98 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
ers pursued their course, and turning a reach 
in the distance, disappeared in the vast low 
wilderness. 
THE MISSISSIPPI CATFISH. 
While looking out from the levee in the 
afternoon, a couple of fishermen brought, in 
a skiff from the opposite side of the Ohio, 
several enormous catfish, just freshly caught 
with their hooks. To one unaccustomed to 
this variety, they present a most uncouth 
and forbidding appearance. They are a 
gigantic variety of the eastern bull-head, or 
“pout,” about one-fourth of the whole size 
being appropriated to the head—the widest 
part of the whole fish—with a gradual taper 
to the tail. The smallest of these fish 
weighed upwards of forty pounds, and the 
largest eighty-two. The fishermen called 
them the “ Mississippi cat,” being much 
larger and of slightly different color from the 
“ Ohio cat.” They have been caught of 247 
pounds’ weight, we were told, by an old set¬ 
tler and fisherman ; but such specimens are 
rare. They are not a fish of high flavor, 
but rather coarse, and oily. The head is 
the best part. We have eaten them baked 
that were really delicious. 
LEAVING CAIRO. 
It was now the 18th day of October. The 
previous morning, at Dubuque, the forests 
were glowing in the sere and yellow leaf of 
falling autumn. The fields had all been cut 
by the frost some weeks before, and so they 
were all the way down until we struck the 
timber region of lower Illinois. But at Cairo 
the forest leaves were green, almost as in 
midsummer. The frost had scarcely touched 
a garden vegetable, and the weather was 
warm, like summer. 
We had arrived at Cairo about 8 o’clock 
in the morning, having rode through a bright 
moonlight night, intending to spend the com¬ 
ing night in the town, and leave the next 
morning. But that “ hotel ”! We con¬ 
cluded rather to bear the discomfort of a 
second night in the cars, and so, at 5 o’clock 
in the afternoon, left Cairo on our return to 
the north. 
THE CENTRAL RAILWAY—ITS MANAGEMENT. 
This Railway—in its construction and 
completeness ; its wonderful straightness ; 
its immense length of uniformly level grade ; 
the ample width of its roadway; its turn¬ 
outs ; its neat, commodious, and tasteful 
station-houses ; its comfortable and timely 
eating establishments ; the liberal and fre¬ 
quent accommodations for the storage and 
security of its freight; its spacious, well 
built cars ; its civil and attentive conductors ; 
the care of its engineers, and the uniform 
rate of speed in travel—for so new a road, is 
certainly a model affair. Twenty-two hours 
of continuous travel is occupied between 
Dunleith and Cairo, a distance of 454 miles, 
averaging a trifle over twenty miles an hour. 
About the same rate of travel per hour is 
allowed from Cairo to Chicago. Few acci¬ 
dents occur on this road; and why should 
they occur at alll It has no rival parallel 
roads to compete with. Its conductors are 
never in a hurry. Their trains are not nu¬ 
merous—two only of passengers and one of 
freight each way daily—and they can afford 
to be careful. Success to their labors ! 
BACK TO CHICAGO. 
We passed a comfortable night on the 
cars, and sunrise found us at Decatur, where 
we took breakfast. Continuing north, at 
Mendota, between La Salle and Dixon, where 
the Chicago and Burlington road crosses the 
Illinois Central, we left the latter, and taking 
the cars of the other, turned to the east. 
On the line of the Chicago and Burlington 
road lie several thriving towns and small 
villages surrounded by a rich and rapidly 
improving country. The labor of utility and 
the hand of taste have been skilfully com¬ 
bined, and as a matter of course with suc¬ 
cessful results. Oswego, Aurora, and Ba¬ 
tavia, would be beautiful villages, with their 
bright and clear Fox River running through 
them, if dropped down in the midst of New- 
England or Central New-York. “ It does 
take the Yankees and York Staters to build 
a handsome town !” as they say “ out west.” 
At Junction, where several roads come to¬ 
gether, thirty-two miles west of Chicago, we 
struck the combined track, and arrived in 
the city at 8 o’clock in the evening. 
We return our thanks to the Illinois Cen¬ 
tral Railroad Company for their liberality in 
thus giving us a gratuitous opportunity to 
see their noble State ; and in part payment 
therefor, hereby give them this “ first-rate 
notice”—suggesting, however, that when 
they again extend to us a like invitation, 
after going six hundred miles to reach them, 
they give us full “ passes,” not only to leave 
Chicago, but to get lack again—as they did 
not—leaving us to pay our fare over the 
Chicago and Burlington, to the tune of six 
dollars and odd, when the Central had the 
full option to run us over it—if they pleased. 
Peppermint Raising. —I planted four acres 
of Peppermint in the fall of 1854, between 
the 25th and 30th of October, planting it two 
feet apart. Marked the ground by making 
two marks at a time, also covered two rows 
at once by means of a sort of plow drawn by 
a horse. The ground was summer fallowed, 
and in good order. Soil a mixture of sand, 
gravel and clay. Below I give a list of all 
work, and cost, including board : 
EXPENSES. 
16 days digging and setting roots....$16 00 
4 “ team work. 4 00 
61r “ man and horse cultivating... 8 75 
26 “ hoeing. 26 00 
16 “ mowing and raking. 26 00 
2 “ drawing, (2 hands and team,). 6 00 
Cost of distilling, 371 cts. per lb. 50 00 
Total..$130 75 
RECEIPTS. 
1331 lbs. of mint, $3 75 per lb.. $500 62 
Profit.$360 87 
Last spring I undertook to try an experi¬ 
ment with fall and spring setting, but the 
weather was so dry in the spring that it did 
not do well, so I will say no more about the 
experiment. I am highly in favor of fall 
setting on land that will not heave the roots 
out.— Cor. Rural New-Yorker. 
A mean freedom is more naturally desired 
than a golden servitude. Fetters of gold are 
fetters, after all. 
SOME THAIS 0E BONE-DUST AND 0THEB 
EEKTILIZEKS. 
Nothing is more important in the present 
condition of agriculture than a series of 
well conducted experiments with the various 
fertilizers, not only upon the different kinds 
of soils but also with the various kinds of 
cultivated crops. Many experiments have 
already been made, but nearly all of them 
have been defective in some particular. One 
of the most frequent defects is the absence 
of the elements of comparison ; thus, for 
illustration, a farmer tries bone-dust upon a 
plot of wheat, but instead of leaving a part 
untreated, he scatters the fertilizer over the 
whole field and it is not possible to judge 
what effect the bone-dust has produced in 
that particular season. In the following ex¬ 
periments communicated to the German¬ 
town Telegraph, the defect alluded to was 
avoided, though we should value the results 
still higher, had the bone-dust in each in¬ 
stance been applied alone, and so also the 
gypsum. We should further like to know 
exactly the kind and quality of soil, and the 
time and manner of applying the manures. 
The experiments are, however, quite su¬ 
perior to the generality of these reported to 
the press, and we give them in the language 
of the writer : 
In order to test the value of bone manure 
as a stimulant, I last season made the fol¬ 
lowing experiment. On a piece of light soil 
that had been pastured for a period of up¬ 
wards of thirty-five years, and which had 
been broken up deeply, and with an even 
and perfectly inverted furrow slice, the pre¬ 
vious autumn, I sowed twenty-five bushels 
of bone dust and wood ashes, half and half, 
after harrowing, and sowed on oats, two and 
three-fourths bushels to the acre, the sur¬ 
face being limited by accurate measurement. 
On an adjoining piece of equal extent, sowed 
also in oats, the same quantity as in the 
first case, twelve bushels of ashes alone 
were used, and on a third piece—one acre 
in extent—the oats were sowed without any 
ashes or other stimulant whatever being ap¬ 
plied. The same quantity of seed precisely, 
was allowed on each acre, and the sowing 
was done on the same day, as was the pre¬ 
paration of the soil, and harrowing in of the 
seed. 
On harvesting and threshing the crop, 1 
ascertained the following results : The acre 
not manured, produced twenty-one and a 
half bushels; straw tall and very heavy. 
The acre manured with twelve bushels of 
wood-ashes, yielded twenty-seven bushels 
and five quarts, with a thinner and more 
delicate straw; while the product of the 
boned and ashed amounted to forty-seven 
and three-fourths bushels, the straw being 
fine and short, the principal development, 
being in the heads. 
On another piece I planted beans. Four 
rows of one hundred hills each were bone 
dusted, the next four were manured with 
poudrette, the next four with wood ashes 
and gypsum, four rows on the side of the 
piece, but adjoining the other twelve, were 
planted without any manure whatever being 
