

ILLINOIS. 



375 



penses of the State charitable institutions, ex- 

 clusive of the Eastern Insane Hospital at Kan- 

 kakee, was for the two years ending June 30, 

 1880, $1,021,500. The amount of appropria- 

 tions asked for by the State Board of Charities 

 for the following two years is $1,041,000, be- 

 sides which there is a cash surplus on hand of 

 $100,000, and uncollected debts to the amount 

 of $40,000. The appropriations demanded are 

 as follows : for the Northern Insane Hospital, 

 $200,000 ; for the Central Insane Hospital, 

 $194,000 ; for the Southern Insane Hospital, 

 $156,000: for the Institution for the Deaf and 

 Dumb, $170,000; for the Institution for the 

 Blind, $47,000 ; for the Asylum for the Feeble- 

 Minded, $102,000; for the Soldiers' Orphans' 

 Home, $85,000 ; for the Eye and Ear Infirm- 

 ary, $32,000; for the State Reform School, 

 $55,000. The appropriations demanded for the 

 State institutions for special purposes amount 

 to $618,220. The average cost of maintenance 

 in the State institutions has been reduced from 

 $330 per capita per annum in 1874 to $200 in 

 1880. The care and provision for the inmates 

 of the Illinois insane hospitals are said to be 

 exceptionally good, while the cost of mainte- 

 nance is less than in any similar institutions in 

 the country excepting one or two. 



Governor S. M. Cullom, in his biennial mes- 

 sage to the Legislature, contrasts the material 

 condition of the State in the early days of its 

 settlement with its present wealth and com- 

 mercial independence. The Government land 

 laws were less favorable than the present home- 

 stead law during the period when Illinois was 

 devoid of transport facilities to convey its sur- 

 plus products to outside markets, and were 

 such that, while the public lands were being 

 taken up, all the money which came into the 

 State was paid into the land-office. Now, rail- 

 roads are built in advance of settlement, and 

 the settler receives his farm as a free gift from 

 the nation. In the second decade of the State's 

 existence, a system of canals and general inter- 

 nal improvements, many of them injudicious 

 and over-costly, burdened the State with a 

 heavy debt, which reduced it to an insolvent 

 condition. It has never been sought to shake 

 off this debt by repudiation ; but all the obli- 

 gations have been faithfully discharged. The 

 growth of the State in the last decade, though 

 not showing as high percentages of increase as 

 in the earlier stages, has been of a healthy and 

 permanent character. A large proportion of 

 the gains have been of a kind which does not 

 show on the assessment rolls, but which is 

 manifested in the visible prosperity of the peo- 

 ple. A great mass of mortgage indebtedness 

 has been paid off, and real- estate titles held by 

 non-residents have been purchased. The farm- 

 ing lands especially have been relieved in this 

 way from a drain of interest and rent. 



Illinois is the leading agricultural State in 

 the Union. The marketable farm products of 

 1880 are estimated at over $300,000,000. The 

 values of the different products reported by 



the Department of Agriculture were as fol- 

 lows : 



Corn $33,751,039 



Winter wheat 44.457,428 



Hay 22,5^9,691 



Fat hogs 22,137,461 



Fat cattle. 



Pastures 



Oats 



Orchards 



Irish potatoes . 

 Spring wheat. . 



Flax , 



Eye 



Sorghum , 



Fat sheep 



Barley 



17,0:- (5,130 

 14,491,114 

 12,858.247 

 8,170,480 

 3,639,843 

 2,039,732 

 1,579,634 

 1,513,587 

 676,630 

 652,465 

 560,703 



Total $-236,205,689 



To these are to be added the value of the dairy 

 products, estimated at $27,000,000, the value 

 of the horses sold, and of other crops. The 

 corn-crop of 1880 was 250,697,036 bushels, 

 which has been exceeded only in 1879, when the 

 crop aggregated 305,913,377 bushels; in 1875, 

 when it was 280,000,000 bushels; and in 1877, 

 when it was 269,899,742 bushels. The yield 

 per acre in 1880 was 33 bushels, there having 

 been eight more productive years in the last 

 twenty-one: 1862, when the average yield was 

 40 bushels; 1872, when it was 39'8 bushels; 

 1871, 38-3 bushels; 1879, 38 bushels; 1865, 

 35-25 bushels; 1870, 35'2 bushels; 1875, 34'3 

 bushels; and 1868, 34 bushels. The largest 

 yield is obtained from low lands lately reclaimed 

 by drainage. The value of the crop of 1880 

 was exceeded in 1879, when the crop aggre- 

 gated $97,483,052 in value ; in 1875, when it 

 amounted to $95,200,000; and in 1864, when 

 the crop sold for seventy-five cents a bushel, 

 and brought $103,767,101. In 1860 there were 

 3,839,159 acres under corn, producing 115,174,- 

 770 bushels, of the aggregate value of $48,944,- 

 277. In the last twenty-one years the area 

 devoted to this crop has not increased steadily, 

 but has several times diminished on account of 

 partial failures in the crops of the preceding 

 years to some extent, but oftener on account 

 of superabundant crops and great reductions in 

 the price. After the high prices of 1864 the 

 acreage increased to 5,023,996 acres in 1865, 

 and then gradually decreased to 3,928,742 acres 

 in 1868; rising then pretty steadily to 8,935,- 

 411 acres in 1877. Since then the high prices 

 of wheat have caused a large portion of the 

 corn area to be given up to the more profitable 

 crop. In 1878 the corn acreage was reduced to 

 8,672,089 acres ; in 1879 to 7,918,881 acres, and 

 in 1880 to 7,574,545 acres. The large yield of 

 1879 and 1880 was obtained through improved 

 methods of culture. In 1880 dry weather, the 

 chinch-bug, and early frosts greatly injured 

 the crop. Owing to the drought, the quality 

 of much of it was inferior. The average price 

 for the twenty-one years has been thirty-nine 

 cents a bushel. In some years the culture was 

 attended by a net loss ; but the profits, taking 

 all the years together, have been enormous. 

 The aggregate value of this crop for twenty- 

 one years was $1,372,515,323 ; the cost of 



