1861. 



THE ILLmOIS FAKMER. 



HI 



nation of most fortunate circumstances to retain, 

 for any considerable period, both these elements 

 of increase in one State. 



The State of Illinois seems topresent elemeats 

 of continuing prosperity -which no other State 

 possesses in the same degree. The average in- 

 creane at each decennial census, from 1820 to 

 1860, has been 156.79 per cent., never exceeding 

 367 per ceut., never falling below 70 per cent., 

 which -was in 1850, and rising in the next census 

 to 101.10 rer centum, From the. twenty-fourth 

 State, in 1820, it has risen to the fourth position 

 in IS^O, and it will attain the third if not the 

 second in 1870. Its growth has been more regu- 

 lar than that of other prominent Western States. 

 It has never shown the marvellous sudden growth 

 exhibited by Ohio and Indiana, and it never "will 

 be reduced to the sudden falling off which we 

 have seen in those States. Indeed it may be 

 doubted if 8ny single State p: ssesses so many of 

 the elements necessary to continue for an indefi- 

 nite period its remarkable advances as the State 

 of Illinois. It does not, like other States, suffer 

 from the high price of lands, or the fertility of 

 soils beyond its western borders. In both of these 

 respects it has advantages, to say the least, equal 

 if not superior to any other part of the country. 

 It is free f- om the long and severe winters which 

 every year are becoming more burdensome and 

 distastf ful to the northwestern farmer. Extend- 

 ing over six degrees of latitude, it embraces 

 nearly every variety of climate, producing trop- 

 ical fruits, and even cotton in a email way in the 

 South, and the best winter grains in the North. 

 By its location it is free from many of the diffi- 

 culties that must attend the present state of pub 

 lio affairs, and is daily sought as a home by re- 

 spectable families from every part of the coun- 

 try, south and north, east and west. More and 

 more its lands are going into the hands of small 

 holders, and farms of forty and eighty acres are 

 sought, where the poorest settler, four or five 

 years since, thought he must have hundreds or 

 thousands. The fertility of soil and the extent 

 of its product;! are marvellous, and when vre 

 couple the equally surprising increase of popu- 

 lation with its agricultural products, and reflect 

 that upon the principles advanced by Sir Archi- 

 bald Ali'jon in his profound Essay on " Popula- 

 tion," and Adam Smith in the " Wealth of Na- 

 tions," both predicate the foundation of manu 

 factures and commerce upon surplus products of 

 soil, we may anticipate for the future not only 

 tie maintenance for the future not only the main- 

 tenance of its past advances as an agricultural 

 State, but the introduction of new and subsidiary 

 avocations of the people, that will fully maintain 

 its r*'lative advances in the line of States exhib- 

 ited by the late census. 



The year 1861 will give to the prairie State 

 thousands of new settlers — immigt-ants not only 

 from the East, but the South. Even Wisconsin 

 will send a large number to open up fruit farms 

 in the centre and south part of the State. The 

 Fox, the Rock, and the Mississippi rivers, will 

 not long pour out their wealth of waters for 

 nought. The first two rivers form a series of 



■water powers of great volume, while the latter 

 at Moline is scarcely second to that at Niagara 

 for the propelling of machinery. With these ad- 

 vantages the State cannot fail of becoming in a 

 short time, not only the fr it in agriculture, but 

 must take a high stand as a manufacturing State 

 also. The iron and copper of Lake Superior 

 must also meet the cheap coal frf m Lasalle, at 

 Chicago, where rolling mills, sirelting works and 

 vast manufactures of iron must be put ia opera- 

 tion. 



The lead and coal mines are becoming great 

 industrial institutions. Aside fromthe drift cop- 

 per, we have no mines of that metal, nor is our 

 iron ore of any particular value, though consid- 

 erable blowing has been had over it, but truth 

 impels us to this statement. Porcelain and fire 

 clay abounds, with abundance of sand for glass. 

 Where the farmer and railroad companies do their 

 duty in the planting of timber belts to check th« 

 sweeping winds and to break the monotony of 

 the long prairie slopes, we shall have new attrac- 

 tions for the mechanic and the man of capital 

 who may wish to make comfortable homes among 

 18. Eo. 



Postal Regulations. 



The postage on letters conveyed in the mails 

 from any point east of the Rocky Mountains to 

 any State or Territory on the Pacific coast to 

 any point east of the mountains, has been fixed 

 by the present law at ten cents. Heretofore, let- 

 ters conveyed by the Isthmus routes have been 

 subject to the ten cent rates, while those carried 

 overland between Mis.souri and California were 

 only subject to three cent, rate. 



Horticulturists and poinologists will be pleased 

 to learn that by the new postal regulations, seeds 

 or cuttings are classified as mailable matter, and 

 are to be charged with postage at the rate of one 

 cent an ounce, when sent under fifteen hundred 

 miles, and two cents an ounce when sent over 

 that distance. — National Intelligencer. 



Hurrah for Unc'e Sam; this is just what we 

 have been praying for, for some years. We will 

 no longer be compelled to buy old garden seeds 

 at home, when we can order from a distance. 

 Seedsmen hereaway will make a note of this and 

 see that they hereafter keep good seeds. Sixteen 

 cents a pound from the seed gardens ! — won't we 

 have plenty of vegetables the coming summer. 



Eo. 



— An inn-keeper observed a postillion 

 with only one spur, and inquired the rear 

 son. " Why, what would be the use of another':"' 

 said the postillion. " If one side of the horse 

 goes, the other cant't stand still. . 



