18. FENCES.-Material preferred: cost per rod, and cost of keeping up hedge, board and rail fences: value of hedges for protection: is it cheaper to fence out stock than to keep them up?

19. Capital per acre required for good farming?

Thirty-four answers were received, which are arranged according to latitude, beginning with the northernmost counties, for facility in comparing the opinions of those in the same latitude. Answers were received from the following persons:

E. Moss, Belvidere, Boone county; Geo. Chaffee, Belvidere, Boone county; M. A. McConnel, Richmond, McHenry county; Asa Baley, Lindenwood, Ogle county; Silas Reynolds, Aurora, Kane county; D. C. Scofield, Elgin, Kane county; Joseph Tefft, Elgin, Kane county; H. Pierce, Moline, Rock Island county; Jacob Schoen" leber, Allen, LaSalle county; Charles E. Barney, Providence, Bureau county; Verry Aldrich, Tiskilwa, Bureau county; Adam Rankin, Monmouth, Warren county i George W. Minier, Mackinaw, Tazewell county; James Robinson, Tremont, Tazewell county; John R. Tull, Pontoosuc, Hancock county; Thos. Gregg, Hamilton, Hancock county; A. C. Hammond, Warsaw, Hancock county; Harvey Sodowsky, Indianola, Vermilion county; William M. Allen, Mt. Pulaski, Logan county; Samuel P. Boardman, Lincoln, Logan county; B. Sweet, Tuscola; George Harding, Bloomfield, Edgar county; G. W. Vaughan, Sullivan, Moultrie county; Sylvester Butler, Majority Point, Cumberland county; W. F. Bliss, Nokomis, Montgomery county; D. Gove, Carlinville, Macoupin county; J. G. Swann, Elsah, Jersey county; E. A. Riehl, Alton, Madison county; John Balsiger, Highland, Madison county; J. Y. Bothwell, Clay City, Clay county; Theodore Engelman, Mascoutah, St. Clair county; George C. Eisenmeyer, Mascoutah, St. Clair county; Joseph Barber, Richview, Washington county; Joseph Warder, Vienna, Johnson county.

The following statements, in answer to the first and second queries, show the conditions of farming which call out the differing opinions.

1. What is the location of your farm by section, township and range i's distance from market town, or shipping point?

E. Moss.-One mile south of Belvidere.

G. Chaffee.-Two and one-half miles from depot at Belvidere.

M. A. McConnell.-One-half mile from Richmond Station.

Asa Baley.-Six miles from Rochelle, fourteen from Rockford,

H. Pierce.-One-half mile from Moline, three from Rock Island, four from Davenport.

Joseph Tefft.-Five miles west from Aurora on the C. B. and Q. R. R.

J. Schoenleber.-Location of farm: section 9, township 31, range 5, southeast quarter, eleven miles from canal and railroad in Seneca.

V. Aldrich.-Location of farm: section 23, township 15 north, range 1 east, 4th principal meridian. Distance from shipping points: from Hennepin, on Illinois river, five miles; Henry, on Illinois river, thirteen miles; Tiskilwa, on Chicago, Rock

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Island and Pacific railroad, five miles; Bureau Junction, three miles; Princeton, on Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad, nine miles.

A. Rankin.-Location of farm; section 31, range 2 west of 4th principal meridian, Monmouth township, one mile and a half from the depot.

G. W. Minier.-My farm is northeast quarter of section 3, town 23 north, range 2 west of the third principal meridian; three and a half miles due north of Minier Station, on the St. Louis, Jacksonville and Chicago railroad.

J. Robinson. My farm is located in section 10, township 24 north, range 4 west of the third principal meridian, in Tazewell county, Illinois, and is distant seven miles from Pekin, on the Illinois river.

It is two

J. R. Tull.-My farm is located in south half of section 7, township 7 north, of range 7 west of the fourth principal meridian, Hancock county, Illinois. miles from a shipping point, and four miles from a market town.

Th. Gregg.-My farm or fruit lot is located in the city limits of Hamilton, on section 29, township 5 north, range 8 west of the fourth principal meridian, in Hancock county, at the foot of the Lower Rapids, and opposite Keokuk, Iowa, from which it is distant one and a half miles, including the river. Keokuk and Warsaw, five miles below, are our shipping points by river, Hamilton by rail.

A. C. Hammond.-My farm is situated in township 4 north, ranges 8 and 9 west, four miles from Warsaw.

Harvey Sodowsky.-My farm is situated on the Little Vermilion river, being in sections 17 and 18, township 17, range 12 west. I am half a mile north of Chillicothe and ten miles south of the Great Western railroad. Fairmount and Catlin are my nearest shipping points. I am some twenty miles west of the Wabash river.

Wm. M. Allen.-Section 8, township 18 north, 1 west. distant twelve miles,

Shipping point Lincoln,

S. P. Boardman.-That my farm consists of the west half of section 29, the east half of section 30, the southwest quarter of section 20, and the southeast quarter of section nineteen, all the tracts being in town 20, range 1 west of third principal meridian. It is six miles and a half from Lincoln, the county seat of Logan county, and my market town.

G. Harding.-Farm located in township 15 north, range 12 west, twelve miles from Paris.

G. W. Vaughan.-Part of my farm is in section 3, township 13, range 5, and the rest in sections 27 and 34, 14 south east, third principal meridian. Its distance from a shipping point by rail is twelve miles, but the best shipping point, and that to which we usually take our grain, is Mattoon, 18 or 20 miles distant. My farm is one and a half miles from Sullivan, the county seat of our county.

S. Butler.-My farm lays lengthwise, east and west, section 9, township 10, range 9, E.

W. F. Bliss.—Montgomery county; section 21, in township 10 north, range 2 west, one mile west of Nokomis, which is its shipping point, and 81 miles from St. Louis on the St. Louis and Indianapolis railway.

D. Gove.-My farm is located in sections 9 and 10, in township 10, range 7, Macoupin county; is two miles and a half north of Carlinville, the county seat of Macoupin county,

J. G. Swann.-Township 6, range 11, two miles from Elsah, on the Mississippi river.

E. A. Riehl.-Northeast fr. quarter section 25, township 6, range 11, and the east half of the northwest fr. quarter section 25, township 6, range 11 west, third meridian, eight miles from Alton by road.

J. Balsiger. My farm lies in Madison county, sections 35 and 36, township 4, range 6. It is two and one-half miles from Highland, our market town, which will also be our shipping point, a railroad being built from there to St. Louis, as well as eastward,

J. Y. Bothwell.-My farm lies in sections 13, 14, 23 and 24, township No. 3 north, range No. 7 east, on the Ohio and Mississippi railroad, two miles from Clay city.

T. Engleman. My farm is in sections 19 and 20, township 1 south, range 6 west of third principal meridian. It is four miles south of Mascoutah, a town of about 4,000 inhabitants and with five steam flouring mills to which the wheat, the only product of the farm raised for market in this section of the country, is sold. Prices of wheat at Mascoutah average ten or fifteen cents per bushel below St. Louis market prices; competition and jealousy between the mills keeps the prices up at times equal to those in St. Louis.

J. Barber.-The location of the farm is section 10, township 2 south, range 1 west of the third principal meridian, in Washington county. Shipping point, Richview Station, one mile distant.

J. Warder.-My farm is located in that part of Illinois known as the White and Black Oak Ridges, south of the prairie region. Our nearest shipping point is Metropolis, on the Ohio river, twenty miles distant. Our nearest market town is Vienna, Johnson county, six miles west of us. Douglass on the Illinois Central railroad, twenty-five miles distant, is our nearest railway station.

2. Character of surface soil, as to depth, color and consistency: of subsoil, whether clay, sandy, or gravelly: natural growth, whether prairie or forest, with varieties of piants and trees growing spontaneously?

E. Moss.-Common prairie, black color, mixture of black sand; subsoil gravelly. G. Chaffee.-Prairie, with clay subsoil.

M. A. McConnell.—Surface somewhat rolling; soil varies, some clay and gravel; prairie, openings and timber; the timber is hickory, red and white oak; openings, burr oak.

A. Baley.-Surface soil black, one foot deep, light prairie; subsoil open yellow loam; can be worked at all times, when no frost is in it.

H. Pierce.-Surface soil, dark, yellowish clay loam, 8 to 18 inches deep; natural growth, oak, hickory, walnut, soft maple and a few butternuts.

J. Tefft.-Upland soil, clay with some portion gravelly; bottom, black, deep clay soil, full of alluvial deposits.

S. Reynolds.-Surface soil, dark loam; subsoil, various. Prairie, covered with common prairie grass.

J. Schoenleber.-Surface soil, black loam, 12 to 30 inches deep; rolling prairie; subsoil, yellow clay from 3 to 6 feet; below this, blue clay to the depth of 38 feet dug and 44 feet bored.

C. E. Barney.—Prairie; a deep black, sandy loam; clay and gravel subsoil. V. Aldrich.-Surface soil, clayey loam to the depth of 10 or 12 inches; color, brownish black, or between black and light cold clay soil, mixed with just sand enough to render it pliable and easy to work; it takes in water freely and stands drouth well. This description includes south half of farm, formerly prairie. The natural growth of north half is hazel brush and barren timber, black and white oaks; soil becomes lighter color and more clayey Subsoil of south half, mostly red or brick cold clay to the depth of 15 feet; below this, to the depth of 15 feet or more, a layer of coarse gravel, and then river sand as far as I have penetrated, about 61 feet.

A. Rankin.-Surface soil, black loam, average depth, 20 inches; subsoil, clay. Prairie, spontaneous growth grasses, blue stem prairie grass, blue grass, and white clover.

G. W. Minier.-The surface is slightly undulating, a very little of it may be said to rise to the dignity (?) of a roll, passing off into gentle slopes.

The soil is the common dark mould of the prairies of this part of the State; depth of soil is usually said to be from one to two feet, but I am satisfied it is nearer from one to two hundred feet, as it is all an immense drift, and any depth to which I have yet penetrated, when exposed to the action of the elements, produces well. The subsoil is generally yellow clay. It was nearly all prairie, producing in its natural state, when I first saw it, an immense crop of wild grass and rosin weeds. About ten acres of it was a copse, now a beautiful grove of burr oak, red elm, white hickory, sassafras, blue ash, hackberry, and wild cherry, with here and there a mul berry and one honey locust.

J. Robinson. The character of the surface soil is black loam mainly, with some black sand near the surface, and yellowish or reddish clay mixed with it; this extends from one and a half to three feet in depth. The subsoil consists of a yellowish and reddish clay, with sand and gravel, sometimes mingled and sometimes in veins or layers; sometimes clear beds of sand or gravel are found from ten to twenty-five feet from the surface, in which usually is found pure hard water; below this is the blue clay, which extends to an unknown depth.

The natural growth on this land, before cultivation, was the wild herbage of the prairie, and since being cultivated, if let alone, would be the various weeds that infest our prairie farms; these would soon be followed by thistles and briars, and they, if the land was not pasture, by our various timbers, such as cottonwood, red and white elm, ash, wild cherry, maples, locusts and box elder; if the land be pasture it would soon be blue grass and white clover.

J. R. Tull.—The soil is mostly thin; sul soil is a clayey loam, underlaid with limestone, and is what might be termed a limestone soil. My farm is partly timber and part prairie. The natural growth of timber is mostly black oak, some hickory, white oak, ash, black walnut, sugar maple and linden.

T. Gregg. Our surface soil is a vegetable mould overlying a clay subsoil; beneath which is, first, a deposit of sand some fifteen feet thick, and, second, a tenacious bluish clay, beneath which, again, is limestone rock. Most of the bluffs in this vicinity contain valuable quarries of a beautiful building stone, specimens of which, together with samples of soils, I send for the museum of the Industrial University.

The natural growth of timber on these bluffs consists of the following, viz: white and black oak, hickory, white and sugar maple, wild cherry, elm, honey locust, mulberry, ash, sassafras, hazel, and blackberry and raspberry.

A. C. Hammond.—Soil, a dark clay loam, from ten to twenty inches deep; subsoil a tenacious yellow clay. Natural growth, hazel, crab apple, and wild plum.

The surface, rolling and well drained by several streams. The soil varies from one to three feet in depth and is bedded on a very strong yellow clay; it is slightly sandy with very little gravel. The natural growth is part forest and part prairie; about 130 acres forest and the rest prairie. The forest trees are the black walnut, sugar maple, wild cherry, blue ash, hickory, elm, mulberry, coffee nut, pawpaw, and some honey locust plants.

H. Sodowsky.-Surface, black mould two feet in depth; subsoil, clay; farming land, prairie.

S. P. Boardman.-The surface soil is a warm, light-colored soil-as compared with the blackest soil of this part of the State-having sufficient sand in it to show a little on the surface after a rain. It is about fifteen to seventeen inches in depth. Deer creek, a small branch of Salt creek, runs across the farm diagonally, entering at the northeast corner and passing out on the west line of the farm, within less than a half mile of the southwest corner. High, rolling prairie wholly on the east side, and level bottom land on the west side of the creek. This "Deer Creek Bottom" is a mile in width, and differs from creek bottoms generally, in that, instead of the soil being of great depth, it is comparatively shallow, being mixed with small peb. bles from the size of a pea to an ounce ball.

The subsoil of the high prairie, as well as of the bottom prairie, is clay, but the subsoil of the creek bottom is whiter, and of a firmer consistency than that of the upland.

The natural growth of the entire farm, with the exception of a small fringe of willows along the creek, is prairie grass.

G. Harding. Surface soil, a rich black loam 18 inches deep; subsoil, yellow clay. A great deal of rosin weed growing spontaneously before breaking the sod; afterwards cottonwood trees.

G. W. Vaughan.—A very dark loam, from 12 to 18 inches deep. The soil of the flat land is much deeper and darker colored than that of the rolling land, which is more mixed with gravel and sand. The level land, of which most of my farm consists, lasts much better than that which is rolling, but is not so agreeable to till in a wet season, like that just passed. My farm is all prairie, and its natural growths are various kinds of weeds, grasses and the cottonwood tree.

8. Butler.-Prairie; surface soil of a dark color, to a tolerable depth; subsoil of a sandy clay.

D. Gove. The soil is a vegetable loam, slightly mixed with sand, and is from 1 to 3 feet deep; the subsoil is clay, with some gravel. The natural growth of the prairie is the same as is common in Central Illinois, and as soon as fed heavily by stock it kills out, and blue grass makes its appearance spontaneously. The timber land is covered with black walnut, elm, hickory, and the different species of oaks, cherry, etc.

J. G. Swann.-Yellowish clay, 12 inches in depth; forest growth, common sedge grass, hickory, black and white oak.