4,62 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[Notbmber, 
be the most profitable. When it comes to the 
artificial fertilizers, it should be borne in mind that 
their true office is to supply quickly one or two 
ingredients that may be deficient in the soil—when 
these are known their use is to be recommended. 
Editorial Correspondence. 
Up the Missouri. 
Having made many tours of agricultural study 
and observation during the last thirty years—often 
through and through such States as Ohio, Indiana, 
Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and 
frequently through nearly every other State—we 
thought we knew the whole country between Can¬ 
ada and the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean 
and the Koeky Mountains. But not quite so. We 
had not been up the Missouri River, over 2,500 miles 
above its entrance into 
the Mississippi at St. 
Louis. In our notes 
for the August Ameri¬ 
can Agriculturist it was 
intimated that an 
American was not suf¬ 
ficiently educated to 
go to Europe until he 
had journeyed a thou¬ 
sand miles west from 
Chicago, and two or 
three hundred miles 
down through Col¬ 
orado, taking in the 
mining regions; and 
then 750 to 1,000 miles 
northwest from Chica¬ 
go, and down the Great Lakes. Now we add : Nor 
until he has been up the Missouri River 2.800 miles 
to Fort Benton, and also at least 200 or 300 miles 
up the Yellowstone. These trips can be safely and 
comfortably made at moderate expense, especially 
in June and July. Steamers run from Sioux City 
to Fort Benton (over 1,500 miles) and carry passen¬ 
gers the round trip for $75 to $85, or for $50 one 
way, board included. Sioux City is easily reached 
by 550 miles of railroad from Chicago. In a year 
or two a journey to and through the wonderful 
Yellowstone Park, will be an easy pleasure trip. 
Exploring the Park portion is as yet rather tedious 
and expensive. A railroad already extends hun¬ 
dreds of miles north of Ogden in Utah. The Northern 
Pacific Railroad is built west of Bismarck almost to 
the Yellowstone, and will reach it the coming win¬ 
ter, or early in the spring, and push on up its val¬ 
ley. So there will soon be a great circuit tour, out 
over the Union Pacific to Ogden, northward to the 
Northern Pacific Railroad, and back through the 
Yellowstone Valley, through the great wheat region 
east of Bismarck, the Red River Valley, and on 
down through Minnesota and Wisconsin to Chicago, 
or via Duluth and the Great Lakes to Buffalo. But 
one need not wait for that even, to take a trip up 
the Missouri from Bismarck, or even from Sioux 
City Bismarck is 857 miles from Chicago, via St. 
Paul, and some 750 miles above Sioux City by river. 
If saving time is an object, one can take the river 
at Bismarck. If time allows, the river route up 
from Sioux City to Bismarck—occupying anywhere 
from 10 to 15 days going up, much less going 
down—may well be taken to see the country and 
scenery. The usual single railway fare from Chica¬ 
go to Bismarck is $33; time, two days and nights. 
Travelling on the Missouri River, 
will be a novelty to Eastern people. The 'stream 
for 2,300 miles from its mouth to the Yellowstone, 
is usually very broad, with shallow water. Some¬ 
times it contracts to a fourth of a mile in width, 
and at others spreads out a mile or more. The 
bed abounds in bars of quick-sand, partly above 
and partly below the surface. See figs. 3 and 4. 
The navigable channel is seldom over ten feet deep, 
often only two to three feet deep, and usually but a 
few rods wide, that is between the June and July rise 
and the freezing up in autumn. The melting snows 
from the mountains greatly enlarge the stream in 
depth and width during early summer, and naviga¬ 
tion is no* difficult Bur. the channel is very change¬ 
able, so much so that a steamer often runs upon a 
sand-bar in the very place where it went through 
deep water on its previous passage. At this season 
(last of August) we have only averaged 65 miles a 
day, in coming up, and have been fast on sand-bars 
a dozen times a day, more or less—at one time 13 
hours on a single bar, and have “ tied up ” each 
night. But this is unusually slow, as the river is 
very low and the steamer too heavily laden for the 
water. In higher water much greater speed is made. 
Our Steamer—and How it Gets on. 
The constant performances of our craft, in the 
way of getting forward, or backward, or sideways, 
are “as good as a play.” The almost ceaseless 
call of the man at the bow, as he tests the depth of 
the current with a marked pole, “ f-o-u-r fee-eet,” 
“s-i-x fe-eet, 5 ft., 3i ft., 2i ft., 2 ft., 7 ft., n-o-o 
repeated to the pilot by the man on the upper deck, 
does not become monotonous, for each passenger 
is always guessing silently, if not aloud, what will 
be the 'next call, and whether we will not bump 
upon a sand-bar. If we do, the “ sparring off,” and 
the way it is done, furnish further entertainment. 
Enclosed, we send an original pencil sketch of the 
outline of a Missouri River Steamboat upon which 
we have passed many days. [The accompanying 
engravings are made from Mr. Judd’s sketches.] 
All the upper works rest upon a strong flat-bottom¬ 
ed hull, some 4i feet deep, but sinking in the wa¬ 
ter only 20 inches or so. Length of steamer about 
200 feet; width 45 feet. The hight above water 
is 23 feet, besides the pilot-house. With so light 
a hold on the water the boat is an easy prey to the 
high prairie winds of autumn. It is propelled by the 
great stern wheel with much force against the 
rapid current,which often runs 6 to 10 miles an hour. 
“Sparring- Off.” 
The bow or front of the boat is loaded 5 to 10 
inches deeper than the stern, so that when a sand¬ 
bar is struck it can be more easily backed off by 
reversing the wheel. But it very frequently goes 
fast on. Then out come one or more “spars.” 
These are logs, 30 to 40 feet long and a foot in di¬ 
ameter, with blunt bottoms to press against the 
Fig. 2.— AN INGENIOUS “DRV DOCK.” 
sand or mud, and heavy iron spikes in the lower 
end. Each spar is hung upon a rope, and raised 
or lowered by steam force. Powerful ropes run 
through pulley blocks at the tops of the spars, and 
around other sets of pulleys fastened upon the 
sides of the bow. By dropping the end of a 
spar into the water, and applying the steam 
power, by means of the capstan, or “ nigger head” 
as they call it, the boat is shoved to one side or the 
bottom ” (if it is over 8 feet), and so on, each call 
Fig. 1.— A STERN-WHEEL STEAMER ON THE UPPER MISSOURI. 
other, or backward. Or if far on the bar, and there 
is deep water ahead, a spar on each side may lift it 
over. So some of our progress is really made on 
“ stilts.” Owing to the frequent changes of sand¬ 
bars, and their uncertain location, the pilots often 
have to try two, three, four, or more apparent 
channels, and back out, before finding one that the 
boat can get through (as shown in figure 4). 
An Extempore “Dry Dock.” 
Our steamer chanced to strike a "snag” (a 
sunken tree), which opened a rent in her side 
near the bottom of the perpendicular hull, and this 
a thousand miles from any repairing dock 1 Did 
they give up in despair? Not at all. The boat was 
run upon a shelving sand bottom near the shore ; 
powerful ropes, fore and aft, were run out to trees, 
and by steam power the hull was drawn sidewise 
firmly into the sand (fig. 2). Stones were gathered, 
and two walls built from the boat to the dry land, 
one above and one below the fracture. These walls 
were made water-tight by scores of barrels of mud 
and sand, and the water was then taken out from 
between the stone walls, leaving the broken place 
exposed. It was speedily replanked and caulked, 
the boat sparred off into deeper water, and on we 
went, with only a brief detention. These hardy, 
ingenious, wide-a-wake western navigators are full 
of resources, and one soon comes to trust to their 
meeting and conquering any and every difficulty. 
Safe and Comfortable Travelling'. 
Despite the snags, and sand-bars, and the remote¬ 
ness of the Upper Missouri, travelling is quite safe. 
Snags are very seldom struck, and then hardly ever 
seriously. As for these and other annoyances, the 
enterprizing western men are sure to find a way out, 
and if worst should come to worst, the river is sel¬ 
dom so deep that one could not wade out to the 
shore or to a dry sand-bar—a safety not found on 
deeper water. The state-rooms are comfortable 
on the larger and newer boats ; the fare is good, 
substantial—in fact good enough so far as we have 
found it. Those who cannot cheerfully put up with 
a little inconvenience better not travel anywhere. 
The Channel is very Crooked, 
A straight-a-way run of 2 or 3 miles Is the excep¬ 
tion. The river takes great curves, often at sharp 
Fig. 3.—THE CROOKED MISSOURI RIVHK. 
angles, bending back almost upon itself at times. 
At one place, after going 45 miles, we were only 
three miles across the neck from where we had 
passed several hours before. Usually there is, on 
one side or the other, often on both, a “bottom,” 
varying from a few feet to miles in width (fig. 4). 
This is a bed of clay and sand and black deposit, 4 
to 15 feet above low water, and just above ordinary 
high water. Where it has been undisturbed a few 
years, it is often covered with Cottonwood trees, 
which increase from half to three-fourths of a inch in 
diameter yearly. But the channel is ever changing 
—a freshet, the lodging of a floating tree, or other 
slight cause, will start the water off in a new direc¬ 
tion, and so, on one side or the other, the edges of 
the bottom lands are ever wearing away, and the 
washed out 6oil is deposited in the slower current. 
The .water is of course always filled with mud. A 
tumbler of it standing until settled, will show fully 
an eighth of an inch deposit. It is a darkish-clay 
color. The water from the Yellowstone River, we 
noticed in passing its mouth, is of a slightly red¬ 
dish or yelloivish mud—hence the name of that 
river. The bottom lands are veiy fertile, and when 
high enough to be safe against prospective washing 
out, as is often the case, they furnish most excel¬ 
lent farm lands. On the north side of the Missouri, 
from the Yellowstone to Wolf River (180 miles, or 
90 to 100 miles by land), we should say, at a rough 
guessing estimate, there are a million acres of fine 
bottom lands—perhaps more—and there are other 
millions of acres along the Upper Missouri.— 
—The climate between latitute 47° and 49* though 
cold in winter, is felt less severely than in lower 
