AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
75 
attend to, and that each settler can best pro¬ 
vide for himself in that particular. But 
when it is considered that, with its great 
capital, and by constituting a department of 
this kind by itself on some of their broad 
acres—under the superintendence of a com¬ 
petent man—they could do it to much bet¬ 
ter advantage than the limited means and 
the hurried occupations of new settlers will 
permit them to do, and thus, at a moderate 
price, supply millions of trees, which they 
can easily deliver at any given point along 
the road, it does appear to us that a far- 
seeing policy tending to the enhancement in 
the prices of its lands, and an increased car¬ 
riage on the road would indicate the wisdom 
of such a course. The Lombardy poplar, 
the cotton-wood, the large golden willow, 
the yellow locust, and ailanthus grow with 
wonderful rapidity on their lands when 
planted and protected. So do the oaks, 
hickories, and walnuts, and in five years 
from the planting of seeds, millions of trees 
could be sold for stocking the farms with 
the germ of respectable forests. It is sup¬ 
posed by intelligent men that there is now 
much more growing wood in the State of 
Illinois than there was thirty years ago 
when the country was new, merely from the 
preservation of the natural forests from fires, 
and the planting of young trees. The cot¬ 
ton-wood, Lombardy poplar, golden willow, 
and even the peach, which grows rapidly in 
the prairies, make excellent fuel when dry. 
The latter is grown already in some places 
for that purpose, and their introduction un¬ 
der a good system of cultivation would be of 
lasting service to the country at large, as 
well as profitable to the company. 
As we approach 
BLOOMINGTON, 
which lies about one hundred and thirty 
miles southwest of Chicago, the straggling 
tributary waters of the Sangamon are skirted 
more or less with timber. The lands are 
better than those lying north, and the coun¬ 
try more thickly settled. Many beautiful 
farms with comfortable buildings lay along 
under shelter of the timbered ridges. Great 
corn-fields, wheat, the cultivated grasses, 
orchards, and the other appliances of good 
agriculture, were now frequent. Blooming¬ 
ton is a fine town, lying half a mile west of 
the road, the capital of McLean County—an 
old town for this country, wealthy and com¬ 
fortable. The country so continued on to 
DECATUR, 
the capital of Macon County, some forty- 
five miles farther south, and still along the 
waters of the Sangamon, which is said, by 
the partial dwellers there, to be the richest 
agricultural portion of the State. Egypt, 
they call it—way along southwest towards 
the Mississippi, embracing Springfield, the 
capital of the State, Jacksonville, the chief 
seat of its colleges, and its far-around coun¬ 
try—so prolific is it in great corn and wheat 
fields, wide pasture lands, numerous droves 
of mules, horses, cattle, sheep, and swine. 
One family—McConnelby name—consisting 
of father and sons, keep twenty thousand 
fine-wooled sheep ! and grand ones they are, 
too, if those we saw of theirs at Chicago are 
fair specimens of their flocks. Several fine 
herds of Short Horns are hereabouts, on the 
wide farms of the Kentuckians, Ohioans, and 
Virginians, together with some broad-landed 
Yankees who dwell thereon. Sixty-three 
miles further down, through a tolerably well 
settled country and improving farms, with 
occasional new villages, is 
VANDALIA, 
for many years the Capital of the State, be¬ 
fore it was removed to the more central 
locality of Springfield. Of course, by such 
removal, this town is shorn of its once bril¬ 
liant prospects as a great city. But it is still 
a place of local trade for the country about 
it, and its contiguity to the railroad will al¬ 
ways render its position advantageous. 
Passing 
CENTRALIA 
twenty-six miles farther down, a mere sta¬ 
tion now, where the Chicago branch strikes 
off north-easterly from the main trunk of the 
road, two hundred and sixty odd miles to 
Lake Michigan, we shortly came into the 
thinner and oak-tiinbered lands of southern 
Illinois. These are sparsely settled. The 
soil is comparatively poor, not natural to 
rich grasses, or corn, but contains much 
lime, and is good for wheat and other cereal 
grains. Through a long and rather dull 
ride, with occasional stations and trifling 
villages, a hundred and twenty miles farther 
we came upon the deeper soil, larger and 
more varied timber trees, and finally struck 
out on to the Ohio, along which we coursed 
circuitously for two or three miles to the 
extreme southwest corner of the State. 
Here, four hundred and fifty-four miles by 
railway from Dunleith, and three hundred 
and sixty-two from Chicago, every inch of it 
—816 miles—that railroad, owned, occupied 
and to be run when completed, by the Illi¬ 
nois Central Railroad Company, we reached 
the site of the long-contemplated city at the 
junction of the “ beautiful” Ohio and the 
“mighty” Mississippi. 
United States Agricultural Societv.— In 
another column will be found the call for the 
annual meeting of the Society, which will 
take place at Washington January 9th. 
The Connecticut State Agricultural Socie¬ 
ty’s annual meeting willj be held at New- 
Haven, on Wednesday, January 2, at 10 A. 
M. The annual address prepared for the 
State Exhibition in October, but postponed 
on account of the weather, will be delivered 
at the time of the annual meeting. 
The New-York State Poultry Society will 
hold an annual exhibition at Albany com¬ 
mencing Tuesday, February 2. Premium 
lists can be obtained of E. E. Platt, Cor. 
Sec. at Albany, or of C. M. Scholefield at 
Yorkville, Oneida County. 
We call the attention of Agricultural and 
Horticultural Societies, and of farmers gen¬ 
erally to the advertisement of Messrs. Sax¬ 
ton & Co. By the way, Messrs. Saxton & 
Co. have recently moved into their new and 
splendid rooms, including a reading room, at 
No. 140 Fulton-st., where those visiting the 
city wiiljfind the best assortment of agricul¬ 
tural books, periodicals, &c., in the country. 
CHANGES AMONG OUR EXCHANGES. 
The beginning of a new year brings a num¬ 
ber of changes in the proprietorships and 
editorships of agricultural journals, of which 
we note the following : 
Farm Journal, published by Sam’l Emlen 
& Co., Philadelphia. Mr. J. L. Darlington, 
for some time past the able editor of this 
journal, has retired from his post, and is suc¬ 
ceeded by David M. Wells & A. M. Spang¬ 
ler. Mr. Wells is the editor of the Annual 
of Scientific Discovery, and of the Year Book 
Of Agriculture. Mr. Spangler was the origi¬ 
nal editor of the Farm Journal. Under the 
auspices of these gentlemen we trust this 
paper will continue to maintain, and even 
advance its former high character. 
Genesee Farmer, published by Jas. Vick, 
Rochester, N. Y. Mr. Vick had several 
years experience formerly as publisher of 
this paper, and he is now making exertions 
to enlarge its size and increase the value of 
its pages. He has secured the services as 
editor of Mr. Joseph Harris, who was for¬ 
merly connected with the Genesee Farmer, 
afterwards with the Rural New-Yorker, and 
during the past year with the Country Gen 
tleman. Air. Harris is one of the few agri¬ 
cultural editors in this country to whose 
writings on the chemistry of agriculture we 
give much credit for reliability and scientific 
correctness. W~e are really sorry not to be 
able hereafter to find the weekly editorial 
contributions of Mr. H. in the columns of so 
excellent a journal as we consider the Coun¬ 
try Gentleman, and shall be glad to find his 
place well supplied. We suppose local cir¬ 
cumstances—residence of friends and family 
connections—induced Air. H. to return to 
Rochester, and we trust that in his new po 
sition, with the pages of the Farmer under 
his control, he will enjoy an extended and 
widening sphere of usefulness. 
Since the above was put in type, we learn 
that Air. Harris will still furnish occasional 
editorial contributions to the Country Gen¬ 
tleman. We also omitted to state, that Air. 
Luther Tucker has associated with him his 
son, Mr. Luther H. Tucker, in the publish¬ 
ing and editorial departments of that paper, 
the Cultivator, &c. 
Ohio Cultivator. —Air. Bateham has sold 
out his interest and retired from the editorial 
charge of this journal, to pursue his favorite 
nursery business. Col. S. D. Harris, for five 
years past the associate editor, has now be¬ 
come editor and proprietor. Mrs. Bateham 
remains in charge of the Ladies’ Department. 
All success to the Colonel; may he soon be 
commander of an army of a hundred thou¬ 
sand. — 
Conn. Valley Farmer. —This journal has 
become merged into the New-England Farm¬ 
er. We had a little score to settle with 
Prof. Nash about “ them bones,” but we will 
let that pass now, especially as Prof. N.’s 
charge of inconsistency was wholly founded 
