LETTER VI. 



Pana to Centralia. The Grey Prairie. Best Wheat Soil. Fruit. Tobacco. 

 Vines. Silk. Rich Mineral District South of Centralia. Lines of Communi- 

 cation with Ocean by New Orleans and Chicago. Probable Market for Wheat 

 in Cuba. Description of Grey Prairie. Value of Oxen. German Settlement. 

 Large Purchase of Land l|y Kentucky Grazier. His Plan and Prospects. 

 Farina. Trading Spirit of the People. Urbana. Complaints of Wheat Fail- 

 ure. Peach Growing. Large Grazing Farm. Management of Stock. Uni 

 formity of Soil. Coldness of Weather. Steam Plough. Machines for econo- 

 mizing Manual Labour in greater Demand. Bcment. Kentucky Settler. His 

 Plan of managing Eight Thousand Acres. Onarga. Its Neighbourhood. 

 Dairy Farming. Artesian Wells. Kankakee to Momence. Price of Land. 

 Broom Corn. Country from Momence to Monee. Management and Produce. 

 Monee to Chicago. 



FROM Pana I took the railway to Centralia, a station about 

 sixty miles further south, and, in nearly a straight line, sixty 

 miles east from St. Louis on the Mississippi. It is the point 

 of junction of the main line of the Illinois Central railway with 

 its branch to Chicago, and is about 100 miles north of the 

 southern terminus of that line at Cairo. The surrounding coun- 

 try is the grey prairie soil of southern Illinois, which produces 

 the finest quality of white wheat in the State, but is not so pro- 

 lific of Indian corn or oats as the black prairie already de- 

 scribed. It is, however, a superior fruit country, and possesses 

 a climate suitable for the culture of tobacco, vines, and even 

 of silk, though the last branch of industry has made no pro- 

 gress. Of tobacco there is produced annually nearly a million 

 pounds weight, and the crop of fruit is valued at 200,000/. 



But the whole country for the next thirty or forty miles is 

 also underlaid with valuable minerals, which at no distant day 



