386 
THE CULTIVATOR 
Dec 
Agriculture of Illinois and Iowa.—No 2. 
ET W. G. EDMUNDSON. 
Cultivation and Management of the Wheat Crop. 
—The past season, owing to the cold and frequent rains 
that occurred during the spring and early summer 
months, has been very unfavorable for both spring 
and winter varieties of wheat. The country was com¬ 
pletely submerged with water and mud, for a period 
of at least three months, and on the valleys and high 
table lands, the crops of wheat, corn and oats, proved 
an entire failure throughout a breadth of territory equal 
to the area* of the arable land of New-York. The early 
settlers of the country have no recollection of a similar 
rise of waters; and indeed the damage to the crops from 
this source, excepting on some of the low river bottom 
lands, is not to be apprehended in future seasons, any 
more than the inhabitants of eastern states, might with 
propriety anticipate occasionally a similar catastrophe. 
In an average of seasons, the natural tendency indicated 
by the topographical formation of the western prairies, 
would be a short supply of summer rains, rather than 
an excess; and this fact is here mentioned to allay mis¬ 
apprehensions that may be formed, by those interested 
in the progress of the west, based upon the losses sus¬ 
tained to the agriculture and commerce of this vast and 
interesting region of country the present season. _ 
The wheat plant, as all experienced cultivators will ad¬ 
mit, delights in a dry porous soil, one that will not hold 
any superabundance of water that may fall from the 
heavens on or near the surface, like a basin; but will al¬ 
low, after the active soil becomes sufficiently saturated, 
the balance to either pass off over the surface, or else 
settle down into a porous gravelly subsoil a sufficient dis¬ 
tance from the presence of the roots of plants to prevent 
any serious injury. Besides this, with proper farming, 
a dry summer is always more propitious on this continent 
for winter wheat than a wet one. For these reasons, and 
many others that in due course of time we shall fully 
mention, we felt warranted in arriving at the conclusion, 
that the day is not far distaut when the anticipations 
formerly entertained of the Upper Mississippi Yalley, 
becoming the most productive granary of the world, will 
be fully realised. The qualities of the soil, the influences 
of climate and the geographical position of the country, 
all conspire to make our prediction, among the easiest 
possible things to be accomplished. Abundant crops of 
the delicate descriptions of grain will not, however, grow 
spontaneously, but by investing the same amount of skill 
and capital in their cultivation and management, a larger 
yield may in an average of seasons be produced, than 
can be done in the Union. Although rains were so 
abundant the present season as to drown out the crops in 
the valleys, yet on all high rolling lands the average yield 
of wheat would range from 15 to 25 bushels per acre, 
where any thing like justice was done the crop in the 
preparation of the soil. Rust, on either winter or 
spring wheat, was by no means common, and the 
weather was of that peculiar damp and warm character 
that would have predisposed the crop in New-York to 
that disease. This great bane to the wheat growing in¬ 
terests of Pennsylvania, New-York and New England 
states, is not considered by the farmers of Illinois and 
Iowa, as among the necessary contingencies to check their 
success in growing wheat crops. This is decidedly a fa¬ 
vorable omen, and it is one that has a greater influence on 
our mind than any other in producing the conviction, 
that the wheat growing power of these states are by no 
means understood by those who eagerly advise the farm¬ 
ers to cease growing breadstuffs, and turn their attention 
to the cultivation of corn, to grazing, and other branches 
of agriculture. It is proper here to state, however, that 
there are Sections of country that are quite too level for 
the profitable growth of wheat, but by far the greater 
portion of the arable lands are adapted by nature for this 
crop. Indeed, judging from what we have already seen, 
we should conclude that a much greater proportion of 
those states may be denominated wheat soils, than could 
be claimed by either Ohio or New-York. 
The timber invariably skirts along the rivers and 
streams, and in proportion as the streams get smaller the 
breadth of timber widens. Along the Mississippi, Illi¬ 
nois, Fox, Rock, Desmoines, Cedar and other rivers of 
the largest size, only from one to five miles in width of 
timber are skirted along their borders; but as soon as 
the traveller reaches the source of those streams, where 
an abundance of springs almost invariably abound and 
the country becomes beautifully undulating and frequent¬ 
ly interspersed with small living streams, few of no large 
prairies are found, and the timber and prairie land are 
nearly equally divided. Wherever large streams or ri¬ 
vers run nearly parallel to each other, the timbered land 
as has already been stated, is scarce; but at the head of 
those rivers or streams, nature has wisely arranged a 
beautiful high rolling country, thickly interspersed with 
never failing springs and an abundance of enduring wa¬ 
ter power for hydraulic purposes; and besides the prairie 
and woodlands are so beautifully divided that no one 
need be at either much expense or trouble in owning a 
farm which in point of beauty and quality has no rivals 
in any other country through which we have previously 
travelled. 
To those who have never seen a prairie country, words 
would fail in appropriately portraying their beauty so as 
to convey any thing like an accurate impression of their 
vastness and grandeur. A prairie ten miles in breadth 
and fifty in length, may be considered an average size 
for those that stretch along the larger branches of such 
rivers as Illinois, Rock and Demoines. But the Mississip¬ 
pi and Illinois rivers afford prairies many hundred miles 
in length and from twenty to forty miles in breadth. 
These large prairies are not desirable for arable culture, 
from the fact that the entire absence of timber gives, 
them a perfectly monotonous appearance, so much so that 
it is painful to the eye to behold them; and besides the 
cost of getting a supply of timber for buildings is so great 
that for some time to come they will not be sought after 
by capitalists or be brought into cultivation. A prairie 
from three to five miles in width and some twenty miles 
in length is among the prettiest rural sights we have yet 
had the good fortune of beholding. In almost every in¬ 
stance where prairies of this size have come under our 
observation, they have presented a beautiful undulating 
appearance, rolling back in both directions from the 
