122 GEOLOGY OF ILLINOIS. 



knowledge are bound together like the links of a chain ; all the arts of 

 life sustain to each other dependent relations, and all cultivators of soil 

 or science ought to be bound together by the bonds of a common 

 interest. 



But, however derived or made up, the soils of this county are gener- 

 ous and fertile in a high degree. Indian corn, wheat, oats, hay, pota- 

 toes, barley, rye, the products of the kitchen garden, the hardier fruits 

 of garden and orchard, are here raised in bountiful profusion. Vine 

 culture has not yet attracted much attention, not for the want of suit- 

 able localities in which to try the experiment, but simply because at- 

 tention has not yet been directed to this branch of horticultural industry. 



In speaking of these noble soils the Edens of agriculture in these 

 Western States I may as well make some remarks here, which apply 

 with equal force to the agricultural policy of this and all the neighboring 

 counties, and to the practices of prairie farming generally. I mean the 

 unscientific, slovenly, and wasteful modes of cultivating the virgin soils 

 of our broad prairies. The unripe peat and muck remain undisturbed 

 in their beds; trenching and sub-soil plowing are never resorted to; 

 annual fires consume the surplus stubble and stalks left from the last 

 year's crop; ashes, bones, lime, the barn-yard and stable manures, if 

 disturbed at all, are raked into some convenient out of the way place ; 

 and the farmer generally cultivates so much that he cannot half culti- 

 vate anything at all. 



Geology and chemistry, and the experience of older countries, all cry 

 out against this wrong done to our generous soils. In the first place, 

 the farmer ought to study his soil, ascertain what element is wanting 

 or what it has in excess, and intelligently supply the one or counteract 

 the other. Instead of scratching over a large amount of soil, if he 

 would go deeper and throw up a little sub-soil, the kiss of the roving- 

 winds, the rain and the sunshine would enrich these, and his soil would 

 grow deeper instead of becoming hungry and exhausted. Composts 

 should yearly be made of every available substance, and scattered with 

 a profuse hand over his meadows and grain-producing fields. Perhaps 

 some water-soaked bog and some unproductive ridge, lying side by side, 

 and both worthless, have in them the complements of the best produc- 

 ing soils, and only need a little mingling to make them the most valu- 

 able tracts in the field or on the farm. A little mind employed in cul- 

 tivating the earth is better than much manual labor, aided though it be 

 with all forms of labor-saving machinery. 



Against this wasteful system of farming every industrial interest 

 should cry out. Our soils, when new, used to return average crops of 

 forty bushels to the acre ; now fifteen is a good crop on the older cul- 



