Naturally the difference in price of the same commodity in two different markets was dependent in large measure on the ease or difficulty of transportation. In the latter part of 1817, corn was $0.24 to $0.30 and wheat $0.75, in Illinois, while corn was $0.50 and wheat $0.75 at Cincinnati.(432) In 1825 wheat was worth hardly $0.25 per bushel, while it sold for $0.80 to $0.87-½ in Petersburg, Virginia, and flour was $6.00 per barrel at Charleston, South Carolina, and was scarce even at that price in Nashville, Tennessee. At the same time corn sold for from $0.08 to $0.10 in Illinois, and for $1.75 to $2.00 in Petersburg, Virginia.(433) In 1826 wheat sold in Illinois at $0.37-½, and in England at $2.00 (nine shillings).(434) In 1829 flour was scarce at Galena. A supply from the more southern settlements in Illinois sold at $8.00 per barrel, and the farmers were urged to bring more.(435) This was in October. In November flour was quoted at Galena at $9.00 to $10.00 per barrel, while it sold at St. Louis for $4.50 to $5.50. In December, Cincinnati flour was from $10.00 to $10.50 and Illinois flour from $8.00 to $8.50, at Galena, whereas in the succeeding August they were $5.00 and $4.00, respectively. In November, 1829, the one article of food that was quoted as cheaper at Galena than at St. Louis was potatoes. They were $0.25 per bushel, at Galena, and from $0.37-½ to $0.50 at St. Louis. Butter was $0.25 to $0.37-½ at Galena, and $0.12-½ to $0.20 at St. Louis; corn, $0.50 at Galena, and $0.25 to $0.31 at St. Louis; beef, $0.03-½ to $0.04-½ at Galena, and $0.01-½ to $0.02 at St. Louis; whisky, $0.62-½ per gallon at Galena, and $0.30 to $0.33 at St. Louis.(436)
Of the 13,635 persons who were following some occupation in Illinois in 1820, nearly 91 per cent (12,395) were engaged in agriculture.(437) To this pursuit the state was naturally well adapted. One of the most observant of German travelers in America wrote that the meaning of "fertile land" was very different in this region from its meaning in Germany. In America fertile land of the first class required no fertilizer for the first century and was too rich for wheat during the first decade, while fertile land of the second class needed no fertilizer during the first twelve to twenty years of its cultivation. Bottom-lands belonged to the first class.(438) The prairies remained unappreciated by the Americans, although some foreign farmers preferred to settle in Illinois, because there they could avoid having to clear land, and could raise a crop the first year, while coal could serve as fuel,(439) and a ditch and bank fence, requiring little wood, could be constructed, or a hedge could be grown.(440) A traveler of 1819 speaks of one of the largest prairies as not well adapted to cultivation, because of the scarcity of wood, and in the fall of 1825 there was but one house on the way from Paris to Springfield, leading across eighty miles of a prairie ninety miles in length.(441)