Rensselaer Union, Volume 3, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 July 1871 — Editorial Correspondence. [ARTICLE]

Editorial Correspondence.

Nkjikask.y CITY, June «0, 1871. ( of. E. I*. Hammond: De.vij I-'niiiMi:— Leaving Chicago- last Tuesday morning we took passage on the ears over the Chicago, Burlington ,v Quincy road for Bui'lington, lowa. The first fifty or sixty miles out from the lake shore is level xx it!i occasional sloughs It is quite thickly settled, however, and evidences of prosperity meet the eye on every side. As wc traveled south and west the topography becomes more undulating; farms are older, belter improved and the soil produces equal crops with loss cultivation. The road over which Wc traveled is of uniform grade ballasted with gravel, well kept, free -from dust and—tho- train glides swiftly along without jar and scarcely a vibration Wheat .harvest had already commenced and reaping machines with binders and shockers were busy in numberless fields. For muiiy miles we noticed that nearly all t!m forest trees presented the peculiar and unusual appearance mentioned in a forme: letter—the tender shoots ofThis year’s growth were withered up and hung in festoons us russet in a setting of green. Wc were told that it was the devastation of lo : ousts, whose shrill grating concei t could be heard above the clatter of the oars. We reached the Mississippi river just before sundown and crossed on the railroad bridge, a massive struoturc that must have cost an AnormouS sum of money and is a noble monutnent to tho great hud wonderful genius of this enterprising age and people. Burlington is buiftttpon broken terraces—which form the right bank of the Mississippi at this point. The country hereabouts is more broken, or rather, the prairie is higher with deeper v-nlkys than mi the east side of the liver. Night soon closing its sable curtains over the world we retired to our births in the Pullman palace ears with which,.our train was provided and saw no moruuef lov/a until three-fourths of the State had been spanned by the mighty monster that was swiftly bearing us from home and our loved ones. Morning dawned upon us in Western lowa, the soil of which appeared rather better for farming purposes than the narrow strip of its eastern border we had seen "the evening before. This part of the State is not so thickly settled until within thirty or, forty milefe of the Missouri river as it is * further east; however tho country is doited here and there with farms and villages, and it was apparent from the luxuriance of growing crops that the day is not far distant when it will contribute its undeveloped treasures to the comfort of man. Land along the railroad and within reasonable distance of towns is held at eight to twelve dollars an aero. The soil is deep, of dark gray :eo!or, is a vegetable loam supported on a clayey substratum. It is well drained, very rich and produces large crops of corn, winter and - spring wheat, barley,, oats, rye, potatoes and fruit. . This letter has reached to such length that it is proper to close and reserve for another our impressions of Nebraska. To-day we leave here. A -portion of the party (which numbers upwards of sixty persons) returns home, and the rest, among which is the Rensselaer delegation will go south into Missouri and Kansas. All are well and thus far the trip has been unexceptionablv pleasant. James. Dr. 3. C. Maxwell and many other good people from Iteming ton were in town on the Fdiuth.