260 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 



lands have, is their nearness to the railroad, by 

 which the purchaser has the means of putting his 

 crop in the market at the earliest or most favorable 

 time, and at a cheap rate of transportation. During 

 the year 1862, the stations on this road sent for 

 ward to market 4,688,755 bushels of wheat, besides 

 567,627 barrels of flour. In Southern Illinois, win 

 ter wheat is almost certain to yield a good return to 

 the grower. The reaping, threshing and cleaning 

 machines, now so generally in use, have made wheat- 

 growing a source of great profit to the farmer. 



It seems well established that cotton is to become 

 a remunerative crop in the southern part of Illinois. 

 It was cultivated in 1862 in almost every town 

 south of Centralia, and if we regard the planting 

 as an experiment, the result is completely satisfac 

 tory. It would be a low estimate to assume that in 

 that year 5,000 bales of ginned cotton were grown. 

 There was a large demand made upon the neighbor 

 ing States (particularly Tennessee), for cotton seed, 

 and more than one hundred tons had been sent for 

 ward from Cairo arid distributed. 



The rapidly increasing cultivation of sorghum in 

 this country deserves particular notice. In another 

 year Illinois will send to the eastern market thou 

 sands of barrels of sorghum molasses, besides retain 

 ing sufficient for home consumption. In 1859 this 

 State produced 797,096 gallons, and at that time at 

 tention had only just been directed to sorghum. 

 Since then its cultivation has been increased ten 

 fold. A prominent sugar refiner estimates the an 

 nual consumption of molasses in the United States 



