The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1872-07-06
EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE.
OMAHA, Neb., June 18th, 1872.

removed from Omaha, and divided among
other places on the route, and this young
city of the plains had sinking spell for a
time, from which, however, it has happily
recovered, and appears to be steadily and
permanently improving. The city had, by
the census of 1870, 10000 Inhabitants; is
beautifully situated on the west bank of
| the Missouri river, opposite Council Bluffs
and between the places there is great
deal Of local jealousy. Omaha contains
many fine brick buildings three to five
stories. Its streets are wide, cutting each
other at right angles, are planted with
shade-trees, which in few years will add
largely to their appearance and comfort
Like Western cities generally, Omaha con-
tains many fine schools, both public and
private, and among its institutions of mod
ern improvements it numbers street rail
way. There are many commanding sites
on the bluffs, back of the town, which will
be occupied by future buildings of the
ornamental class, which will add greatly
to the beauty of the city. Some Of those
sites are already improving in this manner
But the large body of the finest land in the
world for agricultural and grazing pur-
poses, which surrounds Omaha, reaching
! for 200 miles east and west of the city, and
nearly as far north and south of it, insures
for the city grand future.
might say great deal about Omaha
and Council Bluf's-the latter derives it's
name from the council held here by Lewes
and Clark with the Indians in 1S04-but
| what most interests the eastern reader is
the undeveloped country spreading out
hundreds of miles in all directions an
unbroken sod, except in the immediate
neighborhood of the towns and railroads.
The Burlington and Missouri River
Railroad Company have a land grant ex-
tending for two hundred miles east of
Omaha, of 20 miles on each side of their
road, of every alternate section, and as far
west as Fort Kearney; and the Union Pacific
Company has similar grant, extending
from Omaha to Ogden, thousand miles,
1t would be difficult to find more beauti-
full agricultural country than that through
which the Burlington and Missouri River
Railroad runs in Southern Iowa. Aprairie,
rolling enough for complete drainage, but
not enough removed from the dead level to
impede agricultural pursuits. This coun-
try extending west of Omaha two hundred
miles, is the home of the Indian corn. In
the eastern portion of this region the land
| is pretty well taken up and under cultiva-
ton, but only small percentage west of
Omaha is yet broken by the pillow. Here
farm Of a thousand acres could be marked
out and every square foot of it plowed and
planted without meeting with stone or
brush to obstruct the plowshare; and soil
that will produce corn year after year with
| out manure or apparent exhaustion. Corn
is bought up in this region of country and
further east by grain merchants, hauled to
the railroad stations and thrown in the ear
into large cribs, many of them without
roof and when the price will afford profit,
shelling machine and elevator is set to
work, driven by horse power or steam
engine, and the grain shelled and loaded
into cars by the same operation. Several
cars can be loaded by these machines in IA
I day, the corn being taken from the cribs in
the ear and fed to the shelter. The crop is
worked by wheeled cutivators, which strad-
die row with two horses, and large
breadth of land is got over and made per-
fectly clean in day by one man, there
being neither stones or clods to interfere
with the work, but the ground is as "mel-
low as an ash heap"
| Corn is common fuel in the towns out
here, and used in the ear it makes hot
fire and is cheaper than coal at SIG ton,
when corn can be bought for % cents a
bushel of 20 pounds in the ear. The great
business Of this country is farming and
stock raising, and the millions Of acres now
unbroken by the pillow will in years to come
be the food gamers for millions and mil
lions of men. AS you drive through this
vast region day after day following the
steam engine which thunders day and
night almost without stopping. you gaze on
the green rolling prairies touching the hor-
lion as far as the eye can reach, till the
scene is shut in by darkness, and in the
morning you awake to behold the same
green ocean of grass, with its gentle hills
rolling in long lines like waves of the sea,
and contrast this vastness with the puny
efforts of the settler, whose small house
stands out on the wide waste like cookie
shell on the ocean, and his garden spot of
farm mere scratch on the bosom of old
mother earth,-man with his wonderful
appliances for subduing the earth sinks
into nothingness by the contrast.
One institution in this country attracted
my attention, which is a great saving in
motive power. Windmills are in general
use. The Railroad companies use them
altogether for pumping water into their
tanks. In Lawrence the most picturesque
sight is a windmill on the ridge above the
town, built in the primitive style. 1t is
! the property of Swede who sent to
Sweden for the mechanics who built it.
| This mill is Of the pattern which was used
| by the Egyptians in the earliest ages. The
wings constitute an immense cross, each
wing being composed of piece of timber
90 feet in length. These immense wings
are framed to a shaft eighteen inches in
diameter, which turns in a stone box. The
building is octangular in form, with
dome-shaped top or cupalo that turns with
! the wings when the wind veers, serving as
tail to the wings. These vast wings or
arms afford power for driving Touring
mill, which is in the second story, and
machiner in the first story where plow
making, carriage and wagon making and
other branches of implement manufacture
is carried on. l never saw so much work
carried on in 50 small and SO curious
work shop, and nearly all by Swedes The
mill with its shafting, cogs, &C., is almost
entirely made of wood. The framing is of
the very first order, but no labor was
thrown away in smoothing up the timbers
for effect. This mill has been running