New-York daily tribune., 1859-05-25

Wheat No buster season vas ever seoh 'A"u '-'s
10 20 Be: from the Hudson 70 the M'ss-s'ipPi' you
.os f,r- horses or oxen st work & ore N pastures
,,A tbere are thousands OF farmers who would
nlan. or sow a quarter more If they had grain to
feed their teams than they VII now be able 10 do.
There sre few travelling in the cars. few iding
abort stores or taverns, bat many in the fields.
May bounteOus Heaven smile on their labOrs
Illinois Is just beginning to be cultivated.
presume she hes no railroad along which half the
hnd within a mile has ever been touched by q
vow Back from the roads, there is Of course stlli
less cultivation: probably less than tenth OF her
soil has ever yet been broken Possibly one-ionr'h
Of her spontaneous product of Grass may now De
eaten by animals that contribute 10 the snstenance
or comfort Of man, though think one-sxth would
he nearer the mark She has far more Coal than
Great Britain-far more than any other Statc-bnt
has hardly yet begun TO mine it, Her Timber is
not 40 excellent: she lacks Pine and ali the ever
green's but she is bountiflly and cteaply supplied
with these from Michigan and Wisconsin. Boards
are sent through her canal from Chicago to the He
nois. and thence around By st. Louis and up the
Missouri 70 build houses in Kansas and Nebraska.
Her Timber, such as it is, palpably uefea'es
from year to year, and will increase still more
rapidly as roads and plowiDgs check the sweep
Of prairie fires. II her praires were more rolling,
they would be dryer and could be worked earlier:
but then they would wash more, and probably have
Less depth and richness Of soil. Doubtless the child
is born who will see her State of Ten Millions of
People, One Million Of them inhabitins her COM
mcrcal emporium.
i stopped over night at Quincy, and took the
steamboat Pike at y next morning for Hannibal,
20 miles below. ] had repeatedly crossed the Mis-
sissippi, but this was my first passage on It, lbe
river il very high so that its banks submerged,
and the water flows under the trees which line
either shore Islets covered with trees and shrub
berry abound; the bluffs recede some miles on either
hand and are sOfened to the view by the deep green
Of the young foliage; hardly clearing breaks the
uniformity of the almost tropical prospect; though
here and there miserable little hut in the last
stages of decay tells where chopper of steamboat
wood held on until whisky or the ague took him OIL
In food, as it is the river is turbid not muddy and
pursues its course with deliberatiOn and gravity
betting the majestic Father Of Waters, to whom
with head bare and reverent spirit wave respect
fSl adieu.
For our good boat has reached Hannibal, the
6rst point below Quincy at which the Missouri
bluff approaches the river and whence the valley of
. streamlet makes up through the hills to the broad
level prairie. Hannibal is pleasantly situated on
the interyale of the creek and up the side OF the
bluff, SO as to be entirely commanded by steam
boat passing up the river. 1t is bustng, growing
village of some 1000 inhabitants, which the new
Hannibal and st. Joseph Railroad " has suddenly
raised from local to general Importance. Like
most villages in the Great Western rivers, it has
no wharf and the river is now threatening to eat
away part of the bank on which railroad and
steamboat freight is heaped in wild disorder Its
new consequence must soon work change. /
hook for a wharf and great storehOuse when |
next land or embark here.
The Pike rounded To-, and sent us ashore; the
train backed down to within forty feet of her; the
passengers got aboard the cars and were followed by
their baggage and in half an hour we were steaming
up through the woody rayine to emerge on one OF
the largest prairies on Northern Missouri. Across
this-or, rather, along tive took our course
westward almost as the flies to st. Joseph on
the Missouri, 2O6 miles distant which we reached
in a little more than twelve hours, or at haliPast
10 last evening The road was completed IN hot
haste last Winter, in order to profit by the " Fixes
peak" migration this Spring; no gravel is found
on its line unless in the immediate vicinity OF the
Mississippi; and it was raining pitiessly for the
second day nearly throughout, so that the road
Al e. inln u me-
the passing trains pressed the ties first on one
side, then on the other, making the track
as bad as track could well be. a year hence, il
must be better with the frost just coming out
of the ground; after dry week. II will probably
be quite fair; but yesterday il afforded more exer-
else 10 the mile than any other road ever travelled
About one-third of the way from Hannibal, il is
intersected by the North Missouri Railroad
from ST. Louis, which city is about one hundred
miles further from st. Joseph than Hannibal is;
the train from St Louis starting at D \. Vi. 10 con-
meet with ours which ought TO have left Hannibal
at 81. Each road is completed, so that st, Louis
as well as Hannibal is within days ride by rsi
Of St Joseph, which faces Kansas almost up TO the
Nebraska line.
Though the day was dreary, noted with deep
interest the country through which passed
which disappointed me in these repects: l. The
land is better than l had supposed :. Ii is of
more uniform grsde-hardy anything worth call
ing hill being seen after rising the bluff from the
Mississippi till We come in sight OF those which
enclose the Missouri; :. There is more prairie
and less timber than had expected; and 4. There
is infinitely less pc pulaton aud Improvement Of