262 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 



their crops of flax straw at $10 per ton. In Illinois, 

 with heavy seeding, twenty bushels of seed and 

 three tons of flax straw have been gathered from 

 an acre. This was an extraordinary yield. The 

 average crop in Niagara county, New York, in 1862, 

 was one ton of straw and fourteen bushels of seed 

 to the acre. 



Much attention is directed to Southern Illinois, 

 on account of its peculiar adaptation to fruit rais 

 ing. It has the advantage of early season, as well 

 as a soil especially suited to the growing of fruits 

 and vegetables, together with unequaled railroad 

 facilities, by means of which the product is brought 

 to the very door of all the great markets of the 

 Northwest. Fruit placed upon the cars in the 

 evening will reach Chicago the next morning. St. 

 Louis is still nearer than Chicago ; and strawberries, 

 tomatoes, &c., are supplied to Cincinnati nearly a 

 fortnight in advance of the ripening of these luxu 

 ries in the immediate neighborhood of that city. It 

 is the early market that gives the greatest profit to 

 the fruit grower. Strawberries from Cobden and 

 Makanda are placed in Chicago as early as the 14th 

 of May. The Railroad Company supply every con 

 venience for transporting fruit to market. Cars 

 are run with especial reference to this branch of 

 traffic, and the time of running the trains is so ad 

 justed as best to suit the requirements of shippers. 

 Southern Illinois has become the best fruit-growing 

 region of America. While every part of Illinois is 

 to some extent adapted to fruit culture, it is only in 

 the southern part of the State that all conditions 



