FARM-MANAGEMENT SURVEY OF REPRESENTATIVE AREAS. 5 
Counties. Among others it included the townships of Virginia, 
Ashland, and Tallula. By railroad the area is about 200 miles from 
Chicago and 100 miles from St. Louis. All of the produce sold is 
shipped out of the district. 
The land, except along the streams, is prairie soul. It is a sticky 
black loam, common to large areas in the central part of the State. 
Figure 2 shows the general character of the country. It lies very 
level in places and is likely to be wet unless tile-drained. Nearly all 
farms have excellent systems of tile drainage, which have rendered 
the soil one of the most productive in America. The continuous 
cropping of corn for over 50 years, although having its effect, is 
almost unnoticeable. With any reasonable regard to the conservation 
of fertility, this soil would seem almost inexhaustible. Corn, oats, 
Fic. 2.—A typical harvest scene in central Illinois. 
and wheat are the important crops. Very little hay is grown, and this 
is largely clover. The second crop of clover is cut for seed. 
The average size of the 196 farms studied was 240 acres. Of this 
95 per cent is tillable, 3 per cent is in woods, and 2 per cent in waste 
land. 
The area in corn per farm was 97 acres, the proportion on the 
tenant farms being about 10 per cent greater than on the farms 
operated by owners. Oats occupied 34 acres and wheat the same. 
The area in hay was small, being only 13 acres on the owners’ farms 
and 7 acres on those rented. The area in permanent pasture was 
greater than that in wheat, except on the tenant farms, where it con- 
stituted one-half as much. 
