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Art. IV. — Illinois, and its Resources.

ALTHOUGH the preponderance of wealth and power in the United States still lies east of the Alleghany mountains, yet it is abundantly evident that the true elements of our future greatness and glory are centred in that vast and fertile valley which stretches from the Alleghanies westward to the Rocky mountains. This magnificent valley includes about two thirds of the entire territory of the United States; contains more than a million and a quarter of square miles; and is capable of sustaining a population of one hundred and fifty millions of souls. There is, probably, no part of the globe of equal extent which has so small a proportion of waste land and so great an amount of soil fit for cultivation. It is not only the garden of America, but of the world, and M. de Tocqueville, the French tourist and philosopher, declares it to be " the most magnificent dwelling-place prepared by God for man's abode."

This immense valley, at least six times as great as the whole of France, and ten times larger than the island of Great Britain, is watered by rivers which have been formed on the same scale of vastness and grandeur. These, taking their rise in the mountains on either side, meander through the rich plains below for hundreds, and, in some instances, for thousands of miles, until they lose themselves in that ceaseless flood which rolls along the bottom of the valley, called, in the pompous language of the natives. Mississippi, or the Father of Waters. The Mississippi rises in latitude forty-eight, amid the frosts and snows of the wintry north, and having coursed its devious way for three thousand miles, discharges itself into the Mexican Gulf, in the region of perpetual summer. In the course of its wanderings it receives the waters of no less than fifty-seven large navigable rivers, which, with their tributaries, distribute fertility and beauty throughout the valley, and cross it in such a variety of directions, that there is not a spot, unless it be in the great plains of the Upper Missouri, that is more than one hundred miles from some navigable stream. In this great congregation of confluent waters are many rivers of the very largest class. The Missouri sweeps away from the base of the Rocky mountains for more than three thousand miles; the Arkansas has a course of fifteen hundred; and six others wind their way among the rich bottoms and rolling prairies for about a thousand miles. Besides these great rivers and their lesser confluents, the country is everywhere crossed by rivulets starting from springs and fountains, which gradually swell into larger streams, and bend their way among the lesser valleys towards the ceaseless flood which is ever rolling its turbid waters to the ocean.

This great valley has been naturally enough divided by Darby into four sections. That portion which lies below the mouth of the Ohio, possessing

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peculiarities of surface, soil, and climate, is called the lower valley; and that which lies above this point, the upper valley. The country watered by the Ohio and its branches takes the name of the Ohio valley, and that which lies along the Missouri is called the valley of the Missouri. The Upper Mississippi valley differs somewhat from all the others. It is not so low, marshy, and warm as the lower valley: it is not spread out into such immense plains as the country which borders the Missouri: and its surface is not so diversified as that which lies along the waters of the Ohio.

The head branches of the Mississippi flow from, an elevated tract of table-land, abounding in marshes and small lakes, and producing a spontaneous growth of wild rice. This lofty level, which is about one thousand five hundred feet above the Gulf of Mexico, not only gives rise to the waters which glide to the south through the great Mississippi valley, but also to those which run north into Hudson's Bay, and east into the St. Lawrence. From Lake Itaska, its extreme head, the Mississippi winds along through many deviations towards the south, and after passing through a succession of lakes and rapids for about seven hundred miles, is precipitated down the falls of St. Anthony. Ten miles below the falls it receives one of its largest branches, the St. Peters, from the west, and a little further down, another, the St. Croix, from the east. From these points, until it reaches the northern borders of Illinois, a distance of some two hundred and fifty miles, it curls among a multitude of islands, which in the summer are clothed so densely with forest trees, grass, and wild flowers, as often to prevent the eye from reaching the opposite shore. The land on the borders of the stream breaks into bluffs, which are divided by valleys and creeks, and clothed to the summit with the same splendid verdure as the islands, while the ravines below abound with crystals of quartz, carnelians, and other precious stones.

The valley of the Mississippi presents everywhere the most indubitable proofs of a diluvial formation. "Nowhere," says M. de Tocquevi'le, "have the great convulsions of the globe left more evident traces: the whole aspect of the country shows the powerful effects of water, both by its fertility and by its barrenness. The waters of the primeval ocean accumulated enormous beds of vegetable mould in the valley, which they levelled as they retired. Upon the right shore of the river are seen immense plains, as smooth as if the husbandmen had passed over them with his roller. As you approach the mountains, the soil becomes more and more unequal and sterile: the ground is, as it were, pierced in a thousand places by primitive rocks, which appear like the bones of a skeleton whose flesh is partly consumed. The surface of the earth is covered with a granitic sand, and huge, irregular masses of stone, among which a few plants force their growth, and give the appearance of a green field covered with the ruins of a vast edifice. These stones and this sand discover, on examination, a perfect analogy with those which compose the arid and broken summits of the Rocky mountains. The flood of waters which washed the soil to the bottom of the valley, afterward carried away portions of the rocks themselves; and these, dashed and bruised against the neighboring cliffs, were left scattered like wrecks at their feet."

These evidences of a diluvial formation are scarcely less marked on the eastern side of the great river. From the summit level, which gives rise to the Mississippi, and forms the brim of the great lakes to the south point

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of Illinois, including the Wisconsin, and the states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, appears once to have been a great plain, with a gradual inclination to the two great rivers which form its borders. The ravines and valleys appear to have been gradually scooped out by the abrasion of the waters, while those points which presented greater resistance to their influence still remain, and constitute the bluffs which so often diversify the scenery on the margins of the rivers.

The state of Illinois, which forms the southwestern portion of this slope, extends from the mouth of the Ohio upwards along the east side of the Mississippi for 380 miles, with an average width of about 150 miles, and an area, including a small portion of Lake Michigan, of 59,000 square miles, being larger by about thirteen hundred square miles than the state of New York. On the south it extends to 37 degrees of north latitude, and on the north reaches to 42 ˝ degrees. Its southern extremity is consequently nearly on a parallel with Richmond, Virginia, and its northern with Albany, in the state of New York. In consequence of this great extent from north to south the climate is various, but there is little essential variation in the inexhaustible richness of its soil, whether it sinks into "bottoms," rises into "bluffs," or spreads into "prairies" or "barrens."

It will be seen by a glance at the map, that its situation is exceedingly favorable to a commercial intercourse with the surrounding states. The Mississippi meanders along its western border for 700 miles: the Ohio washes it on the south: and on the east it lies against Lake Michigan and the Wabash. Besides this very extensive water communication along its borders, its interior is also traversed by several large navigable rivers. The Illinois, which is formed by the junction of the Des Plaines and Kankakee, two rivers which gather their head waters within a few miles of Lake Michigan, sweeps through the state in a southwesterly direction, and joins the Mississippi a few miles above the mouth of the great Missouri. It is navigable for steamboats at a moderate stage of water to Peru, a distance of more than 200 miles, without reckoning the windings of the channel in navigation; from which point the Illinois and Michigan canal, 100 miles long, connects it with Lake Michigan, thus opening to a great portion of the state a market through the lakes and Erie canal to New York. Rock river rises in Wisconsin, and after traversing the northwestern part of the state, empties into the Mississippi above the 41st degree of north latitude. It is navigable, with the exception of one or two obstructions in the shape of rapids, for near 200 miles. The Kaskaskia, another large river, waters the southern part of the state, and enters the Mississippi about midway between the Missouri and Ohio. The Muddy is still further south, and also discharges its waters into the Mississippi. The large streams on the eastern side of the state are the Iroquois, a tributary of the Kankakee; the Vermillion, emptying into the Wabash; and the Embarras and Little Wabash, both of which also find their way into the Wabash. Besides these are many smaller streams, crossing the country in every direction, some of which, particularly at the north, afford a valuable water-power for propelling machinery.

These extensive channels of intercommunication have been still further extended by artificial means. The public authorities commenced a system of internal improvements, some years ago, on an extended scale, which, although checked for the present by the embarrassments under which the state is laboring, will doubtless ultimately be completed, making every

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part of the state accessible, and opening to the great markets of the Union the inexhaustible productions of the rich interior. Among these the most important is the Illinois and Michigan canal, connecting, as we have already stated, the waters of the Illinois river with those of the lake. It was commenced as a state work in 1836, and congress, to advance its construction, contributed every alternate section of land on each side of the canal, the value of which, when the work is completed, will, it is thought more than defray the expense of construction. The work is still in progress, notwithstanding the embarrassments of the state, and will probably be completed in the course of the next two years. It passes through a region of inexhaustible fertility, and when finished will give a powerful stimulus to the producing interests of the state. It is a curious fact, strongly indicative of the character of the country, that this canal, the length of which is about one hundred miles, will be supplied with water for the greater part of this distance from Lake Michigan. A vast number of other works equally practicable and important have been projected, and some of them commenced, but are now in a state of suspension, and cannot be again resumed with any prospect of success until the resources of the state are called into requisition, and its population considerably increased.

The general surface of Illinois is level or only moderately undulating. The northern and southern portions are broken and somewhat hilly, but no part of the state is traversed with mountains, or even ranges of hills. At a few miles distance from the bed of the rivers the land often rises into "bluffs" from fifty to one hundred and fifty feet in height, intersected by ravines, beyond which is an extended surface of table-lands, divided into "prairies," "barrens," and forests. The low lands lying between the bluffs and the margins of the rivers are called "bottoms," and have been formed by the alluvial deposits of the streams.

These "bottoms" constitute the richest land in the west. The soil is often twenty-five feet deep, and when thrown up from the digging of wells, produces luxuriantly the first year. The most extensive and fertile tract of this description of soil is what is called the American Bottom, commencing at the mouth of the Kaskaskia, on the Mississippi, and extending northward to the bluffs at Alton, a distance of ninety miles. Its average width is five miles, and it contains about 288,000 acres. The soil is an argillaceous or a silicious loam, according as clay or sand happens to predominate in its formation. This tract, which received its name when the Mississippi constituted the western boundary of the United States, is covered on the margin of the river with a strip of heavy timber, having a thick undergrowth, from half a mile to two miles in width, but from thence to the bluffs it is principally prairie. It is interspersed with sloughs, lakes, and ponds, the most of which become dry in autumn. The land is highest near the margin of the stream, and consequently when overflowed retains a large quantity of water, which is apt to stagnate and throw off miasma, rendering the air deleterious to health. The soil is, however, inexhaustibly productive. Seventy-five bushels of corn to the acre is an ordinary crop, and about the old French towns it has been cultivated and produced successive crops of corn annually for more than a hundred years. Besides the American Bottom, there are others that resemble it in its general character.

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On the banks of the Mississippi there are many places where similar lands make their appearance, and also on the other rivers of the state. The bottoms of the Kaskaskia are generally covered with a heavy growth of timber, and are frequently inundated when the river is at its highest flood. Those of the Wabash are of various qualities, being less frequently submerged by the floods of the river as you ascend from its mouth. When not inundated they are equal in fertility to the far-famed American Bottom, and in some instances are preferable, as they possess a soil less adhesive.

These bottoms, especially the American, are the best regions in the United States for raising stock, particularly horses, cattle, and swine. The roots and worms of the soil, the acorns and other fruits from the trees, and the fish of the lakes, are sufficient to subsist and fatten the swine; and the horses and cattle find inexhaustible supplies of grass in the prairies and pea vines, buffalo grass, wild oats, arid other herbage in the timber during the summer, and rushes in the winter. The soil is not so well adapted to the production of wheat and other small grain as of Indian corn. They grow too rank, and fall down before the grain is sufficiently ripened to harvest. They are also all, or nearly all, subject to the very serious objection of being unhealthy.

A large part of Illinois consists of the lesser prairies, which spread out between the creeks, rivers, and timber lands, being mostly undulating, dry, and extremely fertile. They are, however, sometimes level, and in other cases wet. In the southern part of the state they are small, varying in size from those of several miles in width to those which contain only a few acres. As you advance to the north they widen and extend on the more elevated ground between the water-courses, and are frequently from six to twelve miles in width. Their borders are by no means uniform. Long points of timber often project into the prairies, and points of prairie project into the timber between the streams. In many instances there are copses and groves of timber embracing from one hundred to two thousand acres in the midst of the prairies, like islands in the ocean. This is a common feature in the country between the Sangamon river and Lake Michigan, and in the northern parts of the state generally. The lead mine region, especially, abounds with these groves. These prairies are devoid of timber, and are covered with rank grass, over which the fire annually sweeps, blackening the surface, and leaving a deposit of ashes to enrich the soil. The tough sward which covers them, effectually prevents the timber from taking root; but when this is destroyed by the plough, the surface is soon covered with a thick growth of timber. There are large tracts of country in the older settlements, where thirty or forty years ago the farmers cut their winter's supply of hay, which are now covered with a forest of young and thrifty timber. The prairies have a rich, productive soil; are generally favorable to the preservation of health; and are well adapted to all the various purposes of cultivation.

Another kind of land which abounds in this state is called, in the dialect of the west, "Barrens." In the early settlement of Kentucky, the inhabitants, observing that certain portions of the country had a dwarfish and stunted growth of timber scattered over the surface or collected in clumps, with hazel and shrubbery intermixed, inferred that the soil must necessarily be poor, and hence called these tracts barrens. It was, however, soon ascertained that, so far from their being barren, they were really among the

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most productive lands in the state. The name has, however, been retain, ed, and received a very extensive application throughout the west. In general, the barrens of Illinois have a surface more uneven or rolling than the prairies, and which more frequently degenerates into ravines and "sink-holes." They are almost invariably healthy; have a greater abundance of pure springs, and possess a soil better adapted to all the purposes of cultivation and the different changes of seasons than either the bottoms or prairies. They are covered with wild grass, and with oak and hickory trees and shrubs, which are scattered over their surface, and are gnarled and dwarfish, in consequence of the repeated fires which sweep over them; but when these are stopped, healthy sprouts shoot up from the mass of roots which have accumulated in the earth, and grow with amazing rapidity, so that the want of timber on these tracts can easily be supplied.

What is called Forest or Timber Land also abounds in Illinois, but is very unequally distributed over the state. Where the prairie predominates timber is, of course, a desideratum, but as it shoots up with great strength and rapidity as soon as the soil is broken by the plough, this circumstance does not prove a bar to the settlement of the country. The kinds of timber most abundant are oaks of various kinds, black and white walnut, ash, elrn, sugar maple, honey locust, hackberry, linden, hickory, cotton wood, pecaun, mulberry, buckeye, sycamore, wild cherry, box, elder, sassafras, and persimmon. In the southern and eastern parts of the state are yellow poplar and beech; near the Ohio are cypress; and on the Calamich, near Lake Michigan, is a small tract covered with white pine. The undergrowth consists of red-bud, pawpaw, sumach, plum, crab-apple, grape vines, dog-wood, spice-bush, green brier, hazel, &c. For ordinary purposes, there is now timber enough in the state without resorting to artificial cultivation.

The more uneven portions of the country are divided into knobs, bluffs, ravines, and sink-holes. Knobs are ridges of flint limestone intermingled and covered with earth, and elevated one or two hundred feet above the common surface. They are of little value for cultivation, and have a thin growth of dwarfish trees like the barrens. The steep hills and natural mounds that border the alluvions have obtained the name of bluffs. Some are in long parallel ridges, others like cones and pyramids. They are sometimes formed of precipices of limestone rock from fifty to one hundred feet high. The ravines are the depressions formed between the bluffs, and often leading from the prairies down to the streams. Sink-holes are circular depressions of various sizes, from ten to fifty feet deep, and from ten to one hundred yards in circumference. They frequently contain an outlet for the water received by the rains, and indicate a substratum of secondary limestone.

There are but few tracts of ground in the state where loose stones are scattered over the surface or imbedded in the soil, and these are chiefly in the northern part. There are, however, quarries of stone in the bluffs, along the ravines, and on the banks of the streams. The soil throughout the state is mostly porous, easy to cultivate, and exceedingly productive. There are no mountains; no ranges of hills; but few ledges; and only a small amount of irreclaimable wastes of any kind in the state. Its capabilities of production are therefore immense, and probably greater than those of any other state, comparing area with area.

Among the products of the soil, grapes, plums, crab-apples, wild cherries,

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persimmons, pawpaws, black mulberries, gooseberries, strawberries, and blackberries, are indigenous, and grow wild in great profusion. Of the cultivated fruits, apples, pears, quinces, peaches, and grapes, thrive well, and can be raised in abundance. The cultivated vegetable productions of the field are Indian corn, wheat, oats, barley, buckwheat, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips, rye, tobacco, cotton, hemp, flax, the castor bean, &c. Maize, or Indian corn, is the staple. No farmer can live without it, and many raise little else. It is cultivated with great ease; produces ordinarily fifty bushels to the acre; often seventy-five; and not unfrequently reaches even to a hundred. The number of bushels raised in 1839 amounted to twenty-two and a half millions. Wheat is a good and sure crop, especially in the middle part of the state, and in a few years Illinois will probably send immense quantities to market. The number of bushels raised in 1839 was 3,263,552. Hemp grows spontaneously, but is not extensively cultivated. Cotton is raised in the southern part of the state, and in 1840, 200,000 pounds were produced. 30,000 pounds of rice were gathered in the same year, and 2,591 pounds of hops.

The stock of the farmer consists principally of horses, neat cattle, swine, and sheep. Horses are more used here than in the eastern states. They do much the greater proportion of the ploughing, and off from the stage routes the travelling is chiefly performed on horseback. The number in the state in 1840 was, according to the returns of the United States mar-shal, 200,741. Illinois possesses fine grazing lands, and raises for market considerable quantities of beef, which is sold in the western states. In Alton alone, 5000 beeves were killed during the past winter, prior to the first of February. The number of neat cattle in the state was, in 1840, 612,244. Pork is one of the staples, and thousands are produced almost without trouble or expense, as they are raised on the fruits and nuts which grow wild in the woods. Near 70,000 were slaughtered in Alton last fall, and in the whole state the number, as returned by the marshal, is 1,445,925. Sheep have not been hitherto raised in very great numbers, but the flocks of the Illinois farmers are rapidly increasing, and the number in the state now amounts to 486,751. Poultry are raised in great abundance. Ducks, geese, and other aquatic birds, visit the lakes and streams during winter and spring, and prairie hens (grouse).and quails are very numerous, and are taken in great abundance.

But the resources of Illinois do not stop with her large and navigable rivers; the inexhaustible fertility of her soil; or the abundance of her animal and vegetable productions. She is also rich in minerals. Coal, secondary limestone, and sandstone, are found in almost every part of the state, Iron has been found in the south, and is also said to exist in considerable quantities in the north. Marble and granite are found in several counties, and the quantity quarried in 1839, amounted in value to $71,778. Copper has been found in small quantities on Muddy river, and in the bluffs of Monroe county; and in greater abundance on the Peekatonokee, near the northern boundary of the state. Crystalized gypsum has been discovered in small quantities in St. Clair county, and quartz crystals in Gallatin county. Gold is found in Jo Daviess and Fulton counties, from which gold was produced in 1839 to the amount of $5,250. Silver is also supposed to exist in the vicinity of Silver creek, and in early times a shaft was sunk here by the French, and it is said that large quantities of this metal were obtained.

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But of all the mineral productions of the state lead is the most abundant, In the northern part of Illinois and the territory adjacent, are the richest lead mines hitherto discovered on the globe. They lie principally north of Rock river and south of the Wisconsin, but some have also been found on the west side of the Mississippi. For many years the Indians and French traders were accustomed to dig lead in these regions, but they never penetrated much below the surface. In 1823, the late Col. James John, son, brother to the Hon. Richard M. Johnson, obtained a lease of the United States government, and made arrangements to prosecute the business of smelting, which he commenced with considerable energy the following year. This enterprise attracted the attention of other capitalists, and in the course of three or four years, this sequestered spot literally swarmed with miners, smelters, merchants, speculators, and gamblers on every description, until, in 1829, the lead business was entirely overdone, and the market for a while destroyed. Since that time, however, the business has revived, and continues to be profitable. The supply exists, over a tract of country about two hundred miles in extent, and appears to be inexhaustible.

In 1839, the United States marshal found twenty-three smelting-houses, principally in the county of Jo Daviess. The capital invested in the business was $128,600, and the quantity of lead produced 3,546,000 pounds. The government received six per cent of the lead produced for rent. The following table, from Peck's Gazetteer of Illinois, exhibits the amount on lead made in this region from 1821 to September 30, 1835.

Pounds of lead made from 1821, to Sept. 1823, 335,130
do. for the year ending Sept. 80, 1824, 175,220
do. do. do. 1825, 664,530
do. do. do. 1826, 958,842
do. do. do. 1827, 5,182,180
do. do. do. 1828, 11,105,810
do. do. do. 1829, 13,344,150
do. do. do. 1830, 8,323,998
do. do. do. 1831, 6,381,900
do. do. do. 1832, 4,281,876
do. do. do. 1833, 7,941,792
do. do. do. 1834, 7,971,579
do. do. do. 1835, 3,754,290
Total, 70,420,357

The coal of Illinois is of the bituminous character, and lies principally in the ravines and points of the bluffs. Exhaustless beds are found in the bluffs of St. Clair county, bordering on the American Bottom, and large quantities are carried across to St. Louis for fuel. There is, however, scarce a county in the state in which it does not abound. The quantity dug in 1839 was over 376,000 bushels.

Common salt (muriate of soda) is also found in various parts of the state, held in solution in the waters of the springs, and the manufacture is carried on in several counties to a considerable extent. The springs and land are owned by the state, and the works leased. During the last year more than 20,000 bushels were produced, principally in Gallatin and Vermillion counties, and the supply can be increased to any desirable extent.

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The manufacturinginterests of Illinois are still in their infancy, but the time is not distant when its manufactories will cope with those of the older states. Steam mills for flouring and for sawing timber, have been erected in the southern and middle portions of the state, and are rapidly increasing in number: while mills driven by water-power are in operation at the north. It is worthy of remark, too, that in those portions of the state not supplied with a constant water-power, coal and wood for fuel abound. The best water-power is found in the northern part, and it has already been improved to a considerable extent. Mills for various purposes have sprung up along the streams, particularly along Rock river and its branches, and the Illinois and Fox rivers. The Illinois and Michigan canal also furnishes an admirable water-power, superior probably to any other in the west. The rapids in the Fox river, four miles above Ottaway, have a descent of sixteen feet, and an abundant supply of water at all seasons of the year, while, from the rapids down, the river has such a descent as will enable its waters to be used for propelling machinery. The improvements on the Great and Little Wabash, and the Kaskaskia, will also make the waters of those streams available for hydraulic purposes, and whenever mills shall be required there is nothing to prevent their rapid multiplication. In 1839, the number of flour, grist, and sawmills, was 1,502, and the value of manufactured products, $2,306,619.

Education. The same provision has been made by congress for the support of schools in Illinois as in the other new states. The public lands are surveyed into townships six miles square, containing 36 sections, of 640 acres each, and the section numbered sixteen, in every township, is given to that township for educational purposes. Besides this provision, which applies only to the local townships, three per cent of all the public lands within the state, sold, or to be sold, after its admission into the Union in 1819, are to constitute a fund for the support of education, under the direction of the state authorities, provided that one sixth is to be exclusively devoted to the support of a college or university. Two entire townships, or 46,080 acres, have also been bestowed for the support of education, which, with a moiety of the surplus money divided between the states, constitutes a fund, which is estimated at about three millions of dollars, a large portion of which, however, will long be unavailable. The interest which resulted from the education fund in 1839, and which was divided according to the law, was $44,326. But the state lacks a well organized system of common schools, without which education can never generally prevail.

Besides several respectable academies, there are in this young state six institutions which take the name of colleges, viz: Illinois College, at Jacksonville, under the direction of the "new school" Presbyterians; McDonough College, at Macomb, belonging to the "old school;" Shurtleff College, at Alton, which takes its name from Dr. Shurtleff of Boston, who made it a munificent donation; McKendree College, at Lebanon, St. Clair county, belonging to the Methodists; and Canton College, in Fulton county, and Belvidere College, in Winnebago county, two new institutions which have only recently been chartered. But not withstanding this great show of literary institutions, it will probably be found that education languishes in Illinois, as indeed it does in most new states. The foundation which is laid, however, in the prospective education fund, is of great importance, and we may confidently expect that the intellectual resources of this vast and beautiful region will ere long be as abundant as its physical.

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The following particulars are derived from a tabular statement prepared by J. A. Townsend, of Alton, Illinois:

  Quantity. Value.
Population, 476,273  
Horses and mules, 200,741 $9,033 345
Neat cattle, 612,244 9,183,640
Sheep, 486,751 973,502
Swine, 1,445,925 1,337,775
Poultry,   340,600
Wheat, 3,263,552 2,039,720
Barley, buckwheat, and rye 49.366 76,470
Oats, 5,681,931 1,136,386
Corn, 22,523,630 4,504,727
Wool, (pounds) 634,349 285,457
Beeswax, (pounds) 26,676 6,669
Potatoes, 2,086,516 521,629
Hay, (tons) 138,125 1,005,000
Flax and hemp, 15,604 1,560,000
Tobacco, 475,250 28,515
Sugar, 399,713 49,964
Wood, (cords) 124,138 248,276
Dairy, (value of produce)   445,621
Orchards, (value of produce)   118,132
Domestic goods,   1,108,096
Garden and nurseries   97,996
Stores, 1,374  
Stores, (capital invested in)   5,085,457
Skins, ginseng,&c   258,838
Bricks and lime,   262,406
Carriages and wagons,   135,712
Flour, grist, saw, and oil mills, 1,502  
Flour, &c, (manufactured)   2,306,619
Brick and frame houses, (built in 1839) 4,020  
Houses,   2,044,108
Tanneries, 154  
Sole and upper leather, (sides) 68,808 223,118
Saddleries, (products)   255,252
Distilleries, breweries, &c. 153  
Distilleries, breweries, (products, No. of gals.) 1,554,109 388,195
Manufactures, (not enumerated products)   361,522
Manufactures, (not enumerated capital)   338,195
Manufactories, total amount of capital,   3,969,912
Total value of products, exclusive of capital and    
cost of buildings,   51,811,606
No. of persons employed in mining,   1,227
" " agriculture,   97,781
" " commerce,   2,523

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No. of persons employed in navigating the ocean,   75
" " navigating rivers and lakes,   85
" " learned professions,   1,931
No. of deaf and dumb,   311
" blind,   80
" insane and idiots,   200
" colleges, 7 No. of students,   311
" academies, 41 " "   1,907
" common schools, 1,200 " "   33,724
" students at public charge,   1,318
" white persons over 20, who cannot read and write,   28,780
" pensioners,   155

nts

Notes

1. This account of the surface and soil of Illinois is mostly condensed from Peck's New Guide to Emigrants.

2. For a statement of the population of each county in the state of Illinois, taken at the census of 1840, and the number of square miles in the several counties, see Merchants' Magazine for October, 1841, page 391.

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