Delaware State journal and statesman., 1866-09-25


timber is floated down the sluggish current
Of the broad Saginaw and Is turned into
lumber by mills along the banks. These
mills are of the most extensive character;
one which we visited turning out 1876, 900
feet of pine lumber day. Another, run by
n friend on whom we were calling, makes
$4,000 feet day.
Within the last five or six years salt in.
terest has been developed which is perhaps
second to none In the country. The State
geologist some years since predicted that salt
might be found extensively in the Saginaw
Valley. The State offered bounties Tor the
discovery and manufacture OF salt, and under
the stimulus of these, wells were sunk and
brine of q superior quality and density found
This yields some eighty or ninety per cent.
of the purest salt. There are now about
seventy wells on the river, one of them
which we examined making sixty barrels OF
salt n day.
These salt works, except the Solar salt
works, are here invariably run in connection
with the steam saw mills Indeed we were
told that only by such connection could
the salt be manufactured proftably The
price obtained for the salt would moi pay for
the cost OF the works, if run by material
purchased for the purpose. But the saw
dust and refuse matter from the saw mill
feeds the engines and the boilers of both es-
adjustments and furnishes more than enough
fuel for them, so that that greatest item of
expense Is reduced to nothing We were
told by our friend that the salt works usually
pay the expenses Of both factories.
We have visited since Detroit Milwaukee
and Chicago, but l will not weary you with
minute descriptions. The first is the
most beautiful city which we have seen so
far in the West, lying on a broad river, suf-
ticiently elevated for excellent drainage
with broad, smoothly paved and ree-lined
streets, handsome churches and elegant resi-
dences The second, Milwaukee, is on Lake
Michigan on high ground and spreading out
magniicently as one looks down upon it as
we did from height with the same broad
rectangular streets and fine buildings which
we saw in Detroit. Here we saw one of
those marves of the West great grain
elevator, this one the largest in the land
300 feet long, 1856 feet high, capable of hold
ing q, $50, 000) one million and quarter of
| bushels of wheat able TO receive a discharge
Of (36 000) thirty-six thousand bushels an
hour, with nine elevators fer raising and five
for discharging, with mne scales weighing
| each II car load of grain at time. Chicago
is all that has been said OF ii, and that is
saying much More unfayorably situated
than either of the other cities, it is far be.
yond them in everything The one fact
that the city has within few years lifted it.
self six feet above its former level is an ex-
ample of all the rest We saw whole squares
of stately buildings, which had been raised
bodily with all their contents SIX feet to the
new grade of the city. We found an old
townsman of Wilmington engaged in raising
a block Of stores, and saw a whole row
gradually lifted as we stood by.
The aItesian well some four or five miles
from the city, when you consider its position
is very strange object of interest. Here is
a well or rather two of them, sunk some
seven hundred feet in the midst Of vast
prairie and sending forth seemingly mex
haustible streams Of water to the height of
forty feet, and flowing away a strong and
brilliant stream, while there is not u hill or
mountain within hundreds and almost thou
sands OF miles whence the supply can be
supposed to come.
As we rode homeward or rather hotel
ward, We saw man out on the prairie-it
was toward night-ooking after his cows
oih spy glass. They do things ON large
scale at the West,
But have written enough We hope 10
sec the Great Lake and 81, Paul, with its
falls and laughing water, before we bee that
pleasantest Of all paces--home and Will
| mington. w. A.