12 STOCK AND INDIAN COKN. 



land is at present rather more than 24. While I think it right 

 to direct the emigrant's attention to the ague as an element in 

 his calculations, it forms in reality a very small counterpoise 

 to the many advantages which are open to those who make 

 judicious and well-chosen settlements on the Western Prai- 

 ries. 



There are two branches of his business to which I w r ould 

 specially ask the attention of the British emigrant to Illinois, 

 viz. stock farming, and the cultivation of Indian corn. Full 

 details will be found on both subjects in these letters. A 

 good stock of cattle or sheep can be bought by a comparatively 

 small outlay of capital ; and, so long as the open Prairie is 

 thinly settled, grass for half the year may be had for nothing, 

 and hay for the other half for only the cost of saving it. In 

 regard to Indian corn, both climate and soil are more suitable 

 to it than wheat. It can be grown to any extent, with a cer- 

 tain measure of success, every year, and, unlike wheat, this 

 grain may be harvested with safety over a period of many 

 weeks. A small and regular supply of labour thus suffices for 

 the management of a large extent of land. There is always a 

 market for it, and the lowest price at which we have ever seen 

 it in England will afford a very good return to the Prairie 

 farmer of Illinois, after deducting all the charges of transport. 



An emigrant from this country may be set down in Illinois 

 at a total cost from Liverpool or Glasgow of 6/. 7s., inclusive 

 of provisions. 



The present is a most favourable time for commencing to 

 farm in Illinois. The panic of 1857 has not yet been forgotten, 

 and the prices at which every sort of contract (building, fencing, 

 ploughing) may be executed, are 50 per cent, below the average 

 rates. 



