1851. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
355 
Agriculture of Illinois and Iowa.—No. 1. 
BY W. G. EDMUNDSON. 
Editors Cultivator— Probably no portion of the 
North American Continent, presents larger claims upon 
the attention of the friends of agricultural improvement, 
than the states and territories bordering on the upper 
Mississippi and her tributaries. The strong arm of 
science has, in rare instances only, been employed in the 
development of the unrivalled agricultural resources, 
with which this vast region abounds. No portion of the 
inhabited globe can boast of so great an extent of rich, 
fertile, alluvial soil; and the climate is sufficiently va¬ 
rious to suit the tastes of those who admire a high de¬ 
gree of latitude, as well as those who may prefer the 
summer temperature of the tropics. The northern 
wheat belt of the Union is embraced within the lines of 
latitude constituting the upper Mississippi valley, and 
the period is not far distant when the cultivation of the 
cereal grains will become as extensive, and as profitable, 
as is now the case in Ohio. Like those who have pre¬ 
ceded in their journeyings through this country, in search 
of agricultural knowledge, we have been in many impor¬ 
tant particulars doomed to disappointment. We ex¬ 
pected to have found a country teeming with substan- 
tials and luxuries, such as abound in every country dis¬ 
tinguished for its high state of civilization and refine¬ 
ment ; and we took for granted that on the rich prairie 
soils at least, the squalid wretchedness, which frequent¬ 
ly may be met with among the white laboring popula¬ 
tion of the south, would nowhere be seen on the fertile 
plains of the upper Mississippi. The masses of the rural 
population are not so comfortably clad, their houses, 
and out-buildings are not so neat and commodious, their 
farms are not so well cultivated, and in an average of 
cases so productive, as may be found in the new settle¬ 
ments of a timbered district in Ohio or New-York. 
These conclusions have not been rashly formed; but 
have been forced upon our mind, greatly against our 
will, after having spent some six weeks among the farm¬ 
ers for the express purpose of obtaining a knowledge of 
their habits and customs, and especially an acquaintance 
with their systems of agriculture. 
The people who have migrated to this country, are 
generally those of the laboring population of the oldest 
settled states of the Union, and also of the same class 
from Europe. They landed here with limited means, 
and many of them with large families, and generally 
settled along the borders of streams, contiguous to tim¬ 
ber, where, in the process of acclimation, they became ex¬ 
posed to the malaria, so common in all rich alluvial coun¬ 
tries. Uncomfortable dwellings; a coarse and somewhat 
unpalatable diet; deprivation of the common necessaries 
of life; and a thousand other inconveniences, that ne¬ 
cessarily fall to the lot of a frontier people, have had 
the obvious tendency of blunting the finer feelings of 
those who had the hardihood to leave their happy homes, 
for the purpose of building up our western cities, towns 
and rural settlements. Thousands who came to this 
country at an early day, dreamed only of becoming 
wealthy and comfortable, by the extent of their landed 
operations. Fields less than a quarter section each, 
were considered too trifling for a prairie farmer j and 
corn, wheat, and other crops were cultivated on a large 
scale in the most slovenly manner. For a time, the 
yield continued to be abundant, and owing to the low 
prices of produce, and the great distance to which it had 
to be transported to market, the most slovenly systems 
of farming practiced in any country, found favor, even 
among many who, formerly, when doing business in the 
eastern states, were considered among the most en- 
lightened cultivators of the soil in their respective neigh¬ 
borhoods. By these and other influences, farming, in¬ 
stead of taking a high rank, appears to have been gra¬ 
dually on the decline, and the hackneyed expression of 
hard tivies is more commonly heard in this country, 
than in any portion of the Union, through which we 
have traveled. 
The foregoing is the dark side of the picture, and 
right glad would we have been, had it been in our power, 
to have blotted out of our remembrance, the strong and 
unfavorable impressions that on all sides forced them¬ 
selves upon our mind, whilst critically examining the 
character and condition of the agriculture of the rich 
and fertile lands that universally abound on both sides 
of the upper Mississippi. Much, very much, however, 
can be said on the other side of the subject, which^vill 
greatly relieve the mind of the reader from any un¬ 
favorable impression that may have obtained credence 
through the somewhat startling facts enumerated in these 
prefatory remarks. Honorable exceptions to the gene¬ 
ral prevailing systems of agriculture are frequently to be 
met with, and occasionally whole settlements are to be 
found, where the inhabitants evince as much enterprize, 
and entertain as exalted notions of improvement, as in 
the most highly cultivated sections of New-York. Be¬ 
sides this, farming in these sections of country, affords 
as liberal a profit when conducted on rational principles, 
in proportion to the amount of labor and money ex¬ 
pended, as in any portion of the Union. This is espe¬ 
cially the case within the past five years, owing to the 
fact that the southern markets for all the leading staples, 
are quite as good and reliable as the northern markets, 
and besides a given amount of capital expended in agri¬ 
culture will afford on a rich prairie soil, a much larger 
return than on the best farming lands of the eastern* or 
northern states. 
The impression has become pretty general in the old¬ 
est states, that the day has gone by when a profitable in- 
vestment can be made in Illinois and IoAva. in the pur¬ 
chase of lands for agricultural purposes. A greater mis¬ 
take than this could not possibly have been made, and 
the evidences on all sides are abundant, that yearly the 
chances for making handsome sums, by purchasing real 
estate for the purposes of practical farming, are and will 
be on the increase. The; v resources of the country bor¬ 
dering the whole of the Mississippi waters, are of such 
an extraordinary rich character, that having been once 
brought under favorable notice abroad, they cannot long 
remain undeveloped. The great thing most required in 
this charming region of country, is a liberal investment 
of capital and skill in the business of agriculture. Many 
false impressions have gone forth in regard to the capa¬ 
city of this country; and not a few suppose that it is 
more' severely afflicted with pestilential and contagious 
diseases, than the Atlantic states; and what may be the 
