.MTI4Mw.MTAyOTk3

                                                                                                Isaac
                                                                           Somewhere in Jackson Co. Ill.  Sabbath Day
                                                                                                        July 6. 1851

Dear Brother Eliab.

      This letter, if letter it becomes, will be addressed to you probably; but its contents must be considered as addressed to yourself, Mother, Lucy etc. individually & collectively.
 I wish you could be here about half a day. You know the old saw that "This is a great world." Well, in some respects, this here is rather a great part of the world. Northern Illinois is called by Eastern people mostly, Southern by a sprinkling of every thing, mostly south of New York. Where I am boarding Penn. Dutch. Very many are from Tenn. & Ky. Take them together, a very curious set of people. A mile apart in the closest neighborhood a known, (I expect forms a Village! Every one farms an immense amount of land, and pastures the whole surrounding country.

Where we are now, eight or ten miles across Muddy River Valley is Timber. Farms are about as plenty in the Timber as any where but I guess such a thing as felling a tree was never known here. The trees are girdled, and stand or fall till they rot. A farm is a forest of dead trees. The Crops raised are {Wheat. $.50 per bu. {Corn .25 " " {Oats .25 ' " {Castor Beans .50 " " sometimes $1.00 or more Both Tobacco & Cotton are also raised some. Peaches are the principal fruit, but this year unfortunately for me they were killed by frost.

 Yesterday I worked through a Corn field where the Corn stood 8 to 10 ft. high, just ready to topel. Ears are sometimes found 10 ft from the ground. I presume though it yeilds no more than smaller corn. One or two ears in a hill, 3 or four ft. apart both ways, no hoeing, plough and cross plough through it several times.