St. Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (St. Charles City [Charles City], Iowa) 1857-1861, 1858-10-14
Illinois Correspondence.
MoNr MEAcuAM, ILL.,, Oct. 1853.

MONT AlEAtlAM, III, wv HOW
EprroRs ISrErLIGEScER The aspects
of weather for the last two or three
weeks have been most cheering. 1t
has been dry and warm, with a smoky
atmosphere, a blood-red rising and
setting sun, clear starlight nights, and
a flaming long-tailcd comet passing
through the northern hemisphere be-
tween the hours of about 3 o'clock
A. NJ, till eight or nine in the evening,
when it sinks behind the horizon in
the North-W West.
To the great joy of the farming
community, the corn crop is ripening,
and hardening into full maturity. The
buck-wheat crop is only about a me-
dunn rate. Fruit of all kinds is rath-
er scarce Apples constitute the sole
commodity, however, in the fruit line
the present Autumn. We have no
peaches worth naming. The whole
agricultural fraternity seem to be
alive, and intensely engaged in seed
ing" for the future wheat crop. A fail
ure in corn planting in the spring, and,
as a sequence, innumcrable fields ~
ing without culture during the season,
an almost incredible amount of wheat
is being sown the present Autumn.
| have seen an estimate in some of
the Atlantic seaboard journals, that
in Illinois the paramount proceeds Of
all the crops grown this year, would
be from that of the Sorghum. The
operations for extracting and conden-
sing the sweets are Just now common
cling. From what | have seen, how
ever, of the present amount of crop,
| should dcnouncc the above cited es-
innate as quite visionary. So far as
my personal knowledge extends, IL
cane crop will not approach to one
half the amount of either that of wheat
or corn. The estimate was no doubt
based upon the great ratio of proceeds
Welded from a small amount of land.
Some experiments have fixed the aver
age yield as high as 400 gallons to
the acre. Others have placed it at
800, which seems to approach very
nearly to the true practical standard,
where they succeed in expressing
all the juice. Your humble servant
has a little over one acre, from which
he expects to realize 800 gallons at
least, which will be worth, here, $50.
For the last two years I have been
trying my skill in raising the Dioscoreo
Batat0s, or Chinese p~otatoc. In March
1856, l purchased twenty tubcrs Of
Dioscorea of w. r. Prince, Flushing
Long Island, n. Y, which cost me bu'
a few cents less than ten dollars, in
Guiding transportation here. They
were the size of marrow-fat peas
From their product | obtained abou'
200 eyes, which l planted the first o
April last, and now the roots are abou
one foot in length and over an inch il
diameter at the Dubious, or lower end
1t proves to be the most durable of al
Dubious plants. Many that were dc
posted in the earth Oh the first O
April, remained sound till August, ant
some two or three till the LIST of SEP
TENDER, before they made their az
pcarance from the ground. ! hav'
forwarded two of them, with thei
whey tops to the County Fair to-day
When once acclimated, they will, II
doubt, prove an invaluable article c
agricultural product, and esculen
A both for man and beast. | must nc
!; omit to give You a passing notice {
the progress Of the
Political Campaign. Douglas is thur
dering away still, with both his giar
voice and his brass gun ; and Lincol
] still follows upon his heels, cutting u
by the root every position he plant
t serving as a support to the great ten
pie of human chattlchood and of slav,
nv extension. Douglas has truly q
, iron soul, or he could eve cndur
' the smart of so many thrusts as hi
; antagonist is giving him at ever
I phase of the controversy. Lincol
understands we'll his own strength
and equally as well the weak point
of his antagonist. He therefore make
capital of the unguarded positions
!, the latter, and floors him at almos
every onset. 1t seems to me that a
. most any other man, save Dougla
y would have retired from the tiel'
\ Lincoln shows up his theme in Il
most ridiculous light imaginabl
Even in Joncsboro', of the darke'
> points in the State, Lincoln's army
political truths was so lucid and co
vincing as TO call forth, by far, tt
l. greatest share and warmest bursts
c enthusiom and applause, leaving Il
h Little Giant almost barren. The cloi
of this, Illinois campaign, will certai
s ly introduce a new era into the poll
5. cal history of this Union. More ano
Yours, as ever. A. G. MEAcHAM.
a The new Custom House at PensaC
n la, Florida, has just been finishe
The cost was $50 900. We learn fro
a the Gazette that the amount Of re,
nue. collected at that port for the We