per rod,
and a prairie ditch for $0.29 to $0.44 per rod; that a strong wagon cost
$160.00; that a log house, eighteen by sixteen feet, was made by contract
for $20, and ceiled and floored with sawn boards for $10 more; that a cow
and calf cost $12.00 to $16.00, and a breeding sow, $2.00 or $3.00; that
laborers received $0.75 per day without board, and a man and two horses
$1.00 per day; and that various other useful articles could be procured at
certain prices, care is needed in order to avoid the conclusion that an
immigrant must have had several dollars, if not a few hundreds of them.
This need for care is increased by the fact that the most detailed
statistical data for early Illinois is given by Birkbeck or his visitors,
and is applicable to the English settlement in Edwards county--a settlement
with enough unique features to make the data almost more of an obstacle
than a help. As a matter of fact, many immigrants before 1820 had only
enough money to make the first payment on their land ($80.00), or after
July 1, 1820, only enough to buy the minimum tract offered for sale
($100.00), while in both periods hundreds had not even as much money as
$80.00 or $100.00, and had to become squatters. A log house, and
practically all of the first houses were of logs, was usually built
without the expenditure of one cent in cash, being erected by the family
which was to occupy it, or, if neighbors were within reach, on the
"frolic" system. Ceilings and floors were both rare, and if a floor
existed it was usually made of puncheons. The number of pioneers who
actually paid as much as $31.00 for a log stable must have been small
indeed. First fences were often of brush, or brush and logs, and many
times crops were raised unfenced. Territorial laws prohibited allowing
stock to run at large during the crop season. An immigrant often brought
his cow and sow, and if not he either did without, which in the latter
case was small privation in a region almost crowded with game, or secured
the desired animals by barter or by working for a few days. Men frequently
traded work, but the payment of cash wages was rare, the cheapness of land
and the ease of securing a living leaving small inducement to anyone to
become a day laborer;(455) while for the same reason those who were
professional laborers were often of an undesirable type.(456) Foreigners
were sometimes shocked at the utter carelessness of Illinois farmers. A
soil of great fertility,