If any State in the Union is adapted to agriculture, and the various branches of rural economy, such as stock-raising, wool-growing, or fruit-culture, it must surely be Illinois, where the fertile natural meadows invite the plough, without the tedious process of clearing off timber, which, in many parts of the country, makes it the labor of a lifetime to bring a farm under good cultivation.  Here, the farmer who is satisfied with such crops as fifty bushels of corn to the acre, eighteen of wheat, or one hundred of potatoes, has nothing to do but to plough, sow, and reap; no manure, and but little attention, being necessary to secure a yield like this.  Hence a man of very small means can soon become independent on the prairies.  If, however, one is ambitious of raising good crops, and doing the best he can with his land, let him manure liberally and cultivate diligently; nowhere will land pay for good treatment better than here.

Mr. J. Ambrose Wight, of Chicago, the able editor of the “Prairie Farmer,” writes as follows:—­

“From an acquaintance with Illinois lands and Illinois farmers, of eighteen years, during thirteen of which I have been editor of the ‘Prairie Farmer,’ I am prepared to give the following as the rates of produce which may be had per acre, with ordinary culture:—­

  Winter Wheat, 15 to 25 Bushels. 
  Spring " 10 to 20 "
  Corn, 40 to 70 "
  Oats, 40 to 60 "
  Potatoes, 100 to 200 "
  Grass, Timothy and Clover, 1-1/2 to 3 Tons.

“Ordinary culture, on prairie lands, is not what is meant by the term in the Eastern or Middle States.  It means here, no manure, and commonly but once, or at most twice, ploughing, on perfectly smooth land, with long furrows, and no stones or obstructions; where two acres per day is no hard job for one team.  It is often but very poor culture, with shallow ploughing, and without attention to weeds.  I have known crops, not unfrequently, far greater than these, with but little variation in their treatment:  say, 40 to 50 bushels of winter wheat, 60 to 80 of oats, and 100 of Indian corn, or 300 of potatoes. Good culture, which means rotation, deep ploughing, farms well stocked, and some manure applied at intervals of from three to five years, would, in good seasons, very often approach these latter figures.”

We will now give the results of a very detailed account of the management of a farm of 240 acres, in Kane County, Illinois, an average farm as to soil and situation, but probably much above the average in cultivation,—­at least, we should judge so from the intelligent and business-like manner in which the account is kept; every crop having a separate account kept with it in Dr. and Cr., to show the net profit or loss of each.