hicago,
Kansas City, Toronto, and now Indianapolis! Is there not room for a
similar exhibition in the great stock State of Iowa? Why do we not hear
from West Liberty or Cedar Rapids?

QUESTIONS ANSWERED.

F. J. ST. CLAIR, URSA, ILL.--Who was the first President to issue a
Thanksgiving Proclamation?

ANSWER.--Washington, in 1798, on the adoption by the States of the
Constitution of the United States.

SUBSCRIBER, PEOTONE, ILL.--How many kinds of soils are there, and what
crops are best suited to bottom and what to upland soils?

ANSWER.--There are really but two soils, agriculturally considered,
fertile soils and barren soils. Generally speaking, fertile soils are
the result of the disintegration of mechanical forces and chemical
agencies of limestone rocks; and barren soils--sandy soils--are produced
by similar means, from rocks largely or wholly composed of silex or
quartz. The mixture of these two give rise to soils of an infinite
variety, almost, having many differing degrees of fertility, down to
barrenness. But you have practically but one soil to deal with, a true
limestone soil of high fertility, which has received considerable
accessions from silicious rocks. Your bottom lands do not differ
materially from the upland, except that the former have received
considerable vegetable matter, which the latter have lost. For the
lowlands, corn, grass, and potatoes are the best crops; for the
highlands, the small grains, sorghum, beans, etc. But provide as much
vegetable matter for the highlands as your lowlands possess, and make
the sum of mixture in both alike, and your highlands will grow corn,
grass, and potatoes as well as the low.

CHARLES VAN METER, SPRINGFIELD, MO.--What is the best work on Grape
Culture? My means are small, and I can not, of course, buy a work
costing ten or twelve dollars, however good it may be. Recommend, for
this latitude, something good and cheap.

ANSWER.--For your needs you will find nothing better than Hussman's
Grapes and Wine, a single volume, which will be sent you from THE
PRAIRIE FARMER office, on remittance of $1.50. But there is something
cheaper still, and very good, indeed, but covering different grounds
from Hussman. The Grape Catalogue of Bush & Son & Meissner. You may
obtain it by sending twenty-five cents to Bush & Son & Meissner,
Bushberg, Missouri.

CONSTANT READER, CHICAGO, ILL.--I am thinking of going down, one of
these days, to Florida, with a view to