CORRESPONDENCE. 



PoNTiAC, Livingston Co., 111., Feb. 3rd, 1857. 

 F. G. Gary, Esq.: 



Dear Sir : — It is many months since I have heard from you and 

 your vicinity, and of the prosperity of the College, and the Model 

 Farm, of which I suppose you are the chosen Professor in agricultu- 

 ral science. Suiting my address in accordance with my cogitations, 

 I am seated at my desk, and writing an epistle to you, from my pres- 

 ent home at Wolf Grove, five miles north of Pontiac, in Livingston 

 County, Illinois. When in Ohio, I used to hear many things said 

 of the ' sucker State,' of its beautiful prairies and pleasant groves ; 

 but never till I saw them did I fully appreciate the poetic phrase, 

 ' The groves were God's first temples.' Here I feel the force of it ; 

 they are indeed temples, many of them standing out like islands in 

 a great ocean. Pardon me, when I say Illinois will one day become 

 the Banner State of this Union in Agriculture ; we have here a soil 

 of almost inexhaustible fertility, and neither roots, stumps or stones 

 to remove. Farming is done on a much larger scale here than in 

 Ohio, labor saving machinery being used to a much greater extent. 



There is, indeed, a great want of Farmers' Colleges and model 

 farms, like yours in the country. I long to see the day when such 

 institutions 8hall proudly crown the summit of many of our beauti- 

 ful prairie mounds, and send forth their dignified and educated 

 farmers to till our fields, and make them teem and shine with the 

 abundance of their fruits. Work on, then, in your great cause ; 

 send out the young men of merit and worth, fully educated for the 

 task as missionaries in the agricultural world. It is the noblest call- 

 ing among men. Of a truth, he who causes two blades of grass to 

 grow where only one grew before, does more than he who conquers a 



nation. 



I have many things to tell, but must defer for the present, my ob- 

 ject being to give you my whereabouts, and let you know that your 

 enterprise on College Hill is not forgotten. Here I am, far out in 

 the prairies, in a beautiful section of country — healthy and fertile — 

 building up a new prairie farm, that I intend, if possible, shall be a 

 model for your Model Farm, on College Hill. 



Will you be so kind as to write and inform me of your prosperity 



in the College and Farm. Yours truly. 



Jesse Pearson. 



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