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DEAR SIR:

Having seen a publication, made by you, in relation to the value and productiveness of the lands belonging to the Illinois Central Railroad Company, I take the liberty to make the following statement of my own experience in the premises.

In August, 1853, I purchased of said company the N. W. quarter of the S. W. quarter of section 32, township 23, north of range 2, east, containing 40 acres of prairie-land, six miles from Bloomington, in the county of McLean, and State of Illinois.

I broke up the 40 acres of land, and put it all in fall wheat; and from my first crop, which I harvested in July, 1854, I raised, on the 40 acres, eleven hundred and ten bushels of first quality white Genesee wheat, which I disposed of as follows:

1st. I sold, to different individuals, 100 bushels, at $1.25..... ...... $125 00 2d. I sold Brown & Mayers 300 bushels, at $1.25..........

3d. I sold to Brown & Mayers 600 bushels, delivered at Blooming

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375 00

900 00

165 00

$1565 00

as the production of 40 acres of land for one season, and that being the first crop raised on said land, - being what is known as fall wheat-crop sown upon the sod, after the first breaking up and turning over of the prairie.

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And now, as the 40 acres of land are fenced and broke up, and in fine condition for cultivation, I can readily sell the land at $25 per acre, cash; but I should decline selling if offered thirty dollars per acre.

I make the aforesaid statement for the information of all persons who contemplate coming to this State, that they may know the agricultural advantages of Illinois.

No one having an intention to settle in Illinois, and whose means are not very great, should neglect to examine the lands of the Illinois Central Railroad Company, before making a purchase in any other quarter. There is much advantage in the method of paying the

purchase-money by instalmeuts, bearing an interest of only three per cent. per annum. On this account, not only settlers from the Eastern States, but even Illinois farmers, heretofore living in other parts of this State, are settling on the lands of the Company, and here providing new homes for themselves.

These lands become liable to taxation only at the time when the last instalment is paid, and after the purchaser has received his deed.

A service may be rendered to those who intend to settle on these lands, by giving a description of them, in their whole extent along the line of the railroad, with particular regard to the qualities of the soil. We will, therefore, commence by following the route of the Chicago Branch-road to Centralia, and thence along the main line from Cairo up to Dunleith.

Calumet, Thornton, Richton. - Land level and rich. By ditching, it may be made well adapted to grazing, and supply Chicago with milk, vegetables, and hogs.

Monee, Manteno. - Splendid rolling-prairie; rich, deep, black soil.
Extremely valuable, owing to its vicinity to the Chicago market.
A sulphur spring in township 32, range 10, east.
Bourbonnais, Kankakee, Chebanse.-Beautiful prairie-country; well
watered and timbered.

Ashkum, Onarga.

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Rich, gently rolling prairie; well adapted to grazing. Streams fringed with ash, oak, elm, &c. Fine living springs pouring into the Iroquois river.

Loda. - Beautiful rolling-prairie, thinly interspersed with timber. Well adapted to grazing and tillage. Watered by a number of

streams.

Pera.Land high and rolling; watered by the Big Vermillion and Sangamon rivers.

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Rantoul. Vast prairie; highly adapted to grazing and raising stock.

Urbana, Pesotum. - Fertile in the highest degree, and well wooded. The Great Western Railroad crosses south of Urbana, and brings coal from the Danville coal-fields.

Okaw. -Rich rolling-prairie. The Indiana and Illinois Railroad passes north of Okaw. Country well watered by the Kankaskia and its branches. Streams fringed with timber.

Arno. Prairie and

wood-land; rich, fertile, and well watered.

The Terre haute and Alton Railroad intersects south of Arno.

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Nioga, Effingham. Rolling, rich prairie; well supplied with streams and fine groves of timber. Excellent farming country. The National road passes through Effingham.

Edgewood. Timbered with oak, hickory, &c. ; interspersed with almost the same quantity of prairie.

Farina, Tonti.-Fine, open prairie, and interspersed with groves of timber.

Cairo, Villa Ridge. - Cairo is the southern terminus of the road, and is situated at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Country back heavily timbered with poplar, oak, cotton-wood, gum, elm, cypress, &c.

Ullin, Jonesboro'.- High, rolling land, heavily timbered with beach and cotton-wood. Wheat, of a very superior quality, ripens in May. Iron ore is found near Jonesboro'.

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Macanda, Carbondale. A fine, timbered country, covered with gum, poplar, sugar-tree, mulberry, oak, and ash; watered by the Coal is found in this region. Tobacco

Big Muddy river, &c.

is also cultivated here.

De Soto, Du Quoin.- The centre of the coal region.

At Du Quoin

it is mined thirty feet from the surface. Fine, open prairie, interspersed with walnut, oak, sugar-tree, &c.

lands.

Tamaroa. Northern limit of the coal-field.

Excellent farming

About an equal

quantity of timber and prairie; watered by the Big Muddy river, &c.

Ashley, Richview, Centralia. - Gently-rolling prairie, well watered. Proceeding north, prairie more rolling, and interspersed with groves of oak, ash, &c.

Sandoval, Patoka. - Country well watered, and interspersed with timber. The Ohio and Mississippi Railroad crosses at Sandoval.

Vandalia. Well watered. Climate mild; winters short. Cattle

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thrive on the prairie for nine or ten months in the year.

Ramsey, Oconee. - Level and rolling prairie, interspersed with timber, and well watered. The Terrehaute and Alton Railroad passes through this section.

Pana, Tacusah.

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- Fine prairie; streams fringed with timber. The Terrehaute and Alton Railroad intersects at Pana.

Moawequa, Macon, Decatur. — Rich prairie, well timbered, and watered by the Sangamon river, &c.

The Great Western and the

Indiana Central Railroad intersect at Decatur.

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Maroa. Gently-rolling, rich prairie, well watered. Streams fringed with hickory, elm, walnut, and pawpaw.

Clinton, Wapellah, Elmwood. — Rolling, rich prairie, with groves of timber, watered by Sugar creek and the Kickapoo.

Bloomington, Hudson. - A beautiful, fertile, and rolling farmingcountry, well watered, and supplied with timber. for settlement.

Highly adapted

Timber in groves

The Peoria and

Kappa, Panola, Minonk. - Rich, rolling prairie. and on creeks. Watered by Panther creek, &c. Oquawka Railroad passes south of Panola. Wenona. Level and rolling prairie, interspersed with timber, and well watered. Deep and rich soil. The Fort Wayne and Lacon Railroad intersects at Wenona.

Tonica, La Salle, Homer.

The great belt of coal, passing through the centre of the State, is found extensively at La Salle, and ranges a long distance east and west. Junction of the Illinois Central and Rock Island railroads; also, intersection of the Illinois and Michigan canal. Mendota, Soublette, Amboy. In Mendota, the junction of the Illinois Central, Military Tract and Aurora Branch railroads. High, rolling land, occasionally interspersed with timber. Good waterpower.

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Dixon. Country well settled throughout. Excellent agricultural land, well watered by Rock river, &c. The Galena and Chicago Air Line Railroad intersects at Dixon.

Foreston. High, dry, and upland prairie, well timbered and well watered.

Freeport, Elleroy, Lena, Nora. - Magnificent farming-country, well watered. The Galena and Chicago Union Railroad intersects at Freeport.

Warren, Scales Mound, Council Hill, Galena, Dunleith. A rapidly growing country. Fine agricultural soil throughout the section. Galena is the centre of the lead region. Dunleith is the northern terminus of the road.

Through the above brief description, the reader may become somewhat acquainted with the general character of the country traversed by the Illinois Central Railroad, as well as with the peculiar qualities of the various sections of land brought into market by the Company. It remains still to be mentioned, as a striking proof of the extraordinary progress already made in the development and cultivation of these lands, that, in the year 1856, in the neighbourhood of Urbana alone, within a circuit of fifteen miles, about 20,000 acres were tilled and sown with wheat; which more than doubles the quantity of all the land together that had been previously broken up and cultivated in this region. It is further supposed, that, from the crop of 1856 alone, between 300,000 and 400,000 bushels of wheat will be sent only to the market at Urbana. From this we can form some idea of the rapid increase in the quantity of tilled lands throughout the whole of this rich and fertile country.

Lastly, the following table, which is constructed from data collected in January, 1856, shows the rapid growth and great strides towards municipal importance of the numerous towns and villages already founded in this bountiful territory, and which lie dotted along the line of the railroad and its branches, in the whole of the long distance between the beginning and the end. In fact, many of these places have during the last year doubled the number of their inhabitants; and, therefore, although these data have been so lately and carefully collected, they will enable the close examiner to form merely a reasonable conjecture of what is the present state of things.

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