d raised cattle; kept increasing his lands and herds, till he
now owns 7000 acres of land, and sells over 840,000 worth of cattle and
hogs annually.

"Isaac Funk, brother of the above, began in the same way, at the same
time. He has gone ahead of Jesse; for _he_ owns 27,000 acres of land,
has 4000 in cultivation, and his last year's sales of cattle amounted to
$65,000."

It is evident that the brothers Funk are men of administrative talent;
they would have made a figure in Wall Street, could have filled cabinet
office at Washington, or, perhaps, could even have "kept a hotel."

These are but specimens of the large-acred men of Illinois. Hundreds of
others there are, who farm on nearly the same scale.

The great difficulty in carrying on farming operations on a large scale
in Illinois has always been the scarcity of labor. Land is cheap and
plenty, but labor scarce and dear: exactly the reverse of what obtains
in England, where land is dear and labor cheap. It must be evident that
a different kind of farming would be found here from that in use in
older countries. There, the best policy is to cultivate a few acres
well; here, it has been found more profitable to skim over a large
surface. But within a few years the introduction of labor-saving
machines has changed the conditions of farming, and has rendered it
possible to give good cultivation to large tracts of land with few men.
Many of the crops are now put in by machines, cultivated by machines,
and harvested by machine. If, as seems probable, the steam-plough
of Fawkes shall become a success, the revolution in farming will be
complete. Already some of the large farmers employ wind or steam power
in various ways to do the heavy work, such as cutting and grinding food
for cattle and hogs, pumping water, etc.

Although the soil and climate of Illinois are well adapted to
fruit-culture, yet, from various causes, it has not, till lately, been
much attended to. The early settlers of Southern and Middle Illinois
were mostly of the Virginia race, Hoosiers,--who are a people of few
wants. If they have hog-meat and hominy, whiskey and tobacco, they are
content; they will not trouble themselves to plant fruit-trees. The
early settlers in the North were, generally, very poor men; they could
not afford to buy fruit-trees, for the produce of which they must wait
several years. Wheat, corn, and hogs were the articles which could be
soonest converted into money, and those they