The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1863-05-23

pTeVeuUeu Vic Ddttle Vi NldudSSdS duu I'll 10
| invasion of Maryland. 1t is the same who
gave the fatal order to Col. Miles to hold
harper's Ferry when the rebels were al
ready in Maryland, and when, thereby,
Harper's Ferry had lost all importance.
| Have there not been useless butcheries
| and failures of operations enough TO war
rant finally the adoption ofsound military
plans? Till this is done, we can only hope
| that fortune will once more smile upon the
country of freedom.
| am, sir, yours, very truly,
THE FooD QUESTION IN THE SOUTH
WANT OF TRANSPORTATION THE CHIEF
CAUSE OF SCARCITY.-A correspondent OF
Canadian paper, who has recently been
travelling in the South writes:
We found railroad travelling from Will
mington to Richmond very tiresome, espe-
| cialIy after the neat cabin and sumptuous
fare of the Giraffe. The dining saloons"
are, as rule, uncleanly, and the food mis-
erably cooked. No one in the South now
exp poets luxuries or dainties; in fact, none
are to be had for love or money. suffi-
cheney Of bread, meat and vegetables is all
one can expect or obtain. Coffee, tea and
sugar are held at exorbitant prices, and
scarce even then. But the great difficulty
the South is now laboring under is want Of
TRANSPORTATION. In some sections prOvis-
ions are cheap and plenty, and although
the farmers are willing to part with their
surplus at reasonable rates, they cannot get
it to market. All the roads are constantly
employed in transporting troops, Govern
ment stores and passengers. The rolling
stock on most Of the roads is in bad condi-
ton, and in year or so will be almost use
! less. In order to save it as long as possible,
the rate of speed has been decreased to ten
| or twelve miles an hour for passenger trains
and less with freight.
| The Richmond Examiner in long edito-
rial on the food question, says:
With country possessing the capacity of
ours for the unlimited production of Indian
corn, we can afford to smile at the stupidity
Of the Yankees in expecting us to starve by
| famine. Indian corn carried our fathers
through the first revolution, at period
when the forest still covered the face OF the
country, and no facilities existed for trans
porting supplies. This same plant will
bear the South triumphantly through the
present struggle, and entitle itself to a con-
| spicuous place upon her coat -cf-arms. 1t
has been claimed that cotton was king; but
a mightier political agency than cotton ex-
lists, even in the agriculture of the South
| Our first great want in this struggle was
arms and ammunition, which were fortu-
nately provided us in advance. Our last
great want is food; and that will be album
dainty afforded in the crop of Indian corn.
The crop of this grain now nearly plant
ed in the Confederacy, will be beyond all
precedent. 1t will be sufficient to subsist
every human being and every beast of bur-
den, or of food, in the Confederacy, for two
years to come. And this regular crop will
be re-enforced by second additional CROP
planted on the stubble Of the wheat and
rye about to be harvested; all of which will
make fodder for horses and cattle, and the
greater part of which will also make ma
ture grain. 1t will be planted in the drill
or check, and not in the Davis method of
broadcast, which is generally repudiated
by Well-informed and experienced farmers.
This double crop of corn will not only fur
nish abundant bread, but it will fatten a
great deal of meat. All through Tennessee
and the Gulf States, there are large num-
bers of hogs, which were not killed for the
want of salt. These animals will be fat
tened and made to weigh double as much
as last year, by the superintendent corn.-
The supply of meat will thus be vastly
greater next year, than it is now, provided
only that salt can be obtained for presery-
ing it.
We are sorry to announce that the salt
supply will be again very limited; chiefly
because the only saltworks of the Confed-
eracy are exposed at any day to capture by
the enemy, no particular General being res
ponsible for their protection. A part of
Virginia has been thrown into the military
department of East Tennessee, and the line
of division between the two military COM
mands runs precisely over the saltworks,
some of the furnaces being on side of the
line, some on the other, and the responsible
ity Of their protection being divided between
two commanders.
But be the question of salt meat as it NAV
we shall have enough corn in the Confed-
eracy to keep all its hogs fat throughout
the coming year, and to maintain a full
supply of fresh pork and beef, if not Of salt
ed meat.
| NAVAL OPINION OF NEGRO BRAVERY
The following letter is from Admiral D.
Porter's fleet surgeon, an officer who has
always entertained strong Southern feel
| ings:
| U. S. FLAGSHIP BLACK HAWK, Above
Vicksburg, April l3.-You ask me whether
a negro will fight. 1 answer most empha-
ticalIy, yes. At Fort Hindman, when our
storming party was forming, the first man
who stepped forW ard for the scaling ladder
was contraband. All our spies are ne
groes. A contraband saved our expedition
up Deer Creek. We sewed the dispatches
in his cap, and sent him twenty miles for
reinforcements; and when I saw his black
face emerging through the smoke of the
enemy's ire the next day, and yelling
"Your peoples is coming'v' my opinion
of negroes went up five hundred per cent.
Let man tell me the negro is q coward,
and III tell him to his face he lies. / have
seen enough OF Slavery, and am an Adolf
zionist OF the very worst kind.
i MAMMOTH CHICKEN Coops.-The great
est curiosity seen on our streets for a long
time, passed through town yesterday, and
excited great deal of wonder. Accompa-
nying a detachment of wagons bound for
Pixies Peak, were two tremendous struc-
lures on wheels, i'll dimensions somewhat
larger than ton of hay enclosed by wire
work and divided into several stories On
inquiry we learned that they were fitted
up to run a regular trade in chickens from
the States to supply the denizens of Denver
City with barn-yard fowls.-Gate City.
: The James Steam Mills Corporation, OF
Newburyport, Mass, declared on Wednes-
day, semi-annual dividend of twenty per