The Illinois free trader and LaSalle County commercial advertiser. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1841-1843, 1842-10-21

period speaks volumes in favor of the
productiveness of our soil, and of the en-
terprise, energy and industry OF our far
ming population.
What vast-an almost magical change,
has the revolution OF a few years produced,
and that too in the face of the most adj
verse and trying circumstances !! The
desert places have been made glad; nil
lions of acres, heretofore laying waste and
Improbable in the midst of an unbroken
solitude, have been reclaimed, and under
the hand of industry have been made to
TEEN with new life, and groan under the
weight of rich and luxuriant harvests.
These have already added much 10 the
wealth of the state-they have increased
the means of the immigrant-and many
thousands of bushels of surplus produc-
tons have been sent forth as witnesses to
bear testimony to the fertility and produc-
tiveness of this-most emphatically a
land of pleanty.
Behold the vast increase in commercial
operations consequent upon this, but
partial development of our resources !
Ships of large burden-schooners under
press of sail--and steamboats,, vast in
size and vast in numbers, are constantly
ploughing their way through the upper
lakes, all seeking our northern port to be
freighted with the agricultural wealth of
Illinois. Hundreds of thousands of bush
els of grain are being exported: the high
ways and the by-ways are thronged with
vehicles loaded with wheat and other
grains seeking market. They come from
far and near-in long trains-and as pro-
cesson files on after procession, "the
cry is still they come !" Notwithstanding
the immense number engaged in transport
ting, and the immense quantities transport
ted, how little Of what is raised finds a
foreign market! The whole country is
filed with agricultural products: we are
IN the midst of a surplus-enough, and
much more than enough to answer every
demand.
This state of things, which is of so re-
cent an origin; this immense trade in ar
ticles for expectation which has sprung
into being so suddenly, and of such gigan-
tic magnitude, is as yet butt its infancy ;
and what mind is sufficiently vast to cal
culate It's value, when years shall have
increased, and science shall have perfected
Iit-.when the thousands and millions Of
untitled acres, now laying barren for want
of culture, shall have contributed their bill
lions of bushels to swell the increase--and
when what are now the waste places of
our land "shall be made to bloom and
blossom like the rose y
| TO the immigrant farmer there is much
in the settlement OF q new country that
tends to depression and despondency.
He goes forth pilgrim in search after
happiness. With his eye firmly fixed
upon Hope as his leading star, he plerces
the wilderness, and amidst its Businesses
pitches his tent, forms settlement, and be-
gins to live. All ofhis worldly goods are
about him. Whatever is needed beyond
his present wants is left for the future to
provide. The fencing, the breaking, the
building are commenced, and from seed
time he waits confidently for the approach
, Of harvest.
, With one whose capital is thus invested,
, slight failure in calculations may work
. wonderous ills. His crop may be abun-
dant, bat the difficulty in finding mar
liet and the low price of his products, may
, for while sadden his mind with disap.
! pointment Let him not dispar. lie has
: made beginning-he has found a home
: he has conquered the soil, and like {
: willing vassal it will ever after prove ODE
dent to his will. Surely we of northern
| Illinois should not dispair, or cherish mis-
g givings as to the results of the future
! We are, and ever must be, an agricultu'
S raj people. Nature with lavish hand
: has scattered her richest treasures here
S a luKuriant sofia genial cline: sol
# which almost spontaneously produce:
every thing that is essential for human
h life, human comfort, or human happiness
e A country like ours, thronging will
l. hocks and herds, and filled with all kind:
r Of grain to the growth of which there car
), be no limit, is not poor, is not dependent
@ but does in fact possess the elements o
d boundless wealth, and all that can make
st people independent and prosperous. I'm
like other less favored lands, the question
g can never here be raised between starva
;, ton and a market. In those countries