74 MACON COUNTY, ILLINOIS. 



When farmers have money to spend in improvements, it will 

 mostly be used for tile draining. The present season corn has 

 yielded 100 bushels per acre in some fields. Forty bushels of 

 wheat (winter) have been raised by several of our careful 

 farmers. Good farms are worth from $25 to $40 per acre. We 

 raise the best stock. Of horses, the Norman and Hambletonian. 

 Of cattle, the Short Horn, the Devon and Alderney. Of hogs, 

 the Berkshire, Chester White and Poland. Of sheep, the Merino, 

 Cotswold and Southdown. Mules are bred largely. Of fruits, 

 the apple is grown with good success. Hardy grapes grow in 

 abundance, while pears, peaches and quinces fail sometimes, 

 but are frequently plentiful. In fact, our soil will grow any 

 thing that can stand our Winters, which frequently reach 15° 

 to 20° below zero. 



MY FAEM 



is an old one for this county. Situated six miles east of Deca- 

 tur, in Macon County. It consists of 120 acres, and was 

 settled about fifty years ago. It is the old homestead, and on 

 it I was born. Several tracts of land have been farmed in con- 

 nection with the old place, but the original 120 has been the 

 stan"d-by. Like the faithful old horse, it is not to be traded or 

 sold. The natural advantages are and have been of the best. 

 The soil, a deep black loam, is quite fertile. Originally about 

 one-third timber, it is all now tillable, except about twenty 

 acres, through which a considerable ravine passes. Here, 

 on either side of its undulating banks, which are mostly set 

 with blue grass, many of the mighty monarclis of the forest 

 are still standing, under whose shading and sheltering branches 

 the stock find water, food and repose. 



The farm is L shaped, with the buildings in the angle of 

 the L, so that the remotest part of the farm is but little over 

 eighty rods away, and is conveniently reached without much 

 labor. Public roads pass in three directions, north, south, and 

 west, taking the angle of the L. The eighty is surrounded by 

 a hedge fence, and is also divided in three equal parts by two 

 cross hedges. The forty is partly hedge and partly rail fence, 

 divided in about the center by a rail fence, which has reached 



