price of lots will be made to par-
ties purchasing with an agreement to improve within six
months from date of sale.
The Company own lots at most of the villages along
their line. These villages are rapidly increasing in popu-
lation, and offer good inducements to persons engaged in
mercantile or professional pursuits, to settle therein. The
Company have also valuable tracts of iron, coal, and tim-
ber-lands for sale.
19
MINERAL RESOURCES.
Although the greater
portion of the country
contiguous to the Illinois
Central Railroad consists
of rich undulating prai-
rie, yet at various points
the streams have cut
through the superficial
deposits, and laid bare
the subjacent rocks, re-
vealing and rendering ac-
cessible those materials,
so useful to our comforts
and conveniences.
The Illinois Central
Railroad passes over all of those systems of rock, which
are included between the Lower Silurian and the Upper
Carboniferous. For more than two-thirds of the distance,
the underlying rocks consist of shales, sandstones, and
limestones, belonging to the Coal-Measures. Whether
they constitute an unbroken assemblage of strata, dipping
towards a common centre, or, like the Appalachian coal-
field, are arranged in a series of corrugations, is a problem
yet to be solved.
Coal. This important combustible will be found so
widely distributed throughout the prairie region of Illinois,
that the absence of densely wooded tracts will subject the
settler to no serious inconvenience. The Illinois Central
Railroad Company, with an ample supply of wood at their
command, at a cost not exceeding $2.50 per cord, are sub-
stituting, as a matter of economy, and convenience, coal-
burning, in place of wood-burning, locomotives on their
road, and other railroad companies are following their ex-
ample.
There are three points from which the settlers can for
20
all time derive their supplies of fossil fuel, at an incon-
siderable expense. At Duquoin, on the Illinois Central
Railroad, 76 miles above Cairo, there is a seam of coal
nearly 7 feet in thickness, which is worked by a shaft 70
feet deep. It possesses all of the qualities of a first class
coal freedom from sulphur, cleanliness when employed
as a domestic fuel, and firmness to bear transportation.
At Danville, or rather Bryant, 36 miles east of Tolono,
on the Great Western Railroad, a seam 6 feet thick is
worked by a drift. It is a strong and valuable coal, and
yields more than one-half of its weight in fixed carbon.
The greater portion of the product of this mine is dis-
tributed over the Chicago branch.
At La Salle, on the Main line, there are three seams of
coal, which average about four feet each in thickness, and
all of which are embraced in a vertical range of about
225 feet. The workings here are more extensive than at
any other point. The coal is of a fair quality, and besides
the local consumption, some of it is sent to Dunleith and
Chicago.
By inspecting the map it will be seen that, if from
these three centres of supply we inscribe circles, with
radii 150 miles in length, it will sweep every station on
the line of the railroad. The cost of coal per ton, at the
mouth of the pit is from $1 25 to $1 50 per ton ; and the
cost of transportation from 1 cent to If cents per ton per
mile ; consequently, coal can be sold at any station on the
line at say $4 00 per ton. Twelve bushels, or one-half
a ton of coal, are equivalent to a cord of wood. The cost
of cutting a cord of wood four feet in length is about
$1 00, and another dollar must be expended in cutting it
stove length. It is therefore as cheap to buy coal as to cut
wood for fuel, from one's own premises. The expense of
fuel for a family in ordinary circumstances, on the prairie,
need not exceed $30 per annum. A proper coal-stove for
cooking can be found at any of the hardware shops.
21
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22
Limestones. There is no dearth of these materials,
whether required for construction or for burning into
quicklime. The elevated ridges in the vicinity of Galena
are capped by the Niagara limestone of a buff color,
which is quarried in layers of various thicknesses, is ea-
eily wrought, and makes a handsome and durable building
material. At the base of the bluffs on the Mississippi
river, in the vicinity of Dubuque, a blue limestone of the
age of the Trenton series, is quarried which affords a ma-
terial equally desirable. These limestones though magne-
sian in their character, readily burn into lime.
At La Salle, the Coal Measures are capped by numerous
layers of thick-bedded limestone which is extensively
quarried.
At Kankakee, there are quarries in the Niagara lime-
stone.
A few miles East of La Salle, in the Lower Silurian
series, there is a band of hydraulic limestone, from which
cement is largely manufactured.
The Chicago limestone, belonging to the Niagara group,
forms the most beautiful material for construction in the
United States. It possesses a warm yellow tint, and has
not therefore the coldness of marble. It quarries in lay-
ers thin enough for flags, and thick enough for the most
solid structures. It is free from grit, and may therefore
be sawed, or chiseled into ornamental forms. Adjacent to
water communication, the cost of transportation is slight ;
so that for building purposes, it affords a material com-
bining alike cheapness, beauty, and durability.
From a point six miles above Jonesboro', and thence to
Ullin, the underlying rocks are limestone, extending from
the Carboniferous down to the Lower Silurian series. The
Oolitic limestone near Jonesboro' affords a beautiful
building material, but the lines of bedding are not dis-
tinct, which interferes with the successful quarrying.
Most of these limestones readily calcine into quicklime.
Firestones. The fine-grained sandstone near Cobden, in
23 ^
the Sub-carboniferous series, yields excellent hearth-stones
for furnaces.
Freestones. At the base of the Coal Measures, near
Makanda, the sandstone is of a uniform texture, and
variously colored, buff, yellow and red. It is very dura-
ble, cuts readily, and has all the beauty of the Portland
stone.
Iron Ores. About two and one half miles west of the
Illinois Central Railroad, and nearly four miles north
of Jonesboro', on Section 34, Town 11 S. Range, 2 West
of 3d P. M., being Railroad land, there occurs a ridge
bearing east of north and west of south, which rises
quite abruptly to the height of more than 200 feet above
the valley. This ridge has appropriately received the
name of The Iron Mountain. The base of the hill for 50
feet or more consists of fissile shale, succeeded by 80 feet
of chert, intermingled with masses of hematatic iron ore,
often in a state of great purity ; the whole being capped
by a cherty limestone 70 feet thick.
These deposits have been slightly explored, but there
is little doubt that here is stored an inexhaustible supply
of very rich ores, and under circumstances which admit
of their being profitably wrought. These deposits belong-
to the Sub-carboniferous series.
Lead Ores. Galena has long been known as the seat of
the richest lead-bearing region in the United States. The
Galena limestone, or lead-bearing rock, occupies a consid-
erable area in Northern Illinois and Iowa, and Southern
Wisconsin. Its position is between the Hudson river
group and the Trenton limestone, and the lead deposits
are restricted within that range. The present product of
the mines is from 12,000 to 15,000 tons per annum, valued
at from $1,500,000 to $2,000,000.
Brick. In the timber regions, the sub-soil consists of
such an admixture of clay and sand that it may readily
be burned into brick. It is rarely that the clay requires
any tempering of sand.
24
v x
COST OF BUILDING.
Great misconception exists with regard to the difficulty
of procuring building materials. Those who are unaccus-
tomed to a prairie region suppose that the settler must be
subjected to great inconvenience unless he has at least a
forty-acre tract of woodland connected with his farm.
Let it be borne in mind that the prairies are dotted with
groves, and the streams are fringed with trees ; and there
are few points where fire-wood commands $4 00 per cord.
Chicago is the greatest and cheapest lumber mart in
the United States. A house of the style and dimensions
of the one represented above 16 by 24 feet, 1J stories
high, and containing five rooms can be furnished com-
plete and delivered on the cars for $200 : put up within
100 miles of Chicago, plastered, painted once, and ready for
occupancy, for $350. A good board fence of pine lumber,
within 100 miles of Chicago, costs about 70 cents per rod.
The price of fencing at this time at Chicago is from $9 00
to $9 50 per M. Shingles, best, $2 50 and $2 75. Lath,
$1 50 to $2 00. Posts, per 100, $5 00 a $7 00. Good
white-oak rails in the lumber region are worth from $2 00
to $3 00 per hundred ; and it requires about 28,880 to
fence a section.
25
FARMING- IMPLEMENTS.
There is no region in the world which can be cultivated
more economically than the prairies of Illinois. There are
no stumps or stones to obstruct the plough or mower; and
when once the prairie-sod is subdued, there remains a light
pulverulent soil, which can be ploughed with a single horse.
The long, gentle swells of the surface can be passed over
without detriment by the various labor-saving machines.
Already have these machines successfully supplanted the
labor of human muscles, in planting, mowing, reaping, and
threshing. The grand desideratum is THE STEAM-PLOUGH ;
and we do not despair of its accomplishment. Some of
the best mechanical minds of the country are at work to
solve the problem. At the next State Fair at least four
steam-ploughs will be on exhibition. The Board of Agri-
culture of Illinois have offered a premium of $6,000 to the
inventor of a successful Steam-plough, and the Illinois
Central Railroad Company have super-added to it $1,500.
Reaping Machines are almost altogether used at the
West, They cost $100 to $150. They will cut fourteen
acres of wheat per day. Contracts for reaping are made
at 62J cents per acre. The contractor furnishes a driver,
raker and horses ; the farmer finds binders and shockers.
1 X ^ \ 1
26
Thrashing Machines will thresh three hundred bushels
per day. It is generally contracted to be done at four to
five cents per bushel, the contractor furnishing four
horses and three hands ; the farmer, four more horses and
five more hands, making in all eight hands, viz., one dri-
ver, one feeder, one measurer, one to pitch sheaves, one
to cut bands, and three to take away straw.
The first class farmers are substituting portable steam-
engines for sawing, threshing, and other purposes.
Most of the agricultural implements are made in the
State, and all that are desired can be procured at the ag-
ricultural warehouses in the principal towns. There is no
necessity of importing them from the East. Besides, the
prairie-ploughs require certain peculiarities of construction
which distinguish them from all others. A good breaking-
plough costs $16 ; common ploughs from $8 to $10 each.
Ploughs made of cast iron will not work well in our soils,
as it is impossible to keep them bright ; but those made
of the best steel preserve their polish and work freely.
Ditching Machines. "With a view of benefiting the settlers
on the Illinois Central Eailroad lands, the Company have
offered a prize of $500 for the best Ditching Machine ; the
State Board of Agriculture to be the arbiters. In the gen-
tle depressions of the prairie, the surface-waters accumu-
late, and form what are provincially known as slues. By
freeing the soil from this superfluous water, these lands may
be converted into the finest meadows, and the health of the
country greatly improved. The uplands may be rendered
sufficiently dry by intersecting the surface with frequent
furrows, and throwing up short slopes between them,
without a resort to under-drains. So finely divided is the
soil, and so free from roots and stones, that no serious ob-
stacle exists to the introduction of some mechanical contri-
vance for draining the "slues," more expeditious and more
economical, than the present method of spading; particu-
larly, if it be applied during the wet season, when the
ground is thoroughly saturated with water.
27
BREAKING AND CULTIVATING-.
Notwithstanding the fertility of the soil, it is idle to
suppose that the land is going to bring forth its increase
spontaneously. God has not yet removed the doom
placed upon our great ancestor: "In the sweat of thy
brow, thou shalt eat bread." These lands are not cultivat-
ed, ordinarily, in a husbandman-like manner. The farm-
ers plough only four or five inches deep, and consequently
if the season is dry, the moisture cannot come up from
beneath ; and if the season is wet, the water has no chance
to leach away. A hoe is seldom introduced into the
corn-field, but a cultivator is once or twice during the
season run between the rows, and followed by the shovel-
plough.
The usual process pursued in subduing a farm is this :
In the months of May and June the sod is turned over.
It should be delayed until the grass has started, and fin-
ished before it has matured, as the roots sooner part with
their vitality. In six weeks the sod will have rotted. It is
then ready to be harrowed or cross-plowed, and sown with
wheat. If the wheat is properly drilled, or harrowed in,
it is ordinarily a good crop. To this should succeed corn
^
for two^r three years, and be followed by oats. Where
prairie is broken by the middle of May, it may be planted
in sod-corn, and a yield of 15, 20, or 40, bushels per acre
may be anticipated ; but if the farmer has other corn-land,
it is not desirable to resort to this crop. Many farmers
use a breaking plough, which turns a furrow from eighteen
to twenty-six inches wide, and about three inches deep,
requiring a force -of from three to six yoke of oxen. The
plough is connected with a pair of wheels, and is self-regu-
lating, so that it requires only a driver to manage it. The
cost of breaking prairie is about $2 50 to $3 00 per acre.
There is, however, no necessity of resorting to such a
cumbersome force. A man with a pair of horses and a
good plough, cutting twelve inches, can break an acre and
one-half per day. And this may be done in the interval
between planting and harvesting.
HEALTH.
^ The climate of Illinois is salubrious. Upon the prairie*
there is always a refreshing breeze ; and those stifling, en-
ervating heats, characteristic of the valleys and wooded
regions, are comparatively unknown. The prevailing dis-
eases are bilious; but they are of a mild type, and are
easily managed. Fever and ague is apt to prevail where
a soil, rich in organic matter, is for the first time turned up
to the sun ; but cultivation soon destroys the noxious gases
which emanate from decaying herbage. The low bottom-
lands and the dense groves which skirt the streams are
apt to harbor miasma, and their shelter is to be avoided.
It must be borne in mind too, that, in subduing a farm,
the settler deprives himself of comforts, and undergoes
exposures at variance with his previous life; and if he
finds himself in bad health, he is fain to attribute to the
climate what in reality is the result of his own reckless-
ness and folly.
Formerly the emigrant came to the state in a canvas-
covered wagon which afforded him inadequate shelter
29
from the dews of evening, and the vicissitudes of temper-
ature. He camped in the groves, and beside the sluggish
streams, that he might readily obtain wood and water,
where miasmatic vapors were sure to be generated. His
fare consisted of indigestible bacon and clammy bread.
He resorted for water to the surface pool, or the stagnant
stream. Arrived at his place of destination, he erected
a wretched cabin, through the chinks of which the winds
of heaven had free course. After all of these exposures, if
he had a "shake," he attributed it to the climate, rather
than to his own indiscretion. If at his former home he
had thus exposed himself, the same results would have
been sure to follow. Now, let the emigrant avoid the
groves where the pioneers settled for the purpose of ob-
taining timber ; let him dig wells instead of resorting to
surface water; let him exercise a due regimen over his
diet, using the esculent vegetables with his animal food ;
let him shun the strong draughts of night air after the
toils of the day; let him erect a comfortable frame house
instead of the common log-cabin; let him surround him-
self with cultivated fields, and pleasant gardens, and orch-
ards of fruit, and our word for it, he shall find that he
will enjoy a reasonable degree of health, and that God
has not spread out these broad, fertile prairies to remain
uninhabitable by his creatures.
But instead of resorting to tneory, we confidently ap-
peal to facts. The bills of mortality show that the average
duration of life is higher in Illinois, than in most of the
older states, or in most of the countries of the Old World.
She is in advance of Massachusetts, Connecticut, or New
York, which are regarded as healthy ; and if we extend
the comparison to England, we find that, while in Illinois
less than fourteen in one thousand die, the average in
England is upwards of twenty-four in one thousand.
It may be said that, in Illinois the population is largely
made up of young and vigorous people from the older
states ; but on the other hand let it be borne in mind, that
30
they are compelled to undergo hardships and exposures
which they would not have encountered at home.
WATER.
In the hilly portions of the State, copious springs gush
out from the surface. In the prairie region, this is not
the case. Water, however, is ordinarily reached at a
depth of from twenty to forty feet. Artesian wells have
been successfully tried in some parts of the State. In
Iroquois county, which consists of high-rolling prairie,
not less than one hundred and fifty-four wells of this char-
acter have been bored ; and instances are known, where,
when the seam was struck, the force of the current was
sufficient to bring up pebbles five inches in diameter. On
the farm of Mr. Prentiss, near Onarga, the water is dis-
charged through an orifice five inches in diameter, in a
copious stream. This water is chalybeate in character.
These wells vary from 100 to 150 feet in depth, and
pass through a blue clay into coarse gravel or quicksand
beneath, which serves as a reservoir.
CHOPS.
Indian Corn. The surest, and perhaps in the long run
the most valuable, crop raised in Illinois is Indian corn.
The crop of 1857, was not less than 70,000,000 of bushels;
and this year it will probably exceed 100,000,000. The
cost of raising it is about ten cents per bushel, and the
average yield is 40 bushels per acre. In favorable seasons
some fields, when properly cultivated, yield 80 and even
100 bushels. One man and a boy can cultivate 40 acres,
but two men with a boy can cultivate 100 acres. The
farmers seldom cany a hoe into the field, but the weeds
are kept down by the plough. When ripe, the corn may be
harvested at any time ; but it is usually done in mid- winter,
as it receives no injury from standing in the hill. It is
regarded in America as the staff of life not only for man,
but beast. While it is dealt out liberally to the horse, the
31
ox, and the pig, it forms an article of diet alike for the
rich man and the poor. It is more nutritious and adapts it-
self better to the human system than wheat.
Our British relations have not yet learned that it is fit
for human food, or even for horses ; but that it may be safely
used in fattening swine. The demand for this kind of
grain, at once so cheap and nutritious, must largely in-
crease with the increase of the human race, and of those
animals so essential to our support.
Broom Corn. This article flourishes luxuriantly on the
black prairie-soil, and in the bottom lands of the Missis-
sippi. There are specimens in the Land Department,
grown in the latter region, 18 feet in hight. '
. Wheat. In that portion of the State south of the Terre
Haute and Alton road, winter wheat is ordinarily a suc-
cessful crop. The peculiarities of the wheat soil have
been pointed out, in a previous part of this Pamphlet.
The average yield is probably not less than 20 bushels per
acre ; but if the season be favorable, and the crop be put
in with care, the yield may exceed 40 bushels. The har-
vest ordinarily commences about the 10th of June.
In the belt of country north of this line, and as high
up as the Peoria and Oquawka road, the crop is less cer-
tain, and this uncertainty is due perhaps less to climate
than to the mode of culture. The top soil, being com-
posed of decayed vegetation and ashes deposited from
the annual burnings, is light, with little adhesion between
the particles. In dry weather, with a high wind, it drifts.
By deep ploughing, bringing up the loam from beneath, a
firmer and more compact soil is obtained, which will hold
the rootlets of the plant more securely. The shoal plough-
ings of three or four inches simply stir up the loose ashes
on the surface, and the winds blow away the particles of
pulverulent earth from the roots of the wheat. "Without
asserting, therefore, that the central portion of the State
is not adapted to winter wheat, we do say that the method
of culture thus far pursued has not been successful. Win-
ter wheat should be sown, or drilled in, late in August
or early in September, that the roots may be thoroughly
imbedded, and a mass of vegetation may spring up to
serve as a winter covering against the action of frost.
The northern and central portions of the State are well
fitted for the growth of spring wheat which is usually
sown upon the broken sod of the preceding year, or on corn-
stubble. It should be sown as soon as the frost is out
of the ground, so that the straw may be stunted by the
cold weather. The soil is so rich in nitrogenized organic
matter that the crop is apt to run to stalk, the vesicles
burst, and the ear does not fill ; and hence ensue blight,
chess, smut, and rust. The analyses furnished Mr. Caird
show a deficiency of lime, and he suggests that its applica-
tion would consolidate the soil, and impart strength to the
wheat-stocks. The average yield of spring wheat is from
15 to 20 bushels per acre.
Oats is the product of a temperate climate, and hence
they thrive best in the northern and central parts of the
State, where the average yield is forty bushels to the acre,
and often goes as high as eighty. They thrive best on
ground that has been cultivated a few years, and should be
harrowed in on land which has been turned over the pre-
ceding fall. The great danger is from a rank growth,
producing a superabundance of straw, and hence early
sowing is the best.
Barley thrives well, and is more or less saleable. If not
required for brewing malt liquors, it may be profitably
fed, the yield being about the same as oats. Many of the
nations of Europe, particularly the "Welsh, are fond of
their home-brewed ale, and this is far better than corn-
juice whiskey.
Root Crops, such as the turnip, the carrot, and the ruta-
baga, may be easily grown in the rich, mellow soil of the
prairie ; but thus far their cultivation has been neglected,
since corn is the most economical food that can l)e raised.
Hay Crop. With so large a range of natural pasturage
about them, our farmers do not properly appreciate the
value of the hay crop, when properly cured. It requires
the exercise of as much care and judgment in gathering
as any other crop. One farmer, by feeding hay, properly
cured, may keep his stock in good condition through the
winter ; while another, dealing out hay which has been
so thoroughly drenched by rain as to abstract all its juices,
is compelled to feed with corn to keep his stock from be-
coming lean. "With proper care, hay 'may be made the
most economical food for stock during the winter. For
this purpose, it should be cut while in flower, since in this
state it contains the largest amount of sugar and gluten,
which is the true source of nutriment. In curing hay,
the object should be simply to dry out the water. The
spreading of swaths is the first process ; the cocking, after
it shall be thoroughly wilted, is the second. The sweating
process which it undergoes does not injure it, unless car-
ried so far as to decompose the juices, causing them to pass
off in the form of alcohol and carbonic acid gas, and render-
ing the hay itself " sour." As soon as cured, it should be
stored, for nothing injures hay so much as drenching
rains, since the juices are readily soluble in water. The
successful introduction of mowing machines and raking
machines has relieved the farmer of a vast amount of
manual labor, and now the cost of gathering a ton of hay
in Illinois need not exceed one dollar.
Timothy (Phleumpratense). This is a very nutritious grass,
and well fitted for exportation. The level prairie about
Sandoval and Odin might be appropriated to its culture,
from which points, after having,, been pressed, it might
readily be sent to the markets on the Lower Mississippi.
Being perennial, and deriving new vitality from the tu-
bers each year, it yields a large return in proportion to
the labor expended. It is not so well adapted to pastur-
age as some of the other grasses, as the sharp feet of cat-
tle are apt to destroy the bulbs. The yield is between
two and three tons per acre.
3
34
Hungarian Grass. This cereal, first introduced by the
Hungarian exiles, is becoming a favorite with the farmers,
and the seed, from its scarcity, commands a high price.
It requires to be put in with all the care of wheat. It
matures in forty days sufficiently to cut, and becomes
ripe in sixty days from sowing. It will answer to SOAV,
therefore, in July, after the wheat crop has been removed.
Two crops may be grown in the course of a single season.
This is an excellent fodder, being as nutritious for horses
as oats ; and cattle eat the stocks greedily after the seed
has been threshed out. The yield is large, and, on the
whole, it is as profitable a crop as the farmer can raise. Be-
sides, the putting in of this crop occupies an interval of
the farmer's time between the wheat-harvest and the corn-
harvest.
Slue Grass (Poa pratensis}. This grass is preferred to
all others by the Kentucky graziers. It is indigenous to
the limestone soils of the West, and readily flourishes
when transferred to the prairies of Illinois. It is not ex-
tirpated by the trampings of cattle. The usual method of
pasturing is to turn cattle upon it in the spring and fall,
but to take them off in mid-summer. This grass has this
valuable peculiarity : it furnishes a light amount of stem,
but a large amount of leaves, which continue growing
after the flowering stage, and hence afford almost peren-
nial pasturage. In the middle portion of the State this
grass yields food for eight months in the season, but as
far south as Centralia it remains green during most of the
winter.
It is the best method*to lay down the ground in. grass
after it has been cropped for corn for three or four sea-
sons, as the particles of soil acquire greater adhesion, and
thus afford the roots a firmer hold.
Prairie Grass. There are several varieties of prairie
grass, but the most esteemed are the Slue-joint, which
grows on the borders of the sloughs, and the Red-top,
which seeks the high grounds. It starts early in May,
35
and continues green until August. Early in autumn the
tops become dry and wiry, but towards the roots the
blades retain their greenness. It may be cut for hay in
September and October, and stacked for winter use. The
cost need not exceed one dollar per ton, where a mower is
employed. In the spring and summer it affords excellent
pasturage, and cattle thrive upon it. For fodder, it is not
so good as the cultivated grasses which supplant it. It also
ceases to be productive when it is closely pastured, or
mowed for a few years in succession.
Potatoes. The common potato, in the central and south-
ern parts of the State, is not cultivated to a sufficient ex-
tent to form an article of export. Indeed, it seems to be
out of its natural habitat. The finest potatoes we have
ever seen were grown above latitude 48, where the sum-
mer is only about three months in length. The St. Louis
market is largely supplied from the colder clime of Michi-
gan. In the northern part of Illinois it is an article of
export.
Sweet Potato. This plant matures as high up as Chicago,
but in the latitude of Jonesboro' it grows to an immense
size, and its peculiar flavor is developed in perfection. >
v
STOCK-BREEDING, AND RAISING-.
The prairies are well fitted for stock-raising in two
essential particulars ; the cheapness with which Indian
corn can be grown, and the almost unlimited amount of
natural pasturage. Jacob Strahn, who came to this coun-
try twenty-five years ago, a poor man, when in the full
tide of enterprise, has been known to turn off 10,000
head of cattle a year. There are other graziers who
range from 1,000 up to 5,000. One individual sends cat-
tle to the eastern market to the value of $500,000 per
annum. Many of the Kentucky and Ohio farmers are
securing stock-farms on the Company's lands. One gen-
tleman from the latter State has a tract of 22,000 acres
which he is rapidly converting into a stock-farm, and
36
another tract still larger, which he proposes to treat in the
same way.
In the vicinity of Bloomington there are two stock-
growers, brothers, who came to this State more than thir-
ty years ago. They had nothing to rely upon but their
strong hands and their far-seeing sagacity. One of them
now owns 7,000 acres of land, 2,700 of which is in a high
state of cultivation ; and the yearly products of his farm,
in cattle and hogs, often reached $50,000.
The other brother has 27,000 acres of land, 4,000 of
which are in cultivation ; and his annual sales of pork and
beef reach $65,000.
These are examples of what industry and sagacity can
accomplish upon these lands.
Considerable attention has been paid to cattle-breeding.
Much good stock has been introduced from Kentucky and
Ohio, and many fine bulls have been imported direct from
England. The short horns are preferred for fattening;
and of the bullocks turned off for market each year, the
majority have never submitted their necks to the yoke.
The method of feeding is this. The cattle range over
the prairie in the summer and fall. As the time ap-
proaches to fit them for market, they are fed in the open
field from the standing shocks of corn. Prairie-grass,
which has been mown and stacked the previous fall, is
thrown out to them twice during each day. Two hogs
are assigned to each ox to consume the undigested por-
tions of corn.
It is the impression among the packers and graziers
that the production of beef does not keep pace with the
consumption, and that there is little fear of over-stocking
the market.
There are English packers in the State who put up beef
for the London market, where it bears a high character.
Swine. Equal facilities exist for fattening hogs, and
Chicago will, ere long, press close upon Cincinnati in this
respect. It must be confessed, however, that our farmers
37
manifest too great indifference with respect to the breed.
Instead of the rounded proportions of the Sussex and
Berkshire, we find that the stock have many of the quali-
ties of the race horse.
Sheep. It is only within a short period that our farmers
have turned their attention to wool-growing a branch of
industry which is quite as remunerative as any in which
he can engage. The flocks may range over the prairie for
eight months in the year, in charge of a shepherd, but on
the approach of winter they require the shelter of sheds,
and to be fed from racks. The prairie-grass appears to be
better adapted to sheep than any of the cultivated grasses.
That pest of the flocks, the prairie-wolf, has now nearly
disappeared. Ewes of the ordinary breed cost about
$1 50, weathers $2 00.
The sheep, like man, adapts himself to almost every
latitude ; and hence he thrives equally well in every part
of the State.
INDUCEMENTS TO SETTLE IN ILLINOIS.
Illinois holds out strong inducements to every young
man of good health and correct habits, to settle within
her borders. Before emigrating, he might as well make
up his mind that he must for a time forego some of the
comforts and conveniences to which he has been accus-
tomed. If he has no capital, let him not hang about the
towns, but go to work in the country where there is a de-
mand for his labor, at remunerative prices. Let him buy
no land, until he shall have accumulated enough money
to pay for a team, to pay for fencing his farm, and erect-
ing a comfortable dwelling. The great fault with our
farmers has been, that they have bought more land than
they could cultivate; and hence have become land poor.
Three years of labor will generally place him in funds
to commence his career as a proprietor of the soil.
To the young farmer just starting in life, and with a
capital of a thousand dollars, there is no better field for
38
him to enter upon. At home, he has to encounter active
competition, and work for unremunerative wages. If he
cultivate the paternal acres, after years of toil, and after
having reared and educated a family of children, he finds
himself at the close of life, about where he started. Very
many of the farms in New England do not yield five per
cent, on the capital invested. They are so small as to
make it undesirable to subdivide them among the children
of the owner; and hence the farmer,' in his declining
years, so apportions his estate that one retains the home-
stead, while the others go out into the world to seek their
fortunes. Let such an one, with his good common-school
education, and his habits of thrift, come to the broad
prairies and select a quarter-section, or 160 acres, at say
$10 per acre, on the Company's terms of seven years' pay-
ment. For four years he pays interest in advance, the
first installment being $96. He buys a yoke of oxen and
a plough, which shall cost him $100. He erects a house
to shelter him from the storm, for $350, and encloses
forty acres with a two board-fence, to turn cattle, which
shall cost him $150. If he join with a neighbor, he pays
one-half. In May he turns over the sod of one-half
of the tract enclosed, and puts in a crop of corn which
shall yield him fifteen bushels to the acre ; but if he can
rent some old land from a neighbor, it is better. In June,
he breaks the other half, and early in September, he har-
rows in his wheat. With his remaining means, let him
buy a few pigs and calves, or yearlings. The former he
should pen up, but the latter may roam over the prairie.
A few tons of hay mown from some neighboring meadow,
together with his sod-corn, will carry his stock through
the winter.
The second year, his twenty acres of corn-land will be
mellow and ready to be re-planted. He encloses another
forty acres, at a cost of $112 50, or if he remove the di-
vision fence, his expenses for additional materials will be
$75. He breaks an additional forty, going through the
39
sumo routine. In July his wheat is harvested, which will
yield him 400 bushels, worth from $300 to $400, and in
October he finds himself in possession of 800 or 1000
bushels of corn, half a dozen fatted hogs, and others com-
ing on to supply their places; his calves will have in-
creased fifty per cent, in value, his steers will be ready to
break, and one-half of his farm, or eighty acres, will be
in a high state of cultivation, and his first broken land
in a condition to pnt, out in orchards, and everything
will have assumed uii air of comfort. The worst is now
over. One-half of his farm is subdued, and will from hence-
forth, prove remunerative. The third year, he fences the
whole 160 acres, by purchasing $75 worth of new mate-
rials, and removing the divisional fences. If he wishes
to make a fence to turn hogs, he must add about thirty-
three per cent, to the first cost. Again he breaks, and
again goes through the same processes before described.
He reaps his wheat, and gathers his corn. His calves have
grown to cattle, his trees have taken root, his farm is now
subdued and fenced, and he looks over his broad acres
with a feeling of satisfaction, " I HAVE MADE MYSELF A
HOME." The fourth year, he commences his payment of
principal, and in the soil he finds himself possessed of
ample resources to meet it.
Such is an outline of what a man of energy and a little
capital can accomplish on these lands. The proprietor
in his own right of a farm of 160 acres, properly fenced
and cultivated, with a neat house, surrounded with gar-
dens and orchards, and flocks and herds, he need not re-
pine at his lot.
To the capitalist, these lands ofier good opportunities
for judicious investment. Their cultivation will afford a
sure and profitable return, while their value will be rap-
idly enhanced from the great influx of population and
wealth, and the consequent development of the agricul-
tural and mineral resources of the State.
Lands in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana, equally eligible
40
to market, but less desirable in fertility, are held at from
$60 to $100 per acre. The disparity is still greater if the
comparison is extended to the Atlantic States. Now, in
the progress of settlement, one of two things must take
place ; either these prairie-lands must rapidly rise in value
to the standard in the older states, or the latter must fall
until they accommodate themselves to the standard here.
The true measure of value will be the productiveness of
the land, minus the cost of transporting the products to
market.
There is another class to whom these lands should prove
attractive, to wit ; the middling farmers of England, Scot-
land and Wales. Deriving their origin from a common
ancestry with us, speaking the same language, and linked
to us by a common bond of sympathy, in religion, morals,
and educational movements, these men would feel that
they were casting their lot among friends instead of
strangers. In setting forth the inducements to emigra-
tion, we prefer to use the language of one of their own
countrymen, Mr. Caird, whose reputation as an accurate
and competent observer cannot be questioned. "We quote
from his letter to Mr. Moffatt, Chairman of the London
Committee of the Illinois Central Railway Company. He
Bays :
" To the young farmer who has to face keen competition at home,
with rising rents and increasing wages, both a good thing to the coun-
try at large, but both likely to be accompanied by diminished profits to
himself, the change will be this that he may become the owner of
better land in Illinois for the same sum as he would have to pay as
a year's rent here ; that though manual labor is dearer, it is greatly
economized by machinery ; and that the soil is so fresh and inexhausted
that it requires no outlay for manures. Moreover, in the present
state of that country, he need not purchase more land than he can
crop, as he is free to graze his stock on the unoccupied prairie. It is
this that constitutes one great advantage of settling on a prairie in com-
parison with a woodland country. In the latter, the settler can use no
land until he conquer it from the forest ; in the former, he not only
can at once put under crop all the land he purchases, but he is at lib-
erty to pasture his stock and cut his hay without hindrance on all the
unoccupied and fertile prairie which stretches around him. The grass
41
and hay for his cattle thus cost him nothing, and though manual labor
is dearer, horse-keep, which in England is such a heavy charge on the
farmer, is very cheap. The skillful stock manager could not fail to
make money, whether by cattle or sheep. Merino sheep are found
very profitable. And, in regard to corn farming, if he considers that
the average price of wheat in Illinois for the last ten years has been
more than half that of England during the same period, whilst land of
equal quality can be bought at less than one-thirtieth of the English
price, he will see in a moment the immense disproportion between the
value of the produce and that of the land in the two countries and
the chances which he thus has of an immediate profit, besides the far-
ther great probability of such an early rise in the value of the land he
buys as will tend to equalize the respective rates of profit in the two
countries. The advantages which are offered to this class of purchasers
by your credit system are very obvious. A young man cannot enter
an arable farm of 300 acres in this country without a capital of nearly
2,000. Half that sum in Illinois will make him owner of the same
extent of land, fenced, ploughed, and all under wheat. And if he avails
himself of the Company's credit system, little more than 500 will be
necessary to start him."
To the men of other nationalities, Illinois offers a cordial
welcome and an hospitable home. The Dane, the Swede,
the Norwegian, the Irish, the German, with his liberty-
loving principles, in coming here, shall find those to whom
he is connected by the ties of country, and with whom
he can at once affiliate. To such men, organized emi-
gration is preferable. Let them send a committee to
the Land Department, and an examiner will be detailed
to show them the Company's lands, and inform them
where contiguous tracts can be secured. If the report is
favorable, let the committee arrange for the arrival and
settlement of the colony, by building houses, digging
wells, and fencing farms, and providing all of those com-
forts and conveniences, which shall take away from the
emigrant all unpleasant associations connected with his
new home.
ROUTES TO ILLINOIS.
The principal ports in the United States at which the
emigration is landed are New York, Boston, Portland,
and New Orleans. The cost of passage across the At-
42
lantic is from $100 and upwards, to $30 and below,
dependent on the character of the accommodations. The
map prefixed to this report will show the railway connec-
tions between Chicago, the seat of the Company's princi-
pal offices, and these points of departure. The following
are the rates of fare at this time :
FROM NEW YORK.
1st Class. 2d Class. Emigrant.
Via Hudson River, New York Central, Great
Western (Canada), and Michigan Central,
Railroads (distance 950 miles), affording
the traveler an opportunity of visiting Niag-
ara Falls and the Great Suspension Bridge
over the Niagara River, without deviation
from his route, $23 00 $16 00 $10 00
If the traveler prefer, he may proceed
Via Hudson River, New York Central, Buffalo and Erie, Cleveland
and Erie, Cleveland and Toledo, and Michigan Southern Railroads,
(distance 963 miles).
Via New York and Erie, Buffalo and Erie, Cleveland and Eric,
Cleveland and Toledo, and Michigan Southern Railroads, (distance
960 miles).
Via Camden and Amboy, Pennsylvania Central, and Pittsburg, Fort
Wayne and Chicago Railroads, (distance 920 miles) .
The fares in each case will be the same.
FROM BOSTON.
1st Class. 2d Class. Emigrant.
Via Boston and Worcester, Western, New York
Central, Great Western (Canada), and
Michigan Central Railroads, (distance
1010 miles), $24 00 $14 00 $10 00
FROM NEW ORLEANS.
Via New Orleans, Jackson and Great North-
ern, Mississippi Central, Mobile and Ohio,
and Illinois Central, (distance 962 miles), $30 00 none. none.
Via Steamboat to Cairo (1077 miles), thence
by Illinois Central Railroad to Chicago
(365 miles) 1442 miles, . . $30 00 $11 50
The cost of passage, during the past season, by " Train's
Line," has been as follows:
From Liverpool to Boston, $18.
From Gottenberg to Boston, - $20 to $24.
These are about the rates from these foreign ports to
New York.
REMARKS
ON THE
SOIL AND PRODUCTIONS OP ILLINOIS
[ THE following remarks on the soil and productions of Illinois, have been prepared
by M. L. Dunlap,Esq., of West TJrbana, Champaign County, Illinois. Mr. Dnnlap
has been for twenty-three years a resident farmer in the State. For eighteen
years he cultivated a nursery and farm at Leyden, Cook County, and for three
years past has pursued the same course on a farm of two hundred and forty acres,
three miles south of Urbana Station on the Chicago Branch of the Illinois Central
Railroad. Having been connected for the past fifteen years with agricultural and
other journals as editor or correspondent, he has become thoroughly familiar with
the advantages, systems of agriculture, and results of cultivation, in all portions of
the State, and is considered as an authority on these subjects. A practical farmer
by profession, with long and varied experience, travelling repeatedly over all sec-
tions of the State as an intelligent and comprehensive observer, the accumulated re-
sults of his examination thus presented to the public, cannot fail to be of great ad-
vantage to all looking towards the selection of a western home.]
NORTHERN ILLINOIS.
Soil. The leading feature of the soil in the northern
part of the State is its resting on a stiff clay sub-soil nearly
impervious to water. This sub-soil breaks up into small
cakes when thrown up with the spade. When the soil is
ploughed, say ten to thirteen inches deep, by trench-
ploughing, that is, reversing the soil to that depth, and
sub-soiled six or eight inches below this, then it is in a con-
dition to absorb and carry off the surface water, and in
case of drought to supply moisture from below by capil-
lary attraction. On the other hand shallow ploughing,
sav from four to six inches, is ruinous to the farmer, as
the crops are liable to injury by every change of weather.
On this shallow ploughing, winter wheat is thrown out by
44
frost; or the drying winds of March destroy the roots by
robbing them of moisture. I apprehend it is not so much
a want of lime in the soil, as a want of deep culture that
shall provide for an equable distribution of moisture, that
has made the growing of winter- wheat so unprofitable in
this part of the State. Under-drains are too expensive to
be used on wheat-lands ; nor are they needed on our roll-
ing plains, where deep tillage is effected, except as a
means to carry off the surface water along the lines of de-
pression. "With this deep tillage and the necessary belts
of timber to break off the March winds, winter-wheat can
be cultivated profitably in this part of the State.
Spring Wheat and Oats. These are favorite cereals,
and have been found profitable even under a bad system
of culture. The land for both requires nearly the same
system of working : it should be powdered in all cases in
autumn and wheat sown early in March ; while the oats
should be sown early in April, or in case of a late spring,
immediately after the wheat. Thus the ploughing and
sowing of these grains is done at a season of the year
when the weather is favorable for team work and when
other farm labor is not pressing.
Corn, and the System of Cultivation. Let us take a piece
of winter-wheat stubble that has been sub-soiled as indi-
cated, plough this in autumn, say three or four inches
deep, just sufficient to bury the stubble and seeds of
weeds. By spring this will have become rotted, and form
a valuable manure ; the previous sub-soiling will tend to
make the surface dry and of course it can be easily
ploughed in time to plant. This ploughing should be eight
inches deep, and if well done, will bury the seeds of weeds
below the point where they can germinate, and the after
culture is quite easy.
As soon as the corn is ripe, it should be picked and
husked, and now comes the question What shall be done
with the stalks? My answer is, use them for drains. By
placing a curved iron two inches wide, three-eights of an
45
inch thick, and about twenty inches long, to the under side
of the plough-beam and at right angles to it, fastened with
a coulter clasp, the stalks will be brought within a small
compass, and the furrow will even them completely. Thus,
every fourth furrow will be laid with corn-stalk-tile.
Early in March, or so soon as the frost is partially out of
the ground, this should be sown with spring-wheat and
thoroughly harrowed in ; if the ground is dry, rolling will
be useful, but if wet otherwise. If the ground is muddy
at the time of sowing, it is just as well, as the subsequent
frost will make it mellow. The important point is to sow
early, and have the soil well covered. This crop can be
followed with oats ; spring wheat should follow turnips
and potatoes ; sow oats on sod-land, or after wheat or bar-
ley, otherwise the straw is too rank and will lodge.
The Dairy. But this part of the State, though it will
produce the cereals at a good profit, is to be the great
dairy district of the Northwest. Its natural adaptation to
the grasses, the endurance and richness of its pasturage,
the great stretches of natural meadow, the humidity of
the climate, the springs of water, and the nearness to a
large and growing city, all point to this as the great lead-
ing feature of the productive farming industry of Northern
Illinois, and to those who wish to make this their busi-
ness, it offers the most superior inducements.
Fruit-growing. Thus far, fruit-growing has not proved
profitable in this part of the State. The severity of
the winters has greatly damaged the orchards, unless
well protected by belts of timber. At the same time, the
garden fruits such as strawberries, currants, native rasp-
berries, and the Houghton gooseberry, have done well ; and
no family need be without an abundance of these valua-
ble fruits. The Clinton and Isabella grapes thrive well,
where trained within bounds, and protected in winter.
Vegetables. Irish potatoes, turnips, cabbages, and the
usual garden vegetables thrive well in this part of the
State. Sweet potatoes have of late been introduced and
46
produce a fair crop, but are wanting in that richness that
is acquired under the influence of a more southern sun.
For domestic use, they will prove a valuable addition.
Sheep and Swine. Sheep husbandry, unless with a
view to mutton, must give place to the dairy ; while pork
raising must always form a part of the dairy products,
and, though secondary, will yet go far to swell the profits
of the farm, and add to the shipping values of the state.
Broom Corn, Flax, etc. Broom corn has become a
staple product, and enters largely among our articles ot
export, both in the brush, and manufactured into brooms.
Flax is grown to considerable extent in the north-eastern
part of the State, for the seed and also the lint, which in
the form of tow is in demand in the city. Barley yields
good crops, but the fluctuations in price have been such
as to discourage its culture to some extent.
Manufactures. The Fox, and Rock rivers form a con-
tinued series of water power, sufficient to build up hun-
dreds of villages, which must make a ready home-market
for a large part of our farm products, and give a denser
population than will probably be realised by any other
portion of the Northwest.
CENTRAL ILLINOIS.
Has a dryer climate, being out of the range of the lake
winds, with a somewhat similar soil ; but with a sub-soil of
clay loam, in most cases permeable to moisture. These
two points make a decided difference in the natural pro-
ducts of each.
Winter Wheat. For winter wheat, this portion of the
State has an advantage in the more perfect drainage of the
sub-soil, making it less liable to heave out by winter frosts ;
but both parts of the State need the snow-covering which
gives to the northern belt of winter grain its great pro-
tection ; yet when sown here on a clover layer, timothy sod,
or even prairie sod, it is comparatively a profitable crop.
Spring Wheat. But we predict that spring-wheat will
47
be found equally, if not more profitable than winter-wheat,
and that it must assume a prominent place in any system
of rotation.
Oats. In the strong loam, oats are apt to grow too
vigorously, and are pretty sure to lodge ; this has prevent-
ed their culture, and accounts for the almost total absence
of this grain.
Corn. There is no part of the world of the same extent,
that is so natural to corn as this division of the State, and
it may safely challenge all competition in this regard.
The first field has yet to be pointed out that shows any
sign of failure, however long it has been kept in corn,
even without manure, and with the repeated ploughing
under of the stalks it might be considered inexhaustible.
Grass and Pasturage. Timothy and clover produce a
large yield of hay, but are not so well adapted to pas-
turage. The blue grass luxuriates in this friable loam,
and for eight months of the year produces the richest
herbage. During the hot months, it is less luxuriant, but
through most of the winter it will, if not fed close in the
autumn, furnish a plentiful supply. Capt. J. !N". Brown,
who winters annually over seven hundred head of cattle
and horses, says that he feeds less than half a ton of hay
per head, and mostly when the weather is too inclement
to allow the stock in the open pasture. This grass im-
proves with feeding, and needs no breaking up and re-sod-
ing for renewal. It is not adapted to meadows. With
such a grass and corn-soil, it should be no matter of sur-
prise that Central Illinois stands so high in the beef and
pork-markets of the world.
Beef and the Dairy. The dryness of the climate, the
want of springs, the lack of succulent pasturage in the heat
of summer, make this less desirable for dairying ; while
the cheapness of corn, the rich pasturage afforded by the
blue grass for all except the hot months, giv to stock-
growing the advantage, and hence beef and pork are the
great staples of this part of the State.
48
Vegetables require deep and thorough culture to with-
stand the heat of summer, and, with the exception of sweet
potatoes, are not so sure a crop as in the north.
Fruits. "We now meet with a decided improvement iu
the productions of the orchard. Yet even here orchards
will do better when protected by belts of timber, espec-
ially on the south and west. The peach-crop is not cer-
tain, yet often the trees are loaded to profusion. Grapes,
with open thorough culture, and proper winter protection,
will produce good crops. Raspberries, blackberries, and
strawberries produce abundantly. The currant and goose-
bery do not thrive so well unless shaded, the climate be-
ing too warm.
SOUTHERN ILLINOIS (Egypt).
. As we proceed south on the Chicago branch of the Illi-
nois Central Railroad, near Kioga, we observe a change
of soil. Instead the blackish, or mulatto soil of Central
Illinois, we now meet with the dull gray, or whitish soil of
Egypt, the drift of which it is composed partaking largely
of lime. Winter wheat takes the place of spring wheat ;
oats and barley flourish; corn is also a favorite crop.
While Irish potatoes and vegetables make but a poor re-
turn, sweet potatoes grow luxuriantly. Apples and
peaches produce abundantly; currants and gooseberries
are more difficult of culture. Timothy produces a good
crop of hay; pasturage during the hot months is poor,
water is more difficult to be had ; and the products of the
dairy are of an inferior quality. The mild winters are fa-
vorable to stock-growing. Hemp and tobacco grow well,
but the great staple is winter-wheat, which is of superior
quality. Cattle, hogs, and fruit thrive, of which peaches
stand first and foremost in list of profitable products.
The Newton Pippin. In that portion of Egypt north
of the Big Muddy, the prairie-soil contains an excess of
lime, and this is essential to the growth and perfection of
this favorite American apple. Nowhere does this variety
49
flourish better than in this lime-soil ; and in a few years,
this section of the State will be more celebrated for this
fruit, than the Hudson river valley or Pelham Farm, as
here this variety attains a size and fairness unexcelled.
Apple Orchards. From the adaptation of the soil, the
mildness of the climate, and the ready access to mar-
kets, in every direction, these belts of lime-mud drift
must ere long be mainly set to orchards ; as the de-
mand for fruit, both north and south, must not only be
constant, but increase in the direct ratio of the popula-
tion. There is no part of the United States so natural to
this fruit as this. Apples, pears, and peaches all grow
bountifully; but the apple will be the great staple, as a
failure is never known, and partial failures seldom occur.
Timber. South of the Big Muddy the land is densely
timbered, and rolling, or broken into ridges. The soil is
sandy loam, mixed with clay, and superior for the growth
and the perfect maturity of the pear. Jonesboro', nearly in
the centre of this tract, has a wide reputation for this val-
uable fruit. A large number of pear farms are opening,
mostly in the high broken knolls ; but when this timber is
cut away, so as to lower the frost line, nearly all the
country will be found adapted to this fruit.
Generalities. The subject of planting corn on prairie-sod,
broken up in May and early in June, has been the source
of much difference in opinion. Prairie in its natural state,
when not previously pastured by stock, and broken up
and planted at that season, will be found uncertain in its
results, and is not to be recommended to the new. settler ;
but when this grass has been well fed down, it presents a
very encouraging prospect of success. In this condition, it
usually yields twenty to forty bushels of corn per acre, and
will prove profitable. The soil before partially rotted, or
destroyed by the tramping of cattle, will soon decay, and
the ground will be in a good condition for the next crop.
Whenever it can be done, it is desirable to pasture the
prairie a year or two, before breaking. This has been
50
my practice, and my best paying crops have been taken
from prairie-sod on the first breaking.
It requires but a glance to convince us that the dairy-
man should locate in the northern part of the State ; the
stock grower in the central; the apple orchardist in the
prairie portion of Egypt ; and the peach grower and gard-
ener in the southern, or timber portions : not that any or
all of these products cannot be grown in all parts of the
State, but that in these particular locations, all of the ele-
ments of success are fully developed.
PROGRESS OF DEVELOPMENT.
It is impossible for a foreigner to realize the progress of
development in the region north-west of the Ohio river.
It is now a little more than seventy years since the first
American colony was planted in that region. Since then,
great and wonderful changes have taken place: Seven
states carved out of this territory and incorporated into
the Union; cities founded, one of which exceeds 200,000,
and one 120,000 in population, and several which ex-
ceed 50,000; villages planted at frequent intervals, with
churches and school houses ; wide tracts of forest leveled
and converted into cultivated farms ; roads and post routes
everywhere opened; the bordering lakes and rivers float-
ing a commercial marine equal to that of a second class
power; the territory itself traversed by 8986 miles of rail-
way, and constructed at a cost of $230,476,910; and an
added population of about 9,000,000, or nearly one-third
of the entire population of the United States. In the
history of this period, there have been many commercial
revulsions; but the region has always shown a recupera-
tive power. Each census has exhibited a large increase
in population, and a large development of material wealth.
51
INDUCEMENTS TO EMIGRATE.
[THE subjoined remarks are extracted from Caird's " Prairie Farming in America,"
a work which at this time is exciting much attention in Great Britain. What he
says in reference to over-crowded population, and the enhanced value of land in the
Old World, is equally applicable to portions of the Atlantic States.]
" THK present position of the agricultural body in the United King-
dom is interesting and peculiar. The land-owner and the agricultural
laborer are both profiting by the same cause, a limited supply of the
commodity in which they deal. So long as this country continues to
prosper, the value of land must increase, for there can be no increase
of the land itself. But the demand for labor varies, and the supply is
subject to causes which render it uncertain. While, so long as the
present system of taxation continues, there must be a continued rise in
the value of land, there appears to me no equal certainty of a pro-
gressive advance in the rate of wages.
" But the hirer of land, the farmer, must inevitably suffer from the
continued competition for its possession. He has not only to meet his
own class, a necessarily increasing body, in this competition, but to
contend with men who, having made money in other pursuits, wish to
retire to the more pleasurable occupations of a country life. It is this
competition which is the true cause of the reduced profits -of farming,
and this is more likely to increase than diminish. Great Britain is the
most attractive place of residence on the surface of the globe, whether
we regard its equable and healthy climate, its varied scenery and field
sports, the almost sacred character of the rights of property in the
eyes of its people, and the admirable combination of liberty and order
which is preserved under its political constitution. Men will pay for
these advantages, when they can afford it, a price which is not measur-
ed by the ordinary rates of profit.
" Besides this competition, which raises the rate of rent, the fanner
must now meet in his own market the produce of lower-priced foreign
lands. He will, no doubt, always have the cost of transport in his
favor, and this would generally be sufficient to balance the difference
of rent ; but the land of this country cannot be cultivated without
manure, and the farmers of those foreign countries whose soil is rich
enough to yield corn for many years without manure, are thereby able
to undersell the British producer in his own market. The cost of
labor when the value of food of the working stock is calculated, is near-
52
ly the same at home and abroad, and superior fertility alone will be
found to turn the advantage in favor of the foreign producer.
" The special adaptation of Britain for the production of live stock,
and the constantly increasing demand for that branch of the farmer's
produce, have hitherto modified the effects of foreign competition in
corn. But even these, excellent though they have proved, cannot per-
manently counteract the cause of the farmer's diminished profits : viz.,
home competition for the possession of land. The soil here is now
becoming more valuable for other purposes than ordinary fanning, and
the proportion between the producers and consumers of food is under-
going a rapid change. It appears from the Census that, in 1851, only
16 per cent, of the adult population of England was occupied in the
business of agriculture. During the previous twenty years the propor-
tion had fallen from 28 to 16 per cent., from no actual decrease of the
numbers employed in agriculture, but from the far greater proportional
increase of trade. The same gradual change is going on. At this
time there is probably not more than one-tenth of the adult population
of England employed in the culture of the land. The manufacturing,
mining, and town populations are thus gradually absorbing the business
of the country, increasing the value of the land, the profits of the land-
owner, but in the same proportion diminishing the area left for ordinary
fanning.
" The time seems thus to have arrived when the farmers must thin
the ranks of home competition by sending off the young and enter-
prising to countries where they may become the owners of a fertile
soil, and profitably contribute to supply the wants of the old country,
whose land can no longer meet the demands of her dense population.
During the last year we have imported into this country at the rate of
nearly one million quarters of grain each month. We have thus in
addition to our home crop, consumed each day the produce of TEN
THOUSAND acres of foreign land, a demand so vast as to offer to young
men of our own country the strongest inducements to take their share
in its supply.
"Having, during last autumn, had an opportunity of making a
pretty careful inspection of a part of the valley of the Upper Missis-
sippi, probably the most fertile corn region in the world, I have col-
lected for publication, in the form of a series of letters, the notes made
by me at the time. There may be other countries which present equal-
ly good prospects to the agricultural emigrant. I venture to speak
only of that which I have seen. This seems to me to offer the very
53
field which we want at present, a virgin soil of easy culture, with
no forests to clear, of extraordinary natural fertility, in a country
traversed by a most perfect system of railways, where no settler need
be more than ten miles from a station, whose shore is washed by one
of those great lakes through which an outlet is found to the Atlantic,
and which possesses in the Mississippi itself a vast artery of commerce,
navigable by steamers for thousands of miles. A great part of the
country is underlaid with coal, iron, and lime, thus affording a present
supply of such minerals, and the prospect of a great increase of value
should the people ever turn their attention to manufactures. There is
a complete organization of markets throughout the country ; and, set-
ting aside the export to England, there is a very large and increasing
local demand for every article of agricultural produce. The price of
labor is economized by the most extensive and profitable use of agri
cultural machinery, and by the comparatively small cost of maintain-
ing horses and working cattle. The grazing of cattle and sheep is
very profitable, and the production of merino wool, already large,
admits of vast increase.
" The fee simple of this land can be purchased at from 40s. to 50s.
and 60s. [from $8 to $14] an acre.
" As a mere investment, this land would pay well to purchase and
hold for a few years, and the increasing supply of gold, of which
America herself yields an annual crop of ten millions sterling, will
every year contribute to the higher relative value of land here and
elsewhere. But the British emigrant, when he purchases this land,
secures to himself not only the profits of farming it, but has also the
growing increase in the value of the land itself, a right to which he
can have no share at home. The country is now brought within a fort-
night's journey from our shores, and is actually more accessible from
Great Britain than most parts of Ireland were fifty years ago."
" There are two branches of his business to which I would specially
ask the attention of the British emigrant to Illinois, viz. stock farming,
and the cultivation of Indian corn. Full details will be found on both
subjects in these letters. A good stock of cattle or sheep can be
bought by a comparatively small outlay of capital ; and, so long as the
open prairie is thinly settled, grass for half the year may be had for
nothing, and hay for the other half for only the cost of saving it. Tn
regard to Indian corn, both climate and soil are more suitable to it
than wheat. It can be grown to any extent, with a certain measure of
success, every year, and, unlike wheat, this grain may be harvest <>il
54
with safety over a period of many weeks. A small and regular sup-
ply of labor thus suffices for the management of a large extent of land.
There is always a market for it, and the lowest price at which we have
ever seen it in England will afford a very good return to the prairie
farmer of Illinois, after deducting all the charges of transporting.
" An emigrant from this country may be set down in Illinois at a
total cost from Liverpool or Glasgow of 61. 7s., [about $30] inclusive
of provisions.
" The present is a most favorable time for commencing to farm in
Illinois. The panic of 1857 has not yet been forgotten, and the
prices at which every sort of contract (building, fencing, ploughing,)
may be executed, are 50 per cent, below the average rates."
THE LANDS AND HOMES OF THE WEST.
{From the New York Tribune, April 21st, 1858.]
As an almost unprecedented immigration is going forward to the rich
and fertile prairies of the West, from the exhausted soils and over-
crowded cities of the East, in consequence of the late commercial and
business crisis, it is important to the farmer, the mechanic, and the la-
borer, who contemplates changing his home, to note the following facts :
1. No State in the Valley of the Mississippi offers so great induce-
ments to the settler as the State of Illinois. Forming a part of that pro-
lific belt which extends from the Atlantic to the Missouri river, and in-
cludes the States of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, and
Northern Missouri, it holds a commanding and central position ; while
the great lake on one side, and the great rivers on the other, give it
easy and equal access to the North, the South, the East and the West.
2. The climate, removed alike from the rigorous severity of the
more northern States, and the oppressive heats of the more southern,
is both salubrious and agreeable. According to the federal census of
1850, the rate of mortality in Illinois is less than in several of the
New England States. The soil, composed of a deep, rich loam, is as
fertile as any on the globe. It is, for the most part, so easily worked
requiring no grubbing up of stumps and picking off of stones that
the labor of one man is as effective, commonly, as that of two or three
men on the rockier soils of the East, and far more productive. One
man on the prairies can break from two to three acres, and afterward
plough from six to eight acres per day, while in the East he can only
break from one-half to one acre per day, and plough from two to three
acres afterward. The yield of the prairies, at the same time, is
nearly three-fold greater. In fact, Illinois was long ago designated
by popular instinct as the Garden State of the West ; and now that it
55
has been brought so extensively under cultivation, it more tlian ever
deserves the name.
3. Illinois is not a frontier State, in which the settler is exposed to
the severe privations and hardships of early settlement, but it contains
tfver a million and a half of residents, numerous cities, towns, and
villages, and 2775 miles of completed railway, which is more than any
other State of the Union has, with the exception of New York and
Ohio. Ninety millions of dollars have been expended on works of
internal improvement, without resorting to a State debt, and to conse-
quent taxation; and 1,800,000 acres of land have been devoted to
purposes of education and general utility. These improvements
will supply a revenue to the State for the public expenditures for all
time to come, and consequently taxation will be merely nominal.
4. It is often said that Illinois is unwoodcd ; but the fact is, that
there is scarcely a county in the State without considerable forests,
while the southern part of it alone contains 2,000,000 acres of tim-
ber. In the year 1857 there was brought into Chicago 460,000,000
feet of lumber. Chicago is also the greatest grain depository in the
world, and is the terminus of 3953 miles of finished railway. In
different parts of the State, iron, coal, and fine building stone are
found in abundance.
5. Nowhere can excellent land be procured on more favorable terms
than in Illinois. The Central Railroad Company, to which the State
granted the 2,590,000 acres which had been donated by the General
Government extending through the centre of the State, north and
south, fifteen miles on each side of the railroad having disposed of
1,200,000 acres, offers the rest at moderate prices, on long credits and
moderate rates of interest. The prices vary from $6 to $30, and
the credits extend over a period of seven years.
6. There are on the line of the Central Railroad 100 cities and vil-
lages, with populations varying from 200 to 12,000 souls with facto-
ries, mills, stores, post-offices, schools, and churches all rapidly
growing in numbers and wealth, and affording the comforts of civil-
ized life to the settler, while they open every opportunity and prospect
of business to the mechanic and trader. The counties contiguous to
the road embrace a population of over 600,000, for the most part
thrifty, enterprising, and industrious.
7. Thus it will be seen that the lands of Illinois are largely peopled
and cultivated ; their products are within easy reach of all the great
western centres of trade, and may be transported, by way of the lake,
to the Eastern markets, at less cost than from many intermediate
points ; and though these lands are now sold for from $6 to $30 per
acre, they must inevitably advance to $50, and even $100, within a
few years. Lands that were lately sold by the Company for $15 or
^'25 per acre will now bring from $50 to $100. The Illinois Central
Company gives no encouragement to speculative purchasers, for its
own interests prompt it to prefer the actual settler, who raises the
value of neighboring lands, and contributes to the traffic of the road.
A\
Of
IS Oil tllC
H
*o
i
a
d
1
S
1853
1835
1828
1850
1854
1850
1852
1853
1850
1838
1855
1854
1855
1839
1850
1855
1853
1839
1850
1855
1856
1854
1853
1857
1853
1836
1832
1856
1853
1845
1855
1829
1854
1853
1855
1855
1855
1851
1820
is;,.
1855
1854
Inhabitants,
1850.
Inhabitants,
1856.
Inhabitants,
1859.
Houses, 1856.
I-H
1
Churches, 1859.
f
1"
OQ
gj
j.
?/
Flour Mills, 1859.
3
j
a
1
1
Acres in Wheat,
1858. |
1
F
Acres in Corn,
1855.
Northern Division.
Dunleith,*t
5
No
6,000
300
14
None
25
None
6
18
1,400
No
None
No
None
None
640
16
None
None
No
200
3
None
None
None
None
None
None
25
2,200
None
None
800
None
No
600
None
None
None
None
None
None
360
None
None
None
1,800
town
12,000
500
292
200
800
400
350
750
6,000
town
153
town
2,500
105
4,500
2,500
1,098
1,400
town
7,250
240
1,200
70
130
195
None
208
110
7,000
200
350
1,600
28
town
4,000
28
400
40
850
8(
1.60C
23
80
120
2,000
laid
15,000
800
300
250
1,100
600
750
250
7,000
laid
425
laid
3,500
123
3,500
3,000
1,300
3,000
laid
8,100
800
600
170
180
250
600
165
212
8,500
300
400
2,600
130
laid
7,000
30
375
400
798
117
150
1,800
55
60
400
2,600
out
2,500
120
40
40
150
78
116
150
1,600
out
30
out
600
30
515
350
158
242
out
1,550
60
300
12
28
39
None
47
23
2,986
20
73
350
3
out
800
150
7
86
22
10
265
3
5
30
30C
yet.
3,100
75
60
56
325
104
150
62
1,800
yet.
101
yet.
750
33
550
380
300
700
yet.
1,960
150
100
26
35
45
120
48
42
3,200
64
80
500
21
yet.
1,150
8E
40
171
22
30
300
10
14
60
2
18
2
2
2
2
4
5
2
11
1
6
7
4
2
7
10
3
2
.1
1
1
1
2
16
1
1
8
1
i:;
3
2
2
.1
4
1
2
25
1
2
1
S
4
"2
I
11
1
1
(i
3
9
6
15
4
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
'21
1
1
(i
1
7
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
15
21.'i
2
8
3
19
8
8
4
70
6
85
8
68
~2
40
HJO
8
6
1
4
6
6
125
2
8
'20
8
98
1
12
5
13
6
8
18
4
4
7
21
8
'2
1
1
2
1
1
9
2
4
1
6
3
7
7
2
2
1
1
1
3
1
12
2
2
8
1
9
2
1
4
8
4
1
1
5
8
8
'2
4
2
1
2
1
1
4
1
2
2
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
8
3
4
1
8
2
1
1
1
1
8
1
2
4
1
1
1
2
1
4
11
1
12
8
8
8
1
1
15
2
4'
1
11
J
1
1
1
1,000
200
13,000
7,000
6,900
3,000
6,000
10,500
5,000
8,000
22,000
6,000
9,000
3.000
12,000
1,450
20,000
22,000
3,800
25,200
6,000
7,000
21,500
25,000
4,360
6,700
18,000
1,000
12,740
10,000
4", 000
20,000
11,200
2,500
,500
1,200
24,000
3,000
25,000
2,000
2,000
1,300
6,200
1,000
1,500
400
300
1,000
500
15,300
2,000
5,300
7,000
8,000
20,000
8,000
10,000
45,000
11,000
20,000
8,000
18,000
2,000
8,600
9,000
12,600
65,000
17,000
11,000
23,500
60,000
11,600
40,000
30,000
15,000
7,500
16,950
70,000
20,000
30000
23,000
8,000
3,000
50,000
4,000
50,000
15,000
8,000
4,000
12,000
12,000
4,000
3,000
2,000
1,600
600
17,400
2,000
5,700
8,000
10,000
30,000
8,000
12,000
50.000
15,000
25,000
4,000
20,000
3,270
5,340
10,500
25,000
60,000
8,000
9,000
24,500
70,000
12,000
50,000
32,000
13,000
8,480
18,540
70,000
25,000
35,000
12,000
4,000
4,200
40,000
2,000
30,000
18,000
6,000
4,000
10,000
14,000
5,000
4,000
4,000
300
100
1,000
4,000
10,400
2,500
6,000
6,200
2,000
4,0' ,0
15.000
7,000
6,500
2,000
9,000
3800
24,000
34000
8.060
32,400
9,000
20,000
28.500
20,300
8,000
12',000
2,000
30,100
20,000
45,000
2l'5'M)
32,000
4,000
3,000
60,000
500
4,000
4,000
12,000
20,000
15,600
4,000
3,000
1,800
1,400
Mt'nominee,
Council Hill,
Scales Mound,*
Apple River,*
Warren, t*
Nora,*
Eleroy,
Freeport.t*
< 'rane's Grove,
Forreston,*
Haldane, ,
Polo,t*
Woosung,
Dixon,t*
Amboy,*t
Sublette,*
Mcndota,t*..
Homer,
LaSalle,t*
Tonioa,
Wenona,*
Rutland,*
Minouk,*
Panola,'
El Paso,t*
Kappa,*
Hudson,* ,. . . .
Bloomington,t*
Heyworth,*
Wapella,t*
Clinton,t*
Maroa,*
Forsyth,
Decatur,t*
Macon,*
Moaweqna,*
Assumption ,*
Pana,t*
Oconoe,*
Ramsey,*
Vandalia,t*
Shobonier,*
Patoka,*
Sandoval,t*
442,390
816,750
846,030
567,060
tions supplied with Maps of vacant lands belonging to the Railroad Company, with prices. Parties -wishing
ine lands belonging to the Company can ap
* Stations sup 4
to examine lands belonging to the Company can apply to the Eailroad Station Agents for information and assistance.
_Yo other agencies are recognized by the Land Department.
t Telegraph Stations.
The above tables are intended to set forth the condition of the railroad Towns, with the territo-
ries tributary to them, on or about July 1, 1859. At some of the stations, small settlements existed
before the organization of a town, which accounts for population appearing on the statement, in a
few instances, before the date given for its organization.
In making up the returns for 1856, a few of the agents sent in statistics of population and build-
ings embraced in a whole township, as if contained in the town limits only. These errors have
been corrected in the returns for 1859, and therefore the tables show an apparent decrease in tho
prosperity of some places, such as Council-Hill, Wenona, Manteno, Chebanse, Jonesboro', &c. ;
whereas, the increase at these points has been really very considerable. The floating population
of laborers, &c., is also reckoned in these returns, and this may bo distributed at any time to other
points. It does not, however, materially affect the general result.
57
Illinois
a
a 1 >
a
E
s"
w o
W>0
>
O
CS ~
ps 1 "!
is
kg
rM
L
c3
1 .1 1
fs
.5S8
fc
& S
*1
If
SM
a e
Is
(Sri
1 a l
i
1
U S.
K S,
Jw
3
3
*o
<
^
o
I
1
W
P
s
250
1,000
2
5
10
$3,000
85,500
1,500
3,000
Germany and Ireland.
300
400
1
3
2
2,000
5,000
200
250
New England.
1.560
1,980
19
12
5
104,400
223,300
35,000
45,000
New York and New England.
2,000
3,000
50
25,000 30,000
400
650
England.
8,000
9,400
72
13
11
65,000
86,000
2,500
3,600
England and Germany.
2,500
3,000
70
10
4
20,000
30.000
140
250
British Islands.
8,000
9,000
50
75
25
10,600
20,000
450
2,500
Ohio and New York.
20,000
30,000
80
18
10
19,500
82.500
400
1,100
New York.
2,000
4,000
17
20
12
200,000
300,000
4,f'00
5,000
Vermont.
9.000
12,000
13
6
8
3300
23,100
225
800
Ireland and Germany.
40,000
45,000
65
100
100
120,600
200,000
15,000
30,000
New England.
53,000
12,000
10
7
2
35,000
50,00 )
250
325
New York and Pennsylvania.
14,000
18,000
49
41
50
45,000
125,000
90
425
Pennsylvania.
7,000
8,000
17
4
2
25,000
30,000
40
110
New York and Massachusetts.
11.000
12,000
60
100
200
20,000
50,000
6,000
12,000
New York and Maryland.
3,000
5,200
34
17
4
4,000
20,000
54
425
New England.
7,500
10,680
80
10
25
191.600
186,100
4,107
7,602
Pennsylvania.
7,000
8,500
70
35
30
60,000
100,000
8,000
10,500
New England.
15,000
30,000
8
20
50
200.000
450.000
2,000
3,000
New York.
60,000
70,000
100
150
75
15,000
45,000
1.800
5,000
Ohio and Germany.
20,000
18,000
34
11
4
19,000
25,000
'300
450
Ohio and Pennsylvania.
30,000
35,000
125
20
30
80,000
360,000
10,000
12,000
Ireland and Germany.
50.500
85,500
180
100
100
150,000
200,000
1,000
2,800
New England.
3o;ooo
40,000
100
75
75
40,000
50,000
1,200
6,000
Middle States.
6,500
13,800
128
60
20
5,000
95,000
57
1,200
Vermont.
15,000
25,000
179
150
75
8,000
60,000
200
2,000
Middle States.
16,000
30,000
100
20
30
100,000
100,000
2,500
3,000
New York.
30,000
54,500
73
15
20
12,000
50,000
60
450
New York.
15,000
12,000
60
15
6
60,000
40,000
2,000
1,800
Ohio.
24,000
31,220
21
35
20
50,000
80,000
1,200
2,400
Ohio.
65,000
95,000
400
2CO
200
500,000
1,250,000
13, 000
24,000
Ohio and Kentucky.
30,000
35.000
70
25
10
75.000
125,000
1.4001 2>00
Ohio.
40,000
60,000
140
20
100
300,000
1,000,000
3.000
6,000
Ohio and Kentucky.
20,000
25,000
75
25
20
378,000
600.000
8,500
11,500
Ohio and Kentucky.
4,000
12,000
26
20
10
15.000
60,000
400
1,500
Illinois and Ohio.
7,000
18,000
19
5
2
10,000
35,000
60
480
Pennsylvania and Kentucky.
70,000
100,000
100
100
50
160,000
250,000
6,000
12,000
Pennsylvania and Ohio.
600
2,000
38
6
1
12,000
20,000
75
200
New York.
5,000
40,000
30
60
20
172,000
400,000
750
4,000
Kentucky.
18,000
20,000
25
30
40
60,000
180,000
59
4,000
Canada and Louisiana.
20,000
30,000
25
65
20
253,000
344,800
250
1,482
Eastern States.
20,000
25,000
15
3
65,000
200,000
1,000
1,500
Tennessee and Kentuky.
20,000
23,500
6
10
6
149,700
295,200
5
150
Tennessee and Kentucky.
10,000
12,000
20
25
10
20,000
60,000
5,000
9.000
Kentucky and Tennessee.
3,000
5,000
15
17
21
10,000
30,000
l,i >00
Ohio and New York.
4,000
8,000
*j
6
14
15,000
18,000
300
500
Kentucky and Tennessee.
1,500
1,500
10
15
20
50,000
120,000
1,500
1,800
Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.
786,210
1,100,180
$3,937,600
$8,099,500
The statistics of the Towns proper are embraced in the first thirteen columns ; the
remaining fourteen having reference to the territory fairly to be considered as tributary to
each station.
The areas in cultivation have been estimated by parties at each station well acquainted
vnth the surrounding country, and reference has been made to the assessors' books whenever
this was practicable. The valuations of stock have generally been obtained from this source,
and should be considered as varying from thirty-three to fifty per cent, below the true
value. In some localities, owing to the establishment of new Stations, part of the territo-
ry included in the previous returns from one Station, has been transferred to another.
Corn and Wheat being the great staples of Illinois, the most prominent positions have
":ecn assigned to these products. In the Northern part of the State, Oats is an important
product of agriculture, in some localities occupying an equal area in its cultivation with
either Corn or Wheat. So, also, of Fruit, in the Southern part. About Makanda, for
instance, over 10,000 acres are planted with peach trees; and in 1858, 150 r OOO bushels of
peaches were shipped from Cobden station alone; while the shipments of this season will
58
St/t;IStOS Ol' TOATVIXS 0X1 tlo.0
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34
750
3640
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None
50
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320
110
174
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Chicago Division.
1838
1853
1856
1853
IS50
1856
1854
1853
1854
1857
1*55
1857
1854
1852
1S.7J
1855
1857
1855
1856
1835
1856
1854
1857
1855
1857
1855
1856
1855
1856
1855
1856
1856
]S;V,
1856
1856
1853
1854
1840
1854
1856
1854
1857
1853
1854
1853
1854
1857
1818
1857
isr,fj
1854
1WH
1854
1853
60
None
None
10
146
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
15
None
None
None
None
500
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
65
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
14
None
684
Vone
Vone
tfone
^fone
tfone
300
50
260
98
1,000
840
24
600
66
31
47
80
8
200
820
125
None
6
None
64
15
31
4
21
367
None
6
None
4
2
113
41
6
1
275
156
100
24
17
40
80
110
4
2
263
None
23
33
30
12
400
6
68
24
251
87
9
74
!)4f
J7
a
4f
35
12f
2f
;
131
65
8
IS
!)5f
IK
9
3(
7(
6
4
2
2
J
1
2
2
2
1
1
2
1
1
4
\
1
7
6
1
1
!
1
.1
2
1
2
1
1
6
1
1
1
2
8
1
I
1
1
1
1
2
2
8
2
1
1
1
4
2
8
1
1
8
1
1
1
3
3
5
(j
1
8
50
3
2
8
11
i
i
s
6
1
3
54
6
2
6
6
1
30
3
8
2
7
2
2
7
5
in
9
6
4
12
2
J2
8
1C
2
4
9
5
1
3
1
3
60
'
]
t>
2
1
1
t;
*
n
A
<
l
8
1
2
.'
1
I
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
7
2
8
4
1
3
8
8
1
1
2
1
1
8
2
1
20
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
f)
1
7
3
O
O
1
1
1
1
1
J
2
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
2
2
1
2
1
2
1
7
1
1
8
2
1
1
2
15
2
7
10
2
4
15
3
1
10
200
700
1,200
800
700
3,500
10,600
6,000
260
1,000
6,250
300
3,000
1,000
600
400
2,000
210
4,240
5,680
2,600
3,140
2,800
1,500
1,000
2,000
3,000
6,000
500
4,000
1,500
3,000
800
1,800
740
2,000
1.5CO
3,COO
2,000
1,000
4,200
2,400
2,000
4,320
3,000
4,200
7,000
21,000
9,000
7,200
1,000
3,000
2,000
200
1,040
4,000
4,000
2,240
2,600
11,000
31,000
10,000
2,000
12,000
500
5,000
2,500
1,700
2,600
4,000
800
4,000
20,000
10,000
8,000
6,400
60,000
3,000
8,000
4,000
10,000
500
6,000
5,000
6,000
1,000
12,000
1,800
3,000
12,000
20,000
8,000
4,300
8,000
3,240
6,000
6,000
5,000
10,000
7,000
16,000
12,000
7,000
1,000
8,000
5,060
100
1,200
4,750
4,500
2,400
3,000
11,000
43,000
15,000
4,000
6,000
2,000
12,000
3,000
2,000
1,300
15,000
1,000
6,700
20,000
12,000
12,000
10,500
60,000
3,000
6,000
3,000
18,000
500
8,000
6,500
9,370
6,600
10,000
2,000
4,000
14,500
20,000
10,000
4,300
9000
3,030
6,600
6,500
6,000
6,000
8,000
23,000
15,000
7,000
2,000
9,000
7,000
600
1,100
2,000
3,000
4,500
3400
14,500
10,000
1,500
3,000
1,800
700
8,100
2,340
800
300
16,000
2,460
2,000
12,000
6,000
4,270
3,700
60,000
16,000
65,000
42,000
12,000
2,000
17,000
11,000
10,000
5,000
9,400
14,000
12,000
6,000
35,600
8,000
8,000
18,000
3,240
12,400
12,000
6,200
4,500
12,000
43,000
10,000
6,000
25,000
4,100
4,000
Thornton,*
Kichton
Monee t*
Kankakee,t*
4,900
70
175
444
130
600
140
17
900
400
39
90
4,000
550
60
105
350
31
1,400
130
300
40
200
48
60
300
40
650
2,500
1,200
1,000
121
400
648
1,200
800
1,100
43
150
700
150
185
325
201
72
5,200
Clifton,*
Ashkum,*
Gilman,t*
Spring Creek,
Bulkley,* . . . .
Loda *
Paxton.t*
15
28
125
3,285
None
33
None
20
472
16
200
25
G
1,900
718
300
113
60
300
500
700
50
6
1,209
Pera,*
Rantoul,*
Pesotum,*
Tuscola,*
Okaw,*
Milton,*
Mattoon,t*
Neo<*a,*
KfBncham,t*
Watson,
Mason,
Pklgewood,*
Farina,*
K.inmundy,t*
iTonti,*...
Odin,f*
Centralia,t*
Richview.*
Ashley,t*
Coloma,*
Tamaroa,*
St. John's, t
Du Quoin,t*
De Soto.*
Carbondale,t*
Makanda,*
Cobden,*
Jonesboro',t*
Dongola. . . .
Wetang ' .
120
250
150
96
3,000
Ullin.*
l j ulaski,t*
Villa Ridge,
fMound City Junc'n
llCairo.t*
160,840
393,320
473,250
595,510
J Town laid out, but no improvements yet made. J A few houses only, occupied by Irish laborers, tc. No
town laid out yet. No agricultural country tributary to it. | No agricultural country tributary to it.
probably considerably exceed that amount. Jonesboro' also ships large quantities of peaches,
as well as vegetables and berries from the extensive market gardens located near the town.
About 1,500 hogsheads of tobacco will be shipped this season from Makanda station.
Extensive Coal mines are worked at La Salle, St. John's and Du Quoin stations ; also at
Bryant, on the Great Western Railroad, about thirty miles east of Tolono station.
59
Illinois
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