298 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



of us, "to Lor-don at 'ome." From London to 

 Windsor 110 miles, the railroad passes through a 

 low, level, uninteresting country, with here and 

 there a tract of better land. 



At Detroit, we called on Mr. R. F. Johnstone, 

 editor of the Michigan Farmer^ an old and valua- 

 ble agricultural journal. He was busily engaged 

 attending to his duties as Secretary of the Michigan 

 State Agricultural Society. We visited several 

 nurseries in the outskirts of the city, and were 

 ])Ieased to learn that they are doing well. 



We started for Chicago in the evening, by the 

 Michigan Central Railroad. On this admirably 

 managed road "sleeping cars" have been intro- 

 duced, in which, for 50 cents, you can obtain a 

 berth, with pillow, coverlet, &c. Here we slept 

 soundly. The berths are as comfortable as those 



on a steamer. 



We enter Chicago on the shore of the lake, and 

 obtain a fine view of Michigan Avenue — a street 

 of princely mansions facing the lake, and bordered 

 with shade trees. Here, too, we see the Second 

 Presbyterian Church, with a steeple 200 feet high. 

 It is in the Gothic style, built of a peculiar pitchy 

 stone, in which black and white are mingled, and 

 presents a singular and striking appearance. It is 

 said to be the " handsomest church west of New 

 York," The Great Central Depot, the terminus of 

 seven railroads, gives one a good idea of the im- 

 mense business of this great metropolis of the West. 



Chicago is situated on a level plain, just suffi- 

 ciently elevated to prevent inundation. The grade 

 of the city has been repeatedly raised, and it is now 

 la process of being raised eight feet higher. The 

 process of elevation does not appear to be carried 

 on with any particular system. In front of one 

 block we find the new grade, and in front of the 

 next we have the old street, eight feet lower. 

 Proceed a block or two, and you have again to 

 ascend the new grade, congratulating yourself if 

 there are steps, and you have not to scramble up 

 the bank of yielding prairie dirt, or what has not 

 inappropriately been termed " Chicago blacking." 

 These " ups and downs" in the streets appropriate- 

 ly represent the ups and downs of Chicago hfe, 

 where a poor man sometimes wakes up in the 

 morning and finds himself a millionaire, and where 

 more frequently the merchant prince of to-day is a 

 hopeless bankrupt to-morrow. Still, with all its 

 extravagance and bombast, with all its wild specu- 

 lation and ruinous expenditure, with all its mud 

 and misery, Chicago, notwithstanding its low land 

 and high rents, is the great commercial center of 

 the Northwest, and is destined, from its admirable 

 location and from the enterprise of its citizens, to 

 be one of the largest and most prosperous cities on 

 the American continent. It is now " the greatest 



grain port in the world," and its growth must keep 

 pace with the growth of the vast territory of which 

 it is the natural focus. 



There are two weekly agricultural papers pub- 

 lished in Chicago — the old and well known P/'rtfri^ 

 Farmer, edited by the Messrs. Medill; and lU 

 recent and enterprising contemporary, Emery's 

 Journal of Agriculture. 



Let us take the cars of the Chicago, Burlington, 

 & Quincy Railroad, which passes through some of 

 the best farming lands in the Prairie State. For 

 nearly 30 miles we pass over a low, level prairie, 

 which, though undoubtedly very rich if well 

 drained, presents at present a rather uninteresting 

 appearance in an agricultural point of view. This 

 first view of the prairie does not give one a favora- 

 ble impression. A sea of rank, coarse vegetation, 

 with here and there a hay stack and herds of cattle 

 in the distance, make up the scene. No solemn 

 hills nor smiling valleys, no fine trees nor pretty 

 flowers, no quiet homesteads nor rural lanes, — we 

 confess to a feehng of disappointment. 



At Batavia we strike Fox river and wood land^ 

 containing scrub oaks, with an occasional large 

 tree. Here we are at Aurora, another beautiful 

 village on Fox river; and now we emerge from 

 the wood lands upon a rich rolling prairie, present- 

 ing a much more agreeable appearance than the 

 level prairie around Chicago. That corn is good, 

 but poorly cultivated. Those apple trees on that 

 southern side hill look wretchedly ; many are dead, 

 and the rest are surrounded with suckers. Here is 

 a magnificent rolling prairie, stretching as far as 

 the eye can reach on each side of the railroad track. 

 We can see hundreds of sugar-loaf wheat stacks, 

 with here and there a threshing machine at work. 

 The stubbles are very clean, and many of them are 

 being plowed again for wheat this fall. Here is a 

 plot of buckwheat, inferior to what we often see 

 on the comparatively sterile side-hills of New Eng- 

 land, and there a plot of weeds far higher and more 

 luxuriant. Adjoining this, in the same field, is a 

 hundred acres or so of corn, rioting in the rich soil 

 and giving promise of an abundant harvest. Here 

 is some Chinese sugar cane, twelve or fifteen feet 

 high. Now we ai-e on an unbroken prairie, with 

 large herds of cattle and horses grazing on the 

 higher portions. There is a field of clover by no 

 means luxuriant. 



Here we are at Piano, on a cultivated, rolling 

 prairie, with large farms dotted over with wheat ; 

 stacks and heaps of straw left lying about the fields. 

 There is a neat, white, farm-house, with green 

 blinds, and not a tree or a shrub within a mile of 

 it ! Here an enterprising farmer has planted out' 

 an Osage orange hedge, and left it to taU care of 

 itself. It is made up of tall weeds and long fish- 



