Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1863-06-05
EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE.
PHILADELPHIA, May 27, 1868.

PHILADELPHIA, May 27, 1868.
DEAR JoURNAL:-N No noteworthy Incl.
dents having occurred in my trip thus far,
my "notes by the way" must necessarily be
brief. My route was ola Chicago, Ft. Wayne,
Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, passing over
those extensive lines of railway, the Pitts
burgh, Fl. Wayne & Chicago and the Penn
sylvania Central, which l can recommend to
travellers as combining speed and safety with
variety and beauty of scenery unsurpassed
by any other roads in our country. In fact,
almost every variety of American scenery
may be found on this route between the
Mississippi and the Delaware. First, we
have the broad prairies of Illinois, with
glimpses of the beautiful lake at Chicago
next the dense forests of Indiana and Ohio,
and then the bold mountain ranges of Penn
sylvania, with its charming valleys and
forests of evergre ems. With the triumph Of
art to be seen on this route, as displayed in
magnificent bridges and great tunnels, the
beholder is almost overwhelmed in contem-
plating the scenes so rapidly passing before
him. One of the tunnels on the Pennsyl-
vania Railroad (that between Ki;tanning
Point and Galitzin) is 3,612 feet long, and
cost $4,000. Near this place the road
winds around the sides of the highest noun
tains in the Allegheny range, on an artificial
ledge. On the one side is a deep, dark
chasm, so near that pebble tossed from the
car window will not light till it reaches the
bottom of the chasm On the other, the
mountain towers up so high and so close
that the eye cannot reach its summit. This
is the character Of the scenery Immediately
west of Altoona, a mountain town containing
a population Of 5000. Further eastward
the track gradually falls into the valley Of
the "Blue Juniata, (sacred in song and in
story,) running through some gaps in the
several mountain ranges almost as wild and
picturesque as the celebrated Blue Ridge
Pass at Harper's Ferry.
But meant to say something more prac-
teal in this letter than a mere description of
the country. The Agricultural readers of
the JOURNAL will doubtless be interested in
knowing how the crops promise in the region
of country through which l have passed
Nowhere do they look as we'll as in Iowa.
In Indiana and Ohio wheat is "bunchy," and
will make light yield. The exceedingly wet
weather in March, and remarkably dry
weather since that time, has been unfavor
able for corn. Very few farmers had finished
planting, and the ground was hard and
crusty. Fruit prospects are favorable.
l could not but wonder, as saw men toll
ing among the stumps in poor, yellow soil,
why they are content to remain when the
broad, rich prairies of Illinois and Iowa
promise them so much more return for their
labor. But it appears to have been wisely
ordered by Providence that the best land on
the continent should be the last opened to
cultivation. Had it been the first, very few
would have had the hardihood to attempt
cultivating the rocky soil of the Atlantic slope
or clearing the stubborn forests of the Ohio
valley.
purpose remaining in this city for several
days before going to New York, and in my
next may speak of some objects of interest
here. l am now quartered at the "Conti
nental," one of the largest and best kept
hotels in our country. JIM.