General info
Illinois is called the 'Prairie State' because a large percentage of its topography is relatively flat to gently rolling. Paralleling the Mississippi River, which forms the western boundary of the state, and the Illinois River, and between them, are high hills of loess soil. The southern part of the state is covered by this same general type of hills. The northeast corner, extending back from Lake Michigan has areas of peaty or much soil. The prairie soils are generally suitable for fruit growing, but since they are well suited to grain crops, corn, soybeans, oats and wheat are the major crops. An exception is the southcentral, relatively-flat, slowly drained area, where apples, peaches and strawberries are grown but not as extensively as in former years. The commercially-grown fruits are apples, peaches, grapes and strawberries. Apples are grown in the south-central area, in the hilly areas of the state. Peaches are grown in the south of the state with a few small plantings along the Mississippi River as far north as Moline. Minimum winter temperature prevents commercial production in most of the northern two-thirds of the state. Strawberries are grown for pick-your-own markets throughout the state, and blueberries are grown mostly in a trial way for the same markets. As to vegetables, leading fresh market crops are asparagus, snap beans, cabbage, carrots, cantaloupes, sweet corn, cucumbers, horseradish, onions, tomatoes and watermelons. Illinois produces about 80 percent of the pumpkins processed in the United States. The major acreage of vegetables grown for processing is in northern Illinois. Illinois is leading state in the production of greenhouse crops and woody ornamental plants. This industry is located primarily in the counties near Chicago, but also to a lesser extent in other areas of the state. Organisations / Institutes:
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Last updated: Tue Dec 16 21:18:04 NFT 2003