260 
and profitable shape for transportation to market, though some of our corres- 
pondents state that the profits of feeding during the past two years has ranged 
from 25 to 75 per cent. of the selling profits, as while corn has been sold as low 
as 10 to 15 cents per bushel, last fall it brought 50 to 60 cents. Our Morgan 
county reporter says : 
Our county is mainly engaged in raising beef and pork from corn and grass. Little reli- 
ance is placed on other crops, our lands being especially adapted to those named. The late 
Jacob Strawn, known as the Napoleon ot cattle feeders, in his latter days, came here a poor 
boy about the year 1829, and died worth about $2,€00,000, all accumulated in agricultural 
pursuits and the advance in the value of his lands. John Alexander, who began with noth- 
ing, now farms about 30,000 acres, and probably ships more beef into the New York market 
weekly than any other man in the United States. Other men have done well, many have 
made fortunes, but the certainty of profit from beef and pork, together with sheep, horses, 
and mules, to some extent tends to make our farmers negligent of the products of the dairy, 
the garden, and the orchard, and indeed of all other products, for many of which our soil is 
doubtless well adapted. 
Our Sangamon correspondent writes as follows : 
Corn is the principal crop raised; our best farmers usually plant about the 10th of May. 
The common mode of culture is to plant with a machine, in hills four feet apart each way, 
dropping from four to six grains at atime. As soon as up enough to show the rows, the 
ploughs are started, either double-shoyvels or riding cultivators. Three times ploughing are 
usually considered sufficient, and a great many fields never get more than two. The aver- 
age yield is not more than 60 bushels per acre, though some of our best farmers raise from 
75 to 100 bushels. The average cost of breaking, harrowing, planting, cultivating, and 
gathering an acre of corm the past season may be set down at $10; the average price of corn 
in the crib, 60 cents per bushel. 
Warren county : 
Corn is the great staple and must continue to be. With the slovenly culture practiced, 25 
bushels per acre is about as much as the county will average, while careful culture, with 
ordinary skill, will make whole farms average 80 bushels per acre; showing that it is much 
more profitable than careless culture. Fertilizing our and (though very rich) increases the 
yield in as great a ratio as upon the thinnest land to be found, and will bring it up to 100 
bushels of corn per acre with proper cultivation. 
Brown county : 
As high as 100 bushels of corn have been taken from one acre. The best 80-acre field I 
remember to have seen was raised by your correspondent in 1861., Mode of culture: wheat 
stubble ploughed in November 10 inches deep with a three-horse plough; asimilar ploughing 
in April; planted four feet each way, ploughed three times, the last time the end of June; 
yield, 70 bushels per acre. It was the year of the great frost on the 28th of August, which ruined 
so much corn in the west. This piece was entirely out of the way, was cut up, shucked 
and cribbed and the fodder fed to the stock. The corn was sold, August, 1862, at the depot 
for $1 014 per bushel. Our help was contraband at $10 per month and board; other expenses 
light. The profits were $60 per acre. The land was worth $40 per acre. The fodder was 
valuable, and some of it was sold as high as $5 per acre. 
De Witt county : 
Corn, when well worked, say 15 acres to the hand, will, in ordinary seasons, produce 80 
bushels to the acre, making 1,200 bushels to the hand, or, estimated at average price for 
the past five years, makes $600 for about three months’ labor. Spring wheat, owing to its 
many enemies, does not pay nearly as well on an average as corn. 
Our Grundy reporter estimates the net profit of corn culture in that county 
at about $9 per acre, the average yield, 35 to 40 bushels per acre; timothy 
seed, 4 bushels per acre, net profit, $9 per acre. In Franklin, corn is put at 
35 bushels per acre; expense per acre $10; net profit $6 50 per acre. 
In anumber of counties potatoes are largely cultivated, and by many considered 
the most profitable. In Putnam county the average yield is stated to be 125 
bushels per acre, worth about 45 cents per bushel. The average for the State 
last year was about 60 bushels to the acre, worth on an average $1 20 per 
per bushel. In the lower counties the culture of cotton and tobacco has been 
quite profitable for a few years back. Sorghum has received considerable 
attention and success in some quarters, but for some unexplained reason the 
average has greatly decreased. 
