74 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
smelting establishment a m^ e below, and 
sa iv the pure lead run off into the heavy pigs 
for market. The mode is very simple. The 
ore is thrown into a large iron kettle, mixed 
with charcoal. It is’then ignited and blown 
underneath with a powerful bellows driven 
by a huge flat wheel trod by oxen. A sort 
of pitcher-spout, just below the top of the 
kettle, in front, passes off the pure molten 
lead into a second cauldron, while the scoria 
which rises on the surface, like froth, is 
kept back by flat iron spaddles used by the 
hand. From this second kettle, with a re¬ 
newed heat, and a pushing back of the scum 
like the other, it passes into the molds, where 
it is finished for market. 
THE MISSISSIPPI. 
The “ Father of Waters ” here indicates 
little of that power and grandeur which, in 
high flood, mark its course below the con¬ 
fluence of the Missouri and Ohio, some hun¬ 
dreds of miles below. It is a placid, pleas¬ 
ant stream ; dark, but not muddy, of perhaps 
half a mile in width, separated into sundry 
shifting channels inclosing the islands which 
scatter along its bed. These islands are 
mostly too low for cultivation, and are, in 
consequence, of little practical value. As 
a channel for navigation it has many checks 
and hindrances, except in high water; but 
with boats of light draft—2£ to 4 feet—serves 
a tolerable purpose for the wants of the 
country. As railways increase, the impedi¬ 
ments in its navigation will be less regarded, 
and the stream mainly used in high water to 
float off the lumber and heavy produce from 
the country along its borders. Draining a 
vast country of great fertility, in a mild and 
healthful climate, the banks of the Upper 
Mississippi must sustain large and populous 
towns, an extensive business, and draw from 
far and near great stores of wealth. Al¬ 
ready railroads are snorting at short inter¬ 
vals along its borders, and stretching west- 
wardly far into the interior, aiding and invig¬ 
orating a population which are to become 
almost illimitable in numbers. In amenity 
of surface, in strength of soil, in the variety 
and utility of its productions to sustain hu¬ 
man life, no stream on earth can surpass, in 
the length and breadth of its ramifications, 
this “mighty Mississippi.” Spending a pleas¬ 
ant day, with a good night’s rest at the ex¬ 
cellent hotel of Capt. Kingman, the next 
morning, bright and clear, saw us again on 
our return eastward, some sixty miles, to 
Freeport; where, at the junction of the rail¬ 
ways, we took our course southward over 
the longest single track in America, through 
CENTRAL ILLINOIS. 
The first thirty-six miles after leaving 
Freeport is tolerably settled in farms, and 
occasional villages. The several small trib¬ 
utaries of the Rock River, the banks of 
which are wooded, and some slightly ele¬ 
vated timbered ridges, gives the country an 
agreeable appearance for one so uniformly 
level. Many of the farms are well culti¬ 
vated, with good buildings, both houses and 
barns—-some, indeed, with the appearance 
of rural elegance. Many young orchards 
were planted, and every thing wears the 
look of improvement. 
DIXON 
town on the Rock River, occupying 
the valley and rising ground on both sides of 
the stream. It is well built with stone, 
brick, and wooden houses and stores, and 
has several handsome churches, and a fine 
school or two of high order. The water¬ 
power of the river gives activity to several 
mills and manufacturing establishments of 
different kinds ; and the town, as we passed 
it, has the appearance of freshness, growth, 
business, and enterprise. Fine limestone 
abounds along the banks of the river of ex¬ 
cellent building quality. Passing again on to 
the table-lands south, the timbered ridges 
become less frequent, and the surface as¬ 
sumes the dull, monotonous appearance of 
an almost boundless savannah, slightly un¬ 
dulating at times, with an occasional depres¬ 
sion, or wide ravine, through which the sur¬ 
face-water sluggishly passes off to a distant 
stream, until some forty miles brings us to 
the vicinity of the Illinois river, indicated by 
broken surfaces, oak openings, and deep ra¬ 
vines, out of which crop immense quarries 
of limestone. After two or three miles of 
these we come to the immediate banks of 
the stream. 
LA SALLE, AND PERU. 
The first of these towns lies on the high 
table-land overlooking the river and its val¬ 
ley to the south, and elevated perhaps fifty 
feet above. It is a new, growing town of 
considerable business, and stretches south¬ 
west down for a mile, perhaps, where it 
meets Peru, at which point the Illinois and 
Michigan canal from Chicago unites with 
the river. The locks of the canal furnish a 
water-power to several mills, which, with 
the transhipment of the property conveyed 
either way by the canal and river boats, give 
active employment to several thousand pop¬ 
ulation. The two places constitute, in fact, 
one town, so far as business is concerned ; 
the railway passing La Salle, while the tun- 
nage for the boats is transhipped at Peru. 
With the increasing agriculture of the coun¬ 
try, its trade, and its travel, the two places 
combined must, in time, sustain a large and 
a wealthy population. The canal, which 
appears to be a commodious and well fin¬ 
ished structure, passes immediately below 
the rather streep descent of the table-land 
on which the towns are built, and closely 
contiguous flows the Illinois, a fine—even a 
beautiful—stream, in itself of perhaps a hun¬ 
dred and fifty yards wide. 
The bottoms lying along the river are too 
low for the best cultivation—their principal 
drawback; nor are they wide, which de¬ 
tracts much from the agricultural value, and 
mars, to a considerable extent, its complete¬ 
ness as an otherwise noble river with ade¬ 
quate surroundings. A substantial and cost¬ 
ly bridge crosses the stream, over which, 
and the adjoining bottom for several hundred 
feet we passed, meeting the wooded table¬ 
land on the south, and again wound up by a 
deep side cutting on to the open prairie. 
He e enter the vast expanse of almost 
limitUss prairie that stretches now for a 
hundred miles or more through the heart of 
the State. Afar off were seen occasional 
glades of wood. The little villages along 
the road, some of which were scarcely more 
than stations with the houses of the railroad 
employees and laborers about them, were 
bare of a single tree or bush. The nucleus 
of a future town was now and then indicated 
by piles of lumber, some brick, and stone, 
and the embryo commencemet of—locust or 
cotton-wood groves, gave signs of intention 
to have some woods by and by. Some newly 
settled farms were scattered along, with corn 
crops lying unfenced; some with post and 
rail fences—after a fashion—but where the 
posts and rails came from it would take a 
Yankee to guess. Again, fields inclosed 
with post and board fence lay along the road. 
These fences came from Chicago! An occa¬ 
sional drove of cattle were seen at a dis¬ 
tance, ranging over the prairie, and some 
close by, as we passed ; but they were ordi¬ 
nary looking things, and for the most part 
in low condition. Some horses, mares, and 
colts grazed not far away, also. They, of 
course, were in the neighborhood of the 
farms. Then again, we rode for miles and 
miles, out of sight of tree or house, with 
only the stretched-out prairie and the open 
sky in sight. Besides our companions in 
the cars, except an occasional flock of prai¬ 
rie hens and sandhill cranes, no sign of life 
was visible. It did look lonesome. Then 
again, we could see, in the far distance, a 
house, all alone by itself, reminding us of a 
sail at sea. All these lands, for miles on 
each side of the road, are owned, or were 
lately, by the State of Illinois and the Rail¬ 
road Company, granted many years ago by 
the General Government to the State to aid 
in building the road, and one-half of which 
the State gave to the Railroad Company to 
aid them in its construction. These lands, 
on both branches of the road, are now rapid¬ 
ly selling out, by both State and Company, 
at prices from five to twenty dollars an acre, 
and by the facilities of market and transport¬ 
ation which the road gives, will soon be set¬ 
tled, and improved. Timber, lumber, fire¬ 
wood, coal, and stone, will be brought to 
them by the road. Brick can be made on 
the ground. Trees will be planted by the 
million, and in the course of a comparatively 
short time the country will assume a habit¬ 
able and comfortable look. We passed some 
fifteen or twenty miles of young Osage or¬ 
ange hedge, planted by the Company. It 
was done by simply ridging with plows a 
space about six feet wide on each side of 
the track, which is quite a hundred feet in 
breadth. The- plants had one year’s growth, 
averaging perhaps three feet high. They 
looked thrifty and promising. If the frosts 
are not too hard upon them, and the plants 
properly cared for, they will, unquestionably, 
make a good fence. 
TIMBER PLANTATIONS. 
It appeared to us as we passed along, that 
it would be good policy for a Company so 
rich in lands as that of the Illinois Central 
Road, to adopt a system of growing extens¬ 
ive plantations of young timber for the use 
of the settlers upon their lands. This prop¬ 
osition may be answered by saying that the 
Company have other business of its own to 
