17 



streams which feed them. Millions of acres of just as desir- 

 able land lie within a five-mile limit of railways, of which 

 Illinois possesses more miles than any other state. 



Covering as it does nearly six degrees of latitude from 

 north to south, and containing soils as rich as the most 

 fastidious can desire, there is very little, comparatively, of the 

 surface of Illinois that is not, or can not be made productive. 

 The surface in all sections is sufficiently undulating to afford 

 good drainage, and in those sections where the surface is more 

 rolling but very little of the soil is untillable from the presence 

 of rocks or rocky ridges. No one can describe the relief aman 

 feels who has been used all his life to pulling stumps and piling 

 stones when he first works in Illinois soil. On the prairies the 

 steel mold board of his plow inverts the soil without a break 

 from one end of his farm to the other if he so desires, and to a 

 depth limited only by the strength of his team. 



DIVISION INTO DISTRICTS. 



While the State is divided into three districts, northern, 

 central, and southern, the division is more judicial than prac- 

 tical, as there are three grand divisions in which the Supreme 

 Court of the State holds alternate sessions. Agriculturally 

 and horticulturally such divisions are made as a matter of con- 

 venience, although the products of one are almost always 

 grown in the other districts, with the restrictions that nature 

 has placed upon all the products of the earth, some requiring 

 more heat and sunshine to mature than others, and fixing the 

 boundary beyond which there may be no profit found in grow- 

 ing them. It is this question of profit that must guide us in 

 making selection of a location for fruit growing. The 



EARLY SETTLEMENTS 



of the State were made at the south and north ends, those set- 

 tlers who came from the South bringing with them the cus- 

 toms, habits, grains, and fruits of that section, while those 

 who occupied the north brought New England ideas, grains, 

 fruits, and vegetables. For many years what is now known 



