The Ten Best States of America FOR Agriculture, horticulture, General Industries, TRAVERSED BY THE Illinois Central Railroad. CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA: REPUBLICAN PRINTING COMPANY, PRINTERS AND BINDERS. 1893 The Invitation. "The wandering mariner, whose eye explores The wealthiest isles, the most enchanting shores, Views not a realm so beautiful and fair, Nor breathes the spirit of a purer air." MERICA is entertaining the world. On the shores of an inland sea a great city is acting as hostess.. Her doors are thrown open, the feast is spread, and the inhabitants of the entire globe are made welcome. , From mountain and valley, from desert and plain, from castle and cottage, the visitors have come. Rank and royalty are among the guests, distinguished civilians sit at the board. Great, indeed, must be a country, in all the elements that create power and prosperity, when all nations do honor to the man who discovered it four hundred years ago. America is the only country with a known birth-place and a distinct system of development. All others began they know not when or where, and grew into power they know not how. The infusion and commingling of the blood of the best of different nationalities, with the advantages of climate and locality, combined with abundant natural sources of wealth, has evolved a type of American men and women without a peer. No title can honor, no rank can elevate, no position can dignify, and no order can add lustre to an American gentleman. With justifiable pride we receive our guests in the heart of a limitless empire of future greatness. Limitless, indeed, for the discovery of America which has been going on for four hundred years is not completed yet. So vast is our country that there still remains portions of the interior and the northern coast lines that are not definitely known. So vast, indeed, that the eye of the sun never closes on its domain; before its 4 the ten best states of america. parting glance has been given to the shores of the Aleutian Islands off the coast jf Alaska, its beams have kissed the forests of Maine on the morn of the following day; and the island birds twitter their soft vespers simultaneously with the joyous matins of the songsters on the Atlantic coast. Well may the eagle spread his broad, pinions with imperious pride as he soars above the nation he symbolizes. The great cataract of Niagara thunders its grandeur; the lofty mountain peaks, hooded with perpetual snow and studed with glaciers, mutely testify to its sublimity; the rivers that rise where summer's visits are but morning calls and debouch through shores where flowers never cease to bloom, mark its almost endless extent,�and the broad valleys that are realizations of the Dream of Arcadia, typify its wonderful beauty. So extensive, even, are the waters of this chain of lakes that stretch northward from the city of the Great Fair, that while a collection of trophies of the World's advancement in civilization are exhibited on its southern coast to-day, its northern shores are not more than half explored, and strange tales of gold, of rubies and amethysts and other precious stones are even yet brought down by hunters and fur traders from that remote region. Greenland is properly regarded as a part of the Western World, so we may consider Lieutenant Peary's exploit on the anniversary year of 1892, as simply a continuance of the work of Columbus and his successors. By looking at a map of the Arctic regions it will be seen that no northern outline is given of Greenland. Not having been determined by explorers, it could not be given by the map makers. But last summer Lieutenant Peary made a sledging expedition across the ice fields of the Esquimaux country to the unknown north coast and brought back definite geographical information that will greatly assist geographers to complete the outline map of that portion of America. Woman shares the honor of this recent discovery, for Lieutenant Peary's wife was the first white woman to brave the rigors of Greenland's climate. It is fitting that the wonders of mechanism and art, the marvels of earth and sea, should be on exhibition in the midst of a land renowned for its unparalleled development. ,-Well chosen, indeed, was the spot where the world is exhibiting its indications of progress ! In the history of civilized nations no city has made such rapid strides as our hostess; and, although a thousand miles from the sea coast line, ocean vessels drop anchor at the foot of her streets, and from her very suburbs the ten best states of america. 5 stretches away to the Southern Sea, a broad valley that is the heart of the richest country on earth. Before us lies the Columbian City, its architectural elegance and magnificent proportions the work of but a few months. It represents a wise and well-defined artistic scheme, with a distinct and lofty general ideal. Distributed with system and beauty over the scores of acres, beneath its roofs, we view a splendid panorama of the work wrought in the centuries that are past. How limited our powers of comprehension are when confronted with such a test ! In the far northwest, where one of the great trans-continental railways crosses Nature's rugged barriers to its progress to the Pacific, varied scenes of beauty and grandeur crowd upon the vision so rapidly as to fairly bewilder the traveler. Rocky chasms of great depth, glittering glaciers of unexplored extent, snow-clad peaks that spurn the clouds and pierce the ether above, cascades that fall so far their waters are lost in a floating veil of spray, giant forest trees and lakes of rare beauty,�produce in rapid succession feelings of awe, enthusiasm and peaceful contemplation. These effects are typical of the soul-stirring emotion created by the wonders displayed in the great arena of the Columbian Exposition. Beyond the wildest dreams of past ages are the tokens of advancement before us; almost beyond the limits of the imagination is the possibility this progress suggests. The one mind can scarcely grasp what the many minds have wrought. The world has come to our gates with its choicest products of the mechanical and liberal arts; its most recent discoveries in physical science; its latest and deepest researches in the domain of ethics, psychics, economics, pedagogics and statecraft. The inventive genius of man has brought machinery to a degree of perfection where it would seem brains would burst in the effort to improve it, and yet from China and Japan, from Siam and Malaysia, and from the heart of Africa and Central Asia, have come manufactured products that our artificers cannot equal. The costly attar of Turkish or of Persian roses, the expensive shawls that the weaver in Hindukush or in Thibet wrought slowly in his loom, spending, it may be, a year in the production of one of them, and thinking himself well paid if he earned five dollars in a month; the filagrees of gold and silver, the bronzes and the highly tempered swords of the far Orient,�were all made without the application of machinery, and are more delicate and more perfect than machinery can produce. As we leave the gates of the great fair, we feel that the word is not coined that is adequate to describe these mind creations. 6 the ten best states of america. But let us turn from the master-pieces of God-given intellect to the wonders of a God-created earth. We have shown the gold plate, the silver ware and the bric-a-brac of our native home; let us take the guests into the garden, the field and the forest. The old world is crowded, let us show them where there is room in the new; the old world chronicles many failures, let us show them a land where success rewards honest effort; the old world is filled with disappointments and heart-sickness, let us show them valleys where hope leads to glad fruition and the harvest fields ring with the songs of the light-hearted. In her coronet of States, America has ten gems whose rays eclipse all other stones in the diadem; in her fair sister-hood of young empires, there are half a score whose beauty and good qualities leave them without a peer; in the starry firmament that represents our Union, there are ten planets whose brilliancy outshines all others. During the historical exercises held in the World's Fair city last October, commemorating the discovery of this country, there was displayed what was termed "The Living Flag." This most beautiful and appropriate conceit to represent the Star Spangled Banner was formed by children seated on benches which formed an incline, red and white clothed children making the stripes, while a square of children attired in blue was studded with beautiful white-robed girls for the stars. The promise and beauty of the ten brightest girls that impersonated, as stars in that flag, our states, belong to the fair commonwealths to the confines of which we invite our guests. You will not wonder that the imagination is stimulated, enthusiasm created, and intense love of country developed by such surroundings. i Teeming with wealth and prosperity, tinted into a glorious beauty by the hand of the varying seasons, these states comprise a country that suggests the song of the poet and inspires the patriotism of heroes. Other nations cling to the past; these states glory in their present. Let us enter this realm. Do not hesitate to take the trip, fearing you will be confronted with wearisome statistics. We promise that the statistical pill shall be coated thickly with the sugar of Acadia. Be not terrorized with the thought that you may encounter too many dry facts; they will be moistened by the wine of enthusiasm, and hard, practical hints will be softened by the beautiful cotton of the Yazoo Delta. Come! You have examined the artificial, now let us look at the primeval source of all this prosperity. You have seen the marvels wrought by the energy and intellect of man, turn your the ten best states of america. 7 attention to the wealth that is scattered profusely by the hand of nature. It will be interesting alike to the imagination and the sense of utility. You aire keen and competent observers from the Old World, and we shall take pride in showing you this collection of empires that has grown up on the Western Continent. x Putting an ocean vessel into fresh water removes the barnacles from her hull. We ask pardon for the comparison, but we trust a personal knowledge and inspection of the resources that are the foundation of this country's development, will remove some of the barnacles from the opinions our visitors from the Old World may have entertained concerning this country. Come! It matters not what your profession, your object in life, your tastes, your state of health or your mood may be; we promise you a journey of absorbing interest. Are you a lover of nature? We will show you a panorama that can never be eradicated from the tablets of your memory. Are you wrapped in the study of material industries? You will be lost in amazement over the rapid development of manufacturing in the land we shall traverse, and equally surprised at the magnitude of the unappropriated advantages. Are you in poor health? We promise you a tonic of prairie atmosphere and a draught of pine balm more healing than the potions of the famous East Indian alchemists. Are you a sportsman? We will show you sparkling streams where lurk gamey beauties and still waters where the larger finny prizes swim in defiant circles; we will point out solitudes which the graceful deer and the clumsy bear claim, and glades where the wild turkey struts and the partridge drums. Are you an artist?' We will show you Nature's play ground of light and shadow, and you will admit you never knew the meaning of the word graceful till you saw the Spanish moss waving from the cypress bough. Are you in trouble? We will take you into a region where a breeze steals up from the Southern Gulf whose witchery no mood or sorrow can withstand. It touches one's face even as the entrancing strains of the Strauss waltzes fall on the ear. Heart-ache and soul-torture are subdued by its magical influence, and the black curtain of destiny that drops down before our brightest dreams is wafted aside by its gentle but irresistible force. How shall we traverse this region that is the cynosure of a visiting world? ' FALLS OF THE BIG SIOUX RIVER. "From Northern Crown to Southern Cross, From eider duck to Albatross.'' HERE the swift waters of the Big Sioux River break in glittering cascades over ledges of the famous red jasper of Dakota, in a valley I of unexcelled beauty and fertility, the shining steel rails of a great commercial highway ijjflk fl :-| ^/flBp begin; a highway that crosses the billowy ; tM* V|� ggp^ v surface of broad virginv prairies, plunges through towering forests and threads the weird depths of the cypress swamps; a highway that passes through cultivated fields of /j; every product known to a northern, ^temper- ate and semi-tropical zone; a highway that marks the emerald sea of pastures where graze countless flocks and herds; a highway that forms a subteranean channel in the gloomy depths , of great rocks and crosses sweeping floods on bridges measured by miles; a highway at whose source the bracing breezes of the northern plain bend bush and tree, and which terminates where the soft zephyrs of the Mexican sea caress the cheek; a highway that starts where the twitter of the snow bird and the howl of the coyote break the stillness of night, and stops where, the bellow of the alligator and the marvellous melody of the mocking bird fall on the ear; a highway that reaches out from the vigor and youth of the latest addition to our sisterhood of states, to the restful climate of a commonwealth inhabited nearly two centuries ago; a highway over which the iron steed takes his restless flight and stops panting at the doorway of communities that aggregate millions of souls �! This highway is the Illinois Central Railroad, and, while its business center is Chicago; while the throbbing heart that sends the life blood surging through all its arteries and lateral veins is located in the World's Fair City; while the brain that directs the movements of each member or branch of this extensive system is on the beach where is now in progress the most prom- 10 the ten" best states of america. inent industrial event known to civilization,�we have chosen as the starting point of our tour through the "ten best states," its terminus in the northwest. This terminus is Sioux Falls, the metropolis of South Dakota. And now, with our hand on the reins and our foot in the stirrup, figuratively speaking, let us pause and briefly consider the inception and growth of the road that has born such close reciprocal relations with the development of that portion of Nature's Paradise we are about to explore. "I like to see it lap the hills, And lick the valleys up, And stop to feed itself at tanks, -" Who does not ? The railroad train is the poetry of mechanism. Few verses have been written about it, but what event so common is so universally interesting as the arrival and departure of a train ? Look at the idle throng on the platform of even- depot in the land, to witness this event! It may be an hourly occurrence; it matters not, it never loses its charm. No general leading an army is to the interested watchers more important than the engineer; no governor directing the departments of State is a greater personage in their estimation than is the railroad conductor. The rush and clatter of a train is indicative of the life and energy it brings to the sleeping forces of nature. It is the mechanical pioneer. A railroad is an enterprise whose wealth, geographical extension and influence upon the growth of the country and the fortunes of individuals has no parallel. It is a prodigy of labor and skill and the indestructible bond of an everlasting republic. What that is practical is left of the ancient grandeur of Rome? The tombs wherein she laid her dead two thousand years ago, though rich in marble and statuary, have crumbled to pieces: play houses and public buildings are a mass of ruins; commemorating monuments, intended for the transmission of the story of her greatness to the latest generations of mankind, lie broken and discolored beneath accumulated debris, or have become the prey of the vandal. Long centuries ago the palaces where her people were born, ate, drank and died, and the the ten best states of america. 11 temples where they worshipped, disappeared. The broken walls and leaning pillars of the great Coliseum, even, assure us that it is slowly receeding into oblivion. But her highways remain. The humbled, despised pathway, trod by the foot of lord and surf, spurned by the hoof of steed and kine, is to-day the sole monument of the stability of her improvements and the public spirit of her citizens. The vast caravans that supplied her population with food passed along the hardened surface of these roads, and over them her armies marched. | All nations had great public highways connecting large cities and places of importance, commercial and military. In the place of these great military roads and commercial highways, the railway has sprung into existence. The earth fairly trembles with the weight and speed of its moving trains, and it ribs the globe with its steel, seeking out every spot where industry is rife and profit possible. Through deep gorges and across the summit of lofty mountains these arteries of trade may be traced. The smoke of the engine curls up over the edge of great glaciers and the hissing steam frightens the eagle from his eyrie; while along the quivering morass and through the tangled jungle its tracks are laid. Like a huge spider web, railroads radiate from every important center and mark the face of two great continents with innumerable seams. The building of a great road viewed simply in its relation to the spread of population, the development of resources and advancement of civilization, is an event to be ranked, by far-reaching effects, with the voyage �f Columbus. The happenings of a whole century following the landing of the Pilgrims are not to be compared in results which have influenced the entire world, to a period of less than twenty-five years in the era of railroad building. In the construction of a long line of railroad We are apt to think of it as principally important in connecting the two extreme points�Chicago with New Orleans, for instance; whereas its paramount mission is the development of the country through which it passes. Civilization is produced by the railroad, population-follows its lines, and no matter how rich the prairie and valley, or what the wealth of the primeval forests may be, the railroad is the miner that makes the wealth available. This truth will become more and* more apparent as we follow the Illinois Central through that fruitful region, The Ten Best States. The extensive advertising by the railroad company is too frequently looked upon as a purely selfish policy.. Nothing could 12 the ten best states of america. be more short-sighted than such judgment. The paltry sums disbursed by most state governments for immigration purposes dwarf into insignificance compared with the princely sums expended annually by railroad companies for the same purpose. What immigration is to a state is too apparent to be discussed. It is the awakening power of sleeping resources; the divining rod that discovers hidden wealth; the alchemist that makes available the various elements that produce civilization, prosperity, happiness and greatness. Before its advancing columns Nature yields. Even the desert is doomed. Its entire disappearance may not be seen by this generation or the next, yet the time is coming when orchards and fields will cover the thousands of miles now given over to desolation. The infrequent desert plant and the occasional buzzard will give way to all the products of the tropical and semi-tropical lands that its position is fit to raise. The day may come when the present Colorado desert will be reckoned among the most productive lands of California, for there was a time when the plains of Kern and Tulare were held in but little more esteem than is the desert of to-day. The magic power of irrigation has transformed the old alkali plains into a garden, and it will do as much for the dreaded Colorado desert. If such is to be the fate of the recalcitrant desert, what will be the future of that inexhaustible region of fertility penetrated and traversed by the Illinois Central railroad? What is in store for a system so extensive in longitudinal capacity that while its trains on the northwest division are removing show from the tracks, the cars on the southern end of the line are speeding northward freighted with delicious strawberries for the Chicago market? Even consignments of water-melons from Texas pass over this highway while snow mantles the great city by the lake. The birth and infancy of a highway with such remarkable attributes cannot fail to interest our traveling guests. Names that have become historical indentify the originators of the Illinois Central. They are Senators Stephen A. Douglas and Sidney Breese. In 1835 the plan matured. The entire railroad system ol the country has been built up since the year 1826. At that time the first railroad�17 miles long�was built from Albany to Schenectady, in the state of New York. In 1830-there were only 23 miles constructed, and in 1832 the total number of miles in operation was but 229. We record with a smile the fact that in the first plans for the Illinois Central, Chicago was rejected in the consideration of terminal points. the ten best states of america. 13 Later a, reluctant decision caused a branch to be built to the spot now inhabited by a million and a half of people, but the main line was planned from Cairo to Galena. So much value was placed on the east and west trade at that date, that there was much opposition to a north and south line, fearing it would divert the traffic. The far-seeing projectors of the Illinois Central were the first to grasp the probable future of a longitudinal line, which, although having grown rapidly in importance, is still in its infancy, in the light of trade conditions and broad commercial schemes that are developing. There was great scope in the views held by Senator Douglas concerning the Illinois Central enterprise, viz: A line that should connect with roads projected and in process of construction in the east, thus making the enterprise a national one that would commend itself to congress as promising benefit to the entire country, instead of a local corporation that would simply concern the state of Illinois. Three signal failures followed the first attempts to build the Illinois Central railroad. Finally, in 1850, Douglas, assisted by his colleague, Gen. James Shields, matured a bill looking to the construction of a road from Cairo to Galena and Chicago. This bill was advocated by men the memory of whom fame has made deathless�Henry Clay, William H'. Seward, John C. Calhoun, William H. King, Thomas H. Benton and Lewis Cass. Not till 1872 was all rail communication accomplished between the Great Lakes and the. Gulf of Mexico, and at this date the Illinois Central is the only road with a continuous line between those two bodies of water. At first Mobile, Alabama, was the objective gulf terminus, but the water in Mobile Bay was found too shallow for foreign shipments. The construction of the Eades Jetties at the mouth of the Mississippi, at a later date, made New Orleans, the favored outlet for what has since proved an ever increasing tide of commerce that pours down through the wonderful valley. * 1 One of the peculiar provisions of the charter of the Illinois Central Railroad, was that granting a line to Dubuque, Iowa, assuming that a bridge was to be constructed across the Mississippi river from Dunleith, 111. Thus the road, while depending on Illinois for its charter, tapped an important point in another state. No requirements, however, were made for the construction of the bridge. It was not built till 186,8, thirteen years after the road was completed, and then under a separate 14 the ten best states of america. charter. Sixteen years after it was completed the Illinois Central acquired a controlling interest in it. Hence, not until nine years ago was the original design of a continuous railway from Cairo to Dubuque perfected. Before considering further this important internal improvement, let us glance briefly at its incorporators. Great interest must necessarily attach to the men who inaugurate and carry to successful completion such an enterprise. Let no one think a scheme of such magnitude can be projected and carried to a prosperous issue if in the hands of characterless men, even though they be shrewd and active; let no .one imagine such an undertaking can reach the climax of success instigated and handled by men who have not the fullest confidence bf the public and the stockholders. If the thoughtless and narrow gauge men of to-day who look upon the Illinois Central Railroad system as a great monopoly that has gained position and strength by the force of circumstances, will investigate the history of the little body of men who met in New York City in the early spring of 18 51 for its incorporation, they will find that integrity of character was the birthright of each one of them. They possessed energy and foresight and, beyond all, reputations in business and social circles absolutely above reproach. Their high standing in the estimation of their fellow men was undisputed. The character of the incorporating body was indelibly stamped upon this great scheme. That body consisted of Robert Schuyler, George Griswold, Gouverneur Morris, Franklin Haven, David A. Neal, Robert Rantoul, Jr., Jonathan. Sturges, George W. Ludlow, John G. A. Sanford, Henry Grinnell, William H. Aspinwall, Leroy Wiley and Joseph W. Alsop. Two and one-half million acres of beautiful and fertile prairie lands in alternate sections was the first grant made by the Federal Government in aid of the Illinois Central Railroad. By doubling the price of the sections reserved the Government recouped itself at once. The developing and civilizing power of the road under this incentive proved the wisdom of the grant. So important were these landed interests, that they were originally considered of, more value than the road itself. A Member of Parliament, who passed over the road in 1856, remarked: "This is not a railroad company; it is a land company." Well may, our foreign visitors make the same statement this year, when they pass through the thousands of acres of rich delta lands lying along the Yazoo and Mississippi line. Being thus strongly impressed by the probable future value of the lands of the ten best states of america. 15 the Illinois Central grant, the M. P. went back to New York and instructed his bankers to purchase all the Illinois Central Railroad shares that were offered for sale. In this manner he acquired an interest amounting to over $1,000,000. Companions in the * 'Velvet Limited" bound for New Orleans, when this first 700 miles of road was begun only 42 years ago, this country, so thickly studded with thrifty cities, towns and farms, was, for a stretch of 130 miles south from Chicago, an unbroken prairie, inhabited only by deer, wolves and other wild animals! Not a single railroad track crossed the right-of-way from Chicago to Cairo, a distance of 365 miles. t As we glide along the narrow strip of ground fenced in and called the right-of-way, how inconsequential and meagre it seems, and yet on the 705 miles of road in Illinois alone it amounts to an area of 16,000 acres, or 25 square miles! In tracing the history of this great pathway, how constantly are we reminded of its influence on the wilderness! Only 39 years ago, when the road was finished to Carbondale, a station in Southern Illinois, the first train pulled into the town on July 4th. The citizens of the place gave a free dinner in honor of the event and extended an invitation to the^ people in the surrounding country. More than two thousand men, women and children responded, and most of them had never seen a a railroad, an engine, or a train of cars before! Now the shriek of the locomotive is as familiar a sound to the people of that section as /the neigh of a horse, and the passing train attracts no more attention than the .wagon rattling by. That first train ran over rails purchased in England at $48.50 per ton, f. o. b. in Wales and at Liverpool. The value of the much-abused railroad to a state, and this particular railroad to the state of Illinois, is graphically shown by the statement that up to Nov. 1, 1889; nearly $12,000,000 had been paid into the treasury of that state by the Illinois Central Company. This large sum represents the requirement in the charter of the company of a payment of seven per cent, on its gross earnings. What this sum means in the affairs of a commonwealth is made apparent by the value of the public buildings of Illinois. There are twenty-one and their aggregate cost was $11,754,000�all paid by a tax on the earnings of the Illinois Central Railroad. In 1861 many of the farmers who had purchased land of this "soulless corporation" could not meet the payments due on their lands in cash, so the railroad company accepted pay in' corn. Beginning August 1st, nearly 2,000,000 bushels of com were taken that year alone. 16 the ten best states of america. The original 705 miles of railroad built by the Illinois Central in one state was but the nucleus of the most important system in America or the world. No/ exaggeration is embodied in this statement. It simply remains for us to show our guests what this importance consists of. Branching out from the parent stem are now eighteen other lines of road which the Illinois Central has either constructed or purchased the securities of, until their aggregate has reached in round numbers 4,000 miles�about the distance to the center of the earth. These lines run through no less than fifteen degrees of latitude. The tentacles of this great commercial octopus are thrown out wherever a breadstuff, or mineral region exists in the north, west, and south, and its magnificent property, of almost inestimable value, alive with suburban trains and ornamented by a palatial depot costing a million and a half of �dollars, is conspicuous even among the wonders of Chicago, today the Mecca of a visiting world. "The World's Fair Route," it is named, for of all the great systems that enter Chicago, the1 Illinois Central alone has access to the grounds of the Columbian Exposition. Turn now to the consummation of that practical dream of the Illinois Central incorporators-�all rail communication with a port for ocean vessels on the Gulf of Mexico. Crossing the broad flood of the Ohio at Cairo, on that monument of engineering skill, a bridge nearly four miles long, being the longest metallic bridge over any river in the world, a bridge the construction of which took from the treasury of the company nearly $3,000,000, the road runs in what may literally be called a bee line to New Orleans. For many years repeated attempts were made to bring about this completion of the original scheme, but not until 1874 was the event realized. A very important factor of this route from the Great Lakes to the sea level at the Gulf of Mexico is its low elevation in comparison with that of other railroads. The Pennsylvainia R. R., at Gallitzin, Pa., attains an atitude of 1,580 feet above lake Michigan and 2,161 feet abovevthe sea; the New York Central route, via the Michigan Central, at Francisca, Mich., is 435 feet above the lake and 1,016 feet above the sea; the Lake Shore & M. S., via the N. Y. Central route, at Osseo, Mich., is 545 feet above the lake and 1,126 feet above the sea; while the highest point on the Illinois Central between Chicago and New Orleans is at Monee, 111:,"�34 miles south of Chicago�with an elevation of only 222 feet above Lake Michigan and 581 feet above the sea. the ten best states of america. 17 In ndplainer words could the fact be substantiated that the Illinois Central is the natural route from Chicago to the sea, for the distance is as short, or shorter, and the dead lift from the level of Lake Michigan from one-half to one-sixth what it is on* the Eastern Trunk Lines. What does this route mean to the world of Commerce? Who can compass in thought, with the aid of the most vivid imagination, the possibilities and future of such a line? Up to this point in our story of the Illinois Qentral, we have recorded obstacles overcome by princely men of indomitable energy; we have shown the rapid transformation of a northern wilderness to a huge garden dotted with villages and cities; we have already seen the public buildings of a large state supplied by a tax on the earnings of the road, and we have come in contact with facts remarkable and interesting. Into the glowing vitals of the iron horse, over a thousand men toss the coal that underlies the prairies traversed; more than ten hundred men pull the throttle valves open, and the same number of conductors shout "all aboard ! " Last year twelve million passengers stepped aboard Illinois Central cars and eight million tons of freight was transported over the rails of this system. Over five hundred men send the electrical intelligence to neighboring stations that the trains are moving in their direction. Think of it! An army eighteen thousand strong actively engaged in operating a corporation which last year contributed over fourteen millions of dollars to the channels of trade as its expenses! The improvements of bridges and culverts and tanks and depots and elevators are all money distributors by that Good Samaritan, the Railroad Company. Only twenty-two dollars came back to the company out of each one hundred spent in your midst, the remaining seventy-eight being left with you for wages, supplies and taxes. These are direct benefits. Add to these the manufacturing fostered and commercial transactions made possible, with the development of field and forest. The raising of tracks and equipment of trains to enter the grounds of the great exposition you have just witnessed caused an outlay of over $2,000,000. Leaving figures behind us once more, we look southward from Cairo down the long avenue that passes over blue grass pastures, through cotton fields and pine forests, till it emerges from a cypress swamp into the Crescent City, and we confront a stage of development that the pen of prophesy can interpret but a small per cent. of. No other railroad in the country has 3 ' 18 the ten best states of america. such vantage ground; no other system is contiguous to such an area of fertile soil and such a diversity of products; no other road traverses so many states. As the Father of Waters gathers up the floods of the northwest and pour them out through the Eades Jetties, so does this road gather up the produce of that region and speed it down through the imperial valley to the gateway at New Orleans. Ocean vessels may anchor at each end of this route. Our guests may well smile with incredulty when we refer to the Mississippi valley as a former wilderness. Today, in passing through its confines, they are in the center of production, population, wealth and political power. It is the birth-place of great men, as well as great enterprises, for here Jackson and Lincoln and Grant and a host of others spent their infancy. No element of greatness, of romance, or of beauty is �wanting in the vale that begins on the pine-clad shores of Lake Itasca and ends on the gleaming sands, washed by the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. New Orleans is the port of reception and distribution of incoming foreign fruits and goods, and the port of departure for the produce of our States. A million tons of freight are loaded direct from vessels into the Illinois Central cars at the levee wharves of the city. In the column headed "Withdrawal for Exportation," for fiscal year ending June 30th, 1892, the Treasurer of the United States gives the following figures: Baltimore, - - - $ 14,781.61 Philadelphia, - 216,308.01 San Francisco, - - 756,469.60 New Orleans, - - 2,913,188.22 You peal the covering from that most delicious and fragrant of fruits, the banana, and you note the great yellow cluster from which it was plucked. More than 3,000,000 of those bunches pass northward over these rails each season, and a hundred car loads of this same fruit frequently leave New Orleans in one evening. Bananas were comparatively unknown in Northern States fifteen years ago, but, like many other things, the annihilation of distance by this corporation has transformed' a luxury into a necessity. The length of this line is so extensive, that fruit is frequently sold in transit, directions being telegraphed where to switch out the cars. You wind up your dinner in the palace dining car with a desert that contains that delicious article of pastry�cocoanut pie. It took but a small fragment of some cocoanut that a mischievous monkey may have thrown at a passing traveler to fur- the ten best states of america. 19 nish the constituent elements of that pie, but i 5,000,000 of these mammoth nuts enter the mouth of the Mississippi annually and furnish freight for cars passing up this valley. As the flight of the robin indicates spring, and the floating sea weed the presence of land, the mention of the cocoanut suggests the possibilities in traffic that we vaguely comprehend as we look gulf ward from the old Creole city; possibilities attending the awakening of commercial relations with countries and islands south of us. One-half of a great continent is getting ready to trade with the other half. The waters that lave the wharves at the southern port of the Illinois Central encircle a thousand islands and wash the shores of Mexico, Central America and the Spanish Main. Facing this terminus on the South are fifteen Spanish-American Colonies, the empire of Brazil and four European colonies�a total of 45,000,000 consumers, and an area more than double that of the United States. There are also 4,000,000 people in the various West India Islands. Not elsewhere in the Tropics, in Africa or in Asia, have the forces of Nature fitted a region for the production of raw materials for commerce under conditions so favorable. Cuba's wealth of iron ore is just beginning to be exploited, and vast natural treasures, admirable for their potency of promise, are spread out before ithe port of New Orleans. This port is at a less distance from the Western centers of trade than are the commercial ports of the North Atlantic. The great cities of the West already realize that their true route to the trade of the tropics lies southward and not eastward. The iield for future commercial prosperity lies beyond the the southern horizon. What the Mediterranean is to the South of Europe, the Gulf of Mexico is to the United States. The Mississippi Valley produces practically all that is exported from the United States to the countries south of us. It produces more than one-half and, in some cases, nearly the whole of the staple products of the United States. Like Ex-Gov. Hoard, of Wisconsin, who tells a pointed �story and leaves the application to be made by his audience, we will trust the logic of the situation, as we take our first glance across the gulf, to' the intelligence of our guests. With a grand rush that attracts the attention of the inhabitants of both hemispheres, another rocket of enterprise gleams athwart the sky of commerce and scatters its beautiful stars of promise far beyond its predecessors. The staff of the rocket curves downward "like an arrow in its flight," and pierces the Isthmus. It is the Nicaragua Canal project. 20 the ten best states of america. The route to be traversed, the cost of construction and the probable tonnage that will pass through this important waterway when finished are all interesting topics, but grandly inspiring as the strains of "Hail Columbia," to an American are the results to be obtained by the digging of the Nicaragua canal. No piece of engineering so important has engaged the attention of the world for a century. Said Commodore Maury: "It is the mightiest event in favor of the peaceful intercourse of Nations which the physical circumstances of the globe present to the enterprise of man." It will revolutionize the commerce of the world. New Orleans will be 11,000 miles nearer San Francisco and within 1,300 miles of the Pacific. ' An unbroken coast line from Maine to Puget Sound will be ours�a coast line of 20,000 miles. The ships of Western Europe will sail through the gulf of Mexico and the Carribean Sea by our very doors, but we shall have the advantage of them by 3,000 miles. What is this advantage? The trade of 600,000,000 people in China, Japan and the Pacific Isles! The bales of cotton we shall sell them will be numbered by millions; the dollars worth of iron and machinery by the same generous standard. Our mines will contribute immense quantities of coal for the Pacific coast, as well as for vessels passing in each direction through the Canal. We will shorten to 3,500 miles a voyage that is now more than one-half the circumference of the globe, the distance between our most southern Atlantic port and our most southern Pacific harbor. Fifteen thousand miles are against us in going around Cape Horn to China and Japan. Thousands of vessels that now go east from Europe around the world to these countries, will turn westward, touch at our shores and trade with us in many ways. Not only will our Southern States reap an immense advantage in trading with the countries mentioned, but also with the western coast of North and South America, Australia and all the islands of the Pacific. For years the Chinese have been supplying themselves with looms and the best cotton spinning machinery, so as to be able to manufacture their own cloth at home. Think of the effect the demand for raw cotton to supply these Eastern mills will have on the recently depressed cotton market! Why, ten years ago it was estimated that on the completion of the Isthmus canal the Chinese would be customers for 5,000,000 bales, which amount exceeds the entire crop grown at t^hat time. As the Japanese use more cotton than the Chinese, an additional 3,000,000 bales could safely be added to the estimate to represent the demands of her population. the ten best states of america. 21 We have looked from the windows of the Illinois Central Limited on a country so extensive and fertile that we were speechless with amazement when we considered its possible production. Only about one-fourth of it is under cultivation. It is attracting the attention of great numbers of our most energetic settlers. Improved machinery is making the work of development and cultivation more easy and rapid each year. What will be the desideratum of the producer when the remaining three-fourths of these lands shall be contributors of marketable products? Consumers. With the completion of the canal we may sail into the markets of the Orient with wheat from the North and cotton from the South, and hundreds of millions of people will be added to our army of purchasers. England has more than double the commerce of this or any other country, but she has neither our natural resources for manufacture nor our great agricultural supply to feed her mdustrial classes and send abroad. The completion of the canal will transfer commercial supremacy from England to America; not to any one portion of our country, for the benefit will be universal. Ship building will be stimulated on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts; the vast markets we have mentioned will encourage manufacturing in all sections of the country; and the /markets on the Pacific coasts will receive our coal, iron and hard woods. And the millions of the East are as anxious to buy of us as we are to sell to them. As far back as 1889, prominent men and merchants of Japan assured our minister that on the completion of the Nicaragua Ship Canal the trade of that country would be ours. In all the countries of the East the exclusiveness that repelled the advances of European refinement is disappearing. Australia is also making rapid strides towards national greatness, and has a list of diversified wants that we shall supply in advance of oui; European rivals. No longer can we afford the reproach that is embodied in the fact that between North and South America* alone it has cost the merchants of the United States more than $3,000,000,000 in gold to adjust the balance of trade during the past twenty-five years. Nearly all of that fabulous sum has been spent by our Spanish neighbors in Europe for commodities which our own country could easily have supplied. In all classes of business it is as important to save as to make. The saving element is an important feature of the Nicaragua canal enterprise. There is the saving in the legitimate expenses of along voyage; the avoidance of risk in passing 22 the ten best states of america. through the dangerous Straits of Magellan; the saving by a much earlier delivery of perishable goods, besides all the incidental economies in coal, provisions, wages, insurance, etc. The Great Canal is in a climate where it will never be closed. When trains are snow-bound and freight blockaded in the north, quick and safe transit will be possible across the Isthmus; and the fresh water of Lake Nicaragua will remove barnacles from the hulls of sea-going vessels. So limitless are the benefits to the United States growing-out of this Canal project, that when the subject is under consideration, all minor topics are obscured. For four centuries it has been in the minds and hearts of the American people. For ages it has been the theme of Earth's maratime powers and promoted their active zeal. The dream of Columbus who hoped to reach Asia from Europe through some continent he knew not of is being realized. The speculation of 400 years has ' crystalized into fact. To-day this country looks forward to an era of prosperity that will be produced by this great Inter-Oceanic channel, so promising as to baffle our comprehension. The levee wharves of New Orleans that are half a score of miles in extent will groan under the burden of products that seek the markets of the Eastern world through the Isthmus water-way. The floods of commerce from the Allegheny to the Rocky Mountains will pour down the Mississippi Valley through this passage to the East Indies, whose commerce has made the colossal fortunes of the world. An actual necessity so gigantic that it has taken hundreds of years to perfect its accomplishment may well be placed as far above all other industrial schemes as the gleaming snowcapped summit of Mt. Everest is above the Valley of the Nile. Thus is briefly outlined the early history and future mission of the water-way, the physical length of whith is insignificant, but the commercial value it possesses reaches beyond the horizon of the most advanced thinker of the age. While the importance of the Nicaragua Canal in general is national, in particular it would seem to be the extension by water of the Great Highway that spans a valley teeming with, the material to freight the ships that will pass between its banks for the continents beyond; a valley alive with a population of consumers for the reciprocal imports from those lands. Before a store is built, a factory started for the manufacture of any given article, or plans made for the production of certain crops, the demand�the market�is studied. Hence, before examining in detail The Ten Best States, we have given the ten best states of america. 23 as concisely as possible, where so broad a subject is under consideration, the destination of much of the varied produce of this favored region. BIRD of the NICARAGUA CANAL 5 3 3 ^ ^ � SS j Canal.......- - - - 26.8 '5goo o S*" �' Lake� River snd Efl8'nB� - - - 142.6 C�Oj t- �_ 5 LAKE NICARA6UASS.5 MILES. SIEV.ATION 110 FT. PROFILE OF THE NICARAGUA CANAL. from Ocean to Ocean, .- ~ 169.4 Milea. Length, of Summit Level, v-� 153.2 .Miles. z2 �gf"'?! -26.8 "3 Elevation of Summit Level Above Sea,--U0'Feet. �2 Bio"". ____ ..5 .... j 3 2 5 So*" 5 WILES. MEAN, LEVEL OF BOTH OCEANS. Still another important point is the manner of reaching the markets of the world. Look at the accompanying map and 24 the ten best states of america. note the relative position of the Mississippi Valley to other countries: Europe on the east, Asia on the west, and great continents and islands lying south and all around it. This valley lies in the very center of the world of consumers! It is not only in the heart of the richest country on the face of the globe, where the soil sends to the surface crops so generous that the energies of men are taxed to remove them, but it is the central feature of that globe. Down the valley runs the great steel thoroughfare, the Illinois Central Railroad. Beyond profitable discussion is the fact that this road, with the completion of the Nicaragua Canal, will occupy the vantage ground of the world. If there is no royal road to wealth, this is certainly one through wealth. Flanked by millions of acres yet unbroken; shaded by great forests still unfelled; abutted by sites where soon myriads of shuttles will dart and the medley of active machinery be sung; bordered by glades where deer will flee and cattle graze; overlooked by hills where blocks of stone will rise and elegant homes spread out: where the stately pine will be succeeded by the graceful spire;�no conception can compass the future of the Commercial Highway called the Illinois Central Railroad. While the giant that is to convey us east and southward stands panting and trembling with suppressed power on this Highway, we will call the attention of our visitors to the surroundings of our starting point�the territory of the youngest of The Ten Best States. Cfye IJoungesl "Sea-like in billowy distance, far away The half-broke prairies stretch on every hand; How wide the circuit of their summer day� What measureless acres of primeval land!" HE joyous, thrilling melody that bursts from the I lark as it soars upwards from the flower-spangled meadows of South Dakota, is the enthusiasm set to music one feels on first breathing the rarified atmosphere of these beautiful plains. Pioneers could not linger long on the borders of such a land. Almost in the tracks of the savage retreating over the western borders was the corn planted in the soil of this youth among the ''chosen ten;" almost in the little furrows left by the squaw's trailing lodge poles has wheat been sown. The grass swept down by the thundering hoofs of the buffalo as they galloped westward into oblivion, rises but to be laid low again by the clattering sickle bar of the mowing machine; and the herbage that was cropped by the graceful antelope, now forms the cud of the sleek and solid Short Horn. The great yellow harvest moon that but recently cast the shadow of the Indian wigwam on these prairies, now silhouettes the comfortable farm house; and the advancing tide of civilization that has gathered fresh impetus with each succeeding break on these western shores, has sent its tide of energetic humanity over the fair surface of this state with a rapidity heretofore unknown in the development of our country. As we take a birds-eye view of South Dakota to-day, we can scarcely realize that it was but yesterday, so to speak, that the word Dakota, in the minds of those who knew the then territory solely through the medium of the associated press dispatches, stood for "drouth," "grasshopper plague," "bliz- 26 the ten best states of america. zard," "famine," and every possible terror that can confront a pioneer. And it is true that the early days of settlement were marked by the above discouragements. Farms were abandoned that now represent an independence to the possessor, and the homesteader who pushed ahead too far from the base of supplies, paid dearly for his audacity. There was indeed a coal famine in winter, and there came a summer when the grasshopper was a self-constituted landlord. But those days have passed into history, and the drawbacks the early settler encountered are but a memory. The grasshopper returns no more with a devastating army, and if he did, he would find that rations for his troops could be furnished without causing shorts at the board of trade centers. As for fuel, coals were literally carried to Newcastle when Dakota was in the stage of infancy, for now great beds within her very borders furnish an inexhaustible supply of the very best quality of coal. And the drouth? Why, even in the section where an occasional scarcity of moisture has been the rule, the miracle of the rock of Horeb has been repeated and improved upon. As that rock was smitten by a rod and caused to furnish water to a thirsty multitude, so have these plains been pierced by steel drills, and thousands of acres of thirsty but fertile land are made vigorous and productive. More than this: the wheels of great mills and factories are set in motion by these wonderful fountains that have been invited to the surface by man's steel divining rod. Even the Dakota of the imagination, with her frosty breath of winter and fiery glance of summer, could not withstand the advance's of a race nurtured on the peninsula whose shores are washed b}^ the Artie sea, and whose surface from the ocean to the Baltic is swept by fierce northern gales. The hardy Scandinavian has tamed her wild acres and subdued her forbidding moods, and with neighboring nationalities basks in the smiles of the maiden commonwealth whose stern demeanor failed to keep them at a distance. But, dropping figures of speech, and coming to a practical consideration of the subject, what can truthfully be said of the Dakota climate, with that word "blizzard" and the death-dealing significance of the severe winters it is supposed to be a part of, still ringing in our ears? Montesquie says: "Superiority of climate is the greatest of all empires, and gives guaranty of future development," so we must ask South Dakota to defend herself from her legendary depopulating climate. She modestly the ten best states of america. 27 does so in the Census Report of 1880, showing the following comparative death rate: Minnesota, 1 in 86 Thus, under the searching, non-evasive gaze of the census reporter, the climatic bugbear disappears. The facts are, this state is in the same latitude as Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, Massachusetts and Rome, Italy. There is seldom a heavy fall of snow, and rarely rain in winter, and traveling is nearly always good. A more healthful climate would be difficult to find on the continent. Chills and fever and malarial troubles, that were once regarded as unavoidably incidental to the settlement of a new country, are practically unknown here. The air is dry, pure and invigorating, and there is no low swampy land to breed such diseases. To these healthful conditions is the state largely accountable for its unusual development. The other element that has transformed it so suddenly from an Indian hunting ground to a network of happy and prosperous communities, is the soil. Scientifically considered, the most of it is of cretaceous formation, and is supposed to have formed the bottom of a vast inland sea. It is composed of silica, lime, potash, soda, phosphoric acid, nitrogen and vegetable humus. Practically, it is a fine, rich alluvial loam from one to five feet thick, with a clay sub-soil, and possesses the constituents for raising all the vegetables and cereals grown in tl%e north temperate zone. It varies in color from dark brown to black. But not on the surface alone do the people of South Dakota transact business, and before going more into detail concerning products that require sun and water to bring* them to maturity, we will take our guests down into the southwest corner of the state and give them a glance at the famous Black Hills mining region. Here is a mountainous tract, 40 by 120 miles in extent, Iowa, 1 Wisconsin, 1 Pennsylvania, 1 Texas, 1 Norway, 1 Denmark, 1 Sweden, 1 Great Britain, 1 Switzerland, 1 Holland, 1 Dakota, 1 41 37 166 84 82 67 64 56 46 50 46 28 the ten best states of america. that contains more mineral wealth than any territory of like scope in the world. These minneral resources are so great and so diversified, and as these wonderful deposits are not found elsewhere in the states we shall traverse, we will point out the prominent factors in this most curious as well as inexhaustible mine and quarry aggregation. Less than twenty years ago, this natural treasure-house of minerals was practically unknown. Since then it has developed some of the richest gold and tin mines in the world, and is now known to contain in its rugged hills and mountains large supplies of what might be called manufacturing minerals. Omitting the precious metals, we give a list and the materials that may be developed from these minerals: Antimony�Type metal and babbitt metal. Asbestos�Fireproof paints, roofing, machine packing, fireproof cements, sheet and roll mill board, flooring and felt. Berytes�Paint, putty, and "filling." Clays�Brick, tiles, drain pipes, earthen and stone ware, crucibles, chimney tops1, terra cotta, fire bricks, jugs and pots. Copper�Brass, bronze, and general uses of the trades. Graphite�Crucibles, paints and lubricants. Gypsum�Plaster of paris, land plaster and stucco work. Grits�Grindstones, whetstones and hones. Iron�The general uses of the trades. Lead�Bar, sheet, type and paints. Limestone�Lime and cement. Manganese�Chlorine for leaching ores. Marble�Mantels, table topsvand buildings. Mica�Pulverized for explosives, lubricants and ornamental paints. Ochres�Paints. Petroleum�-With mica or graphite, for lubricants. Pyrites�Sulphuric acid and sulphates. Sands�Glass and glassware. Tin�Foil, tinware, babbitt metal, brass, bronze and tin plates. Zinc�General uses of the trades. This is certainly an inviting array for capitalists and manufacturers, especially so when we consider the fact that on every stream in these Hills there are heavy growths of pine and unrivalled water power. These, with its coal and oil, will make this one of the most important manufacturing centers in the northwest. In fact, the variety and abundance of the crude the ten best states of america. 29 materials of the forests, mines and fields of the Black Hills are sufficient for the upbuilding of a kingdom. This corner of South Dakota has also the honor of producing the first metalic tin of America. It is pure and easily snielted. One company is capitalized with $10,000,000 for the development of these tin mines, and one railroad has expended a quarter of a million dollars in running spur tracks to the. deposits. Here is undoubtedly the future Cornwall of America. The value of the Black Hills' mineral output is about $35,000,000 annually. A vast sum of money! How apt we are to forget the humble products of the soil when we consider the value of the glittering precious metals as they come from the ground! And yet what are the facts? You who rush frantically after sudden fortunes in a mining country may learn a valuable comparative lesson from the fact that the South Dakota crop of 1891, in the counties east of the Missouri alone, amounted in round numbers to $60,000,000! So while we follow the graceful curves of the steel highway over which the first train passed less than three years ago, and view the scenery both beautiful and grand of this region; while we scan with amazement the massive machinery that was packed into the Hills on ox-carts before the era of railroads; while we contemplate the operations of great mining corporations like the Homestake Gold Mining Company that has taken $50,000,000-out of these sombre pine-clad hills; while we realize the magnitude of the Company's business, with a pay roll of $125,000 a month, and the fame of having the largest gold reduction works in the world,�yet must we turn to agricultural South Dakota for permanent prosperity. In time the golden gulches will have given up their last nugget, and the final car load of aureate matter will have been taken from veins walled in by porphyry and granite, and passed under the stamps of the quartz mill; but the black loam of the prairie section is a mine from which golden grain will spring on each successive season, yielding-incomes and fortunes that know no diminution. And now as we come to consider South Dakota agriculturally, and attempt to point out its features of interest in that respect to our friends from across the ocean, we feel like a boy who has so much to tell that he is out of breath and can scarcely make a beginning. We have used the figurative term ' 'kingdom" in speaking of this state. Is it a misnomer? There is land enough within its borders to give half a million families one hundred and twenty acres each! So far as present occupancy is SO the ten best states of america. concerned, this land is new and its improvement recent; but it has both historic and prehistoric interest. Long centuries before the white man came upon the? scene it was the favored land of an intelligent and industrious class of Indians. Tradition tells us that the Illini decended from the north country at a very early day and occupied these beautiful valleys, planting maize, making arrow heads, hatchets and other implements of the chase and war which they bartered with the neighboring tribes. After a time came those human tigers of the American jungle, the ferocious Sioux, from Minnetonka, the great lake region, swarming over the territory, destroying and driving from the land the industrious corn planters. The battle grounds of this merciless contest, marked by heaps of stones, are still visible and are pointed out by the aged Sioux warriors with the finger of pride. The first account from a civilized source, that we have of the south Dakota plains and valleys, is gleaned from the records of those two men whose names are so familiar all over the northwest territory�Lewis and Clark. They were sent out by President Jefferson in 1804. Beyond the topographical features, however, the early explorer and fur trader knew very little about the country he saw. Down as late even as 1855, the explorer, Lieut. Warren, pronounced this fertile region as adapted only to a savage mode of life and absolutely unfit for agricultural purposes. He also stated that horses could not be reasonably maintained north or west of the Big Sioux river, and he recommended that a fort be built there, marking the limit of possibilities in the agricultural line. All northwest of that point, our Prophet Warren suggested as $t only to be turned over irrevocably to that bronze colored class of humanity who get along somewhat after the style of the lily of the valley Solomon advised us to consider. But Warren was not alone in his ignorance of the concealed wealth of this nation. Columbus only knew of seven minerals, while the geologists of 1893 can name fifty-one. Before the ink was well dried on Warren's report, permanent settlements were made at Sioux Falls and at other points on the Big Sioux river, and the desert of early history is the gigantic garden of to-day. The entire surface of the country that "would not maintain horses," is covered with native grasses. Buffalo, blue joint, bunch and other varieties abound and furnish most excellent pasturage for domestic animals, just as they did fo countless buffalo and deer. On the larger ranges in the western part of the state the stockmen put up little or no hay. The grass cures the ten best states of america. 31 on the stem, and unless heavy falls of snow come, cattle get through the winters in fine condition. Indeed, South Dakota is emphatically a stock country. The prairies furnish food the year round. Nothing is lacking to make cattle raising profitable�nutritious grasses, cheap hay, pure water, a climate perfectly adapted to stock, and good shipping facilities. From this superb range shipments of cattle seal fat have gone straight to Liverpool on the hoof. Like great masses of fleecy clouds that move slowly across the unbroken expanse of sky, propelled by a gentle sumrrier breeze, with the undulating motion of the foam covered swells of the sea after a storm, great flocks of sheep are seen crossing the plains arid billowy prairies of South Dakota. Seldom do we have such a combination of beauty and utility as these fleece bearers and mutton producers present. The poetry of motion, the grace of action, the music of bleating lambs arid answering mothers, belong to these animals that produce the most valuable clothing and most nutritious meat. More profitable even than the cattle trade is the sheep business. Hundreds of thousands are being taken into South Dakota. There are few diseases, foot rot is unknown, and the .absence of cold rains makes possible the saving of at least ninety-five per cent, of the lambs. Sheep raising, as generally practiced, is a complicated, delicate and precarious business, but the �conditions of climate and feed are so favorable here that there is a possible profit of $2.00 to $3. 50 a head. If in time the native grasses disappear, driven out by settlement and cultivation, tame grasses will take their place, for timothy, blue grass, millet and the other varieties do well. Leaving the flocks and herds, the first "civilized" crop deserving notice is wheat. Well has Dakota been called "the bread basket of America." The prominence and importance of this cereal is historical. It has always formed a large portion of the breadstuff of all civilized people. Since it contains, in right proportions, all the elements to sustain human life, it is the most perfect grain grown. It is South Dakota's principal agricultural product; and, owing to the extremely favorable conditions which prevail within the state for raising the best quality of wheat at the lowest cost per bushel, it will undoubtedly ever remain her chief staple. In 1884 the bureau of chemistry of the United States Department of Agriculture analyzed 2,759 specimens of wheat, including samples from every state of the Union and many 32 the ten best states of america. foreign countries. The following table from the report of the chemist shows Dakota's rank in the quality of American wheat: LOCALITY. Dakota------------- Pennsylvania--------- Maryland------------ Virginia_______________ West Virginia_______ North Carolina------- Georgia _ _-------- Alabama______________ Ohio _______-�. Tennessee------------ Kentucky.-----_------ Michigan.------------ Missouri------------- Arkansas_______________ Minnesota------------ Kansas.______________ Texas________________ Colorado_____________ Utah �._____________ New Mexico__________ California------------- Oregon--------------. Washington Territory Water, Per Cent. 8 84 10 73 10 52 9 98 8 55 10 03 20 00 10 82 10 68 20 24 10 83 10 71 9 80 9 56 9 96 11 80 10 03 9 73 9 17 9 30 10 73 9 74 9 89 Albuminoids, Per Cent. 4 95 I 44 1 65 2 10 o 94 0 43 1 78 1 29 2 83 2 50 3 15 1 67 56 95 19 *5 14 73 15 5o 94 8 60 8 23 The result of the analysis is to establish the fact by national investigation that in the two most important desiderata, dryness and richness in albumnoids, Dakota wheat ranks the best of any grown on American soil, and probably averages the best of any in the world. The average per centage of albuminoids in the wheats of all the United States and British America is 12.15; in Dakota, the average percentage is 14.95, leading every state and territory. The chemist further says that the average percentage of dryness of the wheats of the United States and British America is 10.16. In this respect Dakota also leads every competitor with an average percentage of only 8.84 of water in the composition of wheat grown on her soil. The Dakota specimens are all extremely rich in albuminoids, one containing as high as 18.03 Per cent., which is the richest specimen ever analyzed in the United States. These experiments, carried on by the authority of the National Government, establish two facts: the ten best states of america. 33 First�that a bushel of Dakota wheat will make more bread than the same quantity of wheat raised in any other state or territory of the Union. Second�that the bread made from Dakota wheat flour contains more gluten and other of the materials which nourish and build up the human body, than bread made from any other kind. At the World's Exposition in New Orleans, 1884-85, Dakota was awarded first premium for wheat over competitors from all the famous wheat growing countries of the world. Dakota hard wheat�being a grade unto itself�commands from ten to twenty cents per bushel more than any other wheat grown, and it is raised at less cost than in any other section. The range of cost of production of a bushel of wheat in Dakota is from twenty-four cents on the large farms, carefully cultivated, to forty cents on small farms indifferently tilled. This is'less than the cost of producing the inferior wheat of India, with "labor at ten cents a day, and less than half the cost of English production. In i860, when the development of the territory began, less than 1,000 bushels were produced. In 1870, the aggregate was 170,662 bushels; in 1880 the crop passed the million standard, the total being 2,830,289 bushels; in 18^5 it mounted up to 38,166,413 bushels; in 1887 it led all the states and territories in producing, according to the National department of Agriculture, 52,406,000 bushels, and according to the territorial statistician 62,553,499 bushels; in 1888, owing to the drought, the total dropped to 37,763,847 bushels, but as before, leading all the other states; in 1889, with forty-one acres of each 1,000 of the total land surface in use for this purpose�the yield reached 44,009,092 bushels, and for the third time leading all others in the grand total, despite the lack of rainfall, which reduced the yield of cereals in all the northwest. If one-third of the land in Dakota (33,000,060 acres) was sown to wheat and raised fourteen bushels to the acre, it would result in a crop of 462,-000,000 bushels, or more than the entire yield of the United States for 1886. Wheat will always be a part of the farmers' crop in every section of the territory, an extremely profitable one, too, when by a rotation of uses the soil is made to yield him a better, s,urer and larger return than even now, and when his live stock interests shall relieve him from the necessity of crowding his wheat crop on the low markets of the early fall. Wheat farmers have been called, in a picturesque way, by a 3 34 the ten best states of america. leading railroad man, "the leisure class of the West." He says "they only attend to their business for a few weeks in the spring and fall, and that is transacted sitting on farming implements that splendid horses drag around. When their grain is ripe they hire it cut and harvested and then cash it in, fill the banks in their locality with money to the bursting point, then settle down for a long loafing spell, or take a trip to New York or Europe." This is all right for humor, but a continuance of prosperity is found only in diversified farming and hard work. , South Dakota's yield of wheat ranges from 20 to 50 bushels per acre. Following wheat, the most important cereal is oats. Its use as a table dish is rapidly extending, and the Dakota article is of unusual excellence for making meal. It is a popular crop, being hafdy, safe and reliable, subject to few diseases and insect pests. It is also less exhausting to the soil than any other cereal. The yield of oats in South Dakota is sometimes enormous, as high as 115 bushels to the acre having been raised, but the average is from forty to eighty bushels, weighing, generally, forty-two pounds to the bushel. Like all other crops and industries in this state, it is interesting to watch the increase in production. In i860, the crop of North and South Dakota was 2,540 bushels; in 1870, 114, 327; in 1880, 2,217,132; in 1885, 22,970,698; in 1888, with only thirteen acres in each 1,000 in cultivation with this crop, it was 30,408,585 bushels, while last year, in South Dakota alone, the estimate is 35,000,000 bushels. South Dakota barley is so highly prized by brewers, on account of its unusual brightness, that they purchase the entire yield�about 7,000,000 bushels last year. It yields from thirty-five to fifty bushels to the acre and weighs from forty-five to fifty-four pounds to the bushel. Our guests are familiar with it as a breadstuff, it being largely used in that capacity by the peasantry of European countries. Rye is used for the same purpose, but in this country itv is mainly used for distilling. Our acreage of rye is small, as it is considered the least profitable of all the cereals grown in the United States. However, the crop returns a good yield in this state, averaging from thirty-five to fifty bushels to the acre. The berry is hard, full and heavy, weighing fifty-six to sixty-two pounds to the bushel. That exclusively Northern crop, which New England boys the ten best states of america. 35 remember as having for a recommendation the faculty of growing where nothing else will, but which stands in high favor with old and young everywhere as the foundation for the best griddle cakes�buckwheat�is snubbed in South Dakota as elsewhere, but is a successful crop, notwithstanding. In the early days of settlement in Dakota, it was thought that corn would not grow, and the pioneers, believing that they had passed north of the corn belt, did not plant it. In the light of later developments, it is difficult to think of these pioneers as being sane. They certainly were not in their judgment of South Dakota as a corn producing state, for to-day it takes high rank in that respect. The crop matures without damage from frost or ravages from insects, and the personal testimony of farmers assures us that the yield, condition, average and profit is better than in any other part of the country in which they have had experience. With only eight acres in each iooo in cultivation for this purpose, this state outranks the entire product of either New York, Maryland, South Carolina, New Jersey, West Virginia, California, and nineteen other of the states and territories. Of the quality of corn raised in South Dakota, the same truths apply that have been given regarding the quality of wheat. It is extremely rich in albuminoids and nitrogen (the nourshing properties) and in this respect is above the average corn grown in the East, and the general average of the composition of American corn. The following table shows an analysis by the department chemist of 290 different specimens of corn : average composition of american corn. LOCALITY. Dakota -- New York Illinois �. Minnesota Nebraska-Colorado -California America, 1 Albuminoids. IO.75 IO.54 10 06 10 07 10.47 9.89 10.26 IO.3I In the future corn will be the principal cereal of the southeast portion of the state. What was originally an experiment is now the main crop. Even before the advent of railroads, corn 36 the ten best states of america. became a profitable crop in this section. The lack of communication with markets made the sale of the grain unprofitable, but converted into pork and beef it found ready sale at the agencies and to the traders. Notwithstanding the disastrous set back of the grasshopper years, during which fine crops were eaten up in a single day, the early pioneers became prosperous and many of them rich. In the older counties there are farmers who are worth from $25,000 to $100,000, and the foundation of their wealth was corn. In the southeast corner of the state corn never fails to ripen. The stalks reach a height of from eight to sixteen feet, and the well filled ears sometimes are from twelve to fifteen inches in length. All varieties of corn ripen, though the Dent is the favorite. On some of the best bottom lands 100 bushels have been gathered, though on the average the farmer expects but from forty to fifty bushels. The corn is always of excellent quality, and in weight it overruns the standard. Twenty-one counties compose the corn belt proper, and last fall a corn belt exposition was inaugurated at Mitchell in Davison County. This is in the heart of the ' 'Jim" River valley. Here the first corn and grain palace in South Dakota was erected. It was a magnificent affair, elegantly and elaborately finished, illuminated by electricity and filled with the products of South Dakota soil. The last of the field crops that are grown extensively and are conspicuous^ in the agricultural wealth of this region is flax. Our foreign visitors will be especially interested in this crop, for it has been the subject of much discussion on both sides of the ocean. Experts have been sent here from Great Britain to examine the fibre. It was at first claimed that the atmospheric conditions in this country would not admit of the manufacture of the fibre into good linen. This report has been proven a fallacy. But at present the production of flax in South Dakota is barely in its infancy, as compared to the interest that will be developed in the crop when factories shall be built up to utilize both seed and fibre. Owing to the lack of such industries, it is at present grown principally for the seed, the valualjle fibre, or straw, equal to that grown in Ireland, from which the finest linens are made, being burned or wasted. Flax and sod corn are usually the first crops raised on new land. They can be sown on freshly turned sod with a reasonable assurance of a good yield under any circumstances. Flax is one of the best substances that can be grown on the sod, and the ten best states of america. 37 places the ground in excellent condition for working the next season, for any kind of a crop. Planted in this way it yields ordinarily from 7 to 15 bushels per acre, and in many instances a single crop has paid for - the land, in addition to the cost of breaking and planting. As a profitable ' * sod crop " it is a real god-send to the new settler. If he can turn over forty acres of sod prior to say the 20th of June, or even later, he can confidently rely ,on ten bushels an acre, of the value of say $400, and can make the seed in 100 days from the time when he unlimbers his plow on the prairie. The flax crop of the territory in 1879 amounted to 26,757 bushels ; in 1885,to 2,916,983 bushels, and in 1889 to 3,288,115 bushels. The entire production of seed in the United States is tabulated as follows: The amount of seed produced elsewhere in the United States than as stated above is so small as not to be taken into account by statisticians. It is thus shown that Dakota produces over one-quarter of the entire product, and Dakota and Minnesota together more than one-half of all the seed raised in the country. Projects are looking to the building up of flax mills, paper and cordage manufactories�efforts which are certain to succeed sooner or later because of the profit which must ensue to the farmer in raising the crop could he find a market at home for the see,d and straw. For the immense quantities of linseed oil, paints, oilcake, straw-paper, cloth, twine (especially that which is used for binding the wheat crop), and other articles manufactured from flax, annually consumed in Dakota, they now pay a tribute to other regions which is justly due the people of their own state. The introduction of flax mills will add a new source of wealth to Dakota, and furnish a wonderful impetus to the growing, by her farmers, of one of the most profitable crops. Last fall the ' * conductor " of our party through 1' the ten best states " stood upon the bluffs overlooking two valleys in South Dakota�one intersecting the other. Below and beyond, till lost to view in the haze of an October afternoon, were hundreds of hay stacks. Thousands of tons were in a symmetrical state of preservation, all gathered as cheaply as the wild fowl collects sustenance. It was a magnificient spontaneous contribution by Nature to the wealth of the cultivated products, and it almost equalled them in value. Never has there been a complete Dakota - Minnesota Iowa----- Nebraska - Bushels. ( .3,288,115 Kansas � 2 485,880 Missouri 2,332,000 1,250,000 Total 10,451,796 Bushels 909,881 187,000 38 the ten best states of america. disappointment in Dakota's native hay crop. The farmer and stock grower may confidently rely upon this annual source of profit. Hay ranks about third among the agricultural productions of the United States, and South Dakota's share is represented by millions of tons. We must not ignore the potato of South Dakota. It is the principal vegetable food of the American people anywhere. There is nothing that gives a more satisfactory feeling in the home when winter approaches than the presence in the cellar of a big bin of good potatoes�with a strong accent on the word '' good." In this state the quality is equal to the much lauded Colorado potatoes, and, although they reach mammoth proportions ( often weighing six pounds, ) they are finegrained and mealy, and exceptionally sound. They last until late in the summer. This element of soundness will make South 'Dakota potatoes fine for shipping. As they yield as high as 500 bushels to the acre, and by the aid of machinery can be produced on a very extensive scale, this industry has a great future in this state. Nearly '5,000,000 bushels were produced last year. As will naturally be inferred, where potatoes are such a success, all the root, bulbous and salad crops peculiar to the north temperate zone attain good size, possess a fine flavor, and make abundant yields. Ordinary effort produces the best of turnips, peas, beets, beans, carrots, squashes, cabbages, cauliflower, eggplant, radishes, melons,�in fact, all field and garden vegetables. Even on sod, all root crops do well, especially turnips and rutabagas; the former are sowed in May and June and the latter as late as July. The acre yields of the mangel-wurzel, a profitable root crop for stock, is computed, by tons. Onions grow large and yield 400 to 500 bushels per acre. The growth in this northern climate of plants whose leaves are eaten, such as cabbage, lettuce, celery, endive, spinach, etc., being slow, they are more tender and brittle. Have we convinced you that the * * home of the blizzard " is a garden ? There is still another qualification�fruit. The settler finds an abundance of the wild varieties along the water courses and in the woods and thickets. Plums, grapes, crab apples, currants and several kinds of edible berries are found. The cultivated fruits adapted to this latitude and climate are subject to no more draw-backs than are encountered in New England, Canada, New York and Michigan. Study and experiment warrants the recommendation of the following varieties for successful culture in the state. the ten best states of america. 39 Apples�Wealthy, Duchess, Tetofsky, Walbridge,, Fameuse and Haas. Hybrid Apples�Whitney No. 20, Crab, Transcendent and Hyslop. Raspberries�Turner and Cuthbert. Black Raspberries�Gregg and Doolittle. Strawberries�Crescent and Downing. Currants�Victoria, Red Ditch and White Grape. Gooseberries�Downing, Houghton and Early Richmond. Plums�De Soto, Forest an'd Garden. But the eye must feast as well as the palate. Dakota has not forgotten the trimming to her garments. Her selection shows rare taste. Thousands of floral beauties with hues of gold and eyes of blue nod on the bluffs, dot the prairies and stud the ravines. The sun flower and the compass plant paint the landscape and the wild rose perfumes the air. The unbroken prairie is a vast flower garden. Bleak Dakota, indeed! The proud beauty paints her face with pinks, peonies, poppies, lilies, dahlias, china asters, pansies, ladyslippers, sweet williams, phlox, larkspur, morning glories, flowering peas, tulips, lilacs, chrysanthemums, and a thousand other rare blossoms. We jump from the beautiful to the wonderful. Having no stumps to pull, the settlers of South Dakota have set out trees. A hundred millions at least have been planted on homesteads and pre-emptions and under the Timber Culture act. Then the artesian fountains of these valleys! They vary in depth from 500 to 1,000 feet. Some have been spouting for ten years and afford towns a complete system of water works. The power makes the system unrivaled for fire purposes, and the water is clear and soft. Fifty-barrel flour mills are run by the force of four-inch wells.' The pressure varies from 1 50 to 200 pounds per square inch. It is the cheapest power on earth and will be largely used for manufacturing purposes. Some wells have a capacity of 5,000 gallons a minute, and the pressure seems to increase with the number of wells put down. A three-inch well will irrigate 640 acres. The effect of such irrigation on crops is marvelous. In one instance fifty-three bushels and twenty pounds of wheat was obtained, as against fifteen bushels on unirrigated land. Rising in some instances 200 feet into the air, the strong flow of water, with crystal-like purity, is a beautiful sight. Add to its beauty its usefulness for power, irrigation, fire extinguishing, etc., and the artesian well is a source of wealth. 40 the ten best states of america. Many a man leaves a good farm, and all the satisfactory surroundings of a comfortable home that he has been steadily developing for years, to go somewhere and educate his children. He need not leave South Dakota for this purpose. Her school system is one of the best. Besides her public schools, there thrives within her borders an Agricultural and Industrial College, with Experiment Station, a school of Mines and two State Normal Schools. More than this : On the peninsula formed by the junction of the Vermillion river with the Missouri, where the eye may roam over the broa*d and beautiful valley and sight the Nebraska bluffs beyond, stands one of the handsomest and most important structures in the state�%he University of Dakota. Nearly $100,000 are invested in the plant, the buildings being constructed of the beautiful Sioux Falls Quartzite. We think our visitors may well raise their eyebrows on finding such an institution in a state but recently vacated by the buffalo and Indian. Here are all the elements for higher education, to be obtained under the'most comfortable and favorable conditions. The buildings are heated by steam and have every modern convenience. A normal department exists, and a meteorological station, in connection with the United States signal service, is located at the University. There is a library of several thousand volumes, mineralogical, geological and zoological cabinets containing valuable collections. � One of the trustees of the University is an example of the possibilities of this young state. Coming to Wisconsin from Norway when he was two years of age, he remained at home until he was sixteen, and then asserted his independence. Working his way, he went to school for two or three years, clerked awhile, then engaged in merchandising. To-day one may ride over baronial estates, the title of which are in his name. On the borders of Vermillion is his home farm�his pride. Here the steady throb of a large hydraulic ram, propelled by an artesian flow, sends water to every part of an extensive system of sheds. His Short-Horn and Durham cattle are numbered by the thousand, and the hoofs of hundreds of choice Clydesdale horses clatter across his pastures. His wealth is estimated at $300,000. But the choicest bed in the garden of South Dakota is very naturally the wealthy and populous Minnehaha county. Fertile and finely watered, being traversed by the Big Sioux river, Split Rock, Skunk, Wilson, Slip Up and Pipestone creeks, the twenty-four townships of this county represent the cream of all the ten best states of america. 41 the agricultural wealth we have been considering. Never having had an entire crop failure, with a soil on which the cropping for years makes no apparent impression, it is not strange that Minnehaha county shows tangible evidences of possessing the best of all the good South Dakota is capable of. Large barns, comfortable and even elegant homes, indicate the possibilities of the land in this county. The most extensive manufacturing interests in the state are embraced within its limits, with the exception of the Cement Works at Yankton. The latter are the most remarkable of their kind in the United States. A plant costing about a million dollars is working. away on a deposit that is practically inexhaustible, and the product manufactured is equal to the finest imported Portland cement. Dakota's "assay." In a little dingy office in one corner of the shaft house or the quartz mill in a gold mining country, we find a man working with a mortar and pestle, surrounded by little pieces of rock. A miniature furnace called a retort and a pair of scales supplement his utensils for business. On a bench near by are little lumps of pure gold. These he calls "buttons." They are the assays, and this man is the assayer. The pieces of rock are specimens of gold-bearing quartz, gathered from all parts of the great veins beneath him, where the miners are at work, and the amount of gold smelted from these pieces of quartz is the assay that determines the value of the mine. The city is the '' assay " of the land in which it is located. The elements which produce it are the resources of the soil all around. The inland city is a sure test of its surroundings. No thriving towns or bustling cities spring up in the desert; no marts of diversified wares and products form business centers in an unproductive land. We have examined the pieces of quartz as represented by the agricultural and mineral resources of South Dakota ; they have been reduced in the retort, and Sioux Falls is the assay that determines the worth of the fair region we are visiting. The wide-spreading fame of this young metropolis of the Northwest, more than anything else, is attracting attention to the land that has created it. Neither Minnesota, nor Iowa, nor Nebraska, have pushed into prominence 42 the ten best states of america. this representative city. Those states surround it closely, but Sioux Falls is solely the crystallization of South Dakota's agricultural and mineral wealth. On a gentle incline that slopes back from the Big Sioux river to the high, grassy bluffs and merges almost imperceptibly into the prairie beyond, we find this commercial gateway to South Dakota. At this point the river twists and turns, hovers around wooded islands, sportively tumbles over and down pre-cipitious rocks, and seems loth to pass so charming a spot before continuing its journey '' on forever." In 1862 the inhabitants of the little frontier village that had sprung up here since '57, were entirely driven away by the Indians, and " Along its glades, a solitary guest, The hollow-sounding bittern guarded its nest." In 1865 a few settlers again collected, the establishment of a fort and the presence of a few soldiers giving them courage and a feeling of security. The military reservation was vacated in 1870, the town plat filed in 1872, the first railway connection made in 1878, but up to 1880 a population of about 2,000 was the extent of Sioux Falls. Now witness the transformation ! Massive and magnificent blocks and buildings of glittering jasper rise on every side ; handsome residences are the haven of the people who make the interior of these buildings throb with the life-blood of business activity, and twelve thousand people populate the corporate limits. This is also the county seat of Minnehaha county, a county where scores of farmers who, without a dollar's capital, have co-operated with the rich soil and accumulated in from five to fifteen years fortunes ranging from $10,000 to $50,000. Here are found those great quarries of the marvellous rock it has puzzled geologists to classify prpperly. Its soft, sparkling luster, so attractive and restful to the eye, has suggested its present name�jasper. It is generally of a pink tinge, though there are a variety of shades running into a blue. tint. Either for building or paving it has been shipped to Chicago, Detroit, Burlington, Kansas City, Omaha and elsewhere, and the demand is rapidly increasing. One stone company alone employs several hundred men and has a pay roll of $30,000 a month. Here, indeed, are all the elements that make the metropolis of South Dakota that is and ever will be. The best natural the ten best states of america. 43 resources, the largest amount of capital, the most progressive and enterprising business men and the best railroad facilities are concentrated here. It is the manufacturing, jobbing, distributing and financial center of the state. Already Sioux Falls numbers among her industries woolen mills, with an authorized capital of $100,000 ; linen mills, with an authorized capital of a quarter of a million ; flouring mills, with $150,000 capital; a canning factory with a capital of $30-000 ; a packing house that cost half a million ; a starch company with an authorized capital of $250,000 ; polishing works ; two large establishments for iron work ; a carriage and wagon factory plant costing $35,000 ; an oat meal mill costing $50,000 ; a paper mill costing $100,000 ; and a consolidated oil tank line, the annual shipments of which exceed 15,000 barrels. - Besides the above named concerns, Sioux Falls has several cigar factories, factories for making brooms, confectionery, galvanized iron cornices, gloves and mittens, harness, soap, sash, doors and blinds, shirts, scroll work, soda water, and two plaining mills. Within the city limits five wagon and foot bridges and four railroad bridges span the Big Sioux. Chicago is 553 miles distant; St. Paul, 240; Duluth, 345. and Omaha, 190. A wonderful showing for a young city, in a young state, away off in the northwest corner of our domain and almost on the heels of the Indian. The output of Dakota's products in the past eight years has had a marked effect upon the commerce of the world. Two-thirds of her people are engaged in agricultural pursuits. In the products of the field, garden and pasture, she will always rank high, with a flattering future in manufacturing industries. The extremes of society, the rich and the poor, the homesteader and the capitalist, have turned their eyes in astonishment and wonder to the remarkable development of this state. The increase of product has been from ten to twenty per cent, each year. Real estate and personal property are steadily and rapidly increasing in value, and railroad mileage is stretching out to supply the carrier demands of this young state. The basis of nearly all this wealth and prosperity is agriculture, supplemented by the grasses for live stock. Out of the 96,000,000 acres of land contained in the two Dakotas, it is estimated that 80,000,000 can be cultivated. In 1880 the then territory contained 17,000 farmers. Nine years later the army of agriculturists had increased to 80,000, with 44 the ten best states of america. an average of 200 acres each. The National Bureau of Agriculture of 1889 estimated ninety-six per cent of the area of Dakota uncultivated, but of the cultivated area, 96.1 was cultivated by owners, a larger percentage than in any other state or territory. To begin farming in any country without means, requires character, industry and endurance. Thousands blessed with these qualities have succeeded in South Dakota. With a healthful climate, a fertile soil, and no trees or stumps to clear away, miracles in the way of success may be wrought. And these opportunities are not stories of the past ; they are conditions of the present. In the sight of moving trains there is plenty of vacant land, near good markets. But the plan of gleaning from large areas will soon be superseded, if it has not been already, by intensive farming, when the products of all these acres*will be in a diversified form. Grain raising, of course, will never be abandoned, because, as we have shown, the conditions favor the growth of the finest wheat, the heaviest oats, the brightest barley and the oiliest flax in the world ; but South Dakota is destined to be a region of small farmers, who will produce every necessary on their land but groceries and clothing. The wants of a pioneer country that are filled by the importation of canned meat and vegetables and condensed milk, will be supplied by the fresh, wholesome and natural articles at home. No people have greater reason to feel proud of their accomplishments than the inhabitants of South Dakota; no equal agricultural population can show a greater, quicker and more substantial development in all things moral and material�-schools, churches, benevolent institutions, banks and railroads. All the added benefits of statehood have recently been acquired. Millions of vacant acres await occupancy, and no stronger invitation could be given to our guests to share these facilities and assist in the future development of this young empire, than is embodied in the facts we have called their attention to. Beautiful Caub. "Plenty sits upon the clouds and drops Her bounties into the laps of men.'' {$0} - - V HE muscles swell, the cords stiffen, and the arm ' f^fWjj of the Illinois Central engineer draws back the jgtiu lever that opens the valves of motion and speed. rT^L L/^/ His smiling, careless manner of a moment ago is gone ; his glance, keen and penetrating, is on the "Highway," and the iron steed glides along the bright pathway at his bidding. Our journey, the interesting features of 'which we have so strongly pledged, has begun, Like the magical carpet in the "Arabian Nights" our train soon transfers us to new scenes. That great explorer, the Indian, is honored by frequent reference when the early history of the Northwestern States is in question. We can well imagine a wave of light such as seldom passed over his dusky and impassive features, when his glance rested for the first time on these prairies. The impulse that caused the exclamation "Iowa!" meaning "Beautiful," is inherited by everyone who looks upon the undulating surface of the fair land that lies in the embrace of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. It needs no eulogy ; it speaks for itself. The prosperity of the 2,000,900 people who occupy Iowa's 55,000 square miles, is the natural outgrowth of a fertile soil, a healthful climate and an advantageous geographical position. It was a wise congress that gave 4,708,400 acres of land to Iowa railroads, for the rapid growth in wealth and population is largely owing to the construction of these roads, which is an influence supplemental to the natural advantages. Note a few stages of that growth : In 1840 the Territory of Iowa had 43,112 souls; in 1850, 192,214. At the latter period she was the twenty-seventh State in the scale of population, and in i860, numbering 674, 913, she was the twentieth. The next decade marks a gigantic stride, for she then ranks eleventh, the ten best states of america. 47 with a population of 1,194,020. Another ten years and Iowa occupies tenth place, with 1,624,615 inhabitants within her borders; and the State of Michigan, which was ninth, and Kentucky, which was eighth, had only eight or ten thousand more than the State of Iowa. The land that the Indian pronounced "Beautiful," without rail communication with markets, was like pearls in the bottom of the sea and no divers available. Under these conditions, soil that would gladly be used in New England for top dressing was a drug on the market at $2. 50 an acre. Of what use were the ^enormous crop yields that must be hauled hundreds of miles by horses or oxen? But the laying of steel rails and the advent of the daily trains suddenly changed these conditions. A grassy swell, on which the prairie chicken strutted undisturbed in the morning, would be occupied by a pile of new lumber for a settler's house in the evening. The stream of grain that ran from the singing threshing machine at dawn, was in the cars and speeding away towards the Eastern market by twilight. In 1850, with a population of nearly 200,000, there was not a mile of railroad on Iowa soil. Now there are 8,407 miles. No adventitious circumstances aided the remarkable growth of Iowa. It was the regular overflow from older states. Among the pioneers of Iowa there were very few men of wealth, and while at this period there is more than average general prosperity, there are no excessively rich men. A Chicago banker pays the state the following glowing tribute: "Iowa is rich. Not in great commercial centers, not in combinations of immense wealth, but rich in her medium-sized cities and in her men of moderate means ; rich in her agricultural products, and, greatest of all, in her splendid system of education. With the knowledge that comes of education, her people have learned that wealth comes only by labor, and with the assurance that about them lies a fertile soil that needs only to be tickled with a plow and it laughs with a harvest, they have gone about their duties patiently and intelligently, and on every hand is seen evidences of prosperity and increasing wealth. The cyclone of "boomers" that swept over Iowa a few years ago, uprooting here and there some sturdy young farmer, threatened for a time to depopulate the state, so fierce was the mad rush for cheap lands. New sections of the country were being opened up, and cheap lands were offered on the west and on the north. There was an attractiveness that appealed to young men, and it was only natural that Iowa should 48 the ten best states of america. contribute her share of the enthusiasts who were to return disappointed. But a reaction came. t In one section the people were plague stricken, and in another there were repeated failures of crops. When the reaction came, when the return flow set in, it became evident that the real garden spot had been passed over. As the stone that had been rejected by the builder afterwards became the chief corner stone of the structure, so Iowa came to be the favored section, because it was found that the farmers had better average crops, better returns for their labor, and the result is that farm lands in this state have increased in value from twenty-five to fifty per cent, within two years. It is not in her actual money posession that Iowa exhibits greatest strength, but in her ability to produce wealth. One becomes enthusiastic as he investigates the contingent reserve held by this great state. We are apt to think of the gold and silver producing states as the center of immense and inexhaustible riches, and yet the entire product of all the gold and silver mines in the states and territories, including British America, amounted in dollars and cents in the year 1891 to only a little more than the corn crop of Iowa for the same year. The value of the products of all the mines was $118,237,441, while Iowa yielded 350,878,000 bushels of corn, which at the average price for last year amounted to $105,262,483. We have been told about the silver mines of Colorado, and have seen thrifty farmers exchange their farms for silver mines. But the entire product of all Colorado mines for 1891 in gold and silver amounted to only $28,000,000, while the Iowa farmers sold $27,000,000 worth of oats. Iowa is not considered a wheat producing state, yet she marketed in 1891 27,000,000 bushels, while the gold and silver mines of Montana only produced in precious metals about $28,000,000. California mines yielded about $12,000,000, only about half the value of the Iowa wheat crop. We are to remember that Iowa land is no poorer when it has yielded over one hundred and fifty million dollars in one year of corn, oats and wheat, and we are to bear in mind, also, that every dollar taken out of the mineral resources of a state detracts that much from the value of its soil, while an agricultural state continues to produce year after year without depreciation. Taking into account the other products of the soil�hay, potatoes, barley, rye, flax, * etc., we find that the annual yield from the farms of this state is adding wealth with a certainty that must ultimately make it one of the richest in the Union. the ten best states of america. 4:9 In a research for facts concerning Iowa, we find that only one state in the Union (Texas) has more cattle, and only two states (Illinois and Texas) have more horses, and that Iowa not only leads all states in the number of hogs raised, but stands third in the number of hogs packed*in 1891. In the value of the product of flax, Iowa stands second. The mineral product of the state is by no means to be overlooked in this comparison, for Iowa produced over 4,000,000 tons of coal in 1891, the only states producing more being Pennsylvania, Alabama, West Virginia and Illinois." Iowa has many promising infant manufacturies, but is essentially an agricultural state. Her population is a population of farmers. Nor is it strange such should be the case. No mountain, swamp or desert mars the comparatively unbroken surface of her thirty-five millions of cheap and fertile acres. No deep water builds up commercial cities or tempts her inhabitants to adopt maratime pursuits. The land is gently undulating, with no large .tracts of flat or undrained soil. In the northeast, the country is wooded' and picturesque. Rivers of pure water furnish ample drainage and good power, and nature has supplied any shortage in timber by underlying about one-third of the state with stratas of fine bituminous coal. Cattle grow and fatten on the nutritious native grasses, and the three cereals� wheat, rye and oats�are produced in abundance. But the great staple is Indian corn. '' The green plumes of Mondamin" wave victoriously o'er all the land from northern lake to southern gulf, and the headquarters of this cereal king are in Iowa, for she outranks all states in its production. Even more important than wheat is Indian corn. The area of the corn region overlaps the wheat belt far above its northern limit, and extends to the extreme south, where it grows luxuriantly side by side with sugar-cane and cotton. Indian corn is an American plant, and was not known in the Old World till after the discovery of the New. It was cultivated by the aborigines from New England to Chili. Darwin, while traveling in South America, discovered ears of corn, together with eighteen species of recent sea-shells, imbedded in a beach which had been raised eighty-five feet above the level of the sea; and varieties not now in cultivation in Peru have been found in ancient tombs older than the Incas. It is estimated that corn is eaten by a greater number of human beings than any other grain except rice. It is a highly concentrated food, and is superior even to wheat in its union of 4 50 the ten best states of america. all the elements necessary to sustain life. In Central and South America it is the principal food of the common people, and in the southern and western portions of the United States it furnishes a large portion of the breadstuff used. The variety of food products derived from corn are many, and probably n o< cereal contributes in more diverse ways to the necessities and luxuries of man. As an article of export, except in the transmuted form of beef and pork, corn will never compete with wheat, but for purposes of domestic, consumption, among the masses of the people, it stands without a rival. It is probable that quite one-third of the population of the United States hardly ever eat wheat bread, while the rest of the people use corn to a considerable extent as well as wheat. The single state of Iowa � has over one-sixth the total yield of corn, or nearly one-third more than all the states east of the Alleghenies combined. The three states of Iowa, Illinois and Missouri, raised together, 789,000,000 bushels, or about 37 per cent, of the total yield, while the six states, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas and Indiana, raised 64 per cent. mondamin." of the total yield. This most valuable cereal finds its use, not merely in supplying man with food, but as the cheapest and best means of fattening cattle and swine for the market, a purpose to which it the ten best states of america. 51 is exclusively devoted by many extensive growers. This leads us to a brief consideration of that corn converter, the hog. As in bushels of corn, Iowa leads all other states in her number of hogs. He figures so extensively in the industries of Iowa, that the result is the mammoth packing-houses that prepare him for the consumer. A typical establishment of this kind, of which many are located on the lines of the Illinois Central Railroad, packs between five hundred anil six hundred thousand hogs yearly. Nothing about the animal goes to waste, except, as facetiously expressed, ' * the curl in his tail." Each department occupies a large building by itself. The great wheels are always in motion in the engine room. There is a refrigerator engine room with a capicity of 200 tons of ice daily, cold storage rooms built entirely of stone, iron-clad smoke-houses, buildings for vinegared meats, chill-rooms, engine-houses, boiler-rooms, packing-houses, killing rooms with a capacity of 7,000 hogs in ten hours, cutting rooms, blacksmith shops, machine shops, fertilizer buildings, refineries, yards for receiving hogs, and a large general office. The grounds cover several acres, and as high as 1,200 persons are employed in the various departments. The demand for transportation facilities is so great that specially constructed refrigerator cars,' designed for their exclusive use, are owned by the firm. In the course of a year nearly 16,000 cars are loaded and discharged. A tin-shop, a packing-box factory and a cooperage is part of the equipment. Last year 170,000 boxes, 100,000 barrels and half a million lard pails were made in these departments. There is also a special service by the Western Union Telegraph Company, with wires running directly into the office. Contracts for hogs are usually made by wire, so that the factory may know just how many are likely to be received each day, and the operator is kept busy all day long sending and receiving dispatches. Nearly six million dollars are paid in cash to the surrounding farmers for their supplies annually, and the yearly pay roll exceeds three hundred and twenty thousand dollars. The trade extends all over the world, and the meat and card brands of such a concern are as well known in Europe as in Chicago or New York. Ten minutes from the time the hog arrives in the building, he has been killed, scalded, bristled, scraped, shaved, washed, head removed, sent to the drying-room and cut in halves. The drying-room is a large, airy place in which powerful fans are set 52 the ten best states of america. for the purpose of driving away all unpleasant animal heat and odor before the hog is sent into the chill room, where it remains in darkness and icy temperature for two days before finally being cut up. Almost in the twinkling of an eye, the hog is converted into pork, ham, bacon and sausage. The purest of lard is also manufactured, and its popularity is told in the sale of 15,000,000 pounds in 1892. All clippings, sediment, blood, etc., are converted into a commercial fertilizer. One of the surprises at the Philadelphia Centennial, was the awarding of first prize for butter to Iowa. Since that time, Iowa butter has held its own in the markets of the world. New York and New England were supposed to have the proper combination of soil and climate for butter, but Iowa was not suspected of putting in any claims for the perfect product. But as her yellow corn ranks first in quantity, her yellow butter ranks first in quality. It is the epitome of pure air, pure water and pure food. New York alone exceeds Iowa even in quantity. Good butter indicates growth of intelligence fully as much as material advantages. It requires something besides cream and a churn to make good butter. Rare skill, coupled with cleanliness and habits of thrift and industry are necessary in a successful dairy. In 1891, 81,774,661 pounds of butter were shipped out of the state. An estimate of the home consumption is fifty pounds per capita. Added to the multitude of home plants for the manufacture of this product, are 775 creameries. Iowa has more than an average of one cheese factory to each of her ninety-nine counties, there being 109 in operation. Delaware county had the honor of furnishing the premium Centennial butter, and last year we find this county credited with shipments amounting to 2,582,212 pounds. Iowa is no longer a diamond in the rough. It has passed through the hands of the sturdy agricultural lapidaries till it shines to-day with the clear-cut brilliancy of the polished gem. From its facets are reflected home luxuries, thorough cultivation of soil and extensive educational facilities. Handsome and even expensive farm houses; and barns rivalling those of Pennsylvania in service and extent, are everywhere seen in this "beautiful land." One of the best indications of Iowa's material prosperity is her bank deposits. For the year ending June 30, 1892, Iowa people deposited in savings banks, $26,115,384.35. This amount the ten best states of america. 53 was an increase over the year before of $5,263,880.35. Her State banks received on deposit for the year quoted $16,361, -011.54, which was $3,400,709.40 more than the aggregate for the year before. The deposits in all banks for the year amounted to $125,000,000. 3 And where did the majority of dollars deposited come from? Not the manufacturer, the merchant or the professional man, but from farmers and laboring men came seventy-five per cent, of the money. How interesting figures become when we study prosperous and independent Iowa! Of the 205,436 families onfarms, 144,-698 own the land�only 60,737 are renters. Of those owning homes on farms, 67,587 have no incumbrance on them. Notwithstanding the prairie character of Iowa, there is a good deal of wood. Timber borders nearly all the streams, occasionally spreads out into compact areas of woodland, and has been cultivated till the artificial groves alone yield a large amount of fuel. Since the great prairie fires were checked, the native timber has spread rapidly. In nearly all sections of the State wood can be bought for from $3. 50 to $5.00 a cord. This, added to the almost unlimited supply of coal, solves the fuel question. But there are other interesting features even to the common place fuel question. Simple machines have been invented and are in use that twist cheap hay and straw into compact skeins convenient for handling. This saves the cost of sawing and splitting wood, and makes a clean, cheap and pleasant substitute. A young man who shoulders his bundle and starts for the West seldom considers the social features of the district he is bound for, but to families, both in New England and abroad, who contemplate locating in this region, the question, "What kind of people will be my neighbors?" is a very vital one. Of all the desirable features in the Hawkeye State, the social element is one of the most prominent. The broad prairies and pure, strengthening air seem to have produced a social life that has no counterpart in the older States East. Ease, affability and friendliness greet the new-comer everywhere. And these qualities are not exhibited at the expense of the necessary customs belonging to refinement. Rank is established by honesty, industry and ability. This condition produces a most delightful as well as elevating social status. Both in country and city the winters are enlivened by frequent literary and dramatic entertainments, and 54 the ten best states of america. the summers by picnics, lawn parties and fairs. Intellect, good morals and industry are the requisites to social equality in the West. Closely allied to the social question is the summer resort. When * 'Beautiful Land" was created, a refuge, from the heated term that produces the great corn crop was not forgotten. The sparkling glance of beautiful lakes lures the weary town inhabitant from the shimmering heat of sidewalks and brick walls, to shady nook and shingly beach. In tent or cottage, undisturbed by the witches that call up fatigue, the only sound being the gentle tete-a-tete between the night breeze and the lapping waves, recreation takes place. The most important of these outing places is the Spirit and Okoboji Lake chain. The depth and extent of their waters, their sloping sandy beaches, and their indented, tree lined shores, admit of sailing, fishing, tamping and every variety of restful idling. But the climax of all Iowa's many sources of pride is her educational standard and facilities. From pulpit and platform, from dry goods box and fence rail, you will learn that she has the smallest per cent of illiteracy of any of the United States. Wherever there are children to be taught a school house is built. The whole surface of Iowa is dotted with them. They are * 'on the hill tops," and in the valleys as well. Where four sections of prairie corner, there you will find a school house, making the maximum distance the children are obliged to walk, but a mile. The sixteenth section of land in every township is set apart to provide a portion of the fund for the education of children. While the tax of maintaining the schools is greater than all others, it is most willingly borne, for these schools are a source of. pride to every loyal Iowan. The county school is supplemented by county high schools, normal institutes, seminaries and colleges. In all of these, the apparatus is of the highest order and the efficiency of the teachers beyond question. The most isolated farmer in this State may have well educated children, if he will but permit them to avail themselves of the advantages that surround them. Nor need he send them beyond its boundaries for a higher education. Higher mathematics and the natural sciences are taught in the district schools, as well as the common English branches; while the colleges afford as great advantages in range of studies as Harvard or Yale. Every child in the State between the ages of 6 and 16 may pass from six to eight months of each year in school, free of charge. the ten best states of america. 55 Iowa is divided into 12,517 school districts, and has 12,322 ungraded schools. There are 13,275 school houses, the value of which, with their apparatus, is $14,241, 526. The number of pupils between the ages of 5 and 21 is 675,024. Could any statement be more impressive as to the importance of her educational 1 system than this last sentence? Think of it! More than one-third of the population of the entire State are school children between the ages mentioned. From a purely practical standpoint�the blessing of employment and the necessity for its remuneration�consider what bearing Iowa's school-system has on the happiness of her people. It gives employment to an army of 27,252 teachers. About half way between the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers, at a* point near Spirit Lake, the highest elevation on Iowa's surface is reached. The altitude is 1,700 feet above the level of the sea. The approach to this point is so gradual in its rise that the altitude was not suspected till some enterprising engineer tested it by his instrument. Standing on this point, with a vision of waving grass and grain, and a view of pastures dotted with grazing stock of the purest blood ; with a full knowledge of her intellectual and material worth, no one will hesitate to give Iowa a place in the ranks of "The Ten Best States." Cfye Com palace (Etty* In the heart of an agricultural empire, at a point where the waters of the Big Sioux join the floods of the Missouri, resting in the valley, climbing the bluffs and gashing the hills, we find the "Corn Palace City of the World"�Sioux City. If this city had no other claim for renown than its corn palaces, it would be famous. It originated the idea and has improved upon it till these structures are marvels of the highest artistic genius. The enterprise has become a permanent feature, and no spot could "be more appropriate for it, Sioux City being in the geographical center of the richest corn belt of the world. Three-fourths of this corn district recognizes this city as its commercial center. Over one-half of the entire flax product of^ the United States is grown within a radius of 150 miles of Sioux City, and the ten best states of america. 57 it naturally follows that here is located the largest linseed oil works in the United States. The capacity is 800,000 bushels of flax seed per annum. As Iowa is strictly an agricultural state, so is the Corn Palace City founded entirely on the output of a crop-producing region. It draws its trade from twenty-seven of the Northwestern Counties of Iowa, twenty-two northern counties of Nebraska and a large area of South Dakota. When we consider the equable climate, the pure water, the excellent railway facilities and the almost inexhaustible soil of this locality, we can better understand this city's rapid and, substantial growth. This growth has given Sioux City 54,000 inhabitants, basing the estimate on Polk's directory for 1892. This is a gain of over fifty thousand since 1870. With such an advantageous location, the promise of an important jobbing trade has been amply fulfilled. Last year this trade, in round numbers, aggregated $30,000,000. These astounding figures are easily accounted for. The fertile area that is focused at Sioux City has settled and developed in a steadily increasing ratio. Prosperity attracts, and the big crops of these valleys have drawn a large influx of population. Sioux City business men are well calculated to handle and increase this fine field for commercial operations. The Corn Palace is a good specimen of their practical enthusiasm. This city ranks fifth as a packing center in the United States. The Union Stock yards have been open about five years and their plant is valued at about $3,000,000, exclusive of the Dressed Beef and Canning company's plant, which is valued at over half a million dollars. The packing facilities have a daily capacity of 1,300 hogs, 3,000 cattle and 1,600 sheep ; and five-hundred refrigerator cars are used to transport the products to market. All these animals come from a section that will support many times its present population, and is capable of a corresponding increase in its live stock. Every statement that can be made concerning the source of Sioux City's wealth concentrates attention on the wonderful possibilities and probabilities of her exclusive territory, and invites settlement. Some of the soil in this vicinity has a value aside from that of a crop producer. We refer to the extensive beds of clay that abound. They compose an important factor in the city's wealth. The different stratas of this clay are not only valuable for building brick, tile, paving brick and sewer pipe, but are also suitable for terra cotta work, fire backs for stoves, pottery, re- 58 the ten best states of america. torts, crucibles, fancy tiling for floors, mantles, etc., and various other articles of a similar character. About $600,000 is already invested in the business of making brick and tile, the different plants having a combined capacity of 240,000 brick and 5,000 feet of tile daily. We are not to suppose that the wheat and oats of this section get away in their crude condition. Even the famous Minneapolis mills do not grind out better flour than is made at Sioux City. A half million dollars represents the capital already invested in her flouring mills, and plans have been consummated to more than quadruple the present business. Two new mills will be built with a respective capacity of 3,000 and j,000 barrels daily. A system of grain elevators is another enterprise that will be carried out in this connection. Although manufacturing is in its early days, the list of articles made at the Corn Palace center is not by any means a brief one. There are a number of planing mills, sash and door factories, carriage works, cigar factories, cement works, architectural iron works, cornice works, wire works, bottling works, canning factories, broom factory, stove works,. engine works, an oat meal mill, windmill, pump and well machinery manufactory, wheel scraper works, vinegar and pickle works, soap factories, starch factory, agricultural implement works, auxilliary printing houses, paper box factory, blank book and lithographing establishments and biscuit factories ; also a number of smaller industries not itemized. But Sioux City people know that there are many and great advantages in the manufacturing line not yet utilized. We have mentioned the important flax growing belt that surrounds it, but the immense quantities of flax straw that would make excellent tow and linen are wasted. This one industry alone will, in the near future, add materially to the wealth and population of the city. While railroads have had much to do with the development of Sioux City, they found quite a thrifty pioneer trade when they reached it. Nearly all the great lines, the most prominent being the Illinois Central, have traffic arrangements here, either over their own lines or other tracks. This city has the advantage of being either the terminal or initial point of most of the roads that enter it. The trackage of the different lines aggregates about sixty miles, and their property is worth about $7,500,000. That vexatious problem, the securing of the right-of-way into the city, is obviated here by the Terminal Railroad and Ware- the ten best states of america. 59 house company. It provides terminal facilities at reasonable rental for such roads as desire their use. The company owns nine acres in the heart of the city, has .sixteen miles of track in operation, with space left for nearly as much more. A fine union depot, costing $300,000, was one of the company's improvements last season. In considering the transportation question, we must not forget the Missouri river feature. It is not as important a factor as it will eventually be, for channel obstructions have made navigation hazardous and uncertain. Two lines of boats ran from the city to points in Dakota last season, with very satisfactory results. It is expected a ^sufficient appropriation will be made by congress to begin the work already laid out by a system of United States government surveys, with reference to improvements of the river channel. The third and last element of the transportation question is the street car system. The advance in this improvement is little short of miraculous. In 1884, Sioux City had no street railways. Now she boasts of fifty-five miles of every kind known to modern invention. Right abreast of this important improvement is the work on her sewers, paving, curbing, sidewalks, water and bridges, nearly half a million dollars having been expended on them in 1891. Keeping these modern conveniencies in such first-class condition stimulates building, and the same year $3,699,965 was so invested, bringing the assessed valuation of the city up to nearly $20,000,000. With all its natural advantages, the Corn Palace City would not to-day occupy its proudly prominent position had it not been for a class of citizens conspicuously energetic. Whenever a public building or important factory is to be located, the prospectors for that location will be waited on early and often by a1 well-organized committee from the junction of the Missouri and Big Sioux. The commercial corps of this city is never surprised. Their picket line is always well out to the front. Neither do they wait to be beseiged. They are aggressive, and the municipal trophies may be seen in massive and elegant blocks and in giant tubes from which roll the smoke of restless machinery. If Iowa ever has great cities, Sioux City will be one of the greatest. 60 the ten best states of america. City of tfye Ccbar. Rising gently out of the valley of the Maquoketa as we leave the main line of the Illinois Central at Manchester, we soon cross the depression made by Buffalo creek. ' * Fine farming country," says the farmer as he gazes from the car window ; "Big crops," remarks the grain buyer; "Must be a great stock country," suggests the connoisseur of thoroughbreds, and" Beautiful," is his word that bursts impulsively from the lips of the artist, as his eye takes in a scene of rolling swells, graceful trees, sparkling streams and feeding flocks and herds. It is the same word his Indian predecessor used, and the years that have intervened have wrought no changes to cause its modification, but rather its enhancement. Again a woodland fringe indicates the presence of a stream and the train thunders across the bridge that spans the Wapsi-pinicon. On we speed through a land where Hunger is vanished by Plenty, and Poverty finds no excuse for his existence. Finally the prairie swells merge into breakers of bluff and forest and we enter a seam of this natural convulsion. Then the bugle blast from the engine sounds a challenge ; a gleaming cross catches the eye ; there is a glimpse of broad, sweeping flood; spires and chimneys and symmetrical buildings crowd thick and fast on the vision, and the sky seems to be upheld by the vapory columns of steam that rise from the industries of a compact and thrifty city of 25,000 people. We are in the vale of Iowa's most beautiful river and before us lies Cedar Rapids, a metropolis so perfect in all its appointments, so attractive in character, so substantial in its unchecked progress, that it is like painting the lilly to mar its description by extended detail. Somewhere we have read of a strategy practiced in war time, whereby a small body of troops by active movements deluded the foe into the belief that they composed a good sized army. So wide-awake and energetic are the business men of Cedar Rapids, that one would be readily pardoned for estimating its population at 50,000. But this municipal vigor does not take the form of hollow booms or foundationless schemes. In all the city's history there has been no falling back from untenable positions. The practical frost that has nipped the abnormal the ten best states of america. 61 growth of some other places has never disturbed the Cedar Rapids plant. The windmill does not furnish the power of this city, and its real estate has a value outside of speculative figures on paper. On no single industry does Cedar Rapids depend for life, and no one syndicate dictates its movements. Miscellaneous industries, like mixed farming, the only safe foundation, prevail. The city is not disastrously curbed by conservatism, nor ruinously spurred on by visionaries. Eight bridges unite the business and social interests divided by the river, and every locality that demands it is well paved and sewered and lighted, while the finest electric railway plant in the west furnishes rapid and comfortable transit, not only to the extreme limits, but to the county seat, six miles distant. A more evenly balanced city could not be modeled. There is comfort, ease and moderate wealth, but not a millionaire within its limits. The ladies have Cedar Rapids so well organized for charitable purposes, that a casd of actual want can scarcely exist twenty-four hours, even if the victims, through pride, try to hide their condition. Three most admirable institutions round out the provisions for suffering and dependence� St. Luke's Hospital, the Home for the Friendless and the Home for Aged Women. Stronger even than the presence of the many fine specimens of church architecture does this indicate the existence of the "brotherhood of man," for "the greatest of these is charity." Many cities claim to be railroad centers. The oracle on this question is the commercial tourist. We quote him: *' Cedar Rapids is the best town to get in and out of in the state." It has morning and evening trains to and from all points of the compass. Situated rightln the focus of a grandly productive region of valley and highland, with a class of citizens awake to every possibility of development, very little of the raw product passes the doors of Cedar Rapids. The yellow harvest fields of oats here pay tribute to the largest oat meal' mills in the world, coming out in the form of rare breakfast delicacies ; the nodding heads of bearded rye yield up their kernels to be transformed into Secale Flakes, another epicurean dish, and wheat keeps two sets of machinery in motion�the flouring mill and the biscuit factory. The cow is an aristocrat, for milk is clamored for by four condensers of the product�the creamery, the cheese factory, the condensed milk factory and the butterine factory. 62 the ten best states of america. These industries are suggestive of others that will follow, for this is one of the finest distributing points in the west. Shoes are beginning to be manufactured here, but the hides out of which they are cut should be tanned on the ground, instead of being shipped east and bac*k again. Wagons, carriages, pumps, egg cases, engines, soap, candy and clothing are manufactured, and all the staples are wholesaled. Steam is delivered to business blocks etnd residences from a common center, and electric power is furnished. The citizens of Cedar Rapids are intensely loyal to their home, but they can claim no credit for this virtue, for it is one of the most popular cities in the State. Behind and amid oaks and maples, surrounded by velvet lawns, are its dainty cottages and elegant homes. ' An unmistakable air of prosperity and refinement is apparent. Everything is cleanly and wholesome. There is the finish of a New England town and the activity of a large city. Its colleges and graded schools swarm with bright girls and brainy boys. Religious, political, industrial and social organizations love to convene at Cedar Rapids. The welcome they receive is genuine and the entertainment royal. It is 5:45 p. m. Some of our visiting party have barely time to board the moving train, so loth are they to leave a city of such apparently unlimited attractions and advantages. Vistas of charming drives, boiling springs and suburban homes are caught sight of as the train gathers momentum, and soon the City of the Cedar is but a memory. Doubling back over our iron pathway to the main line of the Illinois Central at Manchester, we turn eastward and just before leaving the State the air brakes stop the train before a magnificent depot in �f?e �ey <�ity. . Strangers visiting Dubuque are apt to get unfavorable impressions of the city on their entrance to it, particularly in the wintry season when the grand river that flows at her feet is chained in icy fetters and the beautiful hills that environ her are wrapped in a winding sheet of snow. They make their entry through the most uninviting portion of the city as far as pleasing surroundings go, for on either side, reaching far away, are what were once slough bottoms, now being reclaimed by the need of business and the enterprise of her business men from the river's 64 the ten best states of america. domain. Many hundreds of acres of valuable ground have been thus rescued from the water and given to business requirements. In a few years more, at the present rapid rate of improvement, all the unsightly patches still remaining will be filled, and, while not being made to bloom as a garden, will still gladden the heart of the citizen and be more sightly to the eye of the stranger. If often happens that the visitor tarrys too briefly to get correct impressions of the city either as to her extent or standing socially, or in a commercial point of view. To learn what nature has done for her and see how man has supplemented nature's work with skillful hand, one should .go to the top of some of her many sightly hills where his eye may gaze in rapture on the most charming scenery. Looking over the broad Father of Waters, Sinsinawa Mound, Wisconsin, where is one of the most flourishing female academies in this country, and Blue Mound, far away in Grant county, Wisconsin, and Scales Mound, in Illinois, are seen lifting their heads like sentinels over the garden spots for miles around. Stretching up and down the river on either side as far as the eye can reach, rise hills, some abruptly from the water's edge to the height of 200 feet or more; others shrinking modestly away to blend with the prairie beyond. These hills are the choice spots for many of the most attractive homes, and on their crests now rest some of the best and largest educational institutions in the west, reaching in cost of construction from $100,000 to $150,000 each. The work of mercy is shown in two hospitals for the sick and suffering, one home for the friendless, one orphan asylum, and an asylum for the hopelessly insane�all large institutions representing many thousands of dollars in value. On the hill to the north of the city, Linwood, the city of the dead, may be seen, about sixty acres in extent, and conceded to be one of the most beautiful cemeteries in the country. Looking southward from this charming place the eye covers the main part of the city, taking in one view spires of over a score of imposing church edifices, public school buildings, the new court house just completed at a cost of nearly $200,000, the smoke :stacks of foundries, machine shops, breweries, packing houses, and of factories of nearly every kind known to the catalogue of trade, with saw mills and fields of sawed lumber covering acre after acre and representing in value hundreds of thousands of dollars. And spanning the river, wedding both shores, are the railroad bridge, a massive structure now being furnished with a 2iew steel draw at a cost of $38,000, and the high bridge de- the ten best states of america. 65 signed for wagon traffic�a triumph of engineering skill, and a boon to this city. One viewing the city from any of these hills is prepared to realize Dubuque's claims as a manufacturing city. At a glance he can see sash and blind factories which have no equal in extent in any western city, Chicago or St. Louis not excepted; wagon and carriage factories that are excelled by only two or three other cities in this entire country; foundries and machine works that rank second to but few, one of which has the enviable distinction of successfully competing with the oldest establishments in the country in the construction of government steel war vessels. When one has carefully looked over the field as it may be seen from one of these objective points, he is prepared to believe that the product of her 240 manufacturing establishments last year amounted to $21, 500,000, employing nearly 5,000 hands, and that her jobbing trade in the same period exceeded $26,000,000. The market for her manufactured products is limited simply by the facilities for shipment. They find sale from Manitoba to Texas, and frequently pass the borders of the Lone Star state and find a market in old Mexico. Westward they are known, and do not stop at the Pacific sands, but quite frequently go to China and Japan. Dubuque has made rapid, it might be called wonderful, progress in her manufacturing business within a very few years past. All the old plants have increased their facilities for extending their output, and many new plants have been added during the past year�a basket factory, a pressed brick plant, another brass works, a buggy top and carriage factory, ore concentrating works, where the zinc ore dug from the hills is prepared for the smelting works at a great saving to the hard working miner, and white enameling works, the only ones in this country. Dubuque has all the requirements for success�an attractive site, scenery unsurpassed for beauty; a population large in numbers, of intelligence, and high social and business rank; churches; banking institutions, with all the capital business men demand; a system of public schools, the pride and the hope of her people; a public library of 1 5,000 volumes; well improved streets; three electric railway lines, reaching all sections of the city, one of which attains at its terminus an altitude of 225 feet above the starting point at the foot of Eighth street. To these may be added two elevator railways, one at the head of Fourth and the other at the head of Eleventh street, where stationary engines 5 66 the ten best states of america. draw passengers up the incline on the bluff, making the ascent and descent rapid and easy to and from large sections on the hills. The Fire Department is one of the best to be found anywhere. A large fire has not been known here for years, and does not seem to be at all likely at any time, The supply of water for this department and other public and private uses comes from the heart of the hills, and no purer can be had. The Water Company who own the works, to provide against any possible shortage, have sunk two artesian wells which furnish thousands of gallons hourly in steady flow. In addition to these there are six other artesian wells from two to five inches in diameter, which furnish the purest water in limitless quantity daily for use in hotels, slaughter houses and elsewhere. Dubuque seems to overlie a never failing water basin which can be reached at depths varying from 600 to 1,000 feet. To meet the requirements of travel, there are several hotels, of which the Julien ranks among the first in the west. Two opera houses contribute to the enjoyment of the people in the way of public entertainments, and there are various pleasure resorts in and around the city for summer recreation. Four trunk lines of railway, each of which has a good passenger depot here, give a highway to trade and travel in all directions, and in the open season a number of steamers carry passengers and freight to all river points. All the railroads in Iowa belonging to the Illinois Central Company are consolidated into one system. It consists of over 600 miles, being more than all the other roads in the state. The headquarters are at Dubuque, under the chief management of one person. With the two state terminal points, Dubuque on the Mississippi River and Sioux City on the Missouri, between which extends the main line of the Iowa System, and on which are based all the branches, extensions and connections, the Illinois Central has in the Northwest an immense and comprehensive feeder for its. grand trunk line, binding the great lakes and the westerly northern region of the Union with New Orleans, the seaport of the gulf leading to commerce with the rest of the world. This magnificent institution, whose foundations have been laid with a farsighted ken with reference to growth in a section destined to realize a marvelous expansion, is already fulfilling the same in a phenomenal manner. Dubuque is centrally involved in this development, and the future will yet show a progress greatly due thereto. Already the evidences are patent and rapidly multiplying. The Illinois the ten best states of america. 67 Central was the first railroad that reached the city, and 'from its arrival dated the beginning of a commercial and manufacturing growth that is unsurpassed in the state. It has a passenger depot as fine as any west of the Mississippi River. The most central and valuable corner lot in the city is occupied by the fine structure. All these facts, taken in connection with the establishment hereof the headquarters of the Iowa branch of the general system, may be set down to the credit of this important road, and to the benefit of Dubuque. Ttortf? Star." "Round about the Indian Village Spread the meadows and the corn fields, And beyond them stood the forest, Stood the groves of singing pine trees." URNING northward from the trunk line of our Highway,. the Illinois Central, we follow one of its branches till it crosses the northern boundary line of Iowa at Lyle, and enter the confines of what may be appropriately termed "The North Star." The euphonious inscription on the .shield of Minnesota's coat of arms is "Etoile du Nord," meaning the North Star, and the state occupies the apex of "The Best Ten." If Minnesota had no other claim on the attention of our visitors, it would at least be conspicuously important as the birth-place of the waters of a continent. Here rises the Red River, that flows northward and eventually becomes crystallized in the Polar Sea; here begins the St. Louis, that joins the chain of Great Lakes and after a long journey mingles with the blue waters of the Atlantic; and here, in a little pine embowered lake, leap out the laughing waters of a stream that gradually broadens and deepens, proclaiming its strength in a voice of thunder as it breaks over rocky barriers, till it finally sweeps southward in a majestic flood of conscious power that bears on its bosom gpeat steamers to the Mexican Sea. The Indian who years ago represented the inhabiting humanity of this state, vaguely comprehended its possible future. The buffalo fled over the prairies before his-fleet pony ; the fish vainly darted through the crystal waters? only to become victims of his deadly spear ; he followed the bear through the solitude of the forest aisles, and shot the rapids in his bark canoe with unerring precision. He was master of undeveloped Nature, and to his poetical instincts are we indebted for the beautiful names borne by lake, river, falls and town. But only in a mysterious sense, commensurate with his crude mind, did he foresee the result that would follow the application of these great 70 the ten best states of america. powers to industries. As his bronzed form stood in statuesque repose on some jutting crag, the roar of the cataract below came to his ears as the voice of an angry God ; to his pale-faced successor it is a material god that sets in motion teeth of steel, transforming forests into building material. The spirit life of the plant kingdom, to the red man, is the foundation of a Nation's bread to his white brother. The dreams of the Indian have materalized ; his gods are in harness, and homes and food for civilized millions are the result. Minnesota is the scene of much that is romantic and legendary in the history of the Indian. Dotted by hundreds of lakes, scarred by innumerable streams, clothed by forests of ' 'singing pine trees," and rich in game, it was the red man's paradise. Neither is its attractive and valuable diversity underrated by the settler or tourist of to-day. From the liquid veil of Minnehaha in the north, to the red jasper in the south, there is a wonderful range of the artistic and the practical in Nature. So distinct are its different qualities, that it is divided into groups of counties designated by name. Begining in the northwest corner of the state we find six counties called the Red River Valley, being on its eastern slope and running south from the northern boundary line to Lake Traverse. This is a magnificent region, famous for its great bread-producing staple, "No. i hard wheat." The surface is almost level, sloping imperceptibly towards the river. The soil is of surpassing richness and very deep. Here is found in its perfection the black alluvial loam that is capable of yielding fabulous crops for a generation without exhaustion. The whole country is well watered by small streams flowing into the Red River. Diversified farming, stock growing and dairying is also making rapid strides in this valley. Three-quarters of a million pounds of butter are annually made in these counties. There is scarcely a foot of waste land, and the Red River valley in early spring or harvesting season is a vision of agricultural beauty ; first a boundless expanse of waving green, then a sea of gold. Another division of the state, but one which cannot be definitely bounded is termed The Park Region.' Its name indicates its character. Lakes, streams, trees in groves, singly or in forests, make it possess the distinctive features of a park. Its soil is as fertile as that of any portion of the State, its waters and woods are full of life and it is the ideal country for a home. All conditions are favorable for the ten best states of america. 71 the raising of blooded or grade cattle. The grasses are nutritious, the pastures green all summer, and hay abundant. From its description it can be seen that pure water is abundant on every farm, and the dry cold of the winters is conducive to the health of the animals. Even corn, which is supposed to nourish best in warmer latitudes, can be successfully cultivated here. It will suprise our visitors to know that this cereal is a staple crop in the upper Mississippi Valley as far north as Brainerd, 130 miles from St. Paul, and that a good deal of corn,is raised still farther north in the park region and Red River Valley. What was once known as "the undeveloped region" now has the title of Northern. It occupies a large part of the area of the State. It was formerly thought of as a waste of forest and stream with an occasional outcropping of mineral ledges, but the mineral and lumber resources of this section are now so important that the word ' 'waste" is a misnomer. Nearly all of it is also well suited to agricultural industry, and drought and crop failures are unknown. Men of limited resources do well here, because they are able to find work in the lumber camps, in the intervals of farm labor. The soil produces abundantly all kinds of vegetables and grasses, and the country is interspersed with natural meadows. All kinds of building stone are found in great profusion, such as granite, sandstone, quartzite, etc. Vast deposits of slate have been discovered. So numerous are the gem-like lakes, that each settler can have one on his farm if he chooses. The waters are filled with fish and the forests abound in deer. Duluth, the third city in the State, is the commercial emporium of this division. From the wharves of this city, the famous whale back steamers sail to the eastern coast and cross the ocean. Taking into consideration the manufactures for which it has timber supplies, the mining industries that are now being developed, and the capital and labor which these employments are sure to draw to northern Minnesota, it is, safe to predict a future for this region second to none in the State. Central Eastern. Under this designation are grouped all the counties which lie south of the northern tier and east of the Mississippi River. This territory is somewhat uniform in its characteristics, being nearly all of it heavily timbered and watered by streams whose little tributaries touch almost every corner of its great area. The soil is light and sandy, but produces, when cleared of its timber, splendid crops. It is 72 the ten best states of america. especially adapted to the growth of potatoes and other vegetables, the yield of the former being remarkable. Market gardening is very profitable, wool growing and the cultivation of sorghum are getting a start, and the people are beginning to appreciate the future that lies ahead of them in the cultivation of the soil. Scattered through this Central Eastern section, and especially along the margins of lakes and streams, and on low-lying tracts of land, are groves of poplar and quakingasp, the wood of which is valuable for making paper pulp. A pulp mill is now in operation at Little Falls on the upper. Mississippi, and the industry is so profitable that other mills are being established at points convenient to the timber region. A very large and extremely important section of the state embraces sixteen counties under the head of the Central Division. Its territory extends from Mississippi river on the east to the western line of the State, and from the Park Region on the north to the Minnesota river on the south. It comprises, as will readily be surmised by the wide distribution of the belt, all the varieties of soil and all the different kinds of resources known to the State itself. Its geographical location is between the old and thickly settled counties on the south and the enormous vacant places along the Canadian boundary line. Both by gift of nature and by work of man these counties are most favorably situated for every kind of agricultural industry. They are neither as exclusively devoted to the raising of wheat as the Red River valley has been, nor have they made as much progress in stock raising and dairying and the other branches of diversified farming as some of the more southerly counties. Their progress is uniform in all directions, and each county has one or more important centers of local demand and supply. Only four out of the sixteen has a population less than 10,000, and there is not one where a settler may not go and find himself a citizen of a bustling and progressive community and surrounded by all the aids to prosperity. And yet in the great zone of Minnesota which they occupy there is room for a population more than two or three times as large as that now credited to the entire State. Stock raising is very successful, especial attention having been given to producing blooded horses. Creameries and cheese factories are numerous and the butter product is over 6,000,000 pounds per annum. We come now in our sectional description to what is prop- the ten best states of america. 73 erly called the Garden Region of the state. It is the division known from its locality as the Southeastern. Lying directly in the path of immigration on its northwestern course, it was the portion of the state first settled and it has maintained its advantage well. Its soil is not more fertile than that of other portions, but it has been so thickly settled and placed so thoroughly under cultivation that it exhibits all the marks of an old and highly developed community. It is neither distinctly prairie, nor, properly speaking, timber country, but is well broken up by small valleys and is admirably suited for all the great industries that find their home in Minnesota. Along the Mississippi river and on the lines of railroads which traverse this region in every direction, have grown up 'numerous cities, some of them of high rank in the State, where manufacturing industries are carried on to a notable extent. This item is of large importance to the settler, because it assures him of a home demand for his products and keeps local prices good, even when the outside markets may be less favorable. Although this is the oldest portion of the State with reference to date of settlement, a large percentage of its surface is still unoccupied. Many of its lands have passed into the hands of individuals or companies, which hold them for an increase certain to follow with an increase of population and general industry, and are now ready to dispose of them at prices which, while they assure the seller a fine profit, are really very moderate when the advantages of this section are considered. Central Southern. This is a district arranged merely for convenience. There is a decided difference between southeastern and southwestern Minnesota, so this section naturally partakes of the qualities of each. It is a purely agricultural region, with stock raising and dairying very widely introduced and increasing in favor. It is appropriately called the '' Undine Region." There are many English settlers in this division, some of whom brought over considerable capital with them, bought large tracts of land and built elegant homes. The field sports of '' Merrie England" have been introduced here, and fast riders, baying hounds and flying foxes are a common sight. Retired army officers and people of rank are frequently met. Southwestern Minnesota has come to be a term with a genuine significance almost as distinct as the Park Region. It includes the magnificent counties, partly prairie and partly 74: the ten best states of america. rolling highland, south of the Minnesota river and nearest to; the states of Iowa and South Dakota. It is a country whose productiveness has entitled it to the name it has received of "The Land of Plenty." To the eye it is a beautiful region, made up of prairie, woodland and lakes. Its climate, somewhat softer than that of more northern districts, retains the delightful characteristics that have made the climate of the State so famous. Its mean annual temperature is about the same as that of central Ohio, but its effects are far more invigorating to the human frame. Its soil is the richest in the State, except that of the Red River Valley, which it rivals in fertility, though it is not, perhaps, so well adapted to the production of No. i hard wheat. But the spring wheat of southwestern Minnesota is not inferior to the yield of any other state in the Union. Corn is a great, if not the great, staple of this section, which is as well adapted to its cultivation as Illinois, Iowa, Kansas or Nebraska. It has averaged thirty bushels per acre for a period of ten years, and the immunity which this section enjoys from early frosts gives safety from crop failure. With the exception of the lumber and mineral interests, there is not an industry peculiar to Minnesota which is not native to its southwestern section. The Pipestone quarries are in this corner of the State, as well as the red jasper building stone, unexcelled in beauty and hardness. An expedition sent out by the bureau of ethnology for the purpose of making collections to illustrate aboriginal quarrying and mining at the Columbian exposition, has just returned to Washington with a remarkable arid most interesting assemblage of objects secured. Among these objects are a number of pipes and fragments of pipestone obtained from the famous pipestone quarry in southwest Minnesota, where Indians of North America have got the material for their pipes since very ancient days, long before Columbus landed upon this continent. From that time down to the present the working of this same mineral deposit has been kept up continuously, even the savage Sioux traveling annually two hundred miles to spend a month at the quarry. For centuries the place was regarded as sacred, and all tribes met there, preserving peace religiously while on the spot. For miles around the quarry the plains are covered with the rings which mark the sites where Indian lodges were once established, and everywhere are scattered fragments of pipestone, representing the waste of manufacture. This material 76 the ten best states of america. seems to have been selected by the savages because of its beauty and softness when fresh. The latter quality renders it easy to carve, while subsequently it becomes extremely hard. Its color is an exquisite "Indian red." Most of the carving done on the pipes is of highly artistic quality. Some1 of the specimens secured by Prof. Holmes, who made the collection referrred to, would do credit to the most skilled workers in meerschaum. On account of the difficulties attending the mining of the pipestone it is quite a precious substance, a piece one foot square being worth from two to three dollars * in the crude. The stratum described is about twelve inches in thickness and seems to be evenly continuous for an indefinite distance through the �hill. However, only two inches of this thickness is of good quality, being smooth to the touch and free from grit. Of recent years the Indians have learned how to inlay the pipes with silver and other metals, performing this kind of work in a manner very artistic. They do all the pipe-making, the labor involved being too great to pay the white man for his time. White people buy the pipestone and make many other articles out of it for sale, from a complete house down to miniature pieces of furniture and trinkets. The fact that this pipestone quarry was regarded as sacred is indicated by extensive pictographs on the rocks in the vicinity of certain huge bowlders found on the spot, representing aboriginal gods and other things of religious significance. This closes the description of the different divisions of Minnesota. It is apparent how necessary such a detailed treatment of a state running through five and one-half degrees of latitude was. Its average breadth is 250 miles and its length 381. Its area is 53,459,840 acres, more than 3,000,000 of which is a water surface. Only 42,477,682 acres have been surveyed. The unsurveyed portion lies in the timber and mineral regions. The general elevation of the state is high, although there are no mountains within its boundaries. The highest point so far ascertained is 2200 feet above sea level. Some idea of the size of the State which we have treated of in "sections" may be obtained by comparison. The area of Minnesota exceeds that of all the New England states together, and is nearly as great as that of Ohio and Pennsylvania combined. In i860, Minnesota had under cultivation less acres than Delware ; in 1891, nearly as many acres as all New England. the ten best states of america. 77 The farms of Minnesota in i860 were worth only one-third the farms of Connecticut ; but the Minnesota, crop of 1891 will buy every farm, farm building and implement in the Nutmeg state. In i860, Minnesota raised less corn than Delaware, less wheat than Georgia and one-half as much oats as New Jersey. In 1891, Minnesota harvested five times as many acres of wheat alone as the six states of New England planted in wheat, corn and oats combined. The people of Minnesota have multiplied asfollows: 1850,6077; 1860,172,023; 1870,439,706; 1880, 770,773 ; 1890, 1,301,826. Their assessed wealth has increased in this wise: i860, $32,018,773; 1870, $84,135,332; 1880, $258,028,687 ; 1890,. $588,531,745, The wealth of Minnesota has more than doubled in each decade of its existence, and in thirty years has multiplied nineteen fold. During the past decade the population of the seven states tributary to Minnesota increased 250 per cent., and their wealth 500 per cent. From a per capita; valuation of less than $300 in 1880, the increase has reached nearly $500 per capita in 1890. The latest Northwest enterprise is the development of the linen industry. Minnesota raised last year 466,000 acres in flax. The latest invention in flax machinery will take the ripe straw from which the seed has been threshed and produce from it a fibre equal to the best, for manufacture into linen." This invention and the fertile soil of the Northwest will soon make linen as cheap as cotton. Minneapolis has extensive mills now in operation, and is giving to the world the first samples of Northwestern Linen. Far above the generality of Minnesota's productions are three industries so gigantic in their capacity as to claim the attention of the world. They are Iron, Lumber and Flour. Lack of time prevents the study of them in detail. Returning our steps through Iowa, we cross the Great River at Dubuque and are in the State that is a VTtottyv of (Stcmts. "Where the sight is not checked, till the Prairie and skies, In harmony blending, commingle their dyes.7' GREAT treeless plain stretches away for 450 miles in an almost imperceptible declination from Lake Michigan to the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. This plain is Illinois. So gradual is the slope that it rarely exceeds one foot to the mile, and the fall of the Illinois river in a course of 300 miles to the southwest is, for most of the distance, but one inch to the mile. There is room in this State for 221,656 farms of 160 acres each, and the plow may be run for hundreds of miles through its soil without touching a stone, a pebble or even sand.1' Systematic drainage has reclaimed much of the strongest and most productive soil from swamps. Like all western prairies, these are covered with luxuriant native grass, that formerly sustained herds of buffalo, and now makes hay that will bring as high a market price as tame hay. A State that is the birthplace of and has fostered two such "giants" as the World's Fair City and the Illinois Central Railroad System may well be termed "A Mother of Giants." In the production of these Titans, the power of a rich agricultural district is grandly demonstrated. The former is paying back the care of her infancy by furnishing the best of market facilities for more than half a vast continent; the latter has furnished all the public buildings of the great prairie state as a recompense for its land grant. the ten best states of america. 79 We notice the cereals and vegetables of the central and northern part of this State are much the same as those grown in Iowa, and Illinois ranks first in the production of wheat. One exception to the ocean like level of this part of the State is the hilly region in the northwest corner. Here nature has made amends for disappointing the farmer by rewarding the the miner, for the locality contains valuable lead mines that have been worked for half a century. As an agricultural State grows older the condensation of its products becomes greater, so in Illinois we find enormous factories for condensing milk; factories which represent millions of dollars. Few of our visitors are aware of the magnitude and importance to the city and country alike of the manufacture of condensed milk. No farther back than 1858 Gail Borden invented a preserved milk, and not till 1864 was evaporated milk invented. The inventor was Mr. Geo. White, a retired capitalist of New York City. There are but few condensed milk factories in the world. The largest company making this commodity is the Anglo-Swiss Company, with headquarters at London, and owning seven factories, three in Switzerland, two in Scotland, one in Ireland and one in Orange County, New York. The next in rank is the New York Condensed' Milk Company, with factories in that State and Illinois. There are but few others, and they are unimportant concerns. The absolute purity of this milk is beyond question. Through the recommendation of Prof. Chas. F. Chandler, ex-president of the Board of Health of New York City, and by authority of the Board of Health, it is used in all the charitable institutions of New York City and Kings County, and pronounced by these authorities to be purer than milk direct from the cow. All unhealthy properties remaining in the milk by reason of animal heat are removed by the evaporating process. . The extensive use of this milk may be partially illustrated by the statement that there are over 600 quarts, equal to about 3000 quarts as coming direct from the cow, sold in New York and Brooklyn daily. Of preserved milk there are used daily in the United States 10,000 cases, or 480,000 pounds. "Milk has no enemies," most certainly it has hosts of friends, when we consider that all the leading hotels and summer resorts on the Atlantic coast from Boston to Cape May, and from Charleston to New Orleans, as well as the winter resorts 80 the ten best states of america. of Georgia and Florida use it. The little island of Key West alone consumes from 8,000 to 10,000 quarts of milk daily. The condensation of milk has been a great boon to the farmers of this section. They have received double the old prices of milk and have seen their lands advance in value to $150 and $200 an acre in favorable locations, and they meet smiling wives and daughters when they drive home with clean cans, washed at the factory. "Stick to milk and your prosperity is assured," says Secretary Hutchins, of the Elgin Dairy Board of Trade. Milk is the thing. No longer does the farmer in the milk manufacturing region wear jeans and drive to town in a lumber wagon. The buggy has taken the place of the wagon, and the piano supersedes the melodedn. Money is quickly turned and interest saved in the milk business. Another condensation that assumes great proportions in Northern Illinois is butter and cheese. Elgin quotations govern the market of this country. The very sound of Elgin creamery butter makes one's mouth water. It calls up visions of a sweet, yellow article that from boyhood to old age is a favorite luxury. Last year the members of the Elgin Board of Trade alone made 30,496,284 pounds of butter and 7,115,735 pounds of cheese. The cash received for the former amounted to $7,725,725.28, and the latter brought $589,560.94. The average price of the butter for the year was twenty-five and one-third cents a pound, and the cheese eight and two-seventh cents. During the past twenty-one years the members of this board have made 306,421,228 pounds of butter and cheese, receiving for the same $55,928,536.93^! Could the resources and possibilities of a State find a more eloquent expression than is embodied in those figures ? All this wealth from a limited area around one city! The average price for the twent-one years was twenty-eight and two third cents for butter and eight and seven-eighth cents for cheese. We cannot linger long in the northern part of this State, great as it is and important as its resources are, for we are soon drawn into that vortex of native and visiting humanity, the ten best states of america. 81 Cf?e lilecca of 1(895. " Muse not that I thus suddenly proceed, For what I will, I will�and there's an end." �Shakespere. Is it a mirage, this monster municipality that rises up before us where only sixty years ago a body of troops were stationed to keep the Indians in check ? Is it possible that this wilderness of towers, of spires and lofty buildings covers a spot that in 1831 was occupied by twelve small houses, and had no mail route, post-road or post-office ? Can it be that here where $187.50 has been paid for a piece of ground only large enough to set a milk pail on, there are men still living who could have purchased the entire city site for a few hundred dollars ? Do we dream when we are confronted with the fact that this seething hive of humanity, that is the second city in America and ranks seventh in the entire world, covers what was considered a worthless bog only three score years ago ? The wonders of the World's Fair City are above and beyond even the greatness these interrogations suggest. Rounded periods are tame, and metaphors meaningless when we confront the subject of Chicago. Our foreign visitors who have heretofore considered the dignity of centuries absolutely necessary to entitle a city to a world-wide prominence, must remodel their ideas. The marts of trade that are vulgar arnong the Old World aristocracy, are royal here ; the business solidity that is sordid among the denizens of a titled land, is sublime in America ; the development of enterprise that is merely speculative with a people who are supported by annuities, is the zenith of intellectual power on the shores ;of Lake Michigan. More astounding even than her growth of sixty years is her resurrection from a bed of ashes. In 1871 we saw this capital of the wealth producing west, revelling in wealth, pride and magnificence, with a promise of outstripping the greatest commercial cities of the world, suddenly almost swept out of existence by fire. To-day no scar of that immense cauterization is visible, and only in museums may vestiges of that terrible calamity be found. Defying the effects of that scorching ele- 6 CHICAGO STATION OF ILLINOIS CENTRAL R. R. the ten best states of america. 83 merit, an army of nearly a million and a half of civilians populate the old Fort Dearborn site ; and, with a look of scorn, invulnerable iron buildings look down from a hight of twenty-one stories. Again her banner floats out and on its folds we read the trutfeful inscription : "The greatest railroad center, " The greatest live stock market, " The greatest primary grain port in the world." Nearly a thousand miles from the Atlantic coast and twice and a half as far from the Pacific, is this city, but it fronts for twenty miles on the third largest body of fresh water on the globe, and her safe, deep river harborage is forty-one miles in extent. The "Mecca of 1893" has been a Mecca for many years previous, for it is doubtful if any city in the world can show as large and varied foreign population as the city of Chicago. Less than one-fourth its population are Americans. We give the list of nationalities, approximating the number of inhabitants: American------------------ 292,463 German----------------- 384,958 Irish----------------------- 215,534 Bohemian----------------- 54.209 Polish..-___________________ 52,756 Swedish___________________ 45,877 Norwegian----------------- 44,615 English-------------------- 33785 French-------------------- 12,963 Scotch--------------------- 11,927 Welsh---------------------- 2,966 Russian.....-------------- 9,977 Danes-------------------- 9,891 Italians---------------� - 9,921 � Total___________________ Hollanders____----------------4,912 Hungarians-------------------4,827 Swiss_________________________2,735 Roumanians------------------4�35o Canadians-----------------6,989 Belgians--------------------- 682 Greeks_______________________ 698 Spanish --------------------� 297 Portuguese ----------------- 34 East Indians--------__________ 28 West Indians------------------ 37 Sandwich Islanders----------- 31 Mongolians------�------------- 1,217 ---------------------------- 1,208,669 Daily 600,000 persons ride hither and thither on its 396 miles of street car track, and at night 37,000 jets of gasv and 1,092 arc electric lamps shine on,." flaunting rags and fluttering brocade," worn by the waves of humanity that ebb and flow over 181. 5 square miles. Aside from the home circles and private boarding house tables 150,000 guests may be comfortably cared for at its 750 hotels ; while over 700 restaurants and cafes furnish food for another hungry army of 100,000. For the thirsty ? Look out over the blue waters of the lake to a point about two miles distant. There you will see the 84 the ten best states of america. white walls that cover the "fountain." An iron cylinder, nine feet in diameter, pierces the lake bottom to a depth of thirty-one feet, and from this source 250,000,000 gallons of pure water flow, into the city daily through 1,346 miles of pipe. Expensive ? The system cost $17,000,000. You may walk on 2,335 miles of streets�about the distance to the Pacific ocean ; and you will find 100 miles of elegant boulevard drives for your pleasure'in that direction. Much of the conversation you hear on these streets and drives indicates the presence of strangers, you say. Exactly. Chicago is the center of 76,865 miles of railroad. But you get tired of beautiful streets and fine boulevards, even. Then you may wander over 3,290 acres, where art co-operates with nature to produce the restful, ornamental and interesting park system. Bordered with trees and edged with lawns a continuous chain of fine roads circles the city and connects the different parks of this system. Night falls, and within the walls of thirty-two theatres and places of amusement smiles and tears follow each other in rapid succession over the faces of 25,000 people. Turn in which ever direction you will, examine any feature you may, and the brevity of Chicago's existence seems fabulous. Unsurpassed in any equal area on the globe is the collection of mercantile buildings that lie west of the lake and south of the river. Stroll down State street and enter a magnificent structure. It is the largest retail store in the world and has about fifteen acres of floor space, or 100,000 square feet in excess of the famous Bon Marche in Paris. Eighteen hundred employees are required to administer to the wants of the patrons who daily throng the spacious floors of its eight stories. Of almost equal notoriety is an immense wholesale establishment where in thirty-four departments 1,700 men send out weekly $700,000 worth of merchandise. , Over 70,000 miles of railroad in the United States, Canada and Mexico, as well as on tv^nty-four through lines in Europe and England, run the Pullman Palace cars. Here we find their office building�one of the largest and handsomest in the city. Wearied with buildings, we seek the lake shore and gaze off into the perspective, where the black smoke of the steamer and the white sail of the schooner are either coming into or passing beyond our range of vision. Owned and registered- in this port are 339 of these vessels, with an aggregate burden of 71,260 tons and a total value of $3,088,350. In 1891 10,354 the ten best states of america. 85 coasting vessels and 153 engaged in foreign trade sailed up along side these wharves. Their aggregate tonnage was 5,138,-253. In the month of August of that year there were fifty-six daily arrivals* and clearances, while the duties collected on foreign imports amounted to $5,182,476. Greater than the frontage of the port of, Liverpool is that of Chicago. On our journey across prairies and through forest glades we have seen herds of cattle, droves of hogs and flocks of sheep almost innumerable ; and many a train load of lowing, grunting and bleating annimals have we sped by as they halted on side tracks. Where were they bound ? For the Union Stock Yards of Chicago. The business is enormous. In what might be called a great farm yard of 400 acres, are 3,300 pens where at one time may be handled 25,000 cattle, 14,000 sheep and 150,-000 hogs. This yard contains twenty miles of streets, as many of wate.r troughs, fifty miles of feeding troughs, and seventy-five miles of water and drainage pipes. An abundant supply of pure water is obtained by artesian wells, having an average depth of 1,230 feet. The yard contains eighty-seven miles of railroad tracks, and 1,200 men are employed within its limits. The cost was $4,000,000. In 1891 8,600,805 hogs, 3,455,742 cattle and 2�153> 537 sheep, with a total value of $239,434,777, were unloaded in this yard. So admirable is the geographical situation of Chicago that it forms the natural depot of exchange for the products of the west and the commodities of the east. The vast wheat fields of the west pour their harvests into her elevators, and are exchanged in her markets for manufactures of the east, and importations from foreign countries. Wheat was first shipped from Chicago in 1839, and 586,907 bushels were forwarded. In 1891 the shipments were 207,988,862 bushels. We cannot resist the temptation to hurl another bunch of figures at the heads of our foreign guests to prove the magnitude of this American city. Her lumber receipts in 1891 were'2,045,-418,000, and at the close of that'year she had 3,250 manufacturing establishments, excluding those of food products. The number of employees was 177,000, their wages amounting to $96,200,000. The capital employed was $190,000,000, &nd the value of the products $555,000,000. The entire trade of the city in 1891 was $1,459,000,000. But on the superstructure of this resurrected bog there must be sickness. Yes, but not from that source. The death rate is lower than New York, Boston, Philadelphia or Brooklyn. 86 the ten best states of america. The hurrying throng that you mingle with on these great thoroughfares have kindly and humane instincts, and there are many homes, asylums and aids for the sick and victims of accident. Aside frbm these are twenty-four hospitals and free dispensaries in Chicago. Six miles north of the City Hall is located the largest marine hospital in the country. This handsome granite structure is surrounded by grounds ten acres in extent, and cost the Government nearly half a million dollars. It is maintained by a tax on the tonnage of shipping, and in its dispensary 3,000 patients are treated annually. Even death must be called in to testify to the greatness of a city, and he points his bony finger to a record of 790 violent deaths that occured during the six months ending June 30, 1892, all requiring the investigation of a coroner. How about the preparation to meet '' his grimness " in this whirlpool of life ? The opportunities are not forgotten. From the pulpits of 513 religious societies, "the sweet story of old" is told, and all the calcium lights of modern investigation and advanced thought are turned on the Testaments old and new. Nearly all of these denominations worship in their own edifices, and the interior of these temples resound with the eloquence of some of the most distinguished and brilliant divines in the ministry. The weekly attendance at these places of worship is 120,000. The alloted time for giving our visitors a brief synopsis of "The Mecca of 1893" is nearly up. Our engineer has received the little scrap of tissue paper that contains his orders and the steam roars through the safety valve. But before we go aboard, a word about mind training where material manipulation is so extensive. The glory of the future lies in the children and youth of to-day. As they are trained will that future be shaped. This city is doing her educational work in 253 public schools, 15 colleges of law, medicine and theology, 6 academies of art and science and 2 universities, and expended for that purpose in the year 1891-92 $4,089,814. The multi-millionaire president of the Standard >Oil Company has made possible the crowning effort of Chicago's educational institutions�the University of Chicago. His gifts aggregate $2,600,000. We must skip art, society and many other important and interesting features of the metropolis, not of Illinois alone, but* of the west, and be off. Comfortably seated in the palace car of the Illinois Central Limited, before our visitors can pick up a paper or turn their attention to other objects or topics, we must the ten best states of america. 87 mention the crowning feat of that irresistible" enterprise that has made the city, through whose suburbs we are running�the capture of the site for the World's Fair. To gain this prize of their latest ambition, an acceptable location. had to be secured, a commission composed of men from every State and Territory in the Union wrestled with, and a cash pledge of $10,000,000 made. This gigantic undertaking was successfully accomplished and the promises faithfully kept. Corporation limits are passed, the engineer pulls the throttle wide open, and smiles as he feels his mechanical horse bound forward. His exhilaration is much like that,of the hunter when he sinks his spurs into the flanks of his steed. On we fly over good steel rails, sound ties and perfect ballast, past Champaign, Centralia and many a town and village that tempts us to tarry, till we reach a point 365 miles from Chicago, as far away as we can go and remain' within the confines of Illinois. We are in "(Egypt" The term originated among the early settlers of territories further north, who .were frequently obliged to come to this fertile country for food, as did the Israelites of old to the land of Egypt. It has mines of coal, iron, lead, silver and spar ; quarries of marble, stone and fire-clay ; wells and springs of mineral waters in great variety, including salt ; forests of the best timber, and a diversified soil, adapted to the producing of all the fruits and cereals of the temperate zone. The average temperature is 55 degrees. The warm breath of the gulf flows up the valley of the Mississippi, -a veritable "gulf stream." The traditional "oldest inhabitant" has seen the Ohio river frozen over between Cairo and Paducah, Ky., (fifty miles) but once, the river being extremely low when winter closed in. Southern cane grows to the height of twenty-five feet on the north bank of the Ohio, and the magnolia grandiflora and crape myrtle of the Gulf States flourish here without winter protection. Thousands of bales of cotton were grown in these lower counties in the-years immediately following the war. But although every product of the temperate zone is raised, a special adaptability for many leading crops is claimed, the diversified climate giving a great variety of products. Less snow falls in "Egypt" than at Knoxville, Tenn., yet the climate varies 88 the ten best states of america. but little from that point, the difference of latitude being offset by 1,000 feet of elevation. In the extreme southern counties wheat is frequently harvested in May, and it is quite a common practice to raise two crops of Irish potatoes on the same land in a season. The average rainfall at Cairo is 55 inches. At Ft. Riley, Kans., it is 21.90 inches. The soil is greatly varied, which, instead of being a detriment, has proven of the greatest advantage, as it is adapted to the production of almost every variety of grain, grass and fruit. Each variety of soil has been found to be especially adapted to some particular crop. Some of the thin clay lands, which were considered of but little value, when corn was the principal crop of the early settlers, are now the most valuable lands in the State, and thousands of acres are being set to apple orchards every year. The sand ridges of the bottom lands, which would not produce corn, are found to be unequalled for melon growing. Adjacent to the rivers and creeks, the soil is of alluvial formation; and of unknown depth in many places and is practically inexhaustible, as is proven by the ' 'American Bottom" lands of the Mississippi river, some of which have been cultivated (almost exclusively to corn) for more than two centuries. Also on the Ohio and Wabash rivers are lands which have been continuously cropped for nearly one hundred years without the use of any fertilizer whatever. The prairies adjacent to the American bottom are deep and black limestone soil. East of the Okaw river the soil is principally clay loam of a grayish color, which is the predominant shade of both prairie and timber lands. The clay subsoil comes near the surface in many places, and in the early settlement of the country these lands were considered of inferior quality, but in recent years they have come to the front in the production of wheat and apples. It might be supposed that the rougher lands of the Ozark range, which spread out in fan-shape, soon after crossing the Mississippi river from Missouri, and extend through several counties, would naturally be poor and barren, as is often the case with regions of mountainous nature. But such is not the fact. The somewhat prevalent idea that Illinois is one vast prairie, similar to the Dakotas, is a great mistake, as this region was originally more than one-half heavily timbered. It is sixty miles the ten best states of america. 89 north of Cairo to the first small prairie, and one hundred miles to the south end of the Grand Prairie. These luxuriant forests consist of the various species of oak, black and white walnut, white and yellow poplar (tulip), hard and soft maple, gum, ash, black and honey locust, all the different varieties of hickory, linden, sycamore, Cottonwood, pecan, persimmon, beech, sassafras, mulberry, red cedar, catalpa, and in the extreme southern part, the cypress. The undergrowth is dogwood, red bud, or Judas tree, pawpaw, hazel, sumac, buckeye, spicewood, grape, wild plumb, crabapple, etc. There are vast forests of fine timber standing and awaiting the manufacturer. The oak is not excelled anywhere and offers great inducements to the manufacturer of agricultural implements, also for car works and steamboat building. The hickory is of the finest quality for the manufacture of carriage and wagon material, ax handles, etc. Sweet or red gum, which is but little known, has a great future before it. Until quite recently it was not appreciated, but is now being largely used as a finishing lumber, as it is fine grained, beautifully variegated, and almost as handsome as rosewood. It attains its highest perfection in this region. The great coal measure covers all the territory east and north of a line beginning near East St. Louis, and bearing south parallel with the bluffs of the Mississippi river, leaving out the greater part of Monroe county and extending to the Big Muddy in Jackson county ; thence bearing east, in an irregular line, to the mouth of the Saline river on the Ohio. The veins crop out in many places along this southern line, then gradually dip to the north. At DuQuoin and Belleville coal is about sixty feet below the surface, while in Marion county it is from 500 to 850 feet below. North and east of this vein it is considered too deep to be profitably worked at present. The deposit varies in thickness from three to nine feet. The general average of the mines being about seven feet: There are frequently two or more veins. On the southeast border, there are five separate veins of a combined thickness of nineteen feet, two inches, the thinest being three feet. While the coal is all bituminous, there is much *difference in the quality. No. 2, of the Big Muddy, in the vicinity of Murphysboro, is considered superior to most others, being a different strata and resembling the '' Brier Hill" of Ohio. The development of southern Illinois coal interests is yet in its infancy. No other section of 90 the ten best states of america. the same area, on the face of the earth, can compare with it in the extent and value of its coal deposits. Throughout this entire section of country excellent building stone, (lime-stone and sand-stone) abounds, the quarries at Alton and Chester being most noted of those at present developed on the Mississippi, Golconda, Rose Clare and others on the Ohio river, besides great numbers in the interior, notably, those near Carbondale and Shoal creek. A variegated, crystaline limestone, which takes a fine polish, and is locally known as "Cape Girardeau Marble," is found in Alexander and Union counties. Lime kilns are numerous and furnish lime of the very best quality, which is largely exported. This is one of the growing, remunerative industries. For street paving there is no better material than the chert of Alexander county and the gravel of Massac, which contains about twenty per cent, of iron, and cements in solid mass. Inexhaustible beds of fire-clay are found in almost every county, which is being extensively manufactured into fire brick, tile and a very superior quality of stoneware. Recently a mountain of chalk was discovered in Union county, of great purity, and in immense quantities. Large deposits of pure silica have lately been found in the same section. The only deposits of iron which have been developed are those of Hardin county. The ores worked were largely surface deposits, and the limonite of the St. Louis limestone deposit. Kidney, pipe and other ores abound in Sabin, Hardin, Pope and other counties south and west. The "Illinois Furnace" was built in 1837 and run until the commencement of the war. The ' * Martha Furnace " was in operation about ten years. Their daily capacity was about ten tons each, for the very best grade of metal. When all the timber near them had been used in making charcoal they were abandoned. As it is but fifteen miles across the Eagle mountains to beds of coking coal, they will be brought together by a railroad which has been surveyed. There are fine openings for investment of capital in this region. Extensive veins of lead and fletrr-spar were discovered as early as 1820 near Rose Clare, Hardin county. These have been developed to a limited extent, and the lead found to contain from $15 to $18 per ton of silver. These mines are in operation, and ship about 1,000 the ten best states of america. 91 ^barrels of fleur-spar per week. Lead is not mined at present. Copper, also, is found in this region, but has*not been developed, ior lack of transportation facilities, Mineral springs are numerous and liberally patronized, which is proof of their efficacy in curing '' all the ills that flesh is heir to." Among those which have been*improved and become noted, are Saylor, in Clay county ; Green's, at Mt. Vernon, Jefferson county ; Creal, in Williamson county ; Dixon, in Pope county ; West Saratoga, in Union county. These and many others have been tested for years and found very efficient in the cure of various diseases. In the early part of the century the salt works on the Saline river, in Gallatin and Saline counties, were the most extensive in the western country, and are capable of being profitably worked at present. The brine is of sufficient strength, and fuel, both wood and coal, is abundant. There are many salt springs in this locality. Also, in Jackson county and many other places. The only works in operation are those at St. Johns, Perry county, where with the brine and coal brought up under the same roof, salt is profitably manufactured in large quantities. Strong salt water, in connection with the natural gas lately discovered at Sparta, will doubtless soon be utilized. Early in the century it was known and demonstrated that the counties adjacent to St. Louis, and perhaps it would be correct to say that about one-third of the northern and western counties, were well adapted to winter wheat culture, and, as a natural result, land commanded a good price. But later it has been proven that the hard-pan prairies of the northern counties, and the post oak lands of the more southern sections, which had been considered of but little value except for grazing, were almost as valuable for the production of wheat as the deeper soils, and are now yielding crops of from twenty-five to forty bushels per acre, the grain being of the very best quality. When the grand prize of the Centennial Exposition of 1876 was awarded to wheat which had been grown on the Ozark hills, fifty miles north of Cairo, it caused considerable astonishment. Hundreds of acres which were considered exhausted under the old system of cultivation have been reclaimed and are now producing fine crops of this cereal. Many instances could be cited of growing fifteen or twenty crops of wheat in succession, no fertilizer being used, with no diminuition of yields, but, on the contrary, an increase each year. This would be an utter impossibility in almost any other 92 the ten best states of america. section, but this soil, when judiciously tilled, is constantly increasing in fertility. * Throughout this entire territory, there is scarcely a county which cannot cite instances of a yield of forty, bushels or more per acre. In many cases as high as fifty has been reached. Thousands of ^acres of wheat land have been and still can be bought for less than the value of one crop grown on them. The quality of the grain is shown by the eagerness of the mills of St. Louis, Evansville, Nashville, Tenn., and those of other cities, to secure the wheat for mixing with that of other sections. Flour made from tfce wheat of Southern Illinois ranks in all the markets as strictly first quality. From the earliest French settlement, of more than two centuries ago, '4 Egypt" has been noted for the production of corn, not only for home consumption, but vast quantities are annually shipp'ed to southern markets. Not only is this grain shipped in bulk, but immense quantities are sent to market in the form of bacon. The bottom lands�and there are thousands of acres of them, not only adjacent to the rivers, but along the many creeks and smaller streams of the interior�are capable of producing from fifty to eighty bushels per acre. Large areas have averaged one hundred, and instances can be cited where one hundred and forty bushels have been harvested from a single acre. There is but a small per cent, of the higher lands that will not produce a good yield, and the strong limestone soil of the central part, and the rich prairies of the northern counties almost equal the alluvial bottoms in the production of this great staple. Oats are successfully grown and prove a profitable crop in the most of these counties. Among the special crops, which are very profitable, may be mentioned castor beans, which, in both quantity and quality, are unexcelled. In fact there is no place in the United States where they do better than in the central counties of '' Egypt," where they have been very largely produced for many years. All the timber lands are adapted to tobacco growing, and in years past, all the central and lower counties grew large quantities, but at present it is not largely grown, presumably on account of the low prices which have ruled for several years. Paducah, Henderson and Uniontown, Ky., are large tobacco markets, and the land on the Illinois side of the Ohio is in the ten best states of america. 93 every respect equal to Kentucky soil, in the propuction of "the weed." Sweet potatoes are a standard crop in sections convenient to 'railroads, as the market is in the north. They are largely grown for home consumption in all parts of this region and grow to great perfection. Irish potatoes are successfully grown in every county, being a specialty in the country bordering on the Ohio river. Large shipments are annually made to the south. * * Little Hardin " alone has shipped over half a million bushels in a single year. A very large industry, and one which is being greatly extended every year, is the growing of early vegetables for the northern markets. Vast quantities of spinach, peas, beans, onions, pieplant, sweet and Irish potatoes, melons, tomatoes, etc., are grown with large profit. The difference in latitude between this southern, semi-tropical region and Chicago is as great as between Norfolk, Va., and New York, and the difference in climate causes a ready market for these' vegetables before the same articles can be grown at the north. The one item of tomatoes is simply immense. Growers have the plants, grown in green-houses, ready to bloom by the time danger of late frosts is past, and by so doing are able to ship ripe fruit at a very early date. Lands are very valuable where this industry has been developed, but can be bought cheap in other localities, and fully as good. Pew localities surpass this for profitable stock raising. The mildness of the climate, short winters and abundance of water, are all favorable to this industry. Considerable outside range may still be found in some localities, but the tame grasses grow so luxuriantly that these are not often utilized. Blue grass is indigenous to the soil everywhere, and affords the choicest pasturage from March to December. Corn fodder and the vast quantities of wheat straw are utilized to a considerable extent, as is also the native cane in some localities. The raising of horses and mules is carried on quite extensively in connection with other agricultural interests. All the various breeds of heavy draft horses are bred in perfection, and some as fine roadsters as are produced in Kentucky, or any other state, are raised here. The cattle industry has grown to large proportions. All the popular beef and better breeds are bred and each is highly appreciated. There is room for greatly extending this enterprise 94 the ten best states of america. Sheep do well in this climate. As all sheep killed by dogs are paid for out of the tax (collected on the curs), danger from loss in that direction is removed, and sheep husbandry should be one of the most profitable industries. Hogs are raised on every farm, in greater or less numbers. With cheap corn, abundant clover, and proximity to market, pork raising is no small factor in the farmers' profits. But this is Pomona's home. From the earliest strawberry to the latest apple, a constant succession of all the fruits of the temperate zone are grown in the greatest variety and perfection. This industry is yet young, but has reached dimensions that are almost incredible. During the season the railroad lines run trains of refrigerator cars, and the northern markets are largely supplied from this section. Beginning with the strawberry, in early May, on through the succession of currants, gooseberries, dewberries, cherries, early apples, raspberries, blackberries, plums, apricots, peaches, pears, grapes, quinces, till last, but by no means least, comes the standard fruit of every year�winter apples. Almost all leading varieties grow to perfection, yet a specialty is made of some of the most popular market sorts, notably Early Harvest, as first of the season, and Ben Davis, Winesap, and others, as latest. This is undoubtedly one of the remunerative crops, and brings more money than any other, except wheat and corn. The trees come into bearing much earlier than in regions further north and east, frequently yielding considerable fruit when six or seven years old. Perhaps there is not as much said through the public print about the peaches of Southern Illinois as those of Delaware, South Jersey or California, yet none of these excel "Egypt" in the production of this luscious fruit, where they have not to wait several years for their trees to come into bearing, as is the case farther east-. Trees have been grown the first season from the bud one and a half inches in diameter, and have borne fruit the next year. A full crop is usual on two-year-old buds, and trees are very long-lived. The average is about three full crops in five years. A total failure is unknown. Vineyards abound throughout this entire region, and the vine is remarkably healthy and productive wherever grown. Almost every family grows a home supply, and in certain localities they are very largely grown as an article of commerce. the ten best states of america. 95 Twenty-five years ago a field of ten acres of strawberries was considered something wonderful in extent. And so it was when this industry was in its infancy, but now it takes a 40 or 80 acre field to attract attention. Think of a full train of more than 20 refrigerator cars, loaded with strawberries alone, going �over a single line every day for weeks in succession, and some idea may be gained of the extent of this one branch of horticulture. No other industry distributes more money in the same length of time, as it requires a small army of pickers and box makers, besides many other laborers, to prepare the fruit for market. Space forbids a special mention of each fruit produced. Suffice it to say, they are all very profitably grown in their season, are of the finest quality, and both demand and production are increasing annually. Throughout this favored region the Illinois Central Railroad company have thousands of acres of land for sale at low prices and on easy terms. "Tell our party about the gateway to your Modern Egypt," is the salutation we give that bright editor-of the Cairo Daily Telegram, John F. Rectpr. The question was the fuse that fired the following eloquent train : Cairo, that peerless queen of Modern Egypt, sits enthroned upon a site designed by nature for a great city, at the extreme southern end of the state, and at the junction of two of the largest rivers on the continent. Nature seemed disposed to place apparently insurmountable obstacles in the way of the future metropolis, perhaps to test man's energy, for while the location was all that could be desired, geographically, it was low, and at certain seasons of the year was covered with water. Unlike the city of the same name in ancient Egypt, this Cairo has two rivers flowing at her feet, and though they have for countless ages deposited vast quantities of rich, alluvial soil upon the low lands adjacent, they are not, like the waters of the Nile, needed to irrigate those lands, and cause them to produce bountiful crops. As if repenting her former unkindiiess, Dame Nature sends frequent and copious rains for that purpose, and protracted droughts are comparatively unknown. Man's energy has over- 96 THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. come all the obstacles placed in her way, and with a typical American perseverance has effectually reclaimed this point of land, and he is now beginning to reap the fruits of his industry and forethought. At the very beginning of the century this was recognized by the hardy flat-boatmen as one of the best sites in the world for a-great city, but it was not until 1818 that any steps were taken to use it. In that year William Bird secured a patent from the President of the United States for 360 acres of land lying at the extreme end of the peninsula. A short time afterwards other gentlemen secured patents on other portions, and obtained from the territorial government of Illinois a charter to organize the "City and Bank Company of Cairo." The aid of English capitalists was secured, and in a few years quite a flourishing settlement had been established, with iron works, mills, etc. But they failed to recognize the power of the mighty rivers, so that when the floods came all their improvements were washed away, Then ensued long years of inaction, and it was during this period that Dickens, the English novelist, saw it, and described it as a "sickly swamp, reeking with slime and miasma, dependent on a transient river trade for a bare existence." If it ever was that, it has long since outlived the satire of the foreign writer, although it stood as a standing commentary against it for years, and it can now be utilized for a contrast with its present state of pro- the ten best states of america. 97 gress. That period of inaction was broken by the commencement of the work of building the Illinois Central railroad, and was forever gone when on the 7th day of August, 1855, the first train of cars was run into the embryotic city. Nature had provided the site, and the two great rivers; man had vainly strived to take advantage of her gifts; but it remained for the iron horse to work the revolution so long and so ardently hoped for. From that day forward the future of Cairo was assured. That success was not achieved with a bound. Long years and patient work were necessary, but the completion of the railroad rendered the work easier. It was not until the winter of 1857 that the city of Cairo was incorporated, and. it was on the 9th day of March, 1858, that the first mayor, S. S. Taylor, presided over the first council meeting ever held in the city. Those who saw Cairo in those anti-bellum times, or during the war, when it was filled with soldiers, utterly fail now to recognize any familiar feature. She has cast off her bedraggled swaddling clothes, and has assumed metropolitan airs and graces. A system of levees, more than seven miles in extent, now tower full fifty-five feet above low water mark, higher by several feet than the greatest flood known since Noah's time. Inside these bulwarks of safety the streets have been filled to a height approximating the levees themselves, thus lending additional security to the enterprising people who have warred with Nature for the supremacy and won. Those streets have been paved with a material known as Elco concrete (a species of broker! stone mingled with iron ore) found in inexhaustible quantities in Alexander county, only a few miles away. It is practically indestructible, possessing the rare trait of becoming harder and more compact the more it is used. Hundreds of new houses, new factories, and business blocks, have been erected within the last decade, many of them pretentious^ ornamental structures. Cairo has now become an important railroad center, for entering it from the west, crossing the Mississippi by means of transfer boats that carry entire trains of cars, are the Missouri Pacific, the Iron Mountain, and the St. Louis & Southwestern (Cotton Belt Route). On the north we have the Illinois Central, Cairo's first railroad friend, who has always proven staunch and true; the Cairo & St. Louis, now operated by the M. & O., and the C, C. C. & St. L. or famous Big Four. On the south, crossing the Ohio on a magnificent steel bridge, is the southern division of the Illinois Central, running through to New Orleans, and the Mobile & Ohio, which crosses the river by the transfer 7 98 the ten best states of america. boat system. The Illinois Central railroad bridge deserves special mention, not alone from the fact that it is one of the most important adjuncts to that road's business, but from the fact that it was built under what a few years ago were considered insurmountable obstacles. It had been supposed that a solid rock foundation was necessary to build heavy piers upon, and an extensive system of boring in the bottom of the river demonstrated that nothing of the kind existed beneath the flowing stream. Nothing daunted, though, the Central proceeded to build, anyhow. Huge caissons were made of heavy timbers and sunk in ILLINOIS CENTRAL BRIDGE SPANNING THE OHIO RIVER AT CAIRO, ILL. position where the piers were to stand. Reaching the bottom of the river, the sand was burrowed out, the "big caissons slowly but surely sunk deeper and deeper in the earth, as the wood work was built on top, until they reached a depth of seventy and eighty feet below the bed of the river. These were then filled with concrete until the original river bed was reached, and upon the foundation thus made the piers of limestone were erected. There are thirteen of these massive stone monuments toman's ingenuity and enterprise that tower fifty-three feet above the surface of the highest water ever known. Surmounting them is the superstructure of steel, the whole forming, with one exception, the the ten best states of america. 99 longest bridge in the world, being, with the approaches on each side of the river, a trifle over four miles long. Its cost is estimated at four million dollars, but for all that it has been a paying investment for the enterprising company, as without it, it would never have been able to satisfactorily handle its enormous business. � In addition to her railroad facilities, Cairo can boast of the finest inland harbor in the United States, with seven miles of river front, where the water is never less than thirty feet deep. That Cairo is at the head of safe, deep water navigation on the Mississippi river, is amply proven by the fact that on the 16th day of May, 1892, the United States sloop of war Concord arrived in this harbor by order of the Secretary of the Navy, and for four days lay at anchor a short distance below the Illinois Central bridge, in ten fathoms of water. The Concord is a steel cruiser, 230 feet long, and with her armament complete, as it was during that visit, drew 15.7 feet of water. Thousands of people visited the ship during her stay, impelled by a desire to see a man-of-war more than a thousand miles away from the blue ocean. The Secretary of the Navy resisted all appeals to send the vessel further, thus tacitly recognizing Cairo to be the head of deep water navigation on the Mississippi river. The entire levee being available, offers unparalleled facilities to commerce and manufactures. ^The unequalled transportation facilities by river and rail, insure Cairo the cheapest rates on raw material and manufactured products from and to all parts of the country. In fact, she possesses in the highest degree all the important factors necessary to a manufacturing and commercial center. She has a larger number of arrivals and departures of vessels each year than any other inland port in the United States, it being the head of all-the-year-round navigation on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Low water and ice never interfere with navigation south of this point. The vast region drained by the Ohio, Mississippi, Cumberland and Tennessee rivers, abounds in inexhaustible stores of timber, coal and iron. Owing to the cheap transportation facilities from those stations, Cairo has grown to be one of the largest hard wood centers in the west, as the only motive power necessary in the transportation of timber to the harbor of Cairo is generously supplied by the natural current of the streams named. Yellow pine from Alabama and Georgia, poplar from the Cumberland and Tennessee region, and the hard woods from Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia, and the head 100 the ten best states of america. waters of all the tributary streams, are rafted or floated to Cairo at a nominal cost, while cotton wood, different varieties of oak and gum, all of which have now come into general use, grow in unlimited quantities in this immediate vicinity. The facilities for drawing on these as yet almost virgin forests, and for distributing the finished products by both river and rail to all parts of the- world, are already attracting the attention of capitalists from many of the great manufacturing centers. The Singer Sewing Machine Company, a concern that manufactures the wood-work for three-fourths of the sewing machines in the world, was one of the first to recognize these facts, and after a committee of experts had been sent out to find where they could get an inexhaustible supply of timber suitable for their work, located their factory here, after they had thoroughly examined the claims of all other western cities and towns. The Singer's example has been followed by others, and including all branches, Cairo has to-day upwards of thirty manufacturing establishments, giving constant employment to over one thousand workmen. Next to lumber, iron attracts attention, and no location on the continent would seem more favorable for the successful operation of iron furnaces, rolling mills, and kindred enterprises than Cairo. The ores from Alabama and Tennesse, together with the ores from the famous Iron Mountain of Missouri, can be floated down stream, and brought together here at a lower cost than at any other point. The amalgamation of these two ores produces pig iron of such a superior quality that it is frequently used for conversion into Bessemer steel. The flux used in the amalgamation of these ores exists in unlimited quantities within a few miles of Cairo. These advantages, coupled with the fact that this city lies at the very doorway of the immense coal fields of Illinois, have already attracted the notice of iron manufacturers, and it is only*a question of time as to when they will take advantage of them, locate their plants here, and cease paying heavy freight bills and the other enormous expenses incident to towing their raw material the whole length of the Ohio river to Pittsburg. Cairo is the natural gateway between the grain fields of the northwest and the great grain-consuming markets of the south and the southwest, and is the point toward which those markets look for supplies of all kinds ; and while such a large business is done, she yet offers attractions for more dealers in grain, provisions, and planter's supplies, as the field for distribution is the ten best states of america. 101 almost unlimited. Millions of bushels of wheat are handled by the Illinois Central's grain elevator annually, and sent south by the St. Louis & Mississippi Valley Transportation Company, the largest barge line in the country. During the year just closed, this same company took 20,000,000 bushels of grain to New Orleans for export to Europe and South America. . It is probably no news, but an interesting fact all the same, that this whole region of country, for an area of 100 miles in either direction from Cairo, is practically one vast cornfield, and corn is also brought here for shipment south per barge line or anchor line of steamers, from Kansas and Southeast Nebraska, by the Missouri Pacific, Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, and the Chicago & Alton. It also goes in through cars from those roads over the Illinois Central and M. & O. The Nashville & Chattanooga runs over the Illinois Central, making rates from what is called the Green Line Territory, that is, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Florida, thus opening up a rich portion of country to the Cairo grain and flour trade. With such facilities for commerce, and such surroundings as it has in Illinois, Kentucky and Missouri, it is not surprising that, as the resources show, Cairo has twice the trade of any city in the Union of its size. The annual shipments by rail and river aggregate a figure between seventy-five and eighty millions of dollars divided as follws: $6,500,000 by river south; $4,-500,000 by river north ; $30,000,000 by rail south, and more than $37,000,000 by rail north. It is estimated that fully $3,000,000 are invested here in such business as flour, grain, iron and heavy hardware, groceries, dry goods, boots and shoes, tobacco, etc. The city is well supplied with banking facilities, having four substantial banks, two national and two savings banks, with large, banking accommodations, aggregating fully two millions of dollars. Contrary to the opinion expressed by Dickens and fostered by would-be imitators, Cairo is not an unhealthy city. Official statistics show its rate of mortality to be lower than that of any other city on the Ohio or Mississippi rivers. The United States government, recognizing this fact, established a marine hospital here, and the surgeon-general, writing of it, says: 4'It has been my frequent duty to inspect the port of Cairo, to study its sanitary laws and diseases, and to direct its military hygiene. As a result of my observations and experience, I am prepared to assert that it is quite as healthful as any other place in the Union." He then cites as causes the free and almost constant 102 the ten best states of america. sweep of pare air up and down- the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, produced by the temperature of the former being much higher, as it is fed by streams from the south, while the water of the latter comes from the far north, and the rapid currents which always work from shores and float away all that would accumulate around many other cities. Cairo has an almost perfect system of sewerage, which is also conducive to health. In addition to the marine hospital above alluded to, there is St. Mary's Infirmary, a most excellent hospital, managed by the sisters of the Holy Cross. It cares for city patients, for those who, when ill, desire skillful nursing, and for those who surfer from accidents on the numerous railroad lines centering here. The United States has erected a large and handsome building for Federal uses. In it is the postoffice department, now under the control of Col. John Wood. The amount of business done during the year ending March 31st exceeded $20,000, thus raising the office to a higher class. The office of Daniel Hogan, collector of internal revenue, is on the second floor. The revenue collected by him during the last fiscal year aggregated $475,000. The office of surveyor of customs is on the same floor. His duties are mainly confined to the steamboat interests. The third floor is utilized by the Weather Bureau and the United States District Court, the latter in one of the handsomest court rooms in Illinois. Local public improvements have kept pace with the spirit of the age. A liberal and far-sighted system was inaugurated, under which $100,000 was expended last year in street improvements and sewerage, without involving the city a dollar. No city can boast of finer streets than those now completed, and it will only be a few years until they will all be in the same condition. The intellectual tastes of the citizens are not neglected in the rush for permanent progress, nor are their religious tendencies overlooked. Cairo can boast of some as handsome churches as any other city, notably the Church of the Redeemer, St. Joseph's, and the First Methodist. Others are preparing to follow the example, and it is confidently expected that within the next few months the Parish of St. Patrick will erect a magnificent stone church and that the Presbyterians and Baptists will do likewise. It has long been Cairo's boast that her public schools were second to none. She proudly points to such elegant buildings as the Douglass school, the Safford school, the Sumner school and the Lincoln school. The latter has just been completed at a cost of $10,000. The Garrison school, the ten best states of america. 103 also just completed, cost $8,000, and like the Sumner building is devoted solely to colored pupils. The Lincoln building is considered one of the model ones of the state and a picture and full description of it are on exhibition in the Illinois department of the World's Fair. In addition to the churches and school houses, there is the Safford Memorial Library building, erected by Mrs. Anna E. Safford as a fitting monument to her public-spirited husband, who, in life, was one of Cairo's truest friends. This building she presented to the city for public library purposes, and it now contains nearly 6^000 volumes that are accessable to all. The cost of this magnificent gift approximates $50,000. Next, but by no means least, in an educational way, are the newspapers. The Telegram, an afternoon and Sunday morning paper, independent in politics ; the Bulletin, a staunch democratic morning paper; the Argus, an afternoon paper, also democratic ; the Citizen, a weekly republican paper ; the People, a semi-weekly ; and the Sentinel, a weekly paper, and published by colored men in the interests of their race. One of the most important enterprises inaugurated in a number of years was that of reclaiming from annual overflow some 10,000 acres of rich, alluvial soil lying between the two rivers just above the city. This ground is now being leased by market gardeners, who will be able to send their products to the northern and eastern markets early each season and reap large returns. It is already attracting the attention of experienced gardeners from other states, and it will only be a few years before every foot of it is under cultivation. Probably no city in the west is better supplied with water and light than Cairo. She has a magnificent system of water works, erected only a few years ago at a cost of over $200,000. It has about twenty miles of mains, ranging from twenty inches down to six, and has a capacity of 2,000,000 gallons daily, enough for a city of 60,000 inhabitants, or 40,000 more than Cairo has to-day. The city is lighted by both gas and electricity, both from finely-equipped works, and of capacity for all the people whom it is hoped will be here within the present century. There are two magnificent electric light and power companies, ' 'The Cairo" and '''The Delta;" both furnish arc and incandescent lights ; both operate electric street railroads covering every portion of the city with their cars ; both are owned and controlled by home capital. There are two distilled water ice manufacturing companies. One only recently organized, and which has just completed a large, handsome brick factory build- 104 the ten best states of america. ing that is supplied with the finest machinery yet invented. There are scores of wood-working concerns that utilize a large portion of the timber product already alluded to, and the number of lumber firms, or firms dealing solely in lumber, is so constantly increasing that it is difficult to enumerate them. That modern invention, the telephone, is in successful operation here with more than 200 subscribers. A finely-uniformed and efficient police force looks carefully after all infringers upon the peace and dignity of the city. A magnificent volunteer fire department is always on the alert, and when danger calls is prompt to respond and report for duty. Cairo of to-day is no more to be compared to the Cairo of twenty years ago, than daylight is to midnight. Her feet are firmly planted on the ladder of success, and she will not cease climbing until the pinnacle of greatness is reached." Again we turn northward, although we cast a longing glance across the Ohio. But far up the valley, side by side with ''The North Star," we enter Babcjerbom. "The veil of cloud was lifted, and below Glowed the rich valley, and the river's flow Was darkened by the forest's shade, Or glistened in the white cascade." D PART of the United States exceeds the valley of the upper Mississippi in the beauty and grandeur of its wild natural scenery. This valley forms the western boundary of Wisconsin for two-hundred miles, and in that distance the Mississippi receives the waters of four streams that drain an aggregate area of 25,800 square miles. The picturesque slopes, rocky hills and "dells" of this region are already famous among the world's tourists. Ancient earth-works are found here, the most prominent, the most important and best known being in Aztalan, Jefferson County, where a space of over seventeen acres is enclosed by a wall of earth and burnt clay, supported at regular intervals by mounds or buttresses. This is supposed to have been a sacred enclosure for religious ceremonial purposes. This is no longer to be classed as one of the agricultural states of the Northwest. Wisconsin is the Massachusetts of the Mississippi Valley. As near as can be estimated, the total earnings of her labor for the year 1892 was about $550,000,000. Of this, manufacturers earned $250,000,000, mines and lumber $200,000,000, agriculture $100,000,000. Dairying may be said to be the leading agricultural interest of the state, and the total milk production is valued at about $28,000,000 annually. 106 the ten best states of america. Topographically, the state is somewhat singularly situated. The eastern, southern and western portions, also the northwestern corner, are endowed with a fertile soil and are highly prosperous farming sections. The northern portion is covered with immense forests of pine and deciduous trees, filled with most lovely lakes, and constitutes a great resort for fishermen as well as hunters. The hard wood sections are considered of excellent farming capacity, and produce grasses in great abundance. The pine sections are usually very sandy, and, of course, not successful, as a rule, in farming. However, many of the sandy portions of the, state are becoming very famous in the production of potatoes. Such counties as Adams, Waushara, Waupaca, Eau Claire, and others contiguous, leading in this particular. In one season 5000 car loads were shipped from the town of Waupaca. The dairy counties may be named as Brown, Door, Sheboygan, Kewaunee, Manitowoc, Calumet, Fond-du-Lac, Winnebago, Washington, Dodge, Ozaukee, Waukesha, Walworth, Racine, Jefferson, Columbia, Green, etc. The southwestern portion of the state, formerly famous for its lead regions, is also paying considerable attention to stock and dairy farming. The northern portion of the state is famous for the wonderful richness of its iron mines. No copper mines are found in the state, but iron mining is one of its most important industries. The population of the state is remarkably composite in nationality and character ; the Germans, however, may be said to predominate. According to the census of 1880 there were 40,006 more foreign born voters in the state than native born, and yet the state is justly noted for its enterprise in all lines of human effort. One notable feature concerning the system of taxation may be mentioned as follows : No taxes have been levied since 1881 for any purpose except educational. The railroads, insurance companies, etc., pay the running expenses of the state, taxes from these sources. amounting to nearly $2,000,000. The state is traversed in every direction with lines of railway, and seems to constitute a favorite passage-way for the leading lines of road from the Northwest to Chicago. the ten best states of america. 10T Zflabison on $ourtfy �qke." ''Four limpid lakes,�four Naiades Or sylvan deities are these, In flowing robes of azure dressed : Four lovely handmaids, that uphold Their shining mirrors, rimmed with gold, To the fair city in the West." One of the echoes that comes back from the boyhood days when our geography lesson was the capitals of the United States, is "Madison on Fourth Lake!" The placid waters of that lake and its three liquid sisters remain unchanged and unchangeable. Their silver surfaces reflect a wealth of beauty from hill and shore; the summer breeze kisses the blue waves and cools the b'row that covers a tired brain. It is a spot that not only "knits up the raveled sleeve of care," but creates a whole garment of rest and new life. A rippling smile passes over the fair face of the watery goddess, and the velveted cliff frowns; the mirror for his morning toilet is broken. The tree crowned swells of prairie roll away to the horizon in graceful contour and the valleys bear arms against that foe to Beauty� monotony. High upon the hills like a huge bas-relief held against the sky is the pinnacled outline of Madison, a city, that has a distinct character in keeping with the romantic charms of this Four Lake country. No ' 'key to the commercial situation" called this city into being; no cross roads, no mines, no colonizing element of any kind made the capital of Wisconsin. This aristocratic and unsullied queen among cities sits with conscious pride among Nature's kaleidoscopic scenes, knowing that her father neither struck oil, gambled in stocks nor speculated in real estate. Her founders looked for a spot on which to locate a capital city and they found an ideal one.- Scarce a white man's foot had trod the narrow penninsula between Lakes Mendota and Monona when it was decided that here should gather the lawmakers of the Badger State; the eddying circles formed by the dip of the Indian's canoe paddle had hardly ceased to widen on these waters when the site was chosen. And with a life long devotion is Madison rewarding these gem-like sheets of water for their sparkling glances. Her steady, symmetrical development has produced a finish that calls forth the spontaneous praise of every visitor. the ten best states of america. 109 Break away from the chaos of art and mechanics at the World's Exhibit and join our party for a few days rest at Madison. Before we turn our glance southward, we take the Illinois Central and in a few hours we reach the soothing presence of the ' 'sylvan deities." All tastes from an artistic standpoint are satisfied with the retreats and picturesque spots of this summer resort, and delightful cottage homes nestle in many available nooks on the shores of all the lakes. The names pf the. four Lakes are gifts from the red man. Mendota means Great Lake; Monona, Fairy Lake; Waubesa, Swan Lake, and Kegousa, Fish Lake. They are united by the Catfish (Yahara) River. We left Chicago this morning. We have lunched and already the din of the great city is but a memory. Starting out for a stroll we pass under the overhanging boughs of immense: willow trees, going eastward on the shore of Mendota. This walk is called "The Willows"-and leads to the well-planned summer home ' 'Chedunk." Woodward's grove near by contains among other cottages one belonging to Ex-Senator Burroughs. An interesting spot lies directly across the lake to the northward of Madison. It is now occupied by the State Hospital for the Insane. It is a tract of land made famous in the archaeological world from the fact that it is rich in remains of the mound-buildirig age, the emblematic mounds being numerous and in a good state of preservation. Just beyond is Governor's Island, formerly the summer home of Governor Farwell. It is a wooded island and now belongs to the state. Out in the water off this is a little islet about a rod in circumference, known as Cat Island. Beyond are the Westport Marshes, through the center of which flows the Catfish River. These are splendid hunting grounds and are held by deed and lease by a syndicate, of sportsmen. Hither annually the wild ducks come in hordes and are bagged in large numbers. Not in all the state of 'Wisconsin is there so valuable a hunting spot so near a city of any considerable size, and when this advantage is taken in connection with the excellent fishing, Madison's attractions will be found to be only partially enumerated. Several hunting lodges, are built on the shore of the lake and the banks of the Catfish on these marshes. A series of summer cottages hold places on the banks further on, among them, cottages belonging to Senator Vilas, W. A. P. Morris and other prominent persons. Added to all other elements of desirability as to location, is the abundance of delicious spring water, rich in mineral 110 the ten best states of america. properties of a medicinal character. So they on whom has fallen the task of battling with Disease as well as Fatigue may safely trust themselves to the nurturing care of; Lake Land. And the drives need no eulogy. For years they have given pleasure to the devotees of this recreation, and a trip along the shores of these water queens is second only to a sail across their surface. Almost opposite the State Hospital grounds the state owns another piece of handsome properity, the tract given over to the uses of the University of Wisconsin. In all the world no finer site could be selected upon which to erect an institution of the character of this. Nature here sits enthroned in all the glory of her best work. With the lake touching the foot of the spacious grounds for 'a mile and presenting from the * 'hill" a a most enchanting prospect in all directions ; with the city spreading away to the eastward and to the south ; with Lake Monona gleaming like polished silver beyond the city; with Lake Wingra nestling so closely on the other side of a timber-topped hill that it seems like a shining screen held behind the grove of stately oaks ; with the distant hills to the southwest exemplifying the name "Blue Mounds," and the intervening valleys, verdure clad hills and forest bedecked plains greeting the eye to the west and southwest,�with all this beauty as a daily ration, *all this fine effort of nature to outdo herself in the creation of a scene which shall be long remembered by those who have an opportunity to enjoy it, there is little surprise that the alumni of the state university look back to their alma mater as the one spot on earth that, next to the old homestead, must receive their first thoughts and kindest memories. It is little wonder that the legislator who comes to the university grounds is filled with enthusiasm for the advancement of the institution. No one could stand in the presence of such a picture as that which is spread before the person on university hill without declaring to himself that such a place is worthy the care of a progressive people. The residences upon the lake shores are in accord with their beautiful surroundings, making a view from the water almost as attractive as one from the, land. Across Lake Monona from the city is Tonyawatha, a summer resort whose reputation extends throughout all the confines of the Union. A hotel is pleasantly situated in the midst of a large park, and a fine spring of mineral water gushes from the ground near by. All the property from Tonyawatha to Winnequah is full of the ten best states of america. Ill excellent sites for summer cottages, and the property is selling at good prices. Several summer lodges are already located there and more will be soon. Winnequah is a resort which has made many friends among outside people. It is so situated that it is not affected by the storms of summer time to any extent, and for that reason as well as for its delightful park and facilities for enjoyment and comfort, it is deservedly popular. There is not a spot on the lake which is more frequented by city residents in search of a days outing or by camping parties from the city than is this nook in the woods. The resort is just at the outlet of Lake Monona, and from it Lake Waubesa can be reached by boat through the Catfish in a short ride. Across the bay from Winnequah is a tract of land commanding a view of surpassing interest. A painting from this point would equal a view in Venice. In fact, the capital of Wisconsin is often called the "Venice of the United States," so much does the surrounding water contribute to its attractiveness. These hints and suggestions of what the Four Lake country abounds in, can be wrought into a perfect and elaborate picture by one's imagination without exaggerating the haven of rest only 170 miles from the World's Fair City. Such harmony between the architecture of God and man seldom exists as we find between these lakes and the city they encircle. There is only one drawback to a Madisonian visit: xThe heart is saddened by the thought that it must end. The longest outing in this region is all too short. The "Monday" following the day of rest comes to soon. The music of the lapping-waves, and the caress of the evening breeze are harder to part with than a lover's embrace.' The artist who paints the drop curtain that shuts out the view of these favorites on Nature's stage must exercise his best talent, or he will be the victim of those who appreciate and have experienced the charms of this trancendant spot for a summer siesta. F)om$ of tfye Roosters. "And glowing lights like burning altars stand." NE more deflection before we follow an un-' interrupted course to the Gulf. South from Chicago 114 miles on the Illinois Central main line we reach Rantoul, and turning directly east we come to West Lebanon and find ourselves on Indiana soil. Stepping from the train while a man underneath the car proceeds to earn his forty dollars a month by tapping on the wheels with a steel hammer, we find ourselves in the center of the greatest producing region of the United States. Natural advantages unsurpassed and resources ditto surround us. Immeasurable possibilities are the result, for within this territory are found in inexhaustible quantities the elements essential to the greatest prosperity. The soil throughout almost the entire State, comprising over 23,000,000 acres, is susceptible of the highest and most profitable cultivation, and a large area of land is doubly and trebly productive. Bountiful agricultural yields from the surface are richly supplemented 'by products frqm below of coal, building stone, moulding sand, fire clay, kaolin and other resources, while from extensive forests the growing demand for hard wood is very largely supplied. But Indiana has a claim on practical notoriety entirely new to our party, so far as observation is concerned thus far on our journey. Here even Nature's bad breath is utilized ; here we find the great fields of natural gas, a product that has in a measure revolutionized modes of heating and lighting in this section of America. The discovery of natural gas produced such a sensation in this country that we give a few of its details to our guests : In the summer of 1876 prospecting for coal was begun in Delaware county, and a two-inch drill was sunk near the 8 114 the ten best states of america. village of Eaton, twelve miles north of Muncie, the county seat. The work progressed slowly, and was finally suspended when the drill had reached a depth of 600 feet, it being evident that coal would not be found near enough the surface or in quantities to make the mining profitable. The men engaged in the work noticed a slight flow of gas from the well, and when the drill was withdrawn and the match applied it was found sufficiently strong to produce a flame two feet in height. Being in search of coal, no notice was paid to the gas by the gentlemen interested, though for some time it produced a great deal of interest, but was regarded only as a puriosity. In fact, the well received no serious attention, and there appears to have been no idea at the time that the gas possessed an economic value, and on this account no attempt was made to convert it to practical purposes. About ten years passed away, when, in the summer of 1886, natural gas was discovered at Findlay, Ohio, and preparations were immediately begun for applying it to manufactories and heating of houses, and thus reducing the cost of fuel to the consumer. The published accounts of the discovery, and the practical uses to which the gas was being put, naturally awakened a good deal of interest throughout this and other States, and a number of natural gas companies were incorporated under the State laws. The proximity of Delaware County to what soon became known as the Ohio gas fields, and the fact that ten years before gas had been found at a depth of 600 feet at Eaton, induced a number of gentlemen to organize a natural gas company, and it was determined to sink the drill in the well abandoned ten years before. The new well was eight inches in diameter for the first 250 feet, and five and orie-half inches for the remainder, it being the intention to sink the drill 2,000 feet, if necessary. After more or less delay incident to the work, the drill entered the porous Trenton limestone at a depth of about 890 feet. Upon reaching the Trenton formation, the boring was rewarded by a strong flow of gas, which continued to increase until the rock was penetrated about thirty-two feet. At this depth the flow was so strong that the pressure was estimated at from 175 to 250 pounds to the square inch, and the work was discontinued. When the escaping gas was lighted, it sent up a flame several feet high, and the light could be plainly seen at Muncie, twelve miles distant. When tjie well had been cased and the gas was permitted to pass out through a two inch pipe, the flame was from fifteen to twenty feet high. In reaching a depth of the ten best states of america. 115 922 feet, at which gas was found, the drill passed through the following strata: About the same time that boring was in progress at Eaton, a number of wells were begun in counties near to or adjoining Delaware, and companies for a similar purpose were organized in all' sections of the state. Within a few months wells were sunk at Kokomo, Howard county; Marion, Grant county; Hartford City, Blackfprd county; Portland, Joy county; Noblesville, Hamilton county; Anderson, Madison county; Muncie, Delaware county, and Winchester, Randolph county. In each of these places gas was found in more or less abundance, and, as the excitement increased, additional wells were sunk, not only at the county seats, but near the smaller towns surrounding. The section of the state in which these counties are located soon became known as the gas belt or field; real estate advanced rapidly, and a healthy impetus was given to all kinds of business by the steps immediately taken in the several localities to apply the gas to practical uses. There is a total of forty gas-producing wells in ten counties, or an average of four to the county. The capacity of but few of these has been measured, but the largest is estimated at 11,500,000 and the smallest at 4,000,000 cubic feet every twenty-four hours. Reckoning the average flow at 6,000,000 cubic feet per day, which is certainly lower than will be found to be the fact when all the wells have been acurately measured, the daily product reaches 240, -000,000 cubic feet, or enough to supply with fuel the residences, business houses, and manufactories of cities containing five times the population of those within the area in which the gas is found. The money value of this enormous product can be reached only approximately, 'but experience has demonstrated the fact that 8,000 cubic feet of gas has a heating capacity equal to one ton of �soft coal. On this basis the daily output of gas will equal about 30,000 tons of coal, and be worth, at the low estimate of two dollars per ton, $6ofooo. Reckoning 365, days to the year, the annual value of the product reaches the enormous sum of $21,900,000. This estimate is based upon the price of coal when sold in large quantities, and the value of the product is necessarily largely increased if estimated upon Niagara limestone�----------- Hudson River and Utica shale Trenton limestone---------� 200 feet. 690 " 32 " Total 922 feet. 116 the ten best states of america. anything like the cost of coal to the consumer. The gas is highly combustible, burns without smoke and possesses great heating power. Unless specially prepared, however, it does not give sufficient light to be used with small or ordinary jets, and is therefore chiefly valuable for heating purposes. There being practically no cost in production and the greatest expense being in laying mains and connecting pipes, it may be furnished at prices very low when compared with the cost of wood or coal. A great advantage, and one which every Indiana housewife will appreciate, is the fact that its use makes no ashes or dirt. This, considered apart from the item of cheapness, must render it very desirable as fuel. The greatest activity in all classes of business has followed the discovery, and all parts of the state have been more or less benefitted by it. In many sections real estate advanced rapidly until its original value was doubled, and in some instances trebled, by the discovery of gas and the steps taken to convert it to practical uses. Business sites within the fortunate cities, and manufacturing sites near them, advanced from 200 to 300 per cent., and many refused to part with their property upon any terms, no matter how fabulous. While the rapid advance in the price of real estate has been most marked within the belt, or gas-producing section, it has not by any means been confined to that locality, but has reached the towns and cities in all the surrounding counties. Under the first impulse of excitement many and large real estate transactions were made, and the same piece of property frequently changed hands two or three times a week, and always at an advance. Capitalists from eastern cities visited the section and made large investments, and all classes of business received an impetus in the early stages of the excitement which still continues without any prospect of abatement. The section of the state in which gas has been found, and the contiguous territory to which it will be carried by artificial means, are situated in the most fertile and productive part of the state, and certainly present a most inviting field for capital. The Wabash, Mississinnewa, White and Salmonie rivers furnish excellent water power to the various sections, and besides these the smaller streams are numerous. The surface is diversified with plains and rolling lands, the soil is well drained and remarkably productive, and each county has one or more railroads traversing it. Under the stimulating influence of the recent discovery, the resources of the section will be still further developed and foreign and domestic capital is seeking perma- the ten best states of america. 117 nent investment in the territory. Along its water courses are hundreds of manufacturing sites, and its numerous railroads afford easy means of reaching the great cities of the country. The capitalist, who is seeking a field for investment, can not do better than turn his attention to the gas^producing section of Indiana. The natural gas field covers an area of 4,000 square miles in the center of the state, and in five years has brought into Indiana an investment of more than $12,000,000 in new manufactories. The supply of fuel gas has given Indiana the lead in glass-making. The coal producing area of the state is over seven thousand square miles in extent. The coal seams, fourteen in number, vary from a few inches to twelve feet in thickness. The output of the mines has been as high as three million tons a year. The supply is inexhaustible. The area of timber land is at present over, three million acres, abounding in oak, walnut, maple, ash, beech, sweet gum and other hard woods. Furniture and veneer manufacturers find no better source of supply of raw material in the country. The state leads in the manufacture of wagons, wheels, lounges, desks and other products composed chiefly of wood. The best building stone in the country is obtained from the Indiana quarries, which have furnished the material for the construction of the New Orleans Cotton Exchange, the New York Mutual Insurance Company's building in New York, the .Indiana State House, the Indiana Soldier's Monument, the Chicago Auditorium, and many of the most notable structures in the United States. The development of the state's stone interest is now in infancy, but the products of the quarries, nearly a hundred in number, amount in value at present to over $2,000,000 a year. The making of hydraulic cement is a large industry, the production amounting to over one million barrels a year. The markets are supplied with over three million bushels of Indiana lime annually. Fire and potter's clay are among the undeveloped resources which are just beginning to receive attention. The quality of the clay is pronounced by experts equal to any in the country and is already being largely used in the manufacture of paving brick, fire brick, tiling, stoneware and pottery. The largest encaustic tile and terra cotta works in the United States are located in Indiana. All kinds of moulding sands are found in the state, and thousands of par loads are yearly shipped to neighboring cities. 118 the ten best states of america. The leading agricultural products are wheat, corn, oats, barley, rye, buckwheat, flaxseed, clover, timothy, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes and tobacco, the value of which in 1890 was $121,698,618. There are over 13,000 manufacturing establishments in the state, representing an investment of $60,000,000 of capital, employing 75,000 persons, to whom the wages paid amount to $40,000,000 a year. The value of the annual production of these factories is nearly $200,000,000. The industrial growth has been greatly in excess of the ratio of increase in population. The railway system of the state comprises 7,090 miles of track. A glance at a railroad map will show that the shipping facilities meet all requirements. There are almost direct routes to the markets of the east, west and south from any point in the state. The educational development of the state has been as rapid as its commercial growth. The climate is mild, combining most agreeably, as a result of the state's geographical situation, the temperature from north and south. The varied resources and advantages of the state are such that if it were enclosed on the line of its boundaries by an insurmountable wall, its inhabitants would continue to be the happiest and most prosperous people on the face of the earth, bountifully supplied from their own land with all con-veniencies and comforts of life. We turn our backs on another of The Ten Best States. This is the sixth. Have we investigated half thp wonders of our territory ? We will not anticipate. There is a look of amazement on the faces of our visiting party. There was something supernatural about this last stage of observation. Nature illuminated the commonwealth in the usual manner by day, but when she held aloft her great torches of natural gas by night, it savored of a wizard's tricks. She is a versatile genius, and there is a weird grandeur about her versatility. We have witnessed only the first acts of her drama ; the great transformation scene is yet to come. Oje Soutfy. "What skillful Artist e'er would choose To paint this land�its varied hues, Unless to mortal it were given To dip his brush in dyes of heaven." HE mists raise as we cross the great four-mile bridge above the broad bosom of the Ohio, the sun bursts upon us with incomparable splendor, and we are in a land of beauty and fertility, that land of warm hearts and eloquence ; that dream land of summer with all its delightful attributes ; that land where the plant kingdom never sleeps ; that land called in simple terms, The South, but known throughout the civilized world to mean the Southern States of North America. We have turned our backs on the rugged and energetic North, where climatic conditions must be wrestled with as well as the forces of Nature, and face a new world; . The flaming sword is sheathed, the cherubims step aside, and we enter an earthly Garden of Eden. We stand upon no mountain top as did the hero of Israel, but none the less we look upon the Promised, and a promising land. The milk and honey that suggested the favored region of Bible times, were as dew on the grass is to the heavy shower when compared to the fatness of the land before us. We view a splendid consummation of Nature's grandest work. It is a realm of thought for the intellectual, and of dreams for the imaginative. Material does not constitute the entire essence of life. There is a charm about a southern landscape no nature, how- the ten best states of america. 121 ever prosaic it may be, can withstand. The soft, sweet air ; the somber pine and the gleaming cotton; the bright scarlet of the holly berries and the shining magnolia, and above all the sun. No wonder such harmony comes up from the fields where toil the colored children of this sunny land. The people across the waters on our south shore, who long years ago worshipped the sun, have our most profound respect. It represents all that is desirable in life, spiritual and material, and well has the term "sunny" been applied to this favored land. And how the beautiful and the practical blend! The smoke that curls upward in graceful wreaths from the fire that clears the land of a pitch pine stump, perfumes the air and is a healing balm to the lungs; the * great creamy buds of the magnolia, a peerless floral treasure, ornament a tree whose wood sustains a high polish and makes beautiful interior architecture ; the ghostly pennants of Spanish moss that drape the cypress bough, make the luxurious couch and the comfortable cushion, and the delicate blossom that ornaments the cotton stalk heralds the approach of the monarch of the vegetable kingdom. Not elsewhere on the globe is there a territory open to the Anglo-Saxon race, with such varied and great resources and such propitious and easy conditions of life and labor. The natural wealth of the South exceeds that of any other portion of the country, and the development of that wealth means the enrichment of the entire nation. This wealth is as yet practically untouched. A remarkable combination of the advantages of all other countries is found in this section, and almost every known agricultural product yields abundantly on its soil. It is the nlarket garden of the North and furnishes three-fourths of the entire cotton crop of the World. It annually pours into the sugar market five hundred million pounds, and swells the rice supply by one hundred and fifty million pounds. The pounds of tobacco it yearly produces are also measured by millions. Its vast forests of hard wood will furnish the raw material for as many factories to manufacture costly furniture and fine wood work of all kinds as are now in operation in the entire country. Its great belt of long-leaf yellow pine is the foundation of prosperity and yields almost fabulous profits. Until a little more than a decade ago, the South lay almost paralyzed in her material development from the effects of the most costly war in the history of the world. Her condition at the close of that war was indescribable. Bruised and bleeding 122 the ten best states of america. at every pore, ruin and dismay were everywhere. Her territory was the field of contending armies for four years, and her improvements were almost swept out of existence. Houses were in ruins, fences gone and plantations impoverished.. She was crushed by a devastation that represented a loss of nearly five billion dollars. But the smoke of battle has merged into the smoke of factories, and where flames once leaped from the mouths of cannon they how flash out from the chimneys of the blast furnace. Where the fiercest battles were fought have sprung up the brightest cities and towns and there exists the most rapid industrial progress. The recuperation of the South constitutes one of the most remarkable chapters in the world's history. In the past ten years the Southern States have outstripped even the West in material development, and this with but few accessions of population where other sections had millions of emigrants from the old world to aid them. While the increase in miles of railway over the whole country showed a gain of only fifty-six per cent., the South had an increase of eighty-seven per cent. Even in the corn crop her advance was seventy-five per cent, as against the seventy-one per cent, of the balance of the country. In 1891 nine million bales of cotton were picked from the region where only five and a half million bales went into market in 1881. Her spindles and looms have trebled and her banking capital has doubled. The increase in number of hands employed in New England cotton mills during the decade in which we are making comparisons was about seventeen per cent; that of the South one hundred and thirty-five per cent. It is a magnificent showing. Nearly as many hands are employed in Southern cotton mills as were in all Massachusetts in 1870. It has been estimated that more people can be accommodated comfortably in the South and lay the foundation for prosperity, than now live in the United States. But we may go back of i860 and furnish some statistics that will explode the idea that the South was behind the rest of the Union in accumulated wealth. For several decades prior to that date the Southern States led all others in accumulated wealth. The facts are so striking that they will surprise many who have looked upon the Southern people as an enervated class who depended on the colored population to support them. According to the official census, when the total population of the Union was 31,000,000, the South, with THE TEN BEST STATES OFx AMERICA. 123 one-third of it, produced forty-four per cent, of the entire corn crop of the country, thirty per cent, of the wheat crop, all the rice, all the sugar, four-fifths of all the tobacco, and a large proportion of other crops. In 1860, with only thirty-three per cent, of the population, the South had forty-four per cent, in value of the agricultural machinery of the country and nearly thirty per cent, of the banking capital. And yet, old as the South is as an inhabited region, it is young in development. We have often laughed at the incident of the man returning disgusted from Colorado. When asked if the climate was not superior, his answer was "yes ; but a man can't live on climate." Applying the story to the South, the humorous part of it is gone, for a man comes pretty near living on climate. It is a scientific fact that three-fifths of plant growth is produced by the air, and as the air is the first and most continuous life-giving source, "climate" in the South can furnish sustenance. It seems like a waste of space to answer the question, "What can be profitably produced in the South?" when the reply to the one "What cannot be grown to advantage in this region?" can be given in one word�nothing. The "conductor" of our tourists has been South a number of times, and on each successive visit he has been obliged to drop something from the list of things he thought it would not pay to grow in the South, until now the list has entirely disappeared. It is not the language of a boomer or superficial observer when the statement is made that everything that grows from Maine to Mexico is a success and a wealth producer in the South. Happily the gates of sectionalism are off their hinges and the Southern people welcome the tide of erhigration that a few years ago flowed westward. The newcomers are not more enthusiastic over the advantages of this region than are the natives. It is not strange that one finds so small a desire to change among the Southern people, or that their temperament is restful instead of restless. There is no rigorous season to pile up fuel and fodder for. The soil never rests, but generously furnishes crop after crop the year round. Think what a man may accomplish with six months of winter eliminated from his calculations ! The love of rural life is not confined to those who make agriculture their chief pursuit. There are few business or professional men in our cities that do not look forward to a time when they may retire from business and occupy their time the ten best states of america. 125 and attention with a farm. Land is considered a safe investment everywhere, and the occupation of farming a sure means of livelihood, free from the uncertainties and social vexations of metropolitan life. Looking forward to old age or possible poor health, the farm, the ranch, or the plantation is the Mecca. It is the dream of many a nian in office and store. In no other region is this practical recreation so extensively indulged in as in the South, where thousands of fruit and vegetable plantations are owned and operated by men living in the North. We find lawyers and doctors, in the snow-mantled northern states, after the fatigues of the day, pouring over letters and reports from their * 'overseers" down south. One has an orange grove ; another, pears, peaches, plums, etc., still others, strawberry fields and truck patches. There is a charm even in the long range management of these matters, after one has visited the South and imbibed its irresistible attractions. The picture is ever before you. Be your' profits much or little in cash, they are great in the restful transfer of the mind from perplexity to peace. Then there is the class who have broken loose from their northern business moorings entirely and have drifted down to the Gulf States. We find bankers running big saw mills in the piney woods, lawyers managing extensive cotton fields in the Yazoo Delta, and preachers harvesting thousands of sacks of rice in southwestern Louisiana. Salaried men and nien who have failed in business battles where competition is close ; men of large families and small means, unable to amass a competency, have taken a few thousand dollars and made fortunes in a comparatively few years in "Dixie." We know them personally and can introduce you. We have known men to step from the Illinois Central train in Louisiana, pale and emaciated. They bought small tracts of land, and it would seem that their bones would be the principal crop planted. But they burned out the pitch pine stumps, and the smoke was elixir of life to them. We returned in a year or two and found them brown-skinned, happy, and surrounded by evidences of prosperity wrought by the*ir own hands. Levees may be built to keep the waters out of the South, but no bulwark can withstand the tide of immigration that is turning towards this Utopia. The recreation of a busy man must have a practical side to it to afford him the greatest satisfaction. His piney woods are not only beautiful parks, but they represent wealth in the form 126 the ten best states of america. of the best hard pine lumber in the world. His long rows of glossy" leaved strawberryj plants � < studded � with - scarlet berries, form a fine picture of contrasted colors, but they also mean three to six dollars a crate in Chicago. The symmetrical pear tree and the magnificent orange tree are model ornamental shrubs, but they also return hundreds of dollars to the acre. Southern spontaneity does not stop even at the shores of the Gulf, for its waters cover great beds of the finest oysters in the world and furnish a home for fish that are the most delicious the market affords. The eye feasts on the beautiful, the lungs inhale a healthy atmosphere, and the sense of utility is grandly satisfied in the South. From the threshold we have glanced at its generalities, just as we survey the dinner table before a meal ; now we will treat ourselves to each separate luxury in detail, beginning with Oje "Hue (Srass" State. "The softly-warbled song Comes from the pleasant woods, and colored wings Glance quick in the bright sun, that moves along The forest openings." UR first taste of the South is in the Daniel 1 Boone State of history; the region of blue grass, fast horses and fine whiskies of to-day. Had \ our visitors more time for this expedition we might entertain them with tales of absorbing interest concerning the pioneer exploits of settlers in all these states. There was a period when men,were warriors and agriculturists at the same time. They never went to the woods to chop or the field to work without a loaded rifle ; never took a journey long or short without scanning every bush, tree or rock that might conceal an Indian. Kentucky was rife with such experiences. The men who let the light into the clearings were heroes. Homes founded under these conditions were owned by brave men. But the land these pioneers of Kentucky hazarded life for fully rewards all efforts for its redemption from a wilderness, by rare beauty, peace and plenty. Two-thirds of Kentucky is yet covered by virgin forests of valuable timbers. The different varieties of oak, walnut, hickory, ash, beech�in fact all the valuable hard woods are plentiful. In the Red river valley there is a tract of 40,000 acres where white pine abounds. Kentucky is in the center of the most densely populated portion of the United States. The climate is temperate and kind, and the cereals can be cultivated to the highest perfection. The state has an area of 42,000 square miles, and the best natural water ways in the Union. It has two doal fields�one of 128 the ten best states of america. 10,000 square miles in the eastern part of the state, and one of 6,000 square miles in the western part. The coking coal fields are thirty times greater in extent than the Connellsville region in Pennsylvania. Coal is mined at the lowest cost. The state abounds in fine qualities of land, hard and soft timbers, iron ores, petroleum, natural gas, building stone, glass sand, lithographic stone and asphaltum limestone. The mountain and hill counties are unsurpassed for fruit raising, and the famous Blue Grass Region is one of the garden spots of America. As the state was peopled almost exclusively with agriculturists from Virginia and Maryland, farming has remained the favorite occupation. Only about one-thirtieth of the population is engaged in manufacturing, mechanical and mining industries. The peculiarity of Kentucky agriculture is its great diversity. During each decade from 1810 to the present time,the state ranked first in the production of one or more staple articles. Thus, in 1840, though sixth in rank of population, it was the first in the production of wheat and hemp, and the second in the production of swine, Indian corn and tobacco. In 1850 it ranked first in the production of Indian corn, flax and hemp, and second in swine, mules and tobacco. When it was the eighth state in population (1870) and the eighth in the total value of agricultural products (notwithstanding two-thirds of the state was in virgin forests), it ranked first in the production of hemp and tobacco, sixth in Indian corn, and eighth in wheat. In 1880 it ranked first in the production of hemp and tobacco, and seventh in Indian corn and rye. The decline in the relative position in the production of Indian corn and wheat was not caused by a decreased production, but by the increased production of those cereals by states in the west where these are almost the exclusive crops. In Kentucky diversified farming is found to be more profitable. Kentucky is the principal tobacco growing State in the Union. In 1870, of the total 262,735,371 pounds produced in the United States, Kentucky produced 105,305,869 pounds; and in 1880, out of the total of 473,107,573 pounds, Kentucky produced 171,121,134 pounds. In 1891, the crop was 183,038,-432 pounds. The tobacco market of Louisville has for many years been recognized as the leading and largest tobacco market in the world. At this center all the species, qualities and shades of tobacco known to the tobacco trade of this section of country the ten best states of america. 129 are received, stored, sold and prepared for the markets of the western and eastern hemispheres. Leaf tobacco is received from the planter in hogsheads, containing from one thousand to eighteen hundred pounds. Here it is placed in immense warehouses, of which there are fifteen in the city, with an aggregate storage capacity of forty thousand hogsheads. At these houses daily auction sales are held, and each hogshead is sold from a sample taken from its interior bulk. The growth of the leaf tobacco business has been as follows : 1889---------------132,702 hogsheads. I 1891--------------154,819 hogsheads. 1890--------------144,612 hogsheads. | 1892 (seven months) 104,220 hogsheads. This vast business is transacted under the supervision of the Louisville Leaf Tobacco Exchange, an organization whose membership is composed of the tobacco warehouse proprietors who are sellers, and of agents and brokers who are buyers for manufacturers, dealers and foreign governments. All the principal large tobacco manufacturers of this country and exporters of tobacco have buyers located here, and European Governments, who control the tobacco trade of their countries, have their agents constantly in this market. Spain, France, Italy and Austria are countries in which the Government authorities offi-, dally manage the tobacco business, and dealers having relations with the manufacturers in England, Germany and the Scandinavian countries are also represented here by agents and brokers who make their purchases. Nearly all the leaf tobacco sold at the warehouses, amounting to from $12,000,000 to $15,000,-000 per year, is sold at auction to the highest bidder. By this method the largest possible price is obtained, as it brings into competion bidders from all parts of the world, and secures whatever benefits may result from a wide source of demand. The great diversity of the demand made upon this market by the multitude of buyers who require for their trade the whole range of grades, colors and weights of tobacco, has had the effect of inducing growers to select Louisville as the point of shipment for their stock, as they are certain of advantageous sale, whatever the variety of the tobacco may be. The re-handling and special preparation of tobacco for the African and West India trades is carried on here to a large extent, and forms an important feature of the trade. Very dark tobacco is used for the purposes of these trades, and is disposed of for barter in ivory, palm-oils, and other products of these countries. 9 130 the ten best states of america. Fifteen tobacco factories in Louisville, employing from fifty to six hundred hands each, make a big home market for "the weed" in the leaf, and produce millions of pounds of plug and twist annually. There was Manufactured year ending June 30, 1892--------_------17,915,629 pounds. Manufactured year ending June 30, 1891---------------17,659,139 pounds. Increase_________________________________________ 256,494 pounds. Cigars manufactured for 1891 and 1892 numbered : 1892, year ending June 30--------------------------------------29,268,850 1891, year ending June 30-----_.-------------- -----�-------16,134,000 Increase------------------------------------------------- 3,134,850 The name and reputation of Kentucky whiskies are of world-wide celebrity, and in no district of the habitable globe has the accomplishment of making fine whiskies reached a standard as high as that generally recognized as belonging to Kentucky. The Fifth Internal Revenue District of Kentucky, which includes Jefferson and adjacent counties, is one of the most important in the United States as regards quantity, quality and uniformity in the grade of whiskies produced, and in the amount of tax paid into the treasury of the general Government on this class of manufacture. In this Fifth District there are located eighty-six distilleries duly registered and bonded by the Government. These eighty-six distilleries make various brands of whisky for about four hundred and fifty firms, or those dealers who own their own brands and have the goods made in accord with their requirements. A number of the largest of these distilleries are located in the immediate neighborhood of Louisville; and many of those situated in other counties than Jefferson and, indeed, in other revenue districts of the State, have head offices and storehouses in this city. The production of whisky in this district for the year ending June 30, was as follows : 189*1-----------------------------.--------------------15,194,247 gallons. 1892-------------------------------------------------14,954,592 gallons. In the manufacture of this last mentioned amount of bourbon, about 3,300,000 bushels of corn were consumed, and a certain quantity of rye and malt. In this Fifth District of the State of Kentucky, there remained in bond, on March 31, 1892, whiskies made prior to the ten best states of america. 131 that date, 31,475,438 gallons, or about 786,886 barrels, out of a total of 75,583,583 gallons, or about 1,889,589 barrels in the State. To handle this immense business very large capital is required�capital that must be represented in hard dollars, and not on paper. The published receipts of the collector for this revenue district amount, for tax on whisky, to from $20,000 to $35,000 per day, oftimes exceeding the latter amount. The capital invested in distillery plants with their bonded warehouses, holding from ten to twenty-five thousand barrels each, is very great, and, all told, the transactions of this great productive industry centering in Louisville, are of a character that add materially to her commerce in the receipt and shipment of stock, in the negotiations of the city's banking capital, in the item of railroad transportation, the employment of labor and clerical work, and the general prosperity of the community. Since the early settlement of the South hemp has been a favorite crop, more especially in the Blue Grass region. Contrary to an accepted opinion it has not been here proved an exhausting crop where rotted upon the land. Wheat succeeds almost as well after hemp as after clover sod. The importation and improvement of domestic animals has received such especial care that the state has become the great center of fine stock of all kinds. The climate, the water, and the perfection of pasturage have produced this pre-eminence. The famous blue grass makes a beautiful turf in this region. It grows in the shade of woodlands and affords an excellent winter pasture. Says John Burroughs, in Century: "But the feature of Kentucky which struck me most forcibly, and whichi is perhaps the most unique, is the immense sylvan or woodland pastures. The forests are simply vast grassy orchards of maple and oak, or other trees, where the herds graze and repose. They everywhere give a look to the land as of royal parks and commons. They are as clean as a meadow and as inviting as long, grassy vistas and circles of cool shade can make them. All the saplings and bushy under-growth, common to forests, have been removed, leaving only the large trees scattered here and there, which seem to protect rather than occupy the ground. Such a look of leisure, of freedom, of amplitude, as these forest groves give to the landscape ! What vistas, what aisles, what retreats, what depths of sunshine and shadow ! The grass is as uniform as a carpet and grows quite up to the boles of the trees: One peculiarity of. 132 THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. the blue grass is that it takes complete possession of the soil ; it suffers no rival ; it is as uniform as a fall of snow. Through these forest glades roam the herds of cattle or horses. I know no prettier sight than a troop of blooded mares with their colts slowly grazing through these stately aisles, some of them in sunshine and some in shadow. In riding along the highway there was hardly an hour when such a scene was not in view. Very often the great farm house stands amid one of these open forests and is approached by a graveled road that winds amid the trees. Many of the farm buildings and stables stand in a grassy forest, and the mares with their colts roam far and wide. Sometimes when they are going for water, or were being started in for the night, they would come charging along like the wind, and what a pleasing sight it was to see their glossy coats glancing adown the long sun-flecked vistas." In early times, Virginia imported choice horses from England. The Kentucky breeders have kept those strains pure, and have from time to time added by importations from England, until a race horse having world-wide notoriety for endurance and speed is the result. Over seventy-five per cent, of the winnings on the American turf are by Kentucky bred horses. Intelligent breeding under favorable conditions has produced this remarkable speed. The Blue Grass Region has sent out and continues to send out the most famous trotting horses in the world. Within a small circle not half a dozen miles across were produced all the most celebrated horses of the past ten years. Kentucky horses have a reputation not even circumscribed by the boundary lines of the United States. The most noted thoroughbreds of the day trace to Kentucky breeding. Kremlin, king of the trotting turf, and Nancy Hanks, the queen, first saw the light of day in the green tints of a blue grass landscape. Another important class of horses, the saddlers, have dated their origin and fullest development in Kentucky. Find a first-class saddle horse anywhere, and, nine times in ten, his breeding, if known, will be based on some good Kentucky stock. The early settlers of the state* were noted for their love of the horse, and, in pioneer days, they were not only excellent horsemen, but students of the science of breeding for improvement. One breeder worked out the problem of producing a Ten Broeck, while another devoted himself to the work of astonishing the world with a Nancy Hanks, and a mile in harness in 2:04. Still others were endeavoring to produce a horse of the ten best states of america. 133 grand style and finish coupled with the poetry of motion under the saddle. To their credit stands Gaines' Denmark, King Williams, Montrose, Artist, and many others of the Denmark strain, and Cabell's Lexington, Eureka, Drennon and others equally as famous. So noted has the Kentucky saddler become that he is to be found in the stud in almost every state south and west and in many localities east of the Alleghenies. So great was the excitement over breeding the trotter that, a few years ago, the saddler seemed in danger of being neglected if not altogether forgotten. It was then that so many owners of saddle mares bred them to trotting stallions, and many of the horses in the 2:30 list trace to saddle bred dams. Still some breeders refused to depart from the rules of breeding like to produce like. They refused to believe that there would not come a day when public attention would turn again to the very valuable horse which will carry a man a long journey with such ease under the saddle and, if need be, repeat it in harness. The saddle-bred horse of Kentucky is not only good in his line, but is always a more than ordinary harness horse. For that matter it has grown into something like a proverb in the state, that a good saddle horse is fitted for most any service a horse is called on to perform. While Denmarks are perhaps the leading saddle horses, they are not the only strain from whence good gaited horses are obtained. The strains mentioned heretofore hold their identity and are much prized because they "nick" so well with the Denmarks. The cross of Cabell's Lexington, Eureka, Dillards, Drennon, Waxy, or Copper Bottom blood, with the Denmarks, is considered the acme of breeding. The latter imports more finish and a high style as well as gait, but from the former strains come the quality of endurance or what is called "staying quality." Denmark, the first of his name, was a highly-bred race horse. He was what is called a thoroughbred. In the early days of the Union the Virginians were much given to sports, of which horse-racing was the chief. It was in view of this that they became possessed of Hedgeford, imported from England^ and they bred from him the great four-mile race horse, Denmark, which was brought to Kentucky. From this source the modern saddle horse inherits speed, style, high finish and ambition. The thoroughbreds are intelligent and soon acquire the schooling necessary to develop gaits which they go naturally. They can be taught, too, more easily than the com- 134 THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. A KENTUCKY THORO UGH BRED. Louisville, day of Gen. John man, of was elect-dent, and of same made sec-After the a r y a r -were corn-Register ed for the pedigrees horses, volume of ter was is-year with mon breeds what are known as the fancy or park gaits. The prize park performer of the past year was a handsome mare of Denmark stock. In order to encourage the breeding" of saddlers and to perpetuate their pedigrees a call was made about two years ago for a meeting of those interested, for the purpose of organizing an association. Out of this call grew the National Saddle-Horse Breeders' Association, which was organized mostly by Kentuck-ians, at on the /th Apr, i So, i. B. Castle-Louisville, e d presi-I. B. Nail, place, was retary. pre limin-r a ngem'ts pleted, a was open-record o f of saddle The first this Regis-sued last eleven hundred entries�about one-half of which were from Kentucky. Entries to Vol. 2 are now being made. With these entries as a starting point, breeders are working within the lines, as it were, and in a few years will build up a better class of saddle horses. They will breed horses that will be natural saddlers. The gaits recognized are walk, trot, rack canter, running walk, fox trot and pace. The park gaits can never be called natural gaits, but any horse bred right will be a natural saddler and can be given the park or high school gaits with less teaching than any animal not so bred. The illustration above represents Star Denmark No. 252, N. S. H. Register�an inbred Denmark stallion belonging to Gay Bros., Pisgah, Woodford Co., Kentucky. He is a black or dark brown, full sixteen hands high, clean of limb and of faultless form. He was sired by Washington Denmark 64, one of the most famous sires of the times before the war between the states. His dam was by same and grand dam by John the ten best states of america. 135 Dillard, a foundation saddler; third dam by Rob Roy 62, son of Denmark. Stallions bred in this way are now much in demand and from such, bred on and on, is to come a race of saddlers upon which horsemen can rely with certainty for all the good qualities wanted in a first-class saddler and for horses of such combined excellence as will fit them for any service in the ordinary affairs of the farm or home. Of course in the show ring the saddle-bred horses defy competition in their class, and out of their classes they are formidable competitors for honors. The greatest show horses are the splendid saddlers. In the sale ring they always come as near bringing their full value as any class of horses known. They sell according to quality from $200 to $500 for geldings or mares four to six years old, with an occasional fancy one going much higher. Stallions sell now well up in the thousands for the best. But a horse more enduring than a Kentucky thoroughbred gives a shrill snort, we enter the coach behind him, his iron sinews move and soon we are Down 3n (Tennessee" "The'n carry me back to Tennessee, Back where I long to be, Among the fields of yellow, yellow corn, Way down in Tennessee.'' HERE must be something particularly charming about a State that drew out such a pathetic strain as we find in one of the best of the old fashioned darkey melodies, and when our party looked out one bright crispy morning in autumn as the train slowed down at Jackson, Tennessee, they felt the full force of that charm and tried to analyze it. The long, narrow State that stretches out from the Great Smoky mountains on the east, to the Mississippi river on the west, seems to have a unity of Northern vigor and Southern advantages. Northern and Southern crops do well here�it is neutral ground for resources. Tennessee is rich in natural curiosities, more especially its caves. Many of these are still unexplored. One descends to a depth of 400 feet and at the bottom finds a stream of sufficient force to turn a mill. Others contain fossils and bones of extinct animals. Here is the Enchanted Mountain, where the im-impressions of the feet of men and animals may be seen in the limestone rock. Tennessee is rich in minerals�copper, coal, iron and marbles, and its soil produces a range of staple crops from wheat to cotton. Tennessee is rich in forests of valuable hard woods ; rich in the health-giving properties of pure air and water, and rich in beautiful landscapes. So many promising features confront us in Tennessee that we are as bewildered as a visitor at the Chicago Board of Trade. the ten best states of america. 137 The "yellow corn" yields as high as seventy-five bushels to the acre, and the first attempt of a * 'green" Northern man at raising cotton resulted in i J bales to the acre. Wheat and other small grain yield a harvest as abundant as in the Northwest. Two crops�good ones�-of Irish potatoes are produced here in the same season, while sweet potatoes and all the other vegetables do remarkably well, and yet last spring marked the first attempt at truck farming for market from Jackson, a city of 12,000 people. About two-fifths of Western Tennessee is woodland, and of the open country only about the same proportion is cultivated. We find one man affluent enough to go /to Europe on the proceeds of a peach orchard, from which he has an income of $8,000 annually ; and here is a creamery with a backing of a thousand cows. Even the so called oak-barrens have become ashamed of their original non-productiveness, have rejuvenated and now produce good crops. All the fruits, large and small, seem to be running a race here for the goal of perfection, and the Tennessean will assure you that he can compete with any section on their own special crops. Grapes grow in the greatest abundance that can be produced, we. having seen three bunches of Concord grapes grown here, compact and evenly ripened, fill a peck basket. Peaches, pears, plums, apricots, apples, cherries, damsons, quinces and all other fruits can be, and are, raised here. In fact nothing is lacking to make this an ideal location for the progressive farmer. Tennessee farmers in anti-belum days, when help was plenty and many owned large numbers of slaves, cultivated as high as 1,000 acres in one piece ; this, however, no longer proves profitable. They find it pays better to sell off all but 100 or so acres and cultivate that well. In consequence farmers wishing to locate here can purchase valuable tracts of land at a low figure. Many farmers from the North and West, growing tired of the ever present cyclone and blizzard and seeking pleasant homes, good climate and fertile land, have settled here. They are welcomed with a hearty good cheer arid are pleased with their surroundings. There are rich mineral lands, both coal and iron, but a short distance east of Jackson, as well as a. fine grade of grey limestone suited for road making and building purposes. CHURCH A"V TACKSON, TKNS. the ten best states of america. 139 3acksorL We could not have a better point for observation for our first glance at Tennessee than in this bright, progressive city. The people are interesting, to begin with. Their bravery is established by the fact that they sent more soldiers to the front than they had voters ; their energy is unquestioned, for Jackson has doubled in population in ten years; their breadth of view is shown by the fact that this, the strongest democratic judicial district in the state, is represented by a stalwart republican; and though one-third of the population is colored, their toleration is proved by the fact that there is less friction between whites and blacks than among colored people themselves. Jackson represents Southern development by Southern men. This was the home of the late Judge Milton Brown, who introduced the bill making Texas a State. Jackson certainly offers great inducements to both the manufacturer and home seeker. She has three great trunk railway lines : The Illinois Central; the Mobile and Ohio Railway, running from Mobile, Ala., to St. Louis, and connecting with all Southern, Eastern and Northern lines ; the Tennessee Midland railway, connecting the Mississippi river at Memphis with the Tennessee at Perryville and branching at Lexington gives a direct line to St. Louis, as well as connecting at Hollow Rock for Nashville, and being a direct line from Jackson to Memphis. Here, too, are located the shops of the Mobile and Ohio Railway, employing some 300 men, as well as the shops of the Illinois Central, also employing a goodly number. This is the relay for both the above named roads where the host of employes operating these lines from Cairo north, and Canton and Ocalona, south, make their homes. The Birmingham, Kansas City Railway is also projected from Jackson to Kansas City. These abundant railway facilities, although but recently brought about, have thus early borne abundant fruit, and Jackson is fast becoming a manufacturing as well as commercial city. Among the manufacturing enterprises already established here, and under successful operation, are: The Jackson Woolen Mills, and Pant Factory, working 250 employes and making a quality of jeans which is unexcelled�as well as cutting and making these goods into all sizes of pants, also manufacturing a 140 the ten best states of america. fine grade of woolen blankets; The Jackson Cotton Seed Oil Mills, which is one of the largest in the South, and employs upwards of 100 laborers; The Southern Engine and Boiler Works, employing some fifty workmen, and turning out a high grade of machinery which finds a ready market throughout this territory ; a Foundry and Plow Factory employing from twenty-five to thirty men, and making the best plows in the market as well as all kinds of castings and metal work; The Jackson Milling and Manufacturing Co., having a daily capacity of ioo barrels of flour, and being run to its utmost limit to supply the custom; The largest spoke factory in all the country, giving ready employment to something like ioo men, and making such a splendid spoke that they are unable to supply the the demand, and are constantly over-crowded with orders, many of these spokes being shipped as far distant as California, and Oregon ; The Heavner Bray Hard Wood Manufacturing Co., which makes all kinds of hard wood mantles, book cases, store fixtures, desks and church furniture, and is an industry worthy of patronage, and under the present able management is. a paying enterprise ; The Jackson Hoop Factory, making large quantities of sawed elm hoops of the best quality ; The Jackson Compress Company, handling some 40,000 bales of cotton annually ; Several Broom Factories ; Baum's Cigar Factory, employing some thirty cigar makers; three large Brick Yards, manufacturing a splendid pressed brick and hard smooth bricks, suitable for all purposes, and supplying the trade of a large adjacent territory; two Ice Factories, with a combined capacity of twenty-five tons per day, in connection with one of which, the Tennessee Ice & Cold Storage Co., is run�a complete cold storage plant; The Jackson Creamery and Cheese Factory, with a capacity of 1,000 cows, recently established, and just now beginning operations; several Carriage and Wagon Factories ; White Bros. Plaining Mill and Cotton Gin ; The H. B. Langford Flour Mill, with a capacity of thirty barrels per day ; S. B. Conger's Plaining Mill and Lumber Yard, with several million feet of well seasoned lumber of every kind constantly on hand; The Citizens Gas and Electric Light Co., and The B. A. Smith Gin Company, which makes a superior cotton gin as well as condensers, etc., employing some thirty hands; a Pottery, employing fifty hands, with an abundance of the finest fire clay obtainable. There is also in contemplation, The Novelty Furniture Co., which will employ 100 hands, as well as a $25,000 Canning Factory; while at an early day there will locate the ten best states of america. 141 here a plant employing 900 skilled laborers. These industries are practically assured, besides a long list of other inquiries. Jackson has these as well as other similar enterprises too numerous to mention. With all manufacturing plants, fuel is a great item, and here you can procure clear lump coal at $2.15, nut coal $1.80 and. slack at $1.50 per ton. Besides these advantages, Jackson owns and operates her own Water Works, having some eighteen miles of water mains, and 178 fire plugs, which with her able fire department furnish ample and efficient means of fire protection. The water is free stone, soft, absolutely pure and as clear as crystal. The water supply is drawn from twenty-two six-inch wells, sunk to a depth of from thirty-five to fifty feet below the surface, penetrating first a nine-foot strata of blue clay which is impervious to surface water, then two feet of fine white sand, then about eight feet of white pipe clay, then some three feet of white sand, and again through a strata of white clay some six feet thick, when water is reached in a strata of coarse gravely sand�yielding a supply of the greatest abundance, and rising to within a foot of the surface. Good water and pure air are the greatest factors in the health of a community, and of these Jackson affords the greatest abundance. She has a sanitary sewerage system complete in every detail, embracing some six miles of mains, and extending throughout the thickly settled portion of the city. By an automatic device placed at the head of each sewer, the entire system is flushed with pure water twice in every twenty-four hours, thus leaving the pipes clean and pure. With such a system the dangerous "sewer gas" is unknown, and as all dirty water and house slops are carried off in this way, the air of the city is kept pure and healthy. Such a thing as an epidemic in Jackson has never been known, her health record being something phenomenal. Here is located the Southwestern Baptist University, which is destined to be one of the grandest institutions of the South. It was used as a hospital during the war, and a canon ball hole may still be seen in its roof. The faculty is composed of able, Christian gentlemen of the highest type, well versed in all the branches of science and capable of fitting young men for any and every calling in life. Enrolling at present some 225 students, and being possessed of a liberal endowment fund ; having a beautiful building and site, providing ample accommodations for students where board can be produced at a merely nominal price, we feel no hesitancy in bespeaking a bright future for the 142 the ten best states of america. school. The Methodist Female Conference Institute is also located here. This school was established in the year 1840, and has borne an enviable reputation throughout these many years. Here daughters will receive such instruction as will fit them for all the perplexities of life as well as to rule with an even sway in their little kingdom at home. The pupils number 200 and the collegiate course is complete, as well as offering rare advantages in music and art. St. Mary's Catholic school is also a growing institution, having an attendance of some seventy-five pupils, where children, both boys and girls, can receive a complete education. Besides these the city is provided with the most excellent system of public schools to be found in the State. There are enrolled this year 1,800 pupils; the buildings are comfortable and well provided with modern desks and the Superintendent and his corps of teachers are well fitted to perform all the duties devolving upon them. Jackson is abundantly provided with beautiful homes for religious worship, all of which have a large attendance and a good membership. The Methodists have four churches, the Baptists three, the Episcopalians one, the Presbyterians one, the Cumberland Presbyterians one, the Christains one, the Catholics one, and the Lutherans are organized but own no house of worship. Jackson is the seat of the State Supreme Court, as well as the Federal, Circuit and District Courts, which bring a large number of people to the city in this way throughout the year. The county Court house is a substantial structure, surrounded on all sides by fine shade trees, and occupying a square near the center of the city, which affords a cool and pleasant retreat during the summer months. Jackson is provided with gas, electric lights and street cars extending in every direction throughout the city; good sidewalks of brick and stone, as well as the prettiest and smoothest gravel streets, on which one can drive for miles with the greatest ease and comfort. This material seems peculiarly adapted to road making, being a sharp, angular, flinty stone, with just enough binding material to form it into a compact, mass. Jackson is well provided with banks. The First National Bank, having a capital stock of $100,000, and doing a lively business; The Second National Bank, having a capital stock of the ten best states of america. 143 $100,000, likewise being on a sound financial basis, and doing a good business; The Jackson Banking Co., with a capital stock of $75,000, organized something over a year ago, has already declared a liberal dividend to its stockholders ; while the People's Savings Bank is one of the most solid institutions of the city, having recently increased its capital stock to $50,000 and declared a dividend of ten per cent to its stockholders. The Knights of Pythias have erected here one of the handsomest castles in the South, the first floor being devoted to the Second National Bank and three other large store rooms, the second and third stories to a beautiful little theater, complete in all its appointments, while the fourth floor is devoted exclusively to the lodge. The I. O. O. F. also own their own building, which is a three story brick structure, centrally located and well suited to all requirements. The Masonic Lodge owns a two story brick structure in the business portion of the city, which is handsomely furnished. Jackson has five spacious hotels, comfortably furnished, where the traveling public will receive every attention, besides numerous private boarding houses. There are three live daily newspapers published here, two morning and one evening; as well as four weekly papers, whose sheets contain the current news of the entire country. The Jackson Fair Association has one of the prettiest tracts of ground and the finest three-quarter mile race course in the State. One can see every foot of the ground around this entire course while seated in the amphitheater, and the fine racers which are put on this track each fall afford amusement and attraction for a large number of people. The farm produce and general exhibits are good, and the liberal premiums offered create a lively contest. The Jackson Board of Trade is a thorough going, live institution which has done much to promote the material progress and welfare of the community, and through its agency many enterprises have been attracted to Jackson and induced to locate. They meet every Monday night in their comfortable rooms in the Odd Fellows'building and transact such business as comes before them, discuss new enterprises and the general up building of Jackson. The young men of the community are organized, as well, for the advancement of Jackson's interests; their body, the Young Men's Commercial Association, being composed of the best young men of the city, who meet each Tuesday night of the week and consider such things as will add to the prosperity of the commonwealth. Those seeking a good busi- PYTHIAN CASTLE, JACKSON, TENS. the ten best states of america. 145 ness location, or a pleasant home, should address the secretary of either of the above organizations. With all the comforts and conveniences of a modern city, blessed with a healthful climate, where the magnolia and the bay tree bloom,; where blizzards never blow; possessed of the greatest commercial, social and religious advantages, Jackson has indeed a promising future. All these attractions and advantages are pointed out and explained to our party as we speed about the city. A handsome block of buildings, built out of the surplus of the Whig treasury, tells the story of that paper's strength. We pass a planing mill plant. Its proprietor, we learn, has made $100,000 in Jackson. We remark on the fine paving. ' * Eight miles of it was built last season, at a cost of $20,000," we are told. Our attention is called to the progression of the colored people. Here is a large university where all the teachers are colored, but the president. Also a large public school and a new brick M. E. church for the same race. The colored bishop that resides here stands as high in the respect of the white population as the black. Slow? How often we hear the remark in the North that < 'the Southern people are so slow." Why, before us are the finely laid out fair grounds. The buildings and the one-half mile track were completed in thirty days ! Even the news boys canvass the city and solicit the sale of single papers, in advance of the arrival of the train that brings the large metropolitan dailies. We must show our party one more city before leaving Tennessee. We think it is train time, and a Southern gentleman, with a proud smile, pulls from his pocket what is probably the oldest silver watch in good running order. The date of its manufacture is 1793. More interesting than the date, even, is the inscription engraved on the case: "Thomas Jefferson to General David Merriweather." (Dn tfye <�fyckasaw Bluffs. On the Fourth Chickasaw Bluff, fully thirty feet above the highest water ever known, at one of the best points for several hundred miles up and down the Mississippi river at which a great commercial city can be located, stands Memphis, the Queen City of the valley of the lower Mississippi. 10 146 the ten best states of america. This is not the first important city that has occupied this favored site. Here, thousands of years ago, stood the chief city of a cultured and prosperous people. The whole of this great valley was occupied by a great and progressive race. There is but little left of them and that little tells us nothing. They have departed so long ago that even the echo of their footsteps has died out from the corridors of time. One of the truest evidences of the civilization of a people is their mode of sepulture, and these people have left to us their dead entombed in hundreds of thousands of stone graves, which are still perfect after the lapse of ages that would have left nothing but a spot of rust as the only trace remaining of the boasted iron caskets of our recent civilization. We know nothing of those races, but we know that where they builded their governing city, to-day stands the reigning commercial city of the same vast and prosperous territory. Memphis has now become the largest inland spot cotton market in the world. In 1836 its cotton shipment was 50,000' bales; in 1840 it was 130,000; in 1850, i4P;ooo; in the season of 1891-2 it was 772,606, with a value of over $30,000,000. This cotton comes to Memphis from six states�Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee, and the area reached by the Memphis dealer is constantly and steadily enlarging. Buyers are regularly stationed here who purchase for the mills of England, France, Germany, Italy and other cotton using countries, as well as for the Northern cotton consuming; centers of this country. It has fire proof storage for over 300,-000 bales. Next comes the grocery trade, in which Memphis long ago* worked out for itself a well earned reputation as occupying a, place in the front rank among the great markets of the world. Memphis is one of the best grocery markets of the world, all things considered. There are more dollars worth of groceries, handled and distributed here in proportion to the size and population than in any other city in the United States. There are in Memphis twenty-nine houses engaged in the wholesale grocery trade, with a capital of over $11,000,000. In that line it surpasses every Southern city except New Orleans, and is fast reaching that, and during the past twenty-five years not one dollar has been lost to a creditor by the failure of a Memphis wholesale grocery house. The three great industries of Memphis are: First, cotton; next, groceries; third, lumber. Of these the lumber is by no the ten best states of america. 147 means the least important in its general results and influence,on the business of the city. Taking the year through, it uses 40 per cent, more cars than the cotton, and pays more local freight. As the forests of the Northern States are exhausted, those of the South come more and more into notice and demand, and the leading lumber concerns of the Northwest are reaching out into the huge forests of the practically untouched lumber regions of this great valley and its tributaries. They are fast learning that the Memphis market and the territory belonging thereto, offers to the lumber dealer, manufacturer and shipper^ a greater amount of lumber product, and lumber that is more available for practical use and pecuniary profit, than any other inland market in the United States. As a rule the products of a warm latitude and climate are coarser grained, rougher in fibre, more "brashy," and less firm in texture than those of a more northern and cooler region, but for some reason the reverse is the case with the timber of the forests of the Southern States. The Southern lumber has a firmer, closer grain, and a texture susceptible of a finer polish than the average woods of the Northern forests of the same grades, will hold nails better, and is more lasting. As these facts have come to be realized the Southern timber has been more and more sought after for furniture, for interior work, or any other uses where a smooth surface and a high state of polish is desirable, as well as where toughness and textile strength is required. These qualities, perhaps, even more than the rapid extinction of the Northern forests, have drawn attention toward the timber of the Lower Mississippi Valley. - At present these woods are taken into Rockford Nand other furniture manufacturing centers, to the agricultural implement works of Illinois and Indiana, to the car shops of the North, and the manufactured product brought back here and to .lesser distributing points, and sent to the Southern buyer with both freights added. It will be perhaps many years before those kinds of wood work, requiring skilled labor for their production, are made here, but there is no possible reason why the ordinary wooden-ware and the cheaper kinds of furniture which are sold so extensively throughout the South, should not be made in Memphis, as the freight is often almost equal to the cost of the article and is always a good profit. For instance, a local railroad manager recently contracted with a Northern shop for a lot of freight cars, and the haulage of the cars from the point of manufacture to Memphis was 7 per cent, of the gross cost, and all the material from which they were made came from the 148 the ten best states of america. Memphis territory, with at least 5 per cent, freight. Thus 12 per cent, of the gross cost was freight, which could have been saved by making them here, and would have been a sufficient profit. There are constantly on sale in abundance in this market fourteen kinds of valuable and regularly bought lumber, to-wit: Ash, cedar, Cottonwood, cypress, elm, gum, hickory, white oak, red oak, long-leaf pine, short-leaf pine, poplar, sycamore and walnut. There are, in addition, in inexhaustible quantities in our forests, and brought here as there is demand for them, holly, maple, persimmons, sassafras and beech. The amount of lumber actually handled annually, locally and shipped, in Memphis, is 170,000,000 feet, with a value of about $13.00 per 1,000. There are within a radius of 100 miles of Memphis at least 1,000 sawmills in active operation. It is absolutely impossible to be accurate to a figure in this matter, but this estimate is such as is approved by the best informed among the lumber men of the district. Of these mills, 850 produce annually 1,000,000 feet each; 100 produce 5,000,000 each, and 50 produce 10,000,000 feet each. A portion of this is used locally, but the greater part is shipped over the north half of the United States from New England to California, and in all directions west of the Mississippi. Memphis ranks as the sixth boot and shoe market in the country and in every other line of trade and commerce. Its banking facilities are not equalled by any city of its size in the entire country, and its street car and telephone service are not surpassed by any city. Memphis has learned one lesson and learned it well, her system of sewerage and sanitation was arranged by one of the best sanitary engineers the United States possesses, and has been most thoroughly carried out by the city authorities. She has no private wells, only a few cisterns and those closely watched by the health officers, and not a surface water closet within the city limits. For her magnificent water supply she is indebted to the energy and persistence of R. C. Graves, and as the result of one man's faith in himself, Memphis has a pure and abundant supply of water. The government chemist, Prof. Smartt, says : ' 'It shows no more trace or taint of impurity than the distilled rain water which I use as a standard of purity." Since this water has come into general use the death rate has been reduced twenty-four per cent. The soil of Memphis is first, 20 feet of loam, then 24 feet of gravel, then 165 feet of whitey blue clay, absolutely im- the ten best states of america. 149 pervious to water, then 600 to 800 feet of water bearing sand. This sand extends some 125 miles on each side of Memphis; thus the water of the city comes to it from a filter 600 feet thick and 200 miles by 250. The well pipes run some 100 feet into this water bearing sand. There are about sixty of these wells of 1,000,000 gallons a day capacity each. They flow into a hermetically sealed horizontal well eighty feet unde%round, and from this the water is pumped by what is probably the most perfectly arranged pumping apparatus in the country. There are four of these pumps of 10,000,000 gallons a day capacity. But above all. and beyond all is its salubrious climate. Standing as it does on the northern line of the cotton belt, and the southern of the wheat, on the border between the two sections, it offers the good qualities of both and neither experiences the fierce heats of summer nor the icy breath of winter. An elaborately prepared pamphlet giving the advantages of one of the coming cities of the extreme Northwest, in speaking of the beauties of its climate, says, "Our climate is fully equal to that of Memphis, Tennessee," thus making Memphis climate the standard of excellence. A carefully prepared summary furnished, not by a Memphis institution, but by the United States Signal officer stationed there, proves that there is no city on the continent that can show so equable a climate. The average range of the thermometer for a series of years is only eighty degrees, while in central Illinois and Iowa it is 145 degrees of annual range. The average time between the last frost of the spring and the first of the winter is 188 days. The average time of the first frost in the fall is October 25th, and of the last one in the spring, April 19th. The coldest days of the year are in the first half of January, and the warmest in the last half of June. Take 1891, which was a normal year in all its phenomena: The highest was ninety-seven degrees, on June 28, the lowest twenty degrees, on November 29, or a total range for the year of only seventy-seven degrees. The greatest range for a single day was thirty degrees, and the least six degrees. Of the 365 days, there were of cloudless days, 172 ; of partly cloudy, 77 ; of cloudy, 116. Of actual stormy days there were only 111. Consider all these facts and then can you wonder at the health of Memphis? Unequaled sanitary and sewerage system, absolutely pure water, and such a climate! This is the answer to the question of health. But with all these conditions, however pleasant they may 150 the ten best states of america. make a city as a point of residence, something else is needed for making a commercial centre. All these and more Memphis has. As a point for the collection and distribution of the resources and commercial products, and supplying the wants of the lower Mississippi valley, as affording opportunities for investment and attainment of wealth, Memphis has advantages both natural and acquired,fsuch as are given to few other cities on the continent. She has what is given to none other, a system of land and water communication, composed of eleven separate and distinct lines of railroad, and a river, open for the entire year to free and uncontrolled navigation. She is at the head of all-the-year-round navigation, and when the soon-to-come system of deep water navigation is perfected, she will receive the reward due to that position. She has recently completed and opened with imposing ceremonies, a bridge which spans the mighty river and such as has but few equals on the highways of the world, a bridge that must bring to Memphis every line of railroad that wishes.to cross the river within a space of hundreds of miles up and down its course. Each of these lines has a separate and clearly defined section of country from which to draw its business, and bring wealth and growth to Memphis. Another matter in which she is superior to her sister cities is in the fact that, while as a rule, they draw their trade from a country which is mostly an old and well settled one, eight, at least, of the eleven roads of Memphis reach into undeveloped territory, full of all the elements of wealth, agricultural, mineral and timber, which must be built up by and from Memphis, and bring all the immense resources of its growth to enrich and add to Memphis. In addition to these eleven lines of road she has the river, open all the year to free navigation. Who can estimate the value of this in computing the transportation facilities of Memphis ? It is to the river and the beautiful bluffs that Memphis owes her existence, and if the sceptre of transportation has passed from the rolling wave to the iron way, and the shrill whistle of the locomotive taken, in a measure, the place of the stately salutation of the boat, Memphis has by no means lost her affection for, or confidence in and dependence upon, the mighty stream, and in taking on the new love has by no means abandoned the old. With her eleven competing lines of railroad there is but little danger of discrimination or unjust charges. Fourteen lines of steamboats reach the enormous trade of the vast tracts of territory only accessible by the network of river and bayou. Some of the most fertile lands in the the ten best states of america. 151 world are accessible only by means of these ; only by them can immense tracts of valuable timber, as yet untouched by axe or saw, be brought into market. With its eleven lines of railroad Memphis reaches into immense and very largely undeveloped territory. Aside from its own State, adjoining, on the south, is Mississippi, alive with new life and energy ; Alabama, with all its wealth of coal and iron ; across the river, Arkansas, with its unending supplies of mineral, agricultural and timber product, and all the west and south-west waiting for her merchants to reach out their hands and gather the abundance waiting them. By the eleven lines of road all this is made tributary to Memphis, and its river front of four miles in length must be lined with stores, warehouses and factories. By the Mississippi & Tennessee Division of the Illinois Central and the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley, Memphis reaches New Orleans and all the wealthy and rapidly developing Mississippi bottom lands. The Cotton Belt runs from Cairo into Texas ; the Bald Knob line connects it intimately with all the Gould South-western system ; the Little Rock & Memphis, and the Kansas City, Ft. Scott & Memphis, open up through Arkansas the trade of Missouri and portions of Texas ; the Newport News & Miss. Valley, and the Louisville & Nashville bring the wants of Tennessee, Kentucky and Illinois, and give an outlet to the upper Atlantic coast ; the Memphis & Charleston reaches through North Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, East Tennessee and to the Southern Atlantic Coast System; the Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham brings the wealth of the iron beds and coal seams of Central Alabama, and the Tennessee' Midland, opening up a new portion of W,est and Middle Tennessee, with its hardwood forests and iron beds, controls an enormous trade for Memphis. She is within 455 miles of St. Louis ; 250 of Cairo ; 685 of Louisville ; 790 of Cincinnati, and 818 of New Orleans, by river. By rail, 232 of Nashville; 380 of Louisville ; 200 of Clarksville ; 165 of Paducah ; 320 of Evansville ; 85 of Jackson ; 455 of New Orleans ; 350 of Birmingham ; 310 of Chattanooga ; 220 of Vicksburg, and 135 of Little Rock. The following story that the figures tell of Memphis and Memphis progress is of interest to all who wish her well. They are carefully gathered from reliable sources and are thoroughly accurate. Its growth in the past ten years has been phenomenal: Railways.�In 1880, five lines, with twelve passenger 152 the ten best states of america. trains daily, and handling 125,000 freight cars ; in 1892, eleven lines, with twenty-six passenger trains daily, and handling 490, -000 freight cars. As showing what these railroads can do, one of them, the Yazoo & Miss. Valley hauled in one train, with one engine, from Wilson, La., to New Orleans, a train consisting of 152 loaded cars, aggregating one mile and three hundred feet in length, loaded with mixed freight, each car fully loaded and aggregating in weight, as taken from the waybills, 3,865,000 pounds of freight! Can any city show a better haul ? Street Cars.�In 1880, one line twenty-eight miles long, forty cars, and carrying 2,200,000 people ; In 1892, consolidated lines and three dummy lines, seventy-six miles long, eighty cars, and carrying 9,000,000 people ; all electric lines, and a belt line being constructed. Coal.�In 1880, consumption, 4,000,000 bushels ; In 1892, consumption, 14,000,000 bushels. Gas.�In 1880, one company, with 1,500 consumers, supplied 77,000,000 feet ; in 1892, two companies, with 4,200 consumers, supplied 175,000,000 feet, allowing for gas replaced by electric lights. Water.�In 1880, consumers 1,934, using 2,000,000 gallons (River water) with 10,000 tons of ice; in 1892, consumers 6,300, using 12,000,000 gallons (Artesian water) with 28,000 tons of ice. Meat Handled.�In 1880, Ribs, 28,000,000 lbs.; Lard, 38,000 packages ; Bacon, 11,000 packages ; in 1892, Ribs, 34,-326,000 lbs.; Lard, 202,334 packages ; Bacon, 2,952,933 packages. Lumber.�In 1880, eight firms handled 25,000,000 feet ; in 1892, the firms and individuals composing the Lumber Exchange handled 175,000,000 feet. Brick.�In 1880, three concerns made 14,000,000 brick ; in 1892, five companies made 40,000,000 brick, and more was laid in Memphis than in any city of equal population in the United States. Cotton.�In 1880-81, Receipts, 409,809 bales ; In 1891-92, Receipts, 772,606 bales; in 1880, Storage capacity, 60,000 bales ; in 1890, Storage capacity, 300,000 bales ; in 1880, Compresses 4, with capacity of 5,000 bales per day ; in 1892, Compresses 12, with capacity of 15,000 bales per day. Business Exchanges.�In 1880, one, with eighty-eight members; in 1892, five�The Merchants Exchange, with 350 members: The Cotton Exchange, with 177 members; The the ten best states of america. 153 Lumber Exchange, with 86 members ; The Commercial Association, with 516 members ; Young Men's Business League, with 460 members. Manufacturing Enterprises.�In 1880, no record ; in 1892, four hundred and twenty, large and small, employing 10,-000 people, and turning out $12,000,000 of products, against about $2,500,000 of products in 1880. Sewers.�In 1880, one mile of private sewers, with 100 connections ; in 1892, sixty-eight miles, with 10,700 connections. Tax Aggregates.�In 1880, $15,000,000; in 1892, $64,-000,000. Commercial Banks.�In 1880, six Banks, with capital and surplus of $1,732,000, and deposits of $3,216,000; in 1892, nine, with capital and surplus of $6,860,000, and deposits, $8,430,000. Savings Banks.�In 1880, none; in 1892, eight, with capital and surplus of $545,000, and deposits of $1,280,000. Clearings.�In 1880, $47,000,000; in 1891-2, $140,690,-045.60. Postoffice Revenue.�Of Memphis for 1890, $189,-844.32; Of Nashville for 1890, $176,325.01. Population.�In 1880, census, 34,592; in 1890, census, 65,000, including only city limits. Health.�In 1880, death rate per 1,000, 27.54; in 1890, death rate per 1,000, 16.36. In addition to the story the figures from official records so eloquently tell, Memphis is in the center of one of the richest agricultural regions in the world. There were about. 2 5,000 agricultural laborers imported into the Memphis agricultural district last year, and there is no better territory in all this broad land to which these agricultural immigrants could have come�healthy, with an equable climate, good water, old settled society ; churches, schools, and where out door work can be done six days in the week and fifty-two weeks in the year. There is no land on the continent that responds more quickly to kind and judicious treatment than the apparently worn out lands of Southern West Tennessee ; none that with a very few years of hard work, will give better and more lasting returns. These lands, that can now be bought on good time and at from $3.00 to $7.00 an acre, will, with five years of efficient work, be made to return a net income of fifteen to eighteen dollars an acre� not in cotton, but in hay and stock. These lands will yield 154 the ten best states' of america. regularly two crops of "truck," of potatoes, or of hay. A hard-working, active, common sense northern farmer, within the personal knowledge of the writer, on one hundred acres of rented land, cleared, on two crops of potatoes, the summer and fall of 1892, $10,000 net money. Why will people remain in the freezing blizzard swept prairies of the north and west when they can have such climate and raise such crops as can be had in West Tennessee ? Memphis has no especial need of Northern politicians or alleged farmers and imaginary workers, but to all who come here to become one with the country, cast their lot with the people and help build up her city and territory, she extends her hand�the front, not the back of it�in a hearty cordial grasp, and never asks what are your politics, or your belief ; only, ' 'have you come to help build up and develop our common country ?" Again the wheels on our movable home turn ; the cook calls supper ; we spend the evening in pleasant chat about the state we are leaving ; go to sleep and awake in Cfye 23ayou State. " Know ye the land of the holly and pine, Where the flowers ever blossom, the beams ever shine; Where the light wings of zephyr, oppressed with perfume, Wax faint o'er the fields of cotton in bloom?" ^ HE never forgets their first introduction to the State that spans the region between Tennessee and the Gulf of Mexico, and against whose t western border the broad *' Father of Waters " laps for 500 miles. Morning dawns, and the engine of the New Orleans Limited takes breath while the passengers take breakfast at Holly Springs station, the first prominent town after entering Mississippi from the North. Such a breakfast! If the natural surroundings were of a dismal type, we could not be unhappy. Fried oysters, fried chicken, broiled quail, ham and eggs, hot cakes and most delicious coffee! But the surroundings could not well be more pleasing. The station itself is a fine building, and the hilly country that surrounds it forms a beautifully diversified landscape. In a grove of pines on an eminence to the west stands the house where General Grant had his headquarters during the war, and as this has long been an educational center, there are many objects of interest. We are ' 'on the heights " at Holly Springs, it being the summit of the divide between Jackson, Tennessee, and New Orleans. The altitude is 730 feet above sea level. These elevated table lands between the Tallahatchie and Cold Water rivers, like all the hilly country from this point south on the Illinois Central, produce all the cereals, besides fruit and vegetables. Running south forty-six miles we reach Water Valley, the terminus of the division below Cairo. Here the Illinois Central has extensive car, engine and boiler works, employing about 700 hands; and here the hum of 5,000 spindles in the Yocona Cot- 156 the ten best states of america. ton Mills is heard. These spindles use up 600,000 pounds of cotton annually. This calls to mind a little incident illustrating the policy of Our Highway. An Illinois Central representative dropped off at Water Valley one day and found this mill making fine goods, but running on half time. He at once sent samples to Rockford, 111., and opened such a market for the Yocona Mill that they were obliged to run full time and enlarge the mill. On we go through many a thriving town till Durant is reached, eighty-two miles below Water Valley. From this point a branch of the Illinois Central system runs northeast 109 miles to Aberdeen, in what is called the Black Prairie Region of Mississippi. The soil around Aberdeen is similar to that of the western prairies. A fine water power turns the wheels of mills that saw lumber, grind wheat and corn, and gin cotton, all four products making a good yield record in this vicinity. Land in this section readily brought sixty dollars an acre in gold before the war. Corn was grown very extensively at that time, and we are told that in the days when "tax in kind" was paid, three miles of corn cribs have been seen in one place. Returning to the main line at Durant, a ride of two hours sets us down in the capital of the State�Jackson. We have now reached the border of the long-leaf pine region, and find at this nucleus of six lines of railroad, scattered around on a succession of gently rolling hills, a population of 10,000 people. Here on the banks of the Pearl river, we find ourselves enveloped with the warmth of Southern hospitality, surrounded by intellectual refinement and metropolitan conveniences. The growth of Jackson has been steady and substantial, owing to its location in the heart of a district available for the culture of fruit and vegetables, and affording superior advantages for manufacturing. Its water is excellent and its sewerage complete. The best of impressions of this city begin the moment we step from the car, for here the Illinois Central has one of the finest depots in the South. The various humane institutions of the State are located at Jackson, and its educational facilities are the pride of Mississippi and the entire South. Millsaps College, for white boys, is blessed with an endowment of $65,000 from one of Jackson's philanthropic citizens; and the Mary Holmes Seminary for colored girls was built and endowed by a lady of Illinois. The State Library located at Jackson ranks third among the libraries of the Union, and is the largest and best in the Southern States. } the ten best states of america. 157 Stories of the rapid advance in the price of timber lands command our attention here. A gentleman of Grand Rapids, Mich., with a body of 360,000 acres of pine that he purchased for $1.25 an acre, has none for sale, although it will bring from $5.00 to $10.00. One important advantage of an investment in the South is the low pate of taxation. Three cents an acre is the average price here, and on one tract of 8,000 acres the taxes were $49. 50. What a field for investment, where land increases in value 400 per cent in six years! There are even sections in this State where land that was offered two years ago for one dollar an acre now sells for eight dollars. It is astonishing how long the possibilities of this soil, climate and bright cities have slept. Right on the air line of the Illinois Central to the insatiable Chicago market, towns and country remained poor for years. It is like a man scratching out a meagre living from the surface of a rocky, farm, while a rich gold mine lies hidden beneath. Terry, the station sixteen miles below Jackson, is an example of this condition of things. Within a very few years it has been redeemed from bankruptcy by raising and marketing peaches and pears. Eight miles farther south we find that little gem among Mississippi towns, Crystal Springs. This is another specimen of the recent awakening of sleeping resources. The history of the vegetable and fruit business reads as if the discovery of their capabilities in that direction was an accident. Last season as high as twenty-eight solid car loads of tomatoes left this station in one day for the Northern markets. Steaming on again for twenty-one miles we reach Wesson, "The Lowell of the South." The loud clatter of looms and hum of spindles draw our attention at once to the immense cotton and woolen mills that cover six acres of ground near the railway. The Mississippi Mills comprise three large brick structures, as follows: No. 1, re-built in 1873, and opened for business in 1874, is 50x350 feet, three stories; No. 2, built in 1875, and opened for business in 1876, is 50x212 feet, four stories ; No. 3, built and completed in 1889, is five stories, 50x240 feet, two towers, six stories high, 20 feet square, with 5,000 gallon water tanks and automatic sprinklers throughout. The tower between Nos. 1 and 2 is eight stories high with a 20,000 gallon water tank which leads throughout every part of the works, automatic sprinklers, effectually obviating the danger of fire. There is a 158 the ten best states of america. fourth building, 40x100 feet, two stories high ; also a loom shed, one story and basement, 174x340 feet. The large cotton warehouse has a capacity of 8,000 bales ; and in the basement of the loom shed there is a capacity for 2,000,000 pounds of wool. The system of water works of these mills is simply unsurpassed. They have a 115,000 gallon cistern, connected with fire pumps, and a six inch water main and stand pipes at convenient points for attaching hose. The water pumps are operated by two Worthington pumps capable of forcing water over the highest building. The supply is taken from a spring creek a mile distant, is inexhaustible and said to be the finest water in the world. The mills are lighted throughout by the celebrated Brush electric light, said to be the largest electric light plant in any factory in the world. From 1,200 to 1,300 hands are employed, and the present monthly pay roll amounts to from $23,000 to $25,000 per month. Products from these mills can be found in almost every town from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Gulf to the British possessions. There is hardly any article in staple goods, made of cotton or wool, but what they can supply. The following is a list of their productions: Cassimeres, jeans, tweeds, doeskins, linseys, flannels, wool knitting yarn, cotton knitting yarn, cottonades, flannelettes, ginghams, plaids, cheviots, checks, stripes, hickory, brown sheeting, cotton rope, cotton warp yarn, shirting, drilling, eight ounce osnabergs, ticking for feathers and mattresses, sewing thread, sewing cord for bags and awnings, wrapping twine, honey comb towels, awning, balmoral skirts, etc. Samples will be furnished on application. The superior quality of these goods compels the people to buy, and they are largely sold ahead of manufacture. New styles and designs are constantly being introduced. Their styles are purely original�they pattern after no one. They are now manufacturing a new all-wool fancy cassirnere and ladies' dress goods. They have also put in knitting machinery for the manufacture of hose and underwear of superior quality. The annual output of these mills will aggregate about as follows : Cotton Goods----,------------------.---------4,065,000 yards. Woolen Goods-----------------------------2,119,000 " Rope, yarn, twine, etc____.....-------_______320,000 pounds. The knitting department has a capacity for 100 dozen pairs of hosee and half hose per day. the ten best states of america. 159 To turn out this amount of manufactured goods the mill consumes annually, It has 15,000 cotton spindles, with room for 15,000 more ; 350 wool looms and 440 cotton looms. The valuation of the property is $2,000,000. It requires about $1,000,000 working capital to keep the mills in successful operation. A run of seventeen minutes and we have covered nine miles of track and pause at r^rookhaven, the seat of the Whitworth Female College, the largest female college in the South and the fourth largest in the Union. There are 3,000 people here, surrounded by all the healthful and agricultural advantages of the long-leaf pine region. Our party have noticed miniature railroads running at right angles from the Illinois Central, back into the depths of these fascinating pine woods. A sudden impulse takes possession of us to ride away on one of the little trains that carry logs for passengers, so a telegram is sent on to Judge White, a veteran lumberman at McComb City, twenty-four miles farther down. We are soon there ; hastily improvised seats of fresh, sweet lumber are arranged on the flat cars, and with a prolonged "squeak" from our ' 'toy" engine that sets us all laughing, an exciting and novel ride begins. A sail in a wind that required double reefs would not be half so thrilling. No cuts or fills on this railroad ; up and down hills ; in and out ravines ; through a little piece of burning woods, where huge dead trunks blaze out at the top like gigantic torches, and where the sweet, pitchy smell of the smoke is like incense ; deeper and deeper into the forest we go, till log piles, clearings and cabins are all left behind and we reach the solid wall of the undisturbed timber aristrocrats. All this wealth of wood to be removed, and then a fortune in the soil beneath! But a remarkable region lies west of us. It is The bright December sunlight is reflected from the huge boles of oak and cypress as we step from the train at Shaw's, on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad. We are in the heart of the Yazoo Delta. So much has reached our ears since we Of Cotton. Of Wool,_ 5,000 bales. ,250,000 pounds. Ok (Sreat tyazoo Delta. the ten best states of america. 161 entered the state of Mississippi concerning this famous region that we look around with much the same interest with which one would survey a battle field, and it is a question whether the chimneys of an ancient ruin would arouse our enthusiasm more than the towering trunks of girdled trees that surround us. The little town seems to cling to the steel rails that connect it with civilization, fairly overawed by the vegetable giants that surround it. A huge black bear, fat as a seal and with a coat like silk, is rolled into the baggage car, billed at 300 pounds. He was killed so near that the crack of the rifle mingled with the music of the piano. But the locality is soon divested of any preconceived terrors, for in the perspective gleam the walls of white cabins, and still whiter cotton seems to spring up spontaneously among the dead trees. The size of that cotton and the trees in a peach orchard near by tell us in simple and forcible language the strength of the Delta soil. We need not borrow any Old World glory by calling this vast bed of alluvial soil "The Ganges," or "The Nile." It has fame that is purely American. With all, if not more fertility than those natural granaries of other countries possess, it has a multiplicity of valuable characteristics the inhabitants of those notorious valleys never dreamed of. There is not a hill in all this vast region ; not a stone save those brought here by man. The chief elevations are the Indian mounds, some of them not ignoble rivals of the pyramids, many of which are to be seen on the line of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad. But what is, and where is, The Delta? is a common question. It is a V shaped piece of land lying between the bluff hills on the east and the Mississippi river on the west, the point of the V beginning about a mile above Vicksburg, where the Yazoo river joins the Mississippi. Its northern extremity is twelve miles south of Memphis. The course of the Yazoo river marks the eastern boundary. The Delta contains 4, 500,-000 acres of land. Probably there never was a section of country the victim of more erroneous impressions held by those unacquainted with it. It has been considered by many a great swamp, whereas, although generally flat, it has the best natural drainage to be conceived. It has a fall of 114 feet from its head at Horn Lake to the mouth of the Yazoo river. All its streams flow southward, and there are, according to the report of a civil engineer who has traversed it in all directions for nineteen years, no swamps within its entire area. The term * 'swamp" has been given it by the natives to distinguish it from the "hills." 11 162 the ten best states of america. Large navigable streams flow through the Delta, making a perfect net-work of water-ways. There are at least thirty-one that are utilized by steamboats of from fifty to one thousand tons burden. These all flow into the Yazoo river, which receives the entire drainage from Horn Lake to the city of Vicksburg. Besides these streams there are many large bayous that are used by raftsmen and those engaged in getting out timber. These, also, are capable of being navigated by small craft for two or three months during the rainy season. The entire surface of the Delta is covered by a heavy, dense growth of timber, where it has not been destroyed for the purpose of cultivating the soil. A perfect museum of woods exist here. There are twelve varieties of oak. Six of the twelve varieties of oak are good for staves, and there is a wheel made from the water oak that has been running over forty years in the Delta. Of the two varieties of locust, the black locust is the best post timber in the world. The brpad statement is made by some that it never rots. There are several varieties of ash. The cane ash is very tough and is used for making oars and agricultural machinery ; the black ash is consumed in great quantities by furniture factories ; the blue ash has a beautifully variegated wood, and the swamp ash is converted into pump stuff. Four kinds of gum grow in the Delta� the tupelo, which is so soft and light that it can be compressed and moulded ; the white ; the red, which imitates mahogany closely ; and the brown gum, which is called ' 'satin-wood" and is used for veneering the interior of the finest passenger coaches. Consignments of red gum are shipped from the Delta direct to Liverpool, to be made into furniture, and logs of various kinds are shipped in the rough to Boston. Next to the oak ranks the cypress in importance. Three kinds grow in the Delta : the red, or ' 'sinky" cypress, the yellow and the blue. The latter is the largest of the cedar family. The cypress tree attains such an immense size and has such a straight grain, that the facts concerning the tree are almost incredible to one who has never visited this region. Our party noticed two or three big logs just hauled into an enclosure, and as there was no saw mill there we asked to be enlightened. ' 'That is the material for a house. They will split those logs into straight boards of even thickness," was the reply. Then we noticed for the first time that what we had supposed to be sawed boards on the fences were simply boards split out of cy- the ten best states of america. 163 press. We were told of a house 25x32' feet, with nine foot walls and four rooms, shingles and all, being split out of one cypress tree, and some of that same tree was still lying on the ground unused. The cypress and gum are the highest trees in the Delta, and are found in great numbers where their tall, straight bodies rise eighty or ninety feet without a knot or limb to mar their clean, lance-like symmetry. The actual height and circumference of some rare specimens would seem marvelous to anyone having never seen this timber. Other varieties of wood growing in the Delta are mulberry, dogwood, maple* iron wood, pawpaw, holly, pecan, hickory, elm, hackberry, box elder, cottonwood, willow, privet, wild cherry, poplar, beech and sassafrass. We know the last as a shrub in the north, but here it grows six feet in diameter, and large grape vines are found here measuring eighteen inches through the center. Oak staves are an important article of export from the Delta, and near Greenwood, the Pabst Brewing Co., of Milwaukee, have purchased 40,000 acres of timber from which they are manufacturing their beer keg staves. To fully realize the value of the Delta timber, let us consider a few items of consumption. The demand for quarter sawed oak for bank and house finishing is enormous. For railway ties it is estimated that 267,2gj acres of timber must be cleared annually, providing no new roads are built. But a fair calculation on new roads would devastate 50,000 acres more for ties. Adding the demand for piling, bridge timber, trestle work, car construction, depots and other buildings, with endless repairs, and a million acres a year is estimated as a conservative demand for railroads alone. This amount seems appalling, but for commerce and other purposes we probably use fifty times the amount. For the eleven months ending May 31, 1892, we sent to foreign countries 573,999,000 feet. Estimating 6,ooo< feet to the acre and adding a month to the time, and we clear 104,363 acres for export. For the manufacture of spools for cotton thread it takes 530,000 cords annually; for clothes-pins 2,000 cords are used; for shoe pegs 100,000 cords are needed yearly; for tooth picks 30,000 cords; for friction matches 375,000 cords. For cooperage alone, 1,000,000 cords of the best timber is used every year. Over 300,000 acres of timber land are cut over yearly for tan bark. Manufacturers of doors, sash and blinds consume in the 164 the ten best states of america. same length of time 390,000 cords of the best timber, and wooden pumps 100,000 cords more. Many other industries in which wood is used might be mentioned. Four of our party could just clasp hands around a white oak we examined, which was one of many we observed. Without doubt the Delta contains the largest and finest body of hard wood timber in the world. Heretofore this timber has been considered of small value compared with the soil it grows on, and has been wantonly wasted to make room for cotton. In the language of Charles Lamb, "It seems like burning down a house to roast a pig." The great depth and inexhaustible richness of this soil is not only proved by its gigantic timber, but by its crops. Everything will thrive in the Delta. On some old plantations where cotton has been grown successively for fifty years without an ounce of fertilizer or a year's rest, the land still produces a bale to the acre; and there are numerous instances where over two bales to the acre are obtained. A widow lady had the latter yield on 800 acres. By comparison with cotton fields seen elsewhere on our journey, this is not hard to believe, for the stalks in the Delta are ' 'high as a man on horse back." Our visitors having reached a spot where grows to perfection the plant that figures so largely in the commerce of the world, a short description of it will be appropriate. While we are digesting the few wonderful features of the Delta our attention has been called to (Lotion. When a whole field of cotton is in bloom, a more beautiful flower garden is not to be found. On the same plant may be seen the different stages of development. First the creamy white flower, which is red on the second day and falls on the third, leaving a small boll enveloped in a calyx. This boll gradually develops till it reaches the size and shape of an egg, when it bursts into a mass of lint of the purest white. The last change is like the popping of a kernel of corn. Cotton is as old as humanity. The earliest records of the Asiatics and Egyptians speak of it. Herodotus speaks of this plant as growing in India 450 years C, and bearing a the ten best states of america. 165 fleece more delicate and beautiful than that of sheep. Garments of cotton were worn by the ancient Egyptians one thousand years B. C. From that time to the present it has steadily grown in favor and extent of cultivation. Cotton was found growing wild in certain parts of America, by Columbus, in 1492, and subsequent explorers found it in abundance along the banks of the Mississippi and its tributaries. It is certain that the Aztecs and the Incas had obtained a good knowledge of the cultivation and manufacture of cotton long before the occupation of America by the Europeans. It is therefore generally believed^ that cotton is indigenous to Asia, Africa and America and is not a native of Europe. 166 the ten best states of america. The history of cotton in the United States dates from 1784, when a shipment of eight bales was made to Europe. Since that time its cultivation has steadily increased until now our annual crop reaches over nine million bales. There are said to be many varieties of cotton, but only1 two are known in the South�the Sea Island and the common. The former is grown only on the eastern coast and neighboring islands, while the common or upland cotton forms the .chief staple of the South. It is planted in April, cultivated much like corn, and picked late in the fall. To produce a 500 pound bale of lint cotton, two and one-quarter tons of vegetable matter must be grown�500 pounds of leaves, 1,500 pounds of stalks, 500 pounds of roots, and 500 pounds of bolls or burrs, and 1500, pounds of seed cotton. Cotton is a child of the sun. Its heliotropic tendencies are more marked than the sunflower. "Its leaves receive the first glow of morning light, and following the King of Day, dismiss it at eve in the west with dewy regrets." With us it is an annual herb, further south a shrub, while under the tropics it is a small tree enduring many years. Among our field crops it stands without a fellow�alone�peculiar in its habits and characteristics. By its long, deep tap root, it is enabled to withstand droughts and to pump up from the lower layers of the soil plant food unavailable to fibrous rooted plants, which is quickly assimilated by its large leaf surface. Hence it thrives better on poor land than any other field crop. Most people living outside of cotton districts think that the value of the cotton plant is in the lint, whereas there are several other-very valuable products from this southern "king." As the cotton is picked it takes 300 pounds to make iqo pounds of lint�one-third lint and two-thirds seed. The seed is worth $10 per ton at the gin. It is used for feed by planters to some extent, but is mostly sold to oil mills. After the lint is separated from the seed by a machine process called ginning, the seed is ground and cooked by steam; then the oil is pressed out, the yield being about forty gallons to a ton of seed. The oil cake that is left after the oil is pressed out, is ground and sold as "cotton seed meal." About one-fourth of this meal is used as a fertilizer and three-fourths for feed. Much of it is sent north or exported. A ton of seed yields 700 pounds of meal. About 1,000 pounds of hulls are left from each ton of seed. Part of these hulls are used for fuel in running the oil mills and the ten best states of america. 167 the balance sold for cattle feed. Linen paper is made from cotton dust, and cotton hull ashes are sold at $21.00, a ton vat the mill, for fertilizer. Each bale of cotton contains fifteen pounds of motes, which, until recently were considered of no value whatever. A machine has recently been invented for ginning motes, which gives them a market value. As there was from 100,000,000 to 150,-000,060 pounds of these motes produced with last year's cotton crop, it will be seen that such an immense quantity, if carefully and persistently saved, will add very largely to the total income from the cotton crop. Cotton is ginned at so much per bale, the price varying at different points and under different conditions. The average price is $2. 50 to 3.00 per bale. The weight of .a bale of cotton is from 400 to 600 pounds, the average being less than 500 pounds. The seed is usually taken as a part or full payment for the ginning, cost of bagging, hoops, &c., or returned to planter. Not till after the civil war was much effort made to manufacture cotton in the South, but since that period the business has steadily increased until the percentage of that increase far exceeds that of New England. t The conditions for manufacturing cotton in the South are more favorable than those of any other part of the world. The freight charges on raw material to other points are saved; the profits of dealers in cotton are eliminated; labor and living are cheaper than in other parts of the United States, and the cost of bagging and ties is almost entirely saved by selling these back to the planter and thus using them over and over again till worn out. Hence it is plain that cotton can be grown and manufactured cheaper in the South than in any other part of the world. Such being the case, is it strange that we grow enthusiastic over a cotton plantation in the Delta, where with the present mode of cultivation two and one-half bales to the acre are possible? The claims of the great staple to pre-eminent consideration cannot be denied in the region best adapted to its culture and where its best qualities have attained their highest development. For at least two generations the planters of this portion of the Mississippi Valley have directed their intelligence towards increasing the length and fineness of the staple, and having the naturally superior quality of their cotton to back them, Bender's cotton being celebrated the world over, have produced many the ten best states of america. 169 varieties of- long staple cotton, second only to Sea Island, in all the characteristics that make long cotton valuable. Of late increased attention has been paid to the culture of this class of cotton, and there is little doubt that the Egyptian staple will ultimately be driven out of the American market. Interesting as the fleecy plant is we must turn to other products of the Delta. Although great steamers float by this region loaded with Northern corn, it yields enormously here� from seventy-five to one hundred and twenty-five bushels to the acre ; and sixty bushels of the finest wheat in the world have been harvested from an acre of Delta land. Sweet potatoes yield 500 bushels on the same amount of ground, and some of them weigh seven and eight pounds apiece. All vegetables and fruits give the same remarkable returns for cultivation. More vegetables can be grown on one acre in the Delta than on three around Baltimore and Norfolk.* The healthfulness of the Delta is fully proven by statistics wherein the death rate is shown to be only eleven to one thousand�less than the hill country, even. Land can be bought for from five dollars to ten dollars an acre, and with inexpensive improvements will actually bring as much cash rent as the original cost of the land. In the north, land that costs sixty dollars an acre rents for two dollars an acre. The most independent and care free man on earth is the owner of a good Delta farm. We met a gentleman who owned 540 acres. It was rented and he had just received $5,000 as his share of the cotton crop. We were unable to get the details of some other crops grown on the same farm. When timber was sacrificed to make tillable land, it cost but one dollar an acre to deaden it, and a good crop of cotton was realized the first year. Where timber is so plenty and so straight grained, fencing is not expensive. Seventy-five cents a thousand is paid for splitting rails; a renter's cabin costs $100 and a well $25.00. We haven't any eulogies to pronounce on the hog that runs in the Delta, but the per cent, of profit in him is startling. He costs forty cents and sells for six dollars ! With all this productive power, ninety per cent, of the Delta merchant's bills are for something to eat. This condition of things will soon change. We must bear in mind that the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R. was not built through here till 1885. We have given but a cursory glance at this marvelous region* dealing concisely with the practical points ; but, in the 170 the ten best states of america. Yazoo Delta, to a greater degree than in any other tract of land on the globe, is truth stranger than fiction. Its broad and almost bottomless plains of alluvium represent a condition of fertility that cannot be exaggerated. It is the vein of pure gold in the quartz of a continent. The beauties of the towering trees and lesser vegetation that surmount this marvelous soil, are like the rays that flash from a priceless gem. If the price put on these lands were based on their productive power, none but millionaires could own plantations in the Yazoo Delta. But they are bought so low that many an owner realizes one hundred per cent, in rentals. The location of this vast bed of inexhaustible fertility is as advantageous as its other conditions. The Yazoo & Mississippi Valley railroad spans its entire length and carries its products in a few hours to that Gateway of the World�New Orleans, while Memphis on the north and Vicksburg on the south are ample and convenient supply markets. No illustration that can be used is so forcible as the Yazoo Delta itself. No eloquence can enhance the agricultural magnificence apparent to the eye, even from the window of the flying train. And the most important feature of this wealth of soil and favorable climate is its adaptability to the growth of such a wide range of products. From all the great staples down to the most uncertain vegetable, there is nothing that will not reach its greatest perfection in the Yazoo Delta, except the tropical fruits. It might be fenced in and become an independent, self-sustaining empire. Were the conditions of the Yazoo Delta widely known, there would be a stampede for its lands greater than the rush to California during the gold excitement of '49. There are no big cities in the Delta, but there is one that bids fair to grow to important dimensions. We refer to Cf?e Delta metropolis. Nestled upon the banks of the great Mississippi river, 140 miles south of Memphis and 325 miles north of New Orleans, located upon the highest point of the valley between the bluffs at Memphis and Vicksburg, is the growing, progressive young city of Greenville, justly called the "Queen City of the Delta." In 1880 the population of Greenville was 2,100 ; in 1890 the ten best states of america. 171 the population was 7,000, a gain of nearly four hundred per cent, in ten years. The location and surroundings make Greenville the natural trading point for the Delta proper, and the fact that the town does the largest business of any place of its size in the south is not strange when all things are considered� the great country around it and the central -location with the unusual transportation facilities. The banking capital of Greenville, while quite large, is not equal to the business demands of the growing city. The Citizen's Bank, with $100,000 capital; the First National Bank, with capital and surplus of $130,000, and the Merchant's and Planter's, with $100,000 capital, do all the business their capital will permit, and are all in substantial condition with unlimited credit. The public schools of the city for both races are unexcelled. The free public school is open for ten months in the year. Public school No. 1 is for whites�-a splendid brick building, centrally located, accommodating about 500 pupils, trained by ten teachers, Public school No 2 is a splendid two story building for the colored people, in which'are taught about 400 pupils by colored teachers. The St. Rose of Lima's Academy is a flourishing school conducted by the sisters of the Catholic church. The Greenville Business College is also a successful institution. The transportation facilities of Greenville are unsurpassed. The Y. & M. V. R. R., with its various branches, the Georgia Pacific, with its branches, and the great river on its front, give ample avenues of ingress and egress, and all competition necessary to secure the best rates possible. The climate is all that could be desired, neither extremely cold in winter nor unsufferably warm in summer. The health of the city is remarkably good, the mortuary reports showing the death irate to be less than any town of similar size in the United States, except one. The banks of the river a few years ago caved badly, and for the time did considerable damage and caused some alarm for the safety of the town, but the Federal Government and the city have worked in conjunction until now a solid line of stone revetments extends from the city's front north for two miles, and the banks are as solid as the "Rock of Ages." In 1890 an overflow of the river banks did great damage to the country, but since that time the Federal Government has come to the aid of the local Levee Boards and they have completed a magnificent line of levees from Memphis to Vicks- 172 the ten best states of america. burg, far above the highest flood level, and absolute safety against future overflow is now felt by all. The city now has two mammoth oil mills, two large cotton compresses, nearly eight miles of street railroads, a splendid electric light system, vast saw and planing mills, a great ice factory and bottling works, an enormous brick manufactory, and water works and paved streets will soon follow. , All that is needed now to push Greenville to the front is a cotton factory to weave into fabrics the extra quality of cotton raised at her door; a canning factory to utilize the vast products of the garden and fields that now go to waste ; a furniture, wagon and box factory to turn into manufactured articles the superior timber on every hand. Pure water for use in manufacturing enterprises is in abundance. Efforts are being made to secure these factories. The people of Greenville will offer every inducement to secure the establishment of such enterprises here, because they know that success will be the result. There is room here for extensive factories of all kinds, because she has the raw material at her doors, ample transportation facilities, a mild climate and an enterprising people. Greenville citizens certainly do not lack enterprise. They raised $50,000 to revette the Mississippi river bank before the Government took hold of it; and they watched the levee for a distance of 220 miles in the time of high water. This will eventually be a great point for cotton factories. During the season, 20,000 bales of cotton are growing in sight of Greenville, and it is said to have an advantage of nine dollars a bale over other localities. Being below the mouths of three great rivers, lumber has an advantage of two dollars a thousand. Ct Cyptcal Southern (�tty. One evening we climb the frowning bluffs of a city below the point of the Delta. So impressed are we with the thought of what has been, and so numerous are the scars still apparent, that it seems as if we could almost hear the faint echoes of the last gun of a great bombardment. But no ; years of peace intervene ; we climb a stairway to the office of The Commercial Herald, the door swings ' open, the click of the telegraph instrument is heard, and the light that almost blinds us is not brighter than the welcome we receive. The "Gray" and the "Blue" sit the ten best states of america. 173 down together. "Tell us the story of Vicksburg and its surrounding country up to date," is our request. Capt. Battaile lays down his pencil, removes his cob pipe, and a train of eloquence is fired. Says he : "The traveller by steamer from St. Louis or Memphis, after days of voyaging through monotonous scenery, cannot suppress a thrill of pleasure when upon rounding a long bend in the river,the city of Vicksburg bursts upon his view, crowning its historic hills for two miles and following their outlines even to the river's brink. The picture is inspiring, whether seen at evening when the last rays of the setting sun gild its spires, or at night, when the outlines of the city are dimly defined by myriads of lights ; and gains much in picturesqueness from the fact that the rock-ribbed hills on which the city is reared are the first highlands seen for hundreds of miles, while their western slopes and summits are so regular that more than half the town is spread before the observer like a map and may be seen at a single glance. The picture, too, has a noble setting, from the sky over head, as blue and as sunny as that of Italy, to the even deeper azure lake, nestling at the foot of the hills ; and the river, flowing in serpentine windings in the foreground, to the broad sweep of fertile lowland amid which the visitor is^ passing at the moment. Fortunate as is the city's location from the stand-point of a lover of the picturesque and beautiful, it is not less so in a strategic or a commercial sense. The long line of hills, skirting the river at close range for several miles, commands its windings perfectly and the city, termed the Gibraltar of the Confederacy, might ]$e considered fairly inpregnable except to an attack by an overwhelming beleaguering force in the rear. Even under these circumstances its capture, after a heroic defense of forty two days, when a comparatively scanty garrison succumbed as much to fatigue and starvation a& to the superier strength of the besiegers, was one of the most notable events of the war. The heights, towering in many instances two hundred feet above the ordinary level of the river, when lined with modern artillery, would constitute an invulnerable barrier to attack; and if the passage of a hostile fleet should be threatened in the future, it would be an easy task to render its progress up the river impossible. The situation of Vicksburg, commercially considered, is equally happy, being nearly midway between Memphis and New Orleans on the north arid south and Meridian and Shreveport on 174 the ten best states of america. the east and west, with no considerable rival besides the two former cities and with a heritage of untold fertility in the lowlands of Mississippi and Louisiana at its feet. The Yazoo river system, comprising eight hundred miles of navigable waters, penetrating the rich Yazoo-Mississippi delta in all directions, debouches only a few miles above the city ; the broad Mississippi, another feeder of its commerce, flows along the western edge of the delta, through a region whose development has scarcely begun, while the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley and the Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Railroads intersect each other within its limits and afford a system of inland transportation that leaves nothing to be desired. Such are the most salient points that arrest the visitor's attention and attest the wisdom of the city's founders. A nearer examination elicits many others. The city proper is compressed within the limits of ah irregular parallelogram comprising about nine hundred acres. Its suburbs cover a much larger area, but the topography of the whole is practically the same�a succession of hills and valleys with an average elevation of nearly one hundred and twenty five feet above the river, draining freely in all directions, with considerable plateaus, but sufficiently broken in surface to present many difficulties to the engineer, more or less successfully surmounted, and many opportunities, to the landscape gardener, some of which have been improved with infinite taste, as many beautiful residences and grounds attest. The salubrity of the site is secured by its elevation and perfect surface drainage, and the death rate. will compare favorably with any city in the Union, excluding the negro population, whose general disregard of sanitary laws entails a fearful penalty in all latitudes and under the most favorable circumstances. Not less than %eighteen thousand persons, whites and negroes, inhabit the city and its suburbs, and the mortality of the former is barely seventeen in the thousand. Pulmonary complaints are rare, and while diphtheria and scarlet fever, those scourges of infancy in more northern latitudes, are known, they are of a mild type and have never shown that virulent infectiousness that characterizes them elsewhere. Typhus and typhoid fevers are equally infrequent and the prevalent ailments are such as yield readily to prompt treatment. A very large number of citizens have passed the limit of three score and ten years, and it is a notable fact that their old age is not characterized by decrepitude of mind or body, but that their functions are unimpaired to the last. Many of these: the ten best states of america. 175 are still active members of the community and scarcely one an invalid. This happy condition is largely due to the mildness of the climate, which renders outdoor life comfortable at all seasons. Where roses blooming in the open air are the rule in December, and ice and snow the exception, the free winds of heaven penetrate, and hibernation is no longer the lesser of two evils. At the time of this visit, December 15th, a bouquet of tropical bloom may be culled in any garden, geraniums and other delicate plants being in flower, and verdant lawns are seen everywhere. Whole winters pass without seeing the mercury five degrees below the freezing point, and there is not a month in which something may not be grown out of doors. The long^ summers are not oppressive, except at rare and brief intervals. The nights are almost invariably pleasant, the days breezy. Sun-stroke is practically unknown and the heated term is notable for its healthfulness. Favored with such a climate the possibilities afforded the florist and landscape gardener are endless. The city abounds accordingly in flowers and tropical plants, the banana's broad leaves spread themselves to the sun on all sides; the rugged hills, shaped into terraces and covered with rich grass, are transformed into objects of beauty, and in ordinary summer weather, which means nine months in the year, the city is a garden of bloom. At this season the shady walks and verdant parterres of the National Cemetery are a favorite resort. More than twenty five years ago the United States purchased forty-five acres of land a mile north of the city and began the difficult task of, converting it into a fitting place of repose for their dead. It was then a barren, hill, seamed with ravines, scantily covered with shrubs and trees�a picture of desolation. The ablest engineers, among them Gen. Comstock, now president of the Mississippi river commission, planned the walks and terraces and the elaborate drainage system which keeps the surface intact ; the space was inclosed with a low, strong wall and the pious task of collecting the bones of the dead from the battle fields of the vicinity' began simultaneously with the beautification of their last resting place. At present sixteen thousand and six hundred Federal soldiers sleep beneath the emerald sod of this beautiful park, and while it is second in extent to only one National Cemetery in the United States, thousands of visitors pronounce it more attractive than any. No better evidence of the manly generosity of the Southern people could be presented than the fact that this cemetery is the pride of a city which sent nineteen companies the ten best states of america. 177 to swell the Confederate army and shed their blood on every notable battle field of the war. The cemetery is reached by a fine graveled road, extending from the city to its principal entrance and running between the shore of Lake Centennial, a beautiful sheet of water, and a line of rocky cliffs which overhang it in many places. A magnificent granite arch spans the entrance to the grounds. The latter are a succession of walks and drives, terraces and lawns, planted with handsome and well grown trees, with a profusion of flowers at effective intervals, and are exceedingly well kept. The visitors' book contains the names of pilgrims from every state in the Union and every civilized Nation, in fact, among them those of many distinguished persons. So many have been attracted to the city by its historic fame, that guides may be obtained anywhere, and hence it is only needful to say that the points of special interest in this connection are the scene of the surrender, now marked by a large cannon; the lines of defense and attack, which are accessible by numerous roads; Grant's and Logan's headquarters, the old barracks and the sites of the famous guns "Whistling Dick" and "Jeff Davis." Many of*the excavations in the hill sides, in which the inhabitants took refuge during the bombardment, may still be seen, though most of them have been graded out of existence. It is a fact that .weeks were passed by many in these gloomy abodes, and not a few persons still live who were born in them. The battle field of Chickasaw Bayou, three miles north of the city, may also be visited with interest. Here Gen. Sherman's campaign against Vicksburg terminated in a desperate assault on the Confederate position, bloodily repulsed by Gen. S. D. Lee. The two attacking divisions, as Gen. G. W. Morgan, the commander of one, declared, lost eighteen hundred men in fifteen minutes, so terrible was the fire poured upon them. Southern towns are generally considered careless of appearances, and, the condition of their streets and sidewalks is frequently severely commented upon. The broken surface occupied by this city makes street improvement a knotty and expensive problem, but in the past seven years the city has spent fully two hundred thousand dollars for improved streets and side walks, and the work is still being actively prosecuted. Many important streets have been graded and paved with gravel and the city now possesses numerous excellent drives. Much remains to be done and the outlay on this account will probably exceed forty thousand dollars this year. Inexhaustible beds of gravel exist 13 178 the ten best states of america. near the city and paving is done with it at a maximum cost of fifty cents per square yard. This gravel concretes into a solid mass, an unusual quality, due to the presence of iron. The necessity for a sewer system is strongly felt and it is anticipated that contracts for its construction will also be let this year. The city has the power to issue bonds to the extent of $i 00,000 for this purpose. One of the greatest needs of a modern town, an abundant supply of good water, is met by the admirable works of the Vicksburg Water Supply Company, whose plant consists of powerful engines and pumps, an approved system of reservoirs, and fifteen miles of mains, with a daily capacity of five million gallons. The water is derived from the river, and having undergone precipitation in the reservoirs is fairly clear and potable. It is furnished to all parts of the city under high pressure, varying from fifty to one hundred and forty-five pounds to the square inch, according to the elevation; and a hundred public hydrants afford adequate fire protection everywhere. So great is the pressure that engines are rarely used in case of fire, nor has a total fire loss occurred since the works were set in operation. This splendid plant represents an investment of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The company's business shows a handsome yearly increase. * Vicksburg has a paid fire department with a very complete equipment, consisting of three engines, five hose reels and a hook and ladder truck. There are four buildings devoted to fire purposes, three of which are engine houses, built of brick and two stories high. The department, taken in connection with the water supply, is considered one of the best in the South. The thirst for information concerning current events is supplied by numerous newspapers and periodicals; of which the Commercial Herald, published daily and weekly, except Mondays; the Evening Post, daily except Sundays; the Monday Democrat, a weekly; the Southern Guardian, monthly and the organ of the Episcopal church, and the Sunny Southland, a literary monthly, are the only ones of importance. The Commercial-Herald is owned and published by the Vicksburg Printing and Publishing Company, whose establishment also comprises an extensive book bindery and job office, and gives employment to some forty persons. The property includes a large three-story brick building on Crawford street, exclusively tenanted by the company. The paper has an extensive circulation, chiefly in Mississippi and Louisiana, receives the full report of the South- the ten best states of america. 179 ern Press News Association in its own office, over a leased wire, and wields a potent influence in State politics. The other journals depend chiefly on local circulation. The lack of a street railroad system has been felt for years. A short line operated by horse power proved unprofitable and totally inadequate to the city's wants, the grades being too heavy for such method of locomotion. The city has recently granted a franchise to local and western capitalists, who will invest two hundred thousand dollars in building an electric street railroad line over five miles in length, and in setting up a powerful plant for supplying electricity for lighting and other purposes. The route, already decided upon, will ,cover the city thoroughly. Bids are now being received for material, and construction will begin with the spring of 1893. Vicksburg offers many attractions to the sportsman. The clear waters of its own Lake Centennial abound in game fish, and in season the city's daily supply, from that source alone, is estimated at six hundred pounds. This portion of the Mississippi Valley is noted for its beautiful lakes, which are so numerous that scarcely any county in the Delta or the Louisiana lowlands is without several of them. All are plentifully stocked with black bass and other fine fish and in the winter are frequented by myriads of ducks and geese. A party at Swan Lake, last winter, bagged six hundred ducks. Wild turkeys are also plentiful and quail remarkably so, in the uplands, besides other game birds, but the swamps of the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta, as well as Northwestern Louisiana, within thirty miles of Vicksburg, are especially notable for big game. Deer, bear and panthers are alike abundant and the immense area of land subject to overflow, and which therefore must remain uncultivated, renders it impossible to exterminate them or even to materially reduce their numbers. The best evidence of this is that these regions have been the hunting-ground of a commonwealth of inveterate huntsmen for at least seventy-five years, and the game is still plentiful. Hunting parties could make Vicksburg their base of operations and from it reach any desired point in the region frequented by game, in a few hours travel by rail or river. Many such parties already visit this territory annually and always with great success. The market of Vicksburg is well supplied with game from this territory. The city has an excellent public school system, reinforced by several private schools, with a total enrollment of two thous- 180 the ten best states of america. and, five hundred pupils. The public schools are supported by a direct tax of four mills on property within the city and have an annual revenue of twenty-five thousand dollars and a large and capable corps of teachers. The methods pursued are those of the best modern schools and the buildings are large and well equipped in all respects, consisting of a three-story brick building on Main street, a two-story frame on Cherry street, and another frame building on Walnut street, which accommodate one thousand six hundred pupils. The Cherry street building is devoted to the negroes and a second story has just been added to it. The ordinary enrollment is 900 pupils, and St. Mary's Mission School, a private school under the auspices of the Episcopal church, educates several hundred more. This latter school is doing a great work among the negroes and merits a broader foundation than its present means supply. A fourth school building, in the southern part of the city, is projected, to be a substantial brick structure, costing not less than twenty-five thousand dollars. The leading private schools are St. Aloysius' Commercial College, taught by the Christian Brothers, whose ^elegant brick building occupies an elevated site in the eastern part of the city and is attended by several hundred boys and young men. St. Francis Xavier's Academy for girls, also a Roman Catholic institution and attended by a large number of pupils from the city and adjacent territory, is under the direction of the Sisters of Mercy and enjoys a great reputation. Its superb buildings and grounds occupy three-fourths of a block in the heart of the city and represent an investment of one hundred thousand dollars. The buildings are all of brick and include a magnificent hall, with a seating capacity of fifteen hundred persons, situated on Cherry and Crawford streets. Other prosperous schools, of lesser importance, but decided merit, might be mentioned, of which Mary LeGrand Institute and Vicksburg High School are the chief. A military school is badly needed and would command a large patronage. The oldest building of importance in the city is the court house, erected in the fifties, at a cost of $100,000, but which would cost a much larger sum now. It occupies a noble site, an entire square in the northern half of the city, elevated from ten to twenty feet above the adjacent streets, being the summit of a hill which has been cut down, terraced and surrounded by a brick retaining wall. It overlooks the entire city and its de- the ten best states of america. 181 sign, purely classical, is worthy of its commanding situation. It is b*uilt of brick, finished with stucco, and has lately been repaired and refurnished at an expense of twenty thousand dollars. Additional repairs will be made on its interior. It contains all the offices for county officials, and a spacious court room, which is embellished with the portraits of departed celebrities of the bench and bar, including the great orator, S. S. Prentiss, who made this city his home during the better part of his meteoric career, and fought his noted duel with Governor Henry S. Foote on DeSoto Island, which is in sight of and almost at the foot of the hill on which the court house stands. This island, which is in Louisiana, was the scene of many duels when the code, now obsolete for thirty years, was in vogue. Under its spreading Cottonwood trees Congressman Alexander Duvall and young Cunningham, the latter a beardless youth of nineteen years, fought at four feet. Duvall fell, shot through the heart. Not all duels on this historic battlefield have been so fatal, and the exclamation of a fighting editor, Roy, after a fruitless exchange of shots, "A clear miss, by G�d! Load 'em up again Flanagan," has become proverbial. The federal custom house, finished in 1891 at a cost of one hundred thousand dollars, is situated on Crawford street, within a block of the business center, and contains the postoffice, federal court rooms and other public offices. It is a substantial and elegant building of pressed brick with stone foundations and trimmings and its architecture is much admired. The State hospital, originally built for a private residence, but remodeled, is on the Jackson road, at the northeastern limits of the city. This institution has an annual endowment of ten thousand dollars contributed jointly by the city, county and State, besides a considerable revenue from the Marine hospital service and private patients. It is a well managed institution, conducted in accordance with the most approved methods of modern medicine and surgery, and has a capable staff, headed by Chief Surgeon S. D Robins and his able assistant, Dr. John H. Purnell, who are among the State's most brilliant medical men. A numerous class of students or internes assist in caring for the patients and derive great benefit from the experience thus acquired. The hospital is a handsome brick building with spacious and elevated grounds. Churches are numerous and of handsome architecture. Christ church, Episcopal, is a model of an ivy clad English church. St. Paul's Roman Catholic is a fine building exter- 182 the ten best states of america. nally and superbly finished in its interior, with a chime of ten bells, the only one in the State. The Church of the Holy Trinity is an edifice of great architectural beauty and has a spire two hundred and nineteen feet high and numerous stained glass windows, one of which commemorates the dead of both armies, Confederate and Federal. The Methodist, Baptist and Presbyterian denominations have also large and comfortable churches, and the Jewish congregation a handsome temple. The notable monuments of the city are those in memory of the dead of Louisiana, erected in Monument Square, Monroe street�an ornate marble shaft, the offering of surviving comrades, and the Confederate monument, whidh adorns the last resting-place of three thousand victims of the siege, a sunny slope in the city cemetery. This latter is of white marble, ornamented with cannon carved in Tennessee marble and surmounted by a fine statue of a Confederate sentinel, carved in Italy. This was erected by the Ladies' Confederate Memorial Association, and is valued at three thousand dollars. Including the statue it is twenty feet in height. Its design is massive and simple. Another monument, occupying an inconspicuous site in a church-yard on the corner of First East and Monroe streets, preserves the memory of the city's proto-martyr, the gallant Dr. Hugh Bodley, killed by the gamblers in 1835. These desperadoes had congregated here in such numbers and had grown so emboldened by long impunity that life was insecure and no woman was safe from insult. Dr. Bodley headed a party of four hundred armed citizens, who raided their dens, and was shot down by some gamblers who had barricaded themselves in a noted "hell" of the period. The house was stormed by the outraged people and five of its defenders led out to execution. All were hanged to a tree which stood near the intersection of Clay and Farmer streets. This act of summary vengeance completed the victory of the friends.of order and had a most salutary effect. The monument is a pyramid of Italian marble resting on a base of the same, with inscriptions testifying the people's gratitude to their champion. The best points from which to view the city, next to the prospect from the river, are the summit of the court-house, the top of Castle Hill, - which is two hundred and nineteen feet above the river, and the hill north of the city, on the Cherry street road. Each of these affords a bird's-eye view and the prospect from either justifies the claim that Vicksburg is a beautiful town. The hills north of the city also command the ten best states of america. 183 magnificent views of the river and the broad Mississippi valley, and* an artist could find here occupation for his brush or pencil for months. These elevations are themselves picturesque in the extreme, seamed as they are with deep ravines and clad with every variety of vegetation. They have been the site, not only during the late war, but for more than a century before, of fortifications, the Spanish and French alike having recognized the strategic importance of their frowning heights. These hills were originally thickly wooded and also densely covered to their very summits with thickets of cane, straggling remnants of which are still seen. They surround the city on all sides and its eastern area strongly resembles an amphitheatre, as indeed it was for one of the bloodiest dramas of war. But romantic as are its historical associations the city is emphatically a modern town with all the elements of progress. The mains of the Vicksburg Gas Light Company, a plant of the most improved type, pierce its streets in all directions, sixty arc electric lights illuminate the city and progress is seen on all sides. The growth of population is rapid and hundreds of residences are built yearly. Real estate has experienced a steady increase in valuation with no traces of a fictitious and artificial "boom," but such as rests on a firm and genuine foundation. Waste places are being rapidly built up, hills leveled, depressions filled, and the negro population is removing to the suburbs, driven out by the increase in values. Investors in Vicksburg real estate have not made fortunes in a day, but they have lost nothing and no sales are made except at an advance on the prices paid. Except in the most central or fashionable quarters, however, prices are not high and the number of homes owned by the occupants testify to this fact, as well as to the thrift of the people. This happy condition is largely attributable to the agency of the building and loan associations, of which the city has two, the elder, the Vicksburg, which is the most important financial corporation in the State and whose loans have amounted to millions ; and the Citizens, a young, but thriving organization, managed by directors of both races, but chiefly designed to promote the building of homes by the negroes. Both have attained great success. The Vicksburg Building Association, founded in 1879, will soon open its twenty-ninth series. Its semi-annual report for the six months ending June 30th, 1892, shows resources amounting to $547,962.09, with loans of $522,540. The shares number 7, 556 and the profits for six months were $33,339.69. " 184 the ten best states of amejrica. The Citizens Building and Loan Association was organized in 1886 and has fourteen series in operation, represented by twelve hundred shares. Its total loans to date amount to $82,-300 and its profits to $30,062. It loans on an average $2,000 per month. This associatidri has prospered from its inception to the present time. ' The banking institutions of the city are the Vicksburg Bank, the oldest in the city, with resources amounting to $458,675.36 ; the First National Bank, whose assets are $324,481.53; the Merchants' National Bank, with resources amounting to. $508,-442.14; The People's Savings Bank, whose assets are $181,-290.74; and the Delta Trust and Banking Company, with re~ sources which foot up $583,464.57; the whole representing a banking capital amounting to the respectable total of $2,056,-354.34. The Mississippi Home Insurance Company was founded in 1883 and has had a highly successful career. Its capital is $100,000 and its operations are confined to this State. It has no outstanding claims and has paid to policy holders over $300,000. The Cotton Exchange, which is the only commercial body in the city and takes the place of a board of trade in all matters affecting commerce, has at present twenty active and eighteen honorary members. It owns the exchange building, which is situated on Crawford street and is of handsome architecture and commodious size. The exchange is a most public spirited body and the united action of its membership has secured the city many benefits. The management of these institutions has been such as to> facilitate the city's commerce, while invariably safely conservative, and reflects the utmost credit on their officers and directors. Exact statistics concerning the extent of Vicksburg's commerce are not obtainable, except in a few branches of trade, though from these a tolerably'well defined idea may be gained of the amount of the whole. The most considerable single item, of course, is cotton, of which the city received and exported in the season of 1891-2, 74,788 bales, valued at over $3,000,000. Owing to the short crop the receipts for the current year will be some 25 per cent less in volume, but the advance in values fully atones for this deficiency. This cotton is all prepared for shipment in the local compresses and is mostly purchased by resident buyers for Eastern Mills. The supply is drawn from the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta, the districts bordering the Mississippi. the ten best states of america. 185 river above and below the city, the east bank of the Yazoo* river and from inland counties: Large quantities of supplies are shipped in return to this tributary region: The trade in Western produce covers a far more extensive territory, as Vicksburg is the most important distributing point in the State and supplies a large demand in Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana. A leading operator in the city estimates the annual sales at 4,000,000 bushels of corn and oats, 10,000,000 pounds of salt and smoked meats, 200,000 barrels of corn meal and 100,000 barrels of flour. Several large firms are engaged in this branch of trade and latterly the Armour Packing Company has opened a large depot in the city for the sale of its products. The grain and provision trade has undergone a remarkable increase in the past few years. The leading houses have a warehouse on the railroads and canal. The hardware trade has also attained a splendid development and three large wholesale houses compare in extent of operations with those of the largest cities in the South. There has been a marked increase in the demand for agricultural implements, especially mowers. The trade supplied covers the entire State and large portions of Louisiana and Southern Arkansas. There is a great opportunity for pioneers in the wholesale dry-goods, boots and shoes, clothing and hat and cap trades, there being only one exclusively wholesale dry goods house in the city ; though several large firms have wholesale departments and the retail trade is represented by many wealthy concerns. The drug trade is represented by three wholesale firms and many lesser houses. The Standard Oil Company has a large station here and valuable buildings and real estate, this being its chief distributing point in the State. The exchange bought and sold by the local banks is perhaps the best criterion of the volume of business. The annual transactions foot up $40,000,000. It may be truly said that the city's commerce is only limited by the extent of its capital, which is far from enough to supply the wants of the districts penetrated by its lines of transportation. Its merchants compete on equal terms with houses in their lines in all parts of the country and really have larger demands upon them than they can supply. The lines of the Western Union and Postal Telegraph companies, supplemented by private lines in North Louisiana, and by 186 the ten best states of america. telephone lines to Greenville, Jackson, Brandon and intermediate towns, afford communication with all points. The telephone lines are controlled by the* Great Southern Telephone Company, of New Orleans, which is about to build a line to Yazoo City, distant about fifty miles, and also owns the Vicksburg system. It is provided with the best instruments. The local service is very efficient and has 270 subscribers. The lines radiating from Vicksburg comprise over 200 miles of wire. It employs five operators and two linemen, in the city alone, besides an auditor and general manager. Until the past two years the hotels of the city, though well conducted, were totally inadequate to supply the wants of the public, the buildings being small and without modern conveniences. The demand for better accommodations passed unheeded for years, but finally secured attention and the fall of 1891 witnessed the completion and opening of the Hotel Piazza, Vincent Piazza, proprietor, at a cost of $100,000 when furnished; speedily followed by the completion of the magnificent building of the Vicksburg Hotel Company. The Hotel Piazza is an excellent specimen of the modern hotel, planned with especial reference to the exigencies of the warm climate. It is a brick building of four stories and a basement, fronting eighty feet on Washington and fifty feet on Veto streets, and containing one hundred and eight rooms, all of which have windows on the outside and are well lighted and ventilated. It also has a uniquely handsome dining hall, a reading room, billiard room and rotunda, the two latter tiled with marble, and is pronounced by travellers one of the best kept and most elegant hotels in the South. Its rooms are single and en suite, with or without baths, and a passenger elevator of the best type affords easy access to each floor. Vicksburg is a market well supplied with fish, game and vegetables and the bill of fare of the Hotel Piazza is justly celebrated. The building of the Vicksburg Hotel Co. is situated on the corner of Clay and Walnut streets, fronting 175 feet on the former; and 109 feet on the latter, and was built by a stock company composed of 127 business and professional men of the city, at a cost of $135,000, unfurnished. It is within half a block of the business centre and is a very imposing structure, as may be seen, by the accompanying sketch. It is faced on two sides with St Louis pressed brick and is four stories high in the main building and five stories in the center, over the three principal entrances. 188 THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. The house is provided with passenger and freight elevators, electric bells with return call, steam heat in all the public rooms and halls and in the bedrooms, city gas all through the house and river water from the city water-works. Additional hotel accommodations are afforded by the Washington Hotel, Trowbridge House and numerous buildings of lesser importance, whose united capacity is great enough to provide for the comfort of any number of visitors. Vicksburg has been for two generations the center of a cultivated, refined, but not exclusive, society, gay without frivolity, liberal but not lavish in expenditures, and of a high tone of morality. The lover of social pleasures will find a congenial circle here and no lack of variety in enjoyment. Club life has attained considerable development. The Nogales Club, an organization of professional and business men, has a membership of about one hundred and occupies a luxurious house and grounds in the heart of the city, on Clay street between Walnut and Monroe. Here it dispenses a liberal hospitality, giving public receptions on Thursdays, besides frequent balls in the season. The Istolena Club is a thriving organization, exclusively composed of married persons. The B. B. Literary Association, composed entirely of Jewish citizens, has just completed a beautiful Club House on its property, corner of Clay and Walnut streets, at a cost of $44,000, site included. This building is of pressed brick, three stories in height, fifty by one hundred and twenty-five feet. It contains two large stores, and the Club rooms proper, comprising several magnificent parlors and a dinning hall, and a large auditorium in the third story with stage and dressing rooms, designed for use as a ball room or for private theatricals, and with a seating capacity of six hundred persons. The building is lighted by gas and electricity and is finished in native ash throughout. Its architecture is quite imposing. The numerous fraternal organizations are well represented. The Masonic fraternity has a a large membership in Lodge, Chapter and commandery and its temple is one of the finest buildings on Washington street. Vicksburg Lodge 95, Order of Elks, has a hundred members and dispenses a lavish hospitality at its elegant Club rooms on Washington street. There are three Pythian lodges, with a membership of seven hundred and the largest endowment rank in the world. This order has purchased an eligible site near the custom house and will build a temple at an estimated cost of $80,000. THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. 189 There are three lodges of Odd Fellows, with a membership of as many hundreds. # The military organizations are the Volunteer Southrons, a command whose origin dates back to the Mexican war ; and the Warren Light Artillery, successors to one of the most distinguished Confederate batteries of the late war, with an enrollment of eighty officers and men, and a very complete equipment, including two three-inch rifles and a Gatling gun of the best type. Besides the transportation supplied by the railroads centering here, Vicksburg has the benefit of the freest use of the Mississippi river and its tributaries. The following packets ply to this port: St. Louis and New Orleans Anchor Line, triweekly packets plying to Vicksburg and Natchez ; Steamers City of Monroe, City of Cairo, Arkansas City, City of Providence, Belle Memphis and City of Vicksburg. The through Anchor Line boats are City of St. Louis, City of New Orleans and City of Hickman, touching here weekly; Vicksburg and and Greenville Packet Company Steamers, Chattahooche, Ruth and Vesper, making four weekly trips ; Yazoo and Tallahatchie Transportation Company's steamers, Addie E. Fashion, Blanks Cornwell, Birdie Bailey, Lake City, John F. Allen and Ike Bonham, plying the Yazoo and its tributaries semi-weekly; Vicksburg and Natchez Packet Company's steamers, St. Joseph and C. D. Shaw, tri-weekly ; Vicksburg and Davis Bend Packet, L. H. Sargent, semi-weekly ; Vicksburg and Sun Flower Packets, weekly ; Vicksburg and Delta Ferry Company's steamer, Novelty, making frequent daily trips to Delta, La.; Vicksburg and New Orleans steamers, Natchez, T. P. Leathers and Pargoud, each making weekly trips ; ' 'O" Line boats from Cincinnatti, touching here weekly, enroute to New Orleans when the Ohio is navigable. With fifteen feet on the gauge all steamers land at the city wharf, and when the water is lower than this the landing is made at Kleinston, one mile below the city. With the canal, now under construction by the United States Government, completed, boats of all classes can come to the city wharf at any stage of water. Supplementary to the canal project of restoring the harbor, is the plan to turn the Yazoo in front of the city, and surveys to this end are now being made. The tonnage of the port of Vicksburg is immense, the Anchor line boats alone handling three hundred to four hundred tons per boat for this place, while cotton and seed are brought here in large quantities. The cotton is re-sold here, compressed 190 THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. and shipped to eastern or European spinners on through bills of lading. The cotton seed is worked up here by three large oil mills, referred to under the head of manufactures. The principal river business is handled at the city wharf by the Anchor Line Elevator, which has a storage capacity of one thousand tons. River steamers discharge and receive cargo on the west side of the building and the railroads on the east side, where freight is taken for distribution to interior points in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas. The town freight in the elevator is handled by drays which drive through the^building. The facilities for handling freight in the elevator are such that the house can be emptied of its contents in twelve hours, and this is frequently done when necessary. Several hundred feet of wharf give ample room for steamers plying the tributaries to receive and discharge cargo at the city landing, where the Delta Ferry also lands. The local fleet of steamers is the largest between St. Louis and New Orleans, exceeding that of Memphis and Cairo. In addition to the foregoing facilities for shipping and receiving freight in large quantities, the lower, or Planter's Compress, is accessible to boats, and cotton is received or discharged by them at its very doors. Both compresses are also reached by railroads, and several large warehouses, on the canal and between the tracks of both railroads, enable heavy goods to be handled at a minimum expenditure of labor and money. An immense increase in the city's shipments of grain, flour, meal and pork products has resulted in a few years time, from the progressive development of these facilities. The Vicksburg Wharf and Land Company and Vicksburg and Delta Transfer Company are two very important factors in the handling of freights. The former owns the wharfboats at Vicksburg and at Delta, La., besides a large tract of land southwest of the city and comprising the entire landing at Kleinston. The latter owns and operates the railroad transfer steamer Delta, and has the contract for transferring the trains of the Queen and Crescent system between this city and Delta, La. The two corporations have practically the same stock-holders and management. Vicksburg's possibilities as a manufacturing center are self-evidently great, since raw material is abundant, the facilities for transportation unexcelled and fuel is cheap, good steam coal being obtainable in large quantities at $2. 50 per ton. The climate and location of the city are peculiarly favorable to the manufac- THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. 191 ture of cotton, but as yet no attention has been paid to this branch of industry, though many others are in successful operation. Its contiguity to the cotton fields of the Delta gives the city advantages as a cotton-manufacturing center that cannot be over-estimated, and as intelligent labor is abundant, no better site for a large factory could be desired. The cotton fields, however, furnish material for one very important industry, the manufacture of the seed into oil, oil-cake and a fibre technically known as ' Winters" and derived from the seed before it is decorticated and ground, preparatory to pressing. Three large mills, the Refuge, Hill City and Vicksburg, filled with the latest and best machinery, crush thousands of tons of seed annually and employ, directly and incidentally, 500 laborers. Cotton seed was formerly a waste product, largely thrown into streams or burned to get rid of it, used to a limited extent for fertilizing or feeding purposes, but returning no profit to the grower. A large tonnage by rail and river is employed in handling the raw material and the manufactured products. The Refuge Mill is one of the largest in the South. The business of manufacturing lumber early rose to importance, owing to local demands and the proximity of immense supplies of native timber. Decided progress in this respect has been made in the past few years and a large mill will shortly be added to those already in operation. The present mills, in the city or its immediate vicinity, are three saw-mills and a large factory for sash, blinds and finishing material. The saw mills are all situated on Lake Centennial and have perfect facilities for shipping by either river or rail. Cypress, oak and ash are cut in immense quantities, the two latter chiefly for the Northern market. The local demand for walnut and cherry for ornamental work is also supplied and a considerable amount of cotton-wood is worked up into boxes. Ash is so cheap and abundant that it is commonly used for fuel. Besides the local mills there are forty-eight mills in the Delta between Vicksburg and Memphis, many of them of the first class and converting vast quantities of timber into lumber. A considerable quantity of yellow pine lumber is worked up here, supplied by mills in South Mississippi, but the timber which furnishes the greater part of the city's output, at least 90 per cent, is derived from the Delta and floated to the mills by means cf the streams of the Yazoo system. Transportation is accordingly reduced to the lowest possible expense. The supply is simply without limit. The local mills 192 THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. and factories employ from 400 to 500 mechanics and laborers, according to the demand for their output, which is fifteen million feet of rough lumber annually, an amount that is increasing steadily and rapidly. The demand for finished material is very large and scarcely supplied by the local factories, whose product is shipped all over this state and North Louisiana. A large quantity of oak, ash and pine is worked up into office furniture by these establishments. Chicago and Eastern cities afford satisfactory markets for hard-wood lumber and freight rates are considered reasonable. One of the finest plants in the South is at Vicksburg, representing an investment of $30,000 and now cutting hard wood on an eastern contract for four million feet. It comprises two mills, one of them operating a fifty foot band saw. There is a great opening in Vicksburg for the manufacture of furniture, with a heavy local and shipping demand. The raw material can be had at the lowest known prices, in fact, much of the waste product of the mills, now used for fuel, could be utilized. Local saw-mills have a standing offer to take large amounts of stock in such an enterprise. The freight on furniture from present centers of the furniture trade is sufficient to yield the local manufacturer, a handsome margin of profit. The repair shops of the Mississippi Valley Railroad built and equipped at a cost of $100,000, are situated in the southwest part of the city and are among the finest and most important shops in the South. They are built of pressed brick and occupy a parallelogram one thousand, two hundred feet long. The site was originally a marshy flat which has been filled to an average depth of five feet. The buildings are a round-house with twenty four stalls, blacksmith and boiler shop, machine shop, a large planing mill and carpenter shop, freight and passenger car-repair shops and a paint shop, fully equipped with sheds and transfer and turn-tables. The Company's yard is about 300 by 1,900 feet. The shops employ from 350 to 400 mechanics. The yard force is also large, this being the relay point between Memphis and Wilson. The local shipping demands for ice are supplied by two large factories, the D. W. Flowerree Ice Company, with a daily capacity of thirty-five tons, and the Consumers' Ice Company, whose capacity is twenty-eight tons. Their machinery is of the most improved type and ice of superior quality is manufactured at the minimum degree of cost. The Vicksburg Compress Association, with its two superb presses, employs a force of one hundred and fifty men during THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. 193 the cotton season, and its buildings and equipment represent an investment of $2 50,000. The presses used are the largest Morse, ninety inch. The company's yards and sheds are built in accordance with the insurance regulations, fully equipped with hydrants and fire hose and. are of ample capacity to meet all the wants of the cotton trade. The Hill City Electric Light Company's plant, situated near the A. & V. passenger depot, employs two hundred and twenty-five horse-power, supplied by two engines, and has a capacity of one hundred and five two thousand candle power arc lights, and six hundred and fifty sixteen candle power incandescents. It has twenty miles of number six outside wire. Soda and mineral waters are manufactured on a large scale, and besides supplying a large local demand are extensively shipped. The Paxton Foundry, the largest in the state, employs thirty-five men, chiefly on repair work. There is also a local boiler works, employing twenty men. The manufacture of fine clothing, boots and shoes, carriages and wagons, tin and iron work, and lesser industries, give employment to a large force in the aggregate and the output is of considerable value. One clothing establishment employs twenty tailors. This force is employed exclusively on the finest class of custom work. The Vicksburg Gas Light Company, under lease to the United Gas Improvement Company, of Philadelphia, has a plant valued at $125,000, consisting of a valuable site and excellent buildings and machinery, on North Washington street, and thirteen miles of mains which are constantly being extended. It employs eight men in the works, besides its outside force. The building trades employ several hundred men who find steady occupation the year round. Two hundred and fifty men are also engaged in brick making. The clay of Vicksburg is of superior quality and the output of brick is very large. Three firms are engaged in the manufacture of pressed and ordinary brick, and barely meet the demands of the trade. Immense deposits of pure white kaolin and of equally pure red, blue and yellow clays, exist in Jefferson county, on the line of the Valley Route and fifty miles* south of Vicksburg. This clay is of remarkably fine texture and entirely free from grit. The supply is inexhaustible. Samples have been burned and the product excels in appearance the famous St. Louis pressed brick, or in fact any articles in terra cotta, tiling, etc., ever brought here. These beds are worthy the attention of manufacturers. 13 194 THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. When it is stated that the climate and soil of this favored region is adapted to every product of the temperate zone and many semi-tropical ones, a solid fact has been uttered that is susceptible of endless elaboration and the completest demonstration. While the staple crop is and will doubtless continue to be cotton, there is nothing that cannot profitably be grown here. But great as are the claims of King Cotton, his sovereignty is fast becoming a divided one. Other crops are receiving recognition and the possibilities of greater returns from other branches of husbandry are being progressively demonstrated. Some of the largest plantations in this territory devote large areas to the culture of potatoes, and a single planter's annual shipments are from five thousand to seven thousand barrels. The net profits are rarely less than $i per barrel. The hay crop also shows a handsome yearly increase. The large local demand is almost entirely supplied by the neighboring farms, and mowers are sold by the carload where a few years since they were almost unknown. Timothy has not proven satisfactory, but the other cultivated grasses are remarkably productive, and both for hay and pasturage Bermuda grass, long since thoroughly naturalized, is entitled to rank next to blue grass. In ordinary seasons three to four heavy crops are cut from the same land, a remarkable yield from a turf that is never disturbed by the plow, and the closest pasturing totally fails to eradicate its sturdy growth. This is a natural clover country and every variety flourishes, even without cultivation. For twenty years or more the court house square, on the summit of a barren hill, has produced a luxuriant crop of red clover each year, self-seeded. The same hardy plant is to be seen clinging to the least promising situations and growing as vigorously as if under cultivation. Japan clover, or Lespedeza, has become naturalized everywhere and thrives on the poorest and driest soils. It affords excellent pasturage. White clover is also commonly found and is the earliest plant in the spring. That stock feeding and dairy farming should have received so little attention in a region so favored by nature only shows the intensity of the devotion tp cotton. All that is now changed and Warren county, in which Vicksburg is situated, has several fine herds of Jersey cattle of the most favored strains^ The native breed of cattle has been greatly improved by the introduction of better blood, and native milk and butter have become important articles of trade. Both are of superior quality, as might be expected in a country where there is pasturage nine months in THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. 195 the year. (The delta is excluded from this statement, as well as smaller alluvial districts, for in these the canebrakes give succulent pasturage at all seasons.) Warren county is not the only one noted for its Jersey herdsy the delta containing several. In one of these the celebrated cow, Khedive Pet, produced in 1891 four living calves at a birth, all lusty and thriving. (See cut next page.) There is a demand in Vicksburg, far exceeding the supply, for all the milk and butter that can be produced, at twenty-five cents per gallon and pound, respectively. This county and the adjacent uplands are celebrated for their mutton, which, though small in size, is of exquisite flavor, far surpassing in this respect the western mutton. The market is chiefly supplied from bordering counties on the east. Wool is also a product of considerable importance and fine quality. Stock feeding has its highest development also in East Mississippi, and has proven very profitable. The multiplicity of food crops is an important factor in promoting Mississippi's progress in growing beef, pork and mutton. Cotton seed meal and hulls are excellent feed for all sorts of cattle; sweet potatoes, which are greedily eaten, produce a food of unrivaled quality and cheapness, the yield ranging from four hundred to six hundred bushels to the acre; peanuts excel in fattening properties and produce fine pork, and the tops make superior hay; the cow or field pea, a species of bean, is nutritious food for stock of all kinds, thrives everywhere, is an unequalled crop for green soiling and improves the land even where every vestige of its growth is removed from the soil. Chufas, or earth almonds, a grass producing a sweet nut or tuber, also supplies abundant food for hogs. Oats is a profitable crop in all parts of the state and is receiving annually increased attention; wheat yields a large and heavy berry, though little planted. Upland rice produces thirty to fifty bushels to the acre and is a money-making crop. Corn, despite all declarations to the contrary, is a sure crop in this territory. This season's crop is unprecedent-edly large, an unusual area being devoted to it, and very little will be imported. The few planters of forty years ago who practiced the methods of diversified agriculture, found it an easy matter to 'grow fifty or sixty bushels to the acre, under thorough methods of cultivation, but since the war, as a rule, this crop has received the most perfunctory cultivation except when, through favorable circumstances, an unusual amount of time could be spared from cotton. Corn, however, is of less import- THE PROGENY OF A JERSEY COW IN THE YAZOO DELTA. THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. 197 ance here than in the west because sweet potatoes, cow-peas, peanuts, chufas and other feed stuffs can be xgrown so much more cheaply. The early varieties, or sugar corn, are grown in perpetual succession and abound in the Vicksburg market from May to October inclusive. Adams county, under French domination, was celebrated for the high quality of its tobacco, which was exported one hundred and fifty years ago in large quantities. The culture of cotton destroyed this industry and it is believed that none is grown in the state, except for local or individual consumption. This practice, however, is general enough to demonstrate that all portions of its area are adapted to the production of the weed, especially the bluff regions and the long-leaf pine belt. The leaf grown from Havana seed is scarcely distinguishable in quality from the imported, while the bright yellow tobaccos are equal in appearance and flavor to the best Virginia leaf. Lack of technical skill in curing the leaf has given many persons a directly contrary impression to the foregoing, but results obtained by experienced growers, familiar with the best methods, sustain the declaration that the culture of this staple would be exceedingly profitable. The only nut-bearing tree indigenous to the state, whos.e product is of commercial importance, is the pecan. The native variety is of exquisite flavor and very productive, but small-sized and of slight comparative value. The Texas, or thin-shell variety, has been introduced and thrives all over the state, and as a crop is immensely remunerative, good specimens bringing twenty to twenty-five cents per pound in large quantities. It is a mistake to suppose that a long term of years must pass before pecan trees come into bearing. On the contrary the crop is fairly profitable in from five to seven years from planting, while the age limit of the tree's productiveness covers generations. The Delta abounds in the native variety, which thrives as well on land subject to over-flow as elsewhere. Anyone who would plant a hundred acres of such land, purchasable at a nominal price, in Texas pecans would have, in ten or fifteen years, a princely income. Many have begun such plantations. The product has long since reached considerable importance, and last winter a steamer for St. Louis passed Vicksburg with a thousand barrels of pecans as a part of her cargo, representing shipments of the native and improved varieties. The possibilities of agriculture, in this latitude cannot be easily exaggerated. For example, it is perfectly practicable to plant a crop of potatoes in December or January, harvest the 198 THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. -crop in May, plant corn on the same ground, followed by potatoes in August to be harvested in October, leaving the soil free for cabbages until January again. The fall crop of potatoes is invariably superior in quality to that of spring. Nearly every farmer in South Mississippi, and an increasing number in the middle portion of the state, has his patch of Louisiana sugarcane, an acre or two for home consumption and the local market. Very little of this is converted into sugar, but from three hundred to four hundred gallons of superior syrup is produced to the acre and the surplus finds a ready sale. A Warren county farmer has placed seventeen barrels, about nine hundred gallons, on the Vicksburg market this season, at sixty cents. This yield was obtained from two and one-quarter acres, after reserving a large quantity of stalks for seed. The demand for this quality of syrup, * 'sirup de batterie," as it is called, is practically unlimited. Additional boiling converts it into "masse cuite," which is the syrup reduced to the point of crystallization; a delicacy almost - unknown to northern palates. Maple syrup, it is said, is nothing like as luscious in flavor. Horticulture and orcharding have risen into prominence in Western Mississippi in the past few years, the success of growers in the central belt having developed competition. New orchards are being planted and nurserymen report an unprecedented demand for fruit trees. This is a revival of an ancient pursuit, so far as Warren county and contiguous counties in the bluff regions are concerned, for they supplied the New Orleans market with lucious peaches and pears forty years ago, and the peach has become indigenous, but peach growing for profit is a novelty in the Delta. Heavy shipments have been made for several years past from Anguilla, Sharkey county, where some hundreds of acres of bearing trees are found, besides many young orchards, there and elsewhere. The fruit is superlatively fine, goes chiefly to the New Orleans market�strictly speaking the dealers come to Anguilla and buy the crop on the trees�and brings a high price. Bartletts and other fine pears succeed in all parts of the state, apples are a safe crop, though all Northern varieties are not adapted to this climate, and plums, apricots and nectarines, with all the hybrid grapes, attain their greatest known perfection. Little attention has been given to small fruits, strawberries, etc., on the line of the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad, except for private uses, but they produce well at all points where they have been tested, Truck-farming has attained some importance on the N. J. THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. 199 and C. division of the Yazoo and Mississippi system, whence large quantities of tomatoes and other vegetables are shipped to the northern markets, and in the vicinity of Vicksburg and Natchez, where the local demand is scarcely supplied. The anticipated increase in facilities of transportation has lent additional interest to this pursuit and the towns south of Vicksburg to the Louisiana line report a decided increase in the acreage devoted to this branch of industry. The town of Gloster has only recently subscribed to build and equip a large canning factory. Every known vegetable thrives in this territory. Water-melons and canteloupes are remarkably fine. Warren county lies between the Mississippi and Big Black rivers and is bounded by Issaquena and Yazoo counties on the north, Hinds on the east and Claiborne on the south. It has a population of 33,000, census of 1890, and contains no towns of importance besides Vicksburg. Its income is large and its public debt inconsiderable. The large annual surplus is being judiciously expended in making public improvements. An iron draw-bridge is now under construction across Big Black river, at. a cost of $14,000 dollars, affording communication with Hinds and other eastern counties, whence Vicksburg draws a large trade ; and another over the same stream and of the same character is decided upon, to be built this yeanon the Claiborne county boundary. The total valuation of real and personal property for purposes of taxation is $7,300,000 in round numbers, an increase of $300,000 since the previous year. Of this total Vicksburg property contributes $4,750,000, a low valuation, much property being legally exempt from taxation. The city's indebtedness will not exceed $500,000, the greater part of which is funded at a low rate of interest. The soil of the district penetrated by the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad, comprising the western counties of Mississippi, from north to south, is as varied as is the topography of the country. From the Tennessee line to the Yazoo river the road lies in the wholly alluvial region of the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta. At Vicksburg the bluffs region is entered and pierced for ninety miles or more. Geologists term this region of lofty hills and plateaus, the loess formation. It is a country of hills and valleys, alike fertile ; of many springs and bold streams. The natural vegetation is wholly composed of hard woods in the northern portion, diversified by pines and finally yielding supremacy to them as the traveler proceeds southward. The climate is remarkable healthful and agreeable, 200 THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. Once more journeying on southward, we are dimly conscious one night of our "railway home" being quietly set in on a side-track, but ^are too drowsy to be curious and drop again into forgetfulness, not conscious that we are still on the banks of the great river that wastes so much time and space curving through this land. In the morning, under the inspiration of bright sunlight, the music of birds and the sweet air, and to avoid the tempting odors of a delayed breakfast, we stroll through a little park and reach a point where everything is forgotten but the magnificent panorama spread out before us. After a great sweep of twenty miles to accomplish a trip that in high water is made in one mile, the Mississippi washes the banks two hundred feet below us, and continues its tortuous course southward. Across its broad, lazy current to the westward, Northern Louisiana lies spread out like a map before us, a perspective over which the eye loves to linger. Turning about and facing eastward, one of the most charming of southern cities lies bivouacked on the tree-clad hills, and we need the soil easily cultivated, noxious insects and reptiles are few in number, and as a place of residence it leaves little to be desired. Warren county unites the characteristics of both the Delta and the bluffs, its area being about equally divided between the alluvial valleys of the Mississippi, the Yazoo and Big Black rivers, and the uplands of the bluffs. The loess is a formation attributed by geologists to the drift period, a fine yellow loam of immense depth, resting on soft lime, or sand stone. The hills or bluffs are entirely composed of this soil, with a superstratum of clay and leaf-mould. It is fertile wherever exposed, and the roots of plants penetrate it to great depths. This affords exemption from the effects of drouth, though the annual rainfall, of sixty inches, is so evenly distributed that these are rarely seen." Amazed at this truthful, graceful and comprehensive narrative of Vicksburg and vicinity, we rise to depart, and the captain's hearty and generous "We shall be delighted to welcome you again, gentlemen," will ring in our ears till we again see that beautiful city and feel the charming warmth of its hospitality. Ct (Eolony of planters. THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. 201 not be told that it is Natchez. Nowhere else is this colony of elegant old southern homes and princely parks duplicated. Names of National prominence are blended with these attractive estates. The Dahlgren place is pointed out, the S. S. Prentiss tomb, and the house where Jefferson Davis was married. Here, also, is the famous Nuft place, an unfinished antebellum mansion that was to have cost a quarter of a million dollars. Dr. Dana, a brother of the New York Sun editor, has a home among these stately trees and flower-spangled terraces. When our enthusiasm over the latter was at his height, an old darkey woman who was picking the party some flowers, exclaimed : "Oh, you ought to be heah in summah ! It look pretty as a show-case and smell sweet as a drug sto' !" In these days of cheap and rapid transit, any falsification of facts on the part of those seeking to induce immigration to a given locality, would be worse than useless, as verification or rebuttal would be a mere rnatter of a few days. Confident that in the case under consideration, verification would follow, we submit the simple truth about Natchez, Adams Co., Mississippi, believing that if public attention was once drawn towards its real merits, an influx of population and an increased activity along many commercial lines would ensue, with mutually beneficial results to all concerned. The home-seeker's chief concern is naturally and properly with the climatic conditions of the advertised locality. Epidemics are almost unknown here, and the death rate from ordinary causes is phenomenally low. In a climate where snow falls but rarely, and where the hill-sides grow green in January, that scourge of the North, pneumonia, is shorn of its terror. To wealthy invalids seeking balmy air, made fragrant in mid-winter by the breath of violets and sweet olive, no more seductive refuge could be offered ; but, while welcoming all, it is not to this class exclusively that she reaches out, with the hope and the avowed purpose of building up her own war-shattered fortunes. She addresses herself separately and persuasively to the various classes of bread-winners, which, in this unresting era, are perpetually on the look out for better abiding places or more promising investments. To the health seeker of means and leisure, she offers an atmosphere of unquestionable physical and moral purity; a temperature ranging between thirty and' ninety degrees the year round; the possibility of out-door exercise at all times, and the certainty of never being ice-bound or snow-imprisoned; 202 THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. beautiful driyes along woodland roads lined with the magnolia and the laurel, or along hillsides green with the health giving pines; one's own choice of religious services in half a score of quaint old churches; a quiet, orderly and well policed town, where riots, lock-outs or strikes are things to be read about but never dreaded; conservatism in politics, liberality in policy. To the man looking for quick returns for the money he invests, �she offers good farm land at from $5.00 to $15.00 per acre; not worn-out lands which bankrupt their purchaser on fertilizers, but lands which admit of a diversity and a quick succession of crops not possible in regions of poorer soil and slower growth. With equal facility Cotton, Corn, Oats, Peas, Potatoes and Fruits of all kind may be grown. Truck farming is easy and profitable, and with her rapidly increasing railroad facilities she will soon be in position to enter into wide-awake competition in furnishing the great eastern markets with early fruit and vegetables. Dairy farming, also, could be most profitably carried on in a region where it is only necessary during a comparatively brief space of time to feed or shelter stock, and where creeks of crystaline purity furnish an ample supply of water the year round. To the man who manufactures, she holds out countless allurements, and the best of all encouragements�the endorsement of those who have already entered the boundless fields of manufactures in this locality, with the happiest results. Natchez already supports two of the largest cotton mills in the South, and so excellent is the quality of their out-put that a largely increasing demand for it has necessitated a recent enlargement of capacity. Among her posibilities in , the manufacturing line�only awaiting that magic crystalizer, capital�are: Kaolin, a superior quality of potter's clay in which experts have found the essentials of the finest porcelain ; sand-beds, from which the best quality of glass could be produced in inexhaustible quantities ; woods, such as oak, cypress, magnolia, ash, and black-walnut, all of the best quality and in quantities sufficient to warrant several plants for the production of wooden ware of every description. To which list may be added several sorts of paper fibre which recent actual experiments prove to be excellent, such as cane, palmetto, and the*fibre of okra plant. To foster all of which, the annotated code of Mississippi provides, that all permanent factories, established in the state prior to the year 1900, shall be exempt from taxation for a period of ten years. THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. 203 No difficulties stand in the way of getting the manufactured articles upon the market. Ten railway trains arrive at and depart from her two depots every day, and by water she has constant and weekly connections with St. Louis at sone end of the Anchor Line, New Orleans at the other, inclusive of all intermediate points of any importance. Natchez is not a new town, dependent for its prosperity upon the meretricious methods of booming; rather, it is an old town which under changed conditions is directing its efforts along new lines of activity. Its posessions have been carried beyond the experimental stage, into the serviceable. It has, already, clean and well shaded streets, handsome homes for the well-to-do, substantial cottages for the wage earner ; one of the handsomest hotels in the South and many excellent minor places of entertainment. Four banks of sound and well tested financial capacity; public schools, libraries and parks; street railways, gas and electric lights ; water works and sewerage of the most approved pattern; telegraph and telephone facilities; cotton seed oil mills, ice factory, saw mills, foundries and machine shops; in short, all of the various aids to public comfort that every self-respecting community demands, inclusive of liberal and broad policied newspapers. But with the laying of every railway tie comes an inevitable broadening of vista and farther reaching ambitions. Not what she has, but what she might profitably secure, is now the agitating question with this sleeping beauty of the South, that has been aroused by that ' 'Prince Charming," the Illinois Central. Canning factories of all sorts would flourish where the most easily canned fruit and vegetables ripen so early and in such lavish profusion. / Wagon factories must succeed where woods suitable for the purpose are to be had for the merest trifle, as compared to other sections. Cotton fabrics of every known description would find here the best material and such climatic conditions as are generally favorable to their successful manufacture. Perhaps, after all, the only safe test when one would take the commercial temperature of a place, is to feel the tax-payer's pulse. Adams county can fearlessly invite this test, while she points with pardonable pride to the exceptionally healthy condition of her tax list. Tax Roll of Fiscal Year Ending 1892, $4,737,701.00. No Delinquency. Tax Roll of Fiscal Year Ending 1893, 14,900,000.00. No Delinquency. 204 THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. Taxation is not onerous, and perhaps nowhere in the United States can a better showing be made for town or country than the year 1892 showed for Natchez and for Adams county. Sixteen pieces of property, in all less than $500.00 ^deficit, were advertised for sale for delinquent taxes, but no delinquent sales occured for city, state or county taxes. � In brief, addressing ourselves not to the archaeologist, but to the alert man of affairs, who can only be induced to put his money down with the certainty of getting it back with enhanced value, Natchez challenges competition with any spot in the South,' as a place offering sure and quick returns for money invested. And while conscious necessarily of the pathos that clings, and must forever cling, about the beautiful old antebellum homes that engirdle her with their faded splendors, she has embalmed her past with reverent hands, and girded up her loins to run the race that will put her on a level with the rnost progressive cities in the region about her. The locomotive has sounded her reveille and immigration will prove her salvation. The engine that pulls our party away from Natchez is too ambitious. We wish it were more deliberate in relieving its lungs of great clouds of white steam, for we desire to make the most of the last glimpses of this beautiful city. Soon we are in the country, and the hard wood trees mingling with the pine illustrate these peaceful days when i 'the blue and the gray" are again like brothers. In no part of Mississippi have we found the picturesque existing at the expense of the practical. Its thirty million acres are park-like and fertile. In all sections of the State it looks as if a new country was being developed, but parts of it have been settled for nearly three centuries. With the beauties of the pine hills, the wonders of the Delta, and the attractions of the bluff cities on the Great River, it would seem as though the interesting features of the Mississippi were exhausted. By no means. We have reserved for our last inspection a charming surprise for our visitors. History, romance, utility and beauty are united at a point 332 miles below the northern boundary of the State. Emerging from the pine woods, before us lies Oje (Mf Coast. "What heed I of granite blocks and noisy town, I see the mighty deep expand From its white line of glimmering sand, To where the blue of heaven o'er bluer waves shuts dbwn." HERE the sky bends lovingly down to kiss the blue waters of the Mexican sea ; where the sands of the shore are as white as snow, and great live oaks cast a shade of two hundred feet; looking out on a liquid plane that at morn is a casket of jewels, at midday a sheen of silver and at evening a dream of heaven, stands Biloxi. Here M. de Iberville landed in 1699 and built a fort, which was the first settlement of Mississippi; and here in 1893 the Northern guest spends his winters and the native of the South his summers. If there are any drawbacks to the perfect conditions of rest and health and pleasure, they exist only in the imagination. It is the birth place of that soft atmospheric messenger that greets us on our way southward and here rustles the leaves of the sweet olive and cape jasmine, and scatters the spray of artesian fountains of purest water. Dust and mud are unknown, for every exposed pathway is paved with shells, and the roads in the woods are carpeted with pine needles. Back of the long line of cottages and residences that line the shore is a clean, quaint town of 5,000 people, graduated from the old French fishing village. Behind the town is the solid wall of pine forest. This American Italy is represented by an old country Italian, Col. Montross, whose hotel co-operates with the surroundings to prolong the sojourn of guests to the utmost limit compatible with duty�and a little beyond. His white winged schooner, the * 'Winnie Davis" bears you swiftly and gracefully over the Gulf, and good turnouts whirl you over roads that are immaculate. You may step out on one of the little 206 THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. piers and rake up fresh oysters, or rock in a boat and catch salt water fish that have solidity, delicacy and flavor not found elsewhere. And you may cross to Back Bay and pick oranges that have no equal in Florida or California, And now we enter the practical realm again, for the orange groves of Biloxi are something besides pleasure gardens. One grove of twenty-five acres fifteen years ago was purchased for $800. The trees are now about twelve years old and yielded last season some 1500 boxes of 128 oranges. In addition about five hundred gallons of very fine wine that found a ready sale at good prices was made from the imperfect fruit, making the grove net the owner about $5,000. The size, color and flavor of the delicious Biloxi oranges need no embellishment. The fruit brings fancy prices in Chicago�five or six dollars a box. Our authority as to the comparative merits of these oranges is T. D. Randall, commission merchant at 219 South Water street,, Chicago. He pronounces the fruit superior to-that of California or Florida. These groves are fertilized with bone dust; cotton seed meal and hull ashes and carbonite of lime made by burning oyster shells. Oyster shells and fish are ideal fertilizers, and these are right at hand. Orange culture has passed through the experimental stage along the Gulf Coast of Mississippi and Louisiana. They can be grown on land that costs but a tenth what it does in Southern California, and the fruit reaches practically the same market in from 200 to 800 miles that California ships 2,poo miles to find. The consumption of this popular fruit is constantly on the increase, and that grown in this section comes into a market of which it has nearly the monopoly. Experiments with other fruits at Biloxi have been equally successful. On one plantation are some fine Herbemont grapes, a variety resembling the Delaware. They yield so heavily that a lady standing on an inverted bucket picked twenty-five pounds before stepping off. Figs grow to perfection at Biloxi, where immense quantities are canned. A single tree will sometimes give a forty dollar income. One day we sail across the bay to Ocean Springs, and study with much interest another wealth producing fruit that is but little known in this country. It is that emblem of peace and plenty, the Olive. No tree, shrub or plant in the entire vegetable kingdom appeals more forcibly to the sentiment of man. THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. 207 In the pages of history, sacred and profane, frequent mention of the olive is found. The Italians are fond of quoting an old proverb. It is : ' 'An olive plantation is a gold mine on the surface of the earth." A discovery of these surface gold mines has begun on Mississippi and Louisiana soil. To prove that such mines are inexhaustible, we need only state that there are olive trees at Jerusalem over 2,000 years old. A New Orleans merchant is the discoverer of an ' 'olive mine." Like many other important plants that are introduced in our country, the discovery of the possibilities of the olive on the Gulf Coast was purely accidental. About ten years ago this gentleman received a. present from Italy of some young olive trees. He had no faith in achieving anything practical, not believing that this soil and climate would prove suitable for them. But he planted the young trees at his homestead near Ocean Springs, Mississippi. The success of those trees has been so phenomenal that he has named this beautiful homestead Olive Farm. On this farm there were growing last year about 1,500 bearing trees. These trees were filled with olives, giving an extraordinary yield. Some of the older trees produced thirty gallons each. Olive trees do not begin to bear in Europe until seven years, of age. The trees at Ocean Springs bore fruit at five years of age. These olives are fully equal to those of the finest Italian yards. The olive tree requires less care than any other known bearing tree, and in many parts of Europe the tree is not pruned or cultivated ; the general opinion there is that when once set out it can take care of itself. But proper cultivation and pruning not only increases the yield, but also increases the quality of the olives, thus producing a finer oil. Although liable to be killed there by the extreme cold, olive groves in Europe are worth $1,000 an acre. What would they be worth on the Gulf Coast, where there is no danger from extreme cold? The long musical blast of a horn off shore is heard one evening as we drink in the beauties of the pine clad islands in the distance. The sound announces the arrival of a schooner that drops her wings and floats gently up to the wharf leading to a. long, low building. The craft is loaded with the finest of oysters and the building is a cannery. There are several around Biloxi. In mid-summer they can figs. Last season there went out from Biloxi nearly five million cans of oysters ; 1,800 buckets-�a thousand oysters in each bucket; half a million cans 208 THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. of shrimp ; 2,000 tin buckets of shrimp�three gallons in a bucket, and a quarter of a million cans of figs; and the oyster beds have scarcely been touched, while the canned fig is almost unknown in the northern markets. Still gazing out on the Gulf across which the broad, shining pathway of the rising moon is now apparent, we hear a splash. It is a fish and our attention takes a practical turn again. We have alluded to the superior quality of the Gulf fish, and realize that there must be a big market demand for them. This demand is large enough to command the attention of 1721 persons in Missi-sippi, 690 being fishermen and 1,031 shoresmen. They catch croakers�white and black; mullet, called Biloxi bacon, which are caught by net and the roe is very fine; red fish, or channel bass; speckled, white and green trout; pompano; Spanish mackerel; sheepshead; bluefish; catfish; red snapper and grunts. Soft and hard shell sea crabs are abundant and the diamond-back terrapin is found in the marshes. While catfish are not particularly esteemed in the North, they are great favorites in the West and Southwest. Farther west, at Morgan City, Louisiana, one of the principal industries is catching catfish for the inland markets, where it is preferred to redfish, sheepshead or pompano. From Morgan City to Melville there are nearly a thousand men engaged in catching catfish. They live on the water during the fishing season�some six months�and' cut wood on shore in summer. The shippers keep steam tugs that go up into the lakes and tow down the boats (wells) in which the fish are kept alive until ready to be shipped. Some of these boats will hold 6,000 pounds of fish. Harper & Brothers, who sent a corps of special artists along this coast a few years ago, pronounced Biloxi the most picturesque spot in the South. Enraptured with its charms, and too full of "resources and possibilities" to sleep, we stroll into the woods and give ourselves up to the enchantment of Ct Southern Htgfyt "And this night�most glorious night! Thou wast not sent for slumber." If there is an earthly Garden of Eden, we are in the midst of it. An air whose indescribable sweetness is the blended fragrance of a hundred rare blossoms steals in among the pillars that support the bosky dome; the pungent pine balm spices its THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. 209 flavor and, moved by unseen forces, it stirs the canebrake with a rustling sound and sways the ghostly drapery on the silken fringed cypress. Softer than the down on the breast of the silver egret whose broad pinions cast a fleeting shadow on the turf of the open glade, is this breeze; "Sweeter than a censor's swing to save a soul's repose," is the dewy fragrance of the forest depths. , The great face of the moon beams lovingly down on scenes of entrancing beauty as it passes slowly across the sky in the midst of its starry retinue. Even the melody of that incomparable musician, the mocking-bird, seems hushed as it reaches us from a distant orange grove, subdued by the charrns of a Southern night that envelop its home. ' Only the ghosts of sweet old negro harmonies stalk through the magnolia avenues. Strains from the harp of an angel would, be disturbing sounds at this hour and in these precincts. No thought of lurking beast, of floating alligator or gliding moccasin can break the peaceful train of thought the mind absorbs from these surroundings. The music of the mythological Pan permeates these shades, unheard by mortal ear, transforming danger into safety and robbing venom of its power. Sleep becomes temporarily unnecessary as a restoring agent, and the "balm of hurt minds" is supplanted by a mixture, the ingredients of which are known only to the alchemist of a Southern night. The troubled soul envies not the sleep of an infant, for no dreamland can furnish a panorama to entice one from wakefulness amid such attractions. Nature alone sleeps, and ecstatic must be the dreams to produce the expression on her face in these lovely solitudes. Such is night at Biloxi. TVi^ cV>utters of dawn swing open and we are in a sister State. Cfye Creole State. "On the pine-clad shores of waters wide, Neath the rays of a tropical moon, Where the skies are blue, and the south winds breath Is fragrant with orange bloom." ITH scented robes and perfumed breath La Belle Louisiana receives us. She leads us through royal avenues of pine, and pauses occasionally in parks of scarlet berries, gol-If I MP den oranges and brilliant blossoms. r In her * * k/ ijp? swamp boudoir she has draped the cypress pillars with silvery lace and studded the floor with palms. She laughs at our bewilderment when she beckons us across Pass Man-chac, for on the sparkling, heaving bosom of Lake Maurepas the graceful hull of a schooner rests, its gray wings outlined against a western sky of gorgeous coloring; while eastward Pontchartrain rolls away, a broad and beautiful flood, to a limitless horizon, and we would not turn our backs on either panorama. Across great fields she leads us, where the pillared mansion and white cabins gleam among the dark verdure of wide-spreading live oaks, and borne on the evening breeze is a new sweetness�that of boiling sugar. Still on our hostess conducts us, over broad rolling prairies and along deep and tortuous bayous, till finally we rest in a quaint old city lying in the hollow of Mississippi's protecting arm, where she presents us to her daughters, the peerless Creoles. The golden thread of romance is woven in her dress. In fancy we see the dusky Choctaw of centuries ago creeping toward the infant colony; then the Frenchman sails up the gulf and makes his home in the bend of the river; again a change comes, and the gay notes of the Spanish fandango are heard where the Marsellaise sounded; soon the black flag of the pirate Lafitte flaps like the great wing of a bird 212 THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. of ill omen, on her rivers and lagoons; the Acadians land and the sweet, sad face of Evangeline crosses our vision. The bugle sounds a martial blast and one of the most brilliant victories in America is achieved. Down the long vistas of the past centures the mind goes in fanciful wanderings. Let these dreams and the imagination take possession of us to-night; we will deal with the practical on the morrow. In the Hotel Royal, amid the old, old buildings we rest. As the senses fade away into unconsciousness, the air that comes through the window is not softer than the dialect of the voices borne in on its waves. Varied sounds reach us from the street and from afar, but they do not disturb. Neither the song of the Baratarian oysterman, nor the full, rich whistle of the incoming steamer jar the nerves. Never were enemies of rest so completely vanquished as in the presence of Louisiana; never was the line that marks the terminus of consciousness so easily crossed. The morning breeze gently stirs the curtain, there is a tap at the door and a tiny cup of delicious black coffee is passed in; then toilet; a breakfast of fried oysters and other appetite tempters in a climate where none are needed, and then we walk over to the Levee. The curtain of dawn has risen, disclosing a scene that has no counterpart on the face of the globe; a scene that dissipates the dreams of the night before and supplants them by a grand reality. Louisiana is exhibiting her storehouse, knowing full well that the sight will stimulate our curiosity with a desire to know all about the State from whence comes the acres and acres of material wealth spread out before us. We are on the edge of a vast plateau of barrels. What do they contain? Su$ax. "Come to my cane fields," is the next invitation from the hostess, and a study of her first great staple confronts us. Nothing in agriculture is more beautiful than a sugar plantation. The long, dark ridges where the cane lies buried; the delicate pale green leaves -that spring up from each joint, and finally the profusion of stalk and foliage that covers the ground when the crop reaches maturity. Then the buildings. The great sugar mills with towering smoke stacks, the elegant but homelike mansion, the long rows of white cabins, the store, the shop, the forge� everything in fact that goes to make up a small and picturesque 214 THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. village. No, not a village; it is a little kingdom and the planter is a monarch. But there is something besides agricultural beauty in a sugar plantation; there is wealth, for of the crops that are grown extensively, it is the most profitable. We envy not the governor of a State, nor a merchant prince. The former has his enemies, his cares, and his power and honor are but transient; the latter must always face the possibility of financial ruin; but the proprietor of a well managed sugar plantation commands riches, luxury and independence. Along the Mississippi and the Teche these farms have flourished for many years. The rich, alluvial soil is capable of producing fifty tons of cane to the acre. This cane is worth from four to five dollars a ton, before we estimate the profits of the sugar mill and refinery. With the thought of the deep, black loam of northern prairies in our minds, we asked Prof. Stubbs, of the Louisiana Sugar Experiment Station at Audubon Park, the depth of the soil. "Eighty feet, at least," was the reply, "and there are 19,200 square miles of such soil in Louisiana. Of course there is a fortune investe d in these big plantations with their thousands of acres, scores of buildings and expensive machinery. But the small planter, with an .outfit costing from $50 to $300, and with an extraction of only 70 per cent of the cane juice, gets as high as 500 gallons of syrup from an acre, that sells for from 30 to 50 cents a gallon. Neither is the cultivation of cane to perfection confined any longer to the bottom lands. It thrives on the Acadian prairies of Southwest Louisiana, and the premium cane of the State Fair came from the piney woods along the line of the Illinois Central. The Central sugar factory is another innovation that lets the small planter into the profitable field of sugar growing. The expense of a crop to such a grower is something like the following: Cost of seed cane per acre �--------------------.______________--$ 7 50 Expense of cultivation per acre____________ . .:______- ______ 10 00 Cost of cutting and delivering per acre---------l---------------------- 12 50 Total expense------___________________________________________$3o"oo Twenty-five tons of cane at four dollars per ton________-----_�$100 00 Deduct expense_________________________________ ___________________ 30 00 Net profits per acre_____________________ -------------------------$70 00 This estimate is based on a yield of twenty-five tons of cane to the acre, whereas thirty to forty tons are possible even outside of the bottom lands. CUTTING SUGAR CANE. 216 THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. The production of sugar in the world is estimated at 6, ooo, -ooo tons. The United States contributes of this amount only one-twentieth, or 300,000 tons. The people of the United States consume per capita seventy pounds of sugar annually. This can all be produced on the rich lands of Louisiana. In France and Germany the lands on which sugar is made cost from $300 to $600 an acre, whereas in this State they can be purchased for $25 an acre. From open kettle ' 'taffy" to refined A it is the most profitable farm crop in the United States. Sweet as this subject is, curiosity is stronger. Hence we find our attention drawn to a food plant that is something like the old woman who was happiest when she was miserable, for it is healthiest when it has wet feet. This crop is It is only recently since rice growing in Louisiana was confined to the land along the large rivers and bayous. Now the rice excitement on the Acadian prairies is second only to the California gold fever of '49. In the hotel office, at the store, on the boat�everywhere the subject is "rice." When a few years ago rice growing was only thought to be practicable along the Carolina coast and the lower river marshes of the Mississippi, the vast extent of lowlands in Southwest Louisiana were thought to be worthless for all practical agricultural purposes, and seemed to be valued only by the bullfrog and the crawfish. Now those ' 'worthless" tracts are the most valuable. The man who has a piece of land to sell will always be met with the question: "How much rice land is there on it?" Rice is one of the great food crops of the world. Formerly Louisiana produced only about one-half fhe rice consumed by her citizens, but the opening of the rich new fields in the southwest part of the State has greatly increased the American production of this valuable cereal. In this section there are more good rice lands than in any other portion of the State, and it can be raised at less cost. At one time in what are still the older districts the culture of rice was a slow and expensive process. In the new district it is cut with self-binding harvesters, and the wheat growers of Kansas have become the rice growers of Louisiana. Rice land along the rivers and bayous, where the rice crop THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. 217 can be flooded by pumping from an inexhaustible supply, is rapidly increasing in value and is comparatively limited ,in area. The nearness of living water insures a large crop every year, the element of chance which confronts the grower of "Providence" rice being entirely eliminated. The upland planter who depends on the rainfall for irrigation is becoming tired of the uncertainty. It is his crop that is termed * 'Providence rice." The fact that the value of the product is out of all proportion to the cost of the land in the South, is especially true of rice in Louisiana. Good rice land can be purchased for from five to ten dollars an acre, and it costs on, an average about three dollars an acre to fence, ditch and levee it. After this preparation, the cost of raising it is about the same as the expense of growing wheat. But rice is a much surer crop than wheat, and can be raised at a profit if the price is much lower than any figure this cereal has yet sold for. T.n addition to the self-binding harvesters mentioned, the most modern machinery is used in the cultivation of rice, such as gang and steam plows, cutaway harrows and press drills. The rice is threshed and sacked like wheat, but before it reaches the consumer it is milled, to remove the husk and polish the kernel. ' Rice yields from ten to thirty barrels an acre and sells in the rough from $2. 50 to $4.00 a barrel. We have frequently heard the expression ' 'the right man in the right place," but we never realized its true meaning till we met Prof. M. C. Stubbs, the Director of the Agricultural Experiment Stations (there are three) of Louisiana. Broad learning, experience, vigor and enthusiasm are all united in this Southern gentleman. He is just the man to direct the developing resources of this wonderful State. Among all the interesting places to visit in and about New Orleans none willl reward a visit better than Audubon Park. This is the chief Experiment Station and the home of Dr. Stubbs. We are courteously received there on a bright December morning, and he shows us through his vegetable museum, keeping up a conversational lecture of more interest to us than any platform effort. We notice some beds of green, and the Doctor says: "Grasses and clovers thrive wonderfully here and alfalfa, so celebrated in the west, is here so productive and long-lived, that twenty-one cuttings of from one to two tons each have been gathered from an acre field 3 years old. This plant is thoroughly at home here, making a continuous growth through winter and summer for several years. Within this grass garden are over THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. 219 one hundred varieties of grasses and clovers growing in great luxuriance in midwinter, as you see. The larger foliage crops can be grown here very successfully also, yielding from twelve to fifty tons of green foliage per acre. The following have been successfully cultivated: Teosinte, millo maize, African millet, Jerusalem corn, Egyptian wheat, Dhoura, Kaffir corn; all the varieties of the saccharine sorghums and German millet. The fibre plants, jute and ramie, are here also perfectly at home, and can be grown with great profit. Ramie is a famous plant. It is very productive, is much superior to cotton, stronger than flax and next to silk. Ramie once planted is easy of cultivation and propagates rapidly. Ramie is in great demand in Europe, and will give 500 pounds of fibre per acre per crop, and two crops yearly. Ramie is perfectly adapted to the climate and soil of Louisiana. It gives its fibre in the green state, without rotting. Cut in the field in the morning it can be woven in the, evening. Ramie does not require much outlay for cultivation. With ten dollars or 1,000 roots a planter can begin the propagation of a field. It is a perennial plant, which can be planted at any time. Ramie as cloths lasts longer than any tissue. It is so fine that it furnishes a thread of 9,800 yards per pound." Then we stroll over to the corner devoted to citrus fruits. The Doctor picks a kumquat and hands us. It looks like a small orange, but we eat it like a plum. It is delicious. "In the southern part of this State," starts off the lecture again, "citrus fruits are successfully raised and thousands of acres are now permanently devoted to the orange alone. To give an idea of the profits of this industry, it may be stated that one grove of one hundred acres (trees eighteen years old) recently sold its fruit for $40,000 on the trees. This industry is rapidly growing both in quantity and quality. Budded trees of improved varieties are supplanting Creole seedlings, and intelligent cultivation and handling superseding neglect and carelessness." Time is rp and we regretfully part with Dr. Stubbs, but he has mentioned a region that has long figured in our dreams. It is Oje Piney IDoobs. "In long delicious breaths I drank the air, And thought that life was never half so fair." HE charms of the "Piney Woods" stand unrivaled amid all the varied, attractions of Louisiana. Each section has its peculiar value and beauty; the broad prairies of the Attakapas region, the banks of the Mississippi; the famous Teche valley; the lower river country with its orange groves; the shores of lake and gulf�all astonish and delight the visitor, but when our party stepped from the train at Hammond, a typical piney woods town, there was a sensation of rest and satisfaction not experienced elsewhere. The soft air was even more velvety and its perfume more intense; the melody of the mocking-bird seemed richer, the flowers more delicate and the sunshine brighter. If there is any uncer place of the strawberry, and no comparison is so as the beautiful and lus for. Just as that bright among its luxuriant dark this collection of intelli tainty as to the birth-this must be the spot; pertinent to Hammond cious fruit it is so famous and popular berry nestles green leaves, we find gent and thrifty people imbedded in the emerald sea of a health and joy disseminating pine forest. There is healing balm in the air; there is elevation to the soul in the surroundings, and there is varied comfort and wealth in the soil. A happy combination of the elements that produce a sound body, a rested brain, a pleasurable existence and a prosperous business, is found in the Piney Woods. A great belt of long leaf yellow pine, a hundred miles wide, stretches across Southern Louisiana. This yellow pine is in great demand not only for general lumber, but for car and bridge building purposes. Tests have been made by experts and pub- 222 THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. lished in trade journals, establishing the fact that this pine is the strongest and most durable timber for such work in the country. The lumber industry in the South has assumed mammoth proportions. It now reaches in valuation about $400,000,000, equalling that of the cotton crop. Far-seeing lumbermen from Wisconsin and Michigan, noting on the one hand the rapidity with which their own forests are being denuded, and on the other the growing popularity of yellow pine lumber, have purchased large bodies of Louisiana pine lands. The demand for this timber comes from South America, from Mexico, from Europe, from the prairie region of Texas, from Kansas, from the Dakotas, and all directions. It is a mine of wealth along the line of the Illinois Central. Numerous mills for the manufacture of lumber, shingles, lath, and other hard pine products are eating into the forest with their teeth of steel. Some of these plants are very extensive and have spur railways and tramways running/back into the woods for miles. Large orders for car timber come from Chicago, St. Louis and other manufacturing centers. Wharf timber and spars are hewed at the stump, rafted on the rivers or shipped by rail to the seaports, from whence they go to shipbuilders in this and foreign countries. Not only do the lumber interests of the Piney Woods have an intrinsic value, but they also furnish an important home market for the varied products of Louisiana's generous soil. The tree value of these woods does not'end with the lumber output. For more than a hundred years the life blood of the pine has gone into the markets of the world in the form of turpentine and resin. The turpentine belt extends along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, beginning with the Carolinas and ending with Louisiana. In the latter State the business is not as yet very extensive, but experimental plants prove it to be profitable. A few miles west from Hammond the turpentine farm of Dr. J. A. McDonald is in successful operation, and no more picturesque or interesting scene could be imagined than the work going on in the aisles; and glades of his woods. To this very intelligent gentleman we are indebted for an outline sketch of what is called the Naval Stores Industry*. As a basis for our estimate, we will consider a tract of virgin pine of the long leaf yellow variety, large enough to take advantage of every source of profit�10,000 acres. At1 present prices this tract would cost about $30,000. This would make a ' 'working" at one place for ten years, twenty crops to be cut THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. 223 annually. A "crop" is 10,000 boxes. After securing the lands, a favorable location for the central plant must be decided upon. This must not exceed eight miles from a railroad or boat landing. Then follows the erection of store house and homes for the overseers and laboring men, there being no particular style or limit in price for this Work. After location, the first step is box cutting. The "box" is a hole cut in the tree for the collection of the crude turpentine. Boxes are usually cut on the tree about twelve inches from the ground. From one to four boxes are cut on a tree, the number being^ regulated by its size. The size of 4:he box is generally^ thirteen inches wide by seven inches deep and three and one-half inches back. A box properly cut this size will hold three pints of crude turpentine. The season for cutting boxes is from the first of November until the fifteenth of March, a season when the sap is down, and before vegetation starts in the spring time. In the latter part of March, "cornering," a process to get the box in shape for "chipping," takes place. Chipping, which follows cornering, is done with a hacker, a small grooved-shaped tool. This is done to renew or open the pores of the wood. About half an inch of wood is taken off each time by chipping., As soon as the boxes are full, dipping begins, an oval shaped tool, or "dipper," and a common pail being used. In this manner the crude turpentine is taken from' the boxes and put in barrels,, common coal oil barrels being used. These barrels are coopered up and skuttles cut in the heads, out of which the gum is emptied into the still. The dipping is done every three weeks, or nine times during the season. About twenty-seven pints of the crude turpentine is taken from one box in one season. Tlfis amount would make a gallon of spirits of turpentine and twenty-five pounds of resin as the yield of one box in one season. Turpentine is distilled by the same process as alchohol, whisky, etc., only on a larger scale. The still is made of copper, holds not less than twenty gross barrels, and costs about $1,000. It is set in a brick wall, with grates and furnace for burning wood. Three to five charges can be run in one day on the same still, if a good supply of cool water is kept running in the warm tank. The cost of cutting boxes is one and one-fourth cents per box; for chipping, six dollars for a crop of 10,000. The price paid for dipping is thirty cents a barrel. This makes the cost THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. 225 of the twenty crops: Cutting boxes, $3,000 ; cornering, $300 ; chipping, $2,880. Ten thousand boxes, which is our basis for estimate, should yield in one season, properly worked, 6,000 gross barrels crude turpentine, to dip which would cost $1,800. The expenses of overseers, distillers, coopers, teamsters, etc., would be about $3,000. From the above amount of crude is obtained one thousand barrels of spirits of turpentine, which should net $15,000. .The resin, which is the residue from the crude after it is distilled and the spirits taken from it, would be about 5,000 barrels in quantity, and should net another $15,000. . Woodsmen, or ' 'boss" men, and distillers are paid about $75.00 a month ; drivers, $1.25 a day. To open a turpentine farm, such as we have described, and run it the first year, would require $12,000 to $15,000, aside from the cost of the lands. After the first year, if properly managed and prices favorable, this farm should yield a minimum profit of $8,000 annually. When this great industry was in its infancy, the crude turpentine was shipped to Europe to be distilled. Now the spirits of turpentine is shipped to the nearest markets in the district in which it is made, and the resin to Chicago and other cities in the North. The timber of the long leaf pine does not suffer in strength or durability by being tapped for turpentine. Our authority for this statement is the Forestry Division of the United States Department of Agriculture. Very thorough tests have been made and all prejudice against the use of bled timber is unfounded. This is important news, for about one million acres of southern pine are annually added to the total acreage of turpentine orchards. The Piney Woods are open enough to admit of a fine growth of grass, and streams of pure spring water are abundant. The mild winters allow stock to run out the entire year, and as there is no herd law the range is practically unlimited. Yet with all these advantages this region does not produce its own beef, and condensed milk and northern butter monopolize the town markets. If any one doubts this to be Fairy Land, let them stroll through the woods and view the brownie cattle and ponies, the elfin hogs and the fairy sheep. It is like looking down from the upper story of a high building on animals in the street below, so diminutive do they seem. They are native breeds, called Creole stock. All that is necessary to make a 15 226 THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. very profitable stock business, is crossing with improved animals. As a basis for grading up, the native breeds are excellent, being well built and hardy. In March grass is sufficiently started to cause cattle to begin to fatten, and during the spring, summer and fall cattle go from the range to the butcher and make fairly good beef. When the autumn is not dry, the range gives fairly good pasturage until the frost comes, about December first. Even then the grasses are of such dense growth that they are not thoroughly killed and afford some feed. Some kinds remain green and growing throughout the winters. But the most prized winter pasturage is cane. There are two species�the cane of the canebrake, from which fish poles are cut, and the small switch cane. The large- cane affords shelter as well as feed, the dense growth of the canebrake affording the only shelter from cold rains enjoyed by many Piney Woods herds. The matted roots make a firm footing for the cattle even on boggy ground. A piece of canebrake is very highly valued by the Louisiana cattle man. Though generally growing on wet land, in swamps or near streams, cane may be grown on any strong bottom land, and if not killed out by summer and fall pasturing, will hold its' own indefinitely. The most valuable pasturage of the Piney Woods in any season or on any kind of land, is the Bermuda grass. Cattle prefer it to any other feed, even the dry stems being eagerly eaten in the winter. There is a great future for cattle raising in the Piney Woods, and the same may be said of any stock. Sheep are free from disease, the new mills springing up in the South make a good market for the wool, and the climate permits the production of early lambs, which bring a high price in the northern market. And that ghostly travesty on the hog that we see-glinting about like a will-o-the-wisp, takes care of himself in the seclusion of these woods, making what he brings most all a per cent, of profit. He will be superseded by his broad-backed, brother of nobler blood, for where can hog-fattening material be grown so cheap ? So much for the Piney Woods, their carpet and their denizens. But we have simply made a beginning on the practical part of these woods, Suppose we clear up a piece of land where the pines have been cut off and see what we can grow there and what-it will sell for. We take a long augur and bore a hole diagonally through the stump, the lower end of the: THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. 227 aperture being close to the ground. At this end a fire is kindled, the hole making a regular flue. There is so much pitch; in the stump that it will continue to burn till the fire has eaten out the tap root two or three feet under the ground. Then we plow and fertilize and ridge for all sorts of vegetables and small fruit. Mr. O. B. Irish is an oracle on this subject, so we lounge down on a heap of pine straw, gathered for mulching, and while his quaint face lights up with enthusiasm and his eyes sparkle with irrepressible but intelligent humor, we listen to a breezy talk on these subjects that are of surpassing interest: "We have only just begun to raise vegetables and fruit in the Piney Woods, but during the few years that are past the business has grown from a few boxes shipped to Northern markets by express to as many car loads. Formerly the shipping was confined to the early spring months, when a few early varieties were supposed to meet a demand for something fresh and ahead of the season. Now there is not a month, and scarcely a day, when products of some kind are not sent out to supply a lack caused by the changing climate with which our Northern friends have to contend, and the cry is "More ! More ! !" It was once thought that such supplies could be furnished only by extreme Southern points on the coast or the Florida peninsula, but the mildness of the winters and the even but not high temperature of the summers in the Piney Woods enables the i 'truck grower" to raise anything grown in any State. Among the most profitable varieties of vegetables may be found Beans, Beets, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Carrots, Celery, Corn, Cucumbers, Egg Plant, Kohl Rabi, Lettuce, Melons, Okra, Onions, Shallots, Peas, Irish Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Radishes, Squashes, Tomatoes, Turnips, &c. Beans are planted in February and March and the Snap variety shipped in boxes in April and May; and the pole or running varieties a little later on, both returning a handsome profit. The ground is then turned over to other crops, such as melons, corn and sweet potatoes. * The lima beans need the whole season and produce a continuous crop until frost. Beets are planted from November to February and the tender bulbs with tops marketed in early Spring. Cabbage set from September to January are in order from December to June. They will grow from 5,000 to 7,000 heads to the acre and net three to sixteen cents per head. I know one grower who realized $18,000 from his thirty acres. the ten best states of america. 229 All through late Winter and Spring fresh cut heads bring double the price of stock that has been stored. Hundreds of acres on this line of the road, especially along the lakes and rivers, produce stock that is known from Cairo to St Paul. Much is used in the home market in cities and towns, and such a thing as storing it is unknown in this climate. Cauliflower, though less grown, is a paying crop. Celery is less planted than any / of the best paying crops. Experience is needed to handle it successfully, but it grows to perfection. Some of the specimens cut for the Christmas market received the highest approval of the market men. Carrots while small are shipped with the tops for soups, garnishings, &c. Corn within the last two years is attracting much attention as a market crop in its green or ' 'ros-en ear " state. The Evergreen yields abundantly and is delicious. Some of the glazed varieties mature early and the "western " or ''shoe peg" makes a profitable crop. One party shipped about two acres last year, netting nearly sixty dollars per acre, and the ground was replanted with sweet potatoes, returning one hundred and forty bushels, that sold in Chicago at two dollars to two and a quarter per barrel. Much more will be planted this year anel the business has apparently come to stay. The advantage of getting two to four crops from the same land in a year is being appreciated and farmers are realizing that continuous farming with one very heavy coat of fertilizer and thorough working of the soil is better than a crop of weeds as an aftermath. In this climate, with length of season allowed to even the most tender vegetation, much more can be grown than at first believed by one who has never seen it. A crop of corn followed by av crop of cabbage will require the entire year, while radishes, cucumbers, melons and turnips following each other the same year are a success. Beans, crab grass for hay and shallots are often a succession of profit. Cucumbers for early market have done remarkably well. Those who have the facilities for "forcing" have obtained fabulous prices, while the open ground culture with slight protection yields abundantly and usually pays. One party eight miles from the railroad received two hundred and eighteen dollars from a little over an. acre, and planted corn by hand before the vines had done bearing. He harvested forty bushels, then followed with turnips for stock and fed without measurement. Others have done equally as well. Hot beds and cold frames for forcing 230 THE- TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. are quite common, and one party who is a commission merchant in Chicago, has purchased five acres near Hammond, which he intends to cover mainly with beds for forcing. Evidently he knows what he is doing, because the first arrivals on his market bring three dollars per dozen, and the average shipper is well satisfied with five cents per dozen later. Egg plant is raised to some extent, but the market is usually limited. Kohl Rabi is acquiring a very important place and will no doubt be extensively grown when its excellence is better known and appreciated. Lettuce:�Just before Christmas in going through the grounds of. a successful gardener, we noticed a plat of well grown lettuce that, at a moderate estimate, would give five hundred boxes of beautiful heads on less than half an acre, and with an average market will bring ninety cents a box. He has as much more in each of two later plats for succession in shipment. He commences planting with the first rains of September and October, and plants at intervals until January. He has five flowing wells to assist him, which are driven in the higher portions of his land. Such wells are put down in all parts of this section and a good flow obtained at from fifty to two hundred feet and they make the gardener comparatively independent of drought. The market for good quality of lettuce is seldom overstocked and increases yearly faster than the supply. Melons, water and musk, are planted more for local market than for shipping. Everyone who tills a piece of land, however small, expects to have a melon patch, and many patches are enlarged to acres. It is astonishing how many melons are required in every town or hamlet. They are brought in by buggy, cart and wagon load and sold through the merchants or peddled from the load. If there is anything that a colored person prefers it is a melon, and his last nickel is often spent to gratify himself in that direction. The South is the natural home of the melon and the colored race, and no wonder that they affiliate. Okra has been planted with indifferent results, but is growing in favor in the market. Onions and Shallots, a sort of salad onion, are extensively planted as a market crop. The sets are put out from September to November and sold in the green state from December to April, put up in one*third bushel boxes, when nicely prepared, THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. 231 they bring in the Northern market from fifty cents to one dollar and fifty per box and not infrequently net two hundred or more dollars per acre. i In the fall of 1892 more than two hundred bushels of sets (small onions) were put out in the vicinity of Hammond. If kept in the ground until June the Shallots will produce from forty to sixty bushels of sets to the acre that bring usually from two to three dollars per bushel. Peas yield abundantly and the better sorts pay well. They are usually put up in one third bushel boxes and supply an important place among the early, vegetables. When planted in January and February they may be shipped in April. Potatoes produce an early crop of twenty to forty barrels of metchantable tubers to the acre and a second crop planted in August frequently yields half as much. The quality is the very best. Sweet potatoes are grown quite extensively both for feed and sale. One party shipped two car loads in the fall of 1892 and others in a smaller way, netting about seventy-five cents per bushel. They are usually grown after some other crop and planted from cuttings of vines in June and July with little care afterward. They are the staple food of laborers and their families and have the advantage of cheapness and healthfulness for both man and animals. Pork made exclusively of them brings an extra price, and as an auxilliary feed for milk they have few superiors. Radishes as a shipping crop is one of the most remunerative. Six pounds of seed to the acre sown at intervals from February to April often turn to good advantage. One party has shipped ten to fifteen barrels per day for two weeks and the returns were satisfactory. Probably the market for them is the least uniform of any vegetable,, but they have the merit of being the least costly in labor of almost anything, the only cost after sowing being the gathering and tieing in bunches of about six or eight, and those not used are plowed under as a fertilizer. I Squashes for early use and those later for fall and winter are a success. The former are planted early in March and the latter in April, varieties having much to do with the time of ripening. They may both be planted on the same ground and the earlier removed as soon as the fruit is gathered, and not materially interfere with each other. I Tomatoes are grown to perfection in the northern parts of the Piney Woods. Twenty-eight fully loaded cars, or 23,000 THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. 233 half bushel crates, have been shipped in one day from one station. Turnips, fresh, find a ready sale from January to June. The round or flat with their tops are shipped when about one or two inches in diameter, and Ruta Baga in barrels in the Spring months." , Mr. Irish, although a well preserved old gentleman, pauses for breath, after unloading this long list of Piney Woods vegetable possibilities on the unresisting air. "Mr. Irish," says the conductor of the visiting party, "the vegetable subject is intensely interesting, but' you have known me several years, and you realize that I would turn back from the Pearly Gates if I learned there were no strawberries beyond." Again that bright face grew brighter, and Mr. Irish replied: "Well, if there is any fruit in Heaven it is the strawberry." Along the line of the Illinois Central railroad for fifty miles from Lake Pontchartrain, seems to be the home of the strawberry. Numbers of distinctly new varieties have been propagated, and the last few years have developed the fact that many of the older varieties are adapted to this soil and climate. The business of growing this fruit has increased until it has assumed gigantic proportions. Carload after carload of box material is shipped from Tennessee and elsewhere, and new industries are springing up in our own midst, manufacturing material out of native wooc)s to meet the wants of shippers, and the business is yet a toddling youngster. The small gardens and the forty acre fields are seen along the line of the road, and a ride back into the Piney Woods will show that it is scarcely less for eight or ten miles. Wherever there is a clearing you are sure to see the long even rows ofr the beautiful foliage, and in its season, from February to June, the scarlet tinge of the fruit. It is so nearly natural to soil and climate that the planter may supply his table in ordinary seasons during five successive months. The principal shipping is done in March, April and May, but in 1892 the first shipments were made Feb. 5, and sold on the market for sixty cents a pint, netting the grower one dollar per quart. Later the prices were less, but the returns for the season made a very satisfactory showing. It is not an uncommon thing for returns of $200, and even $300 per acre. In one case $432 from one and one-quarter acres, in another $ 1,600 from nine acres, over the cost of boxes and picking was received. Persons of small means, with good judgment and willing hands, both male and female, have earned a good liv- 234 THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. ing and placed themselves above want by cultivating strawberries. And yet, only a few years ago, the idea of shipping strawberries to the Chicago market wasn't thought of. But one day an Illinois Central representative got off the train here, saw a few nice berries and took in the situation at a glance. 'We will make a fruit station of this !' said he. How well he has realized the truth of those prophetic words! Last season he stood on the same platform and saw two cars loaded one evening with strawberries that bring the highest ririee in the northern markets. The Illinois Central is a Gabriel trumpet to wake up the sleeping industries along this line of road, I tell you! Grapes like strawberries have come to stay. A native/ of this parish not long ago gave his experience. He is a man of good intelligence, a fair education and well to do, and has been honored by his friends as a parish officer repeatedly. He said he never ate a cultivated grape grown here until he was more than forty years old ; did not know they would grow here until long after the War a northern settler planted them. He is a progressionist and adopted the idea. Now his family have all they can use and to spare of the most approved varieties. A small vineyard of three hundred vines, of three years growth, mostly Concord, fairly cared for, yielded 3,566 pounds and netted $148.64, after paying expense of, baskets, crates and shipping�with one consignment of forty-six crates smashed in a railroad wreck. Others have done proportionately well. Tree fruits are scarcely begun to be developed, but in the last six years have made rapid strides. A few apple trees of such varieties as peddlers chose to sell, were set longer ago by a few of the native settlers with indifferent success. Some produced well, but all made good growth. We see no reason why varieties, well chosen and cared for, as orchards are oared for in other sections, will not yield a paying crop, and we predict that in ten years this section will be independent in a supply of summer and fall apples.- The early maturing in the long seaJ sons reduces late keepers to fall fruit. The Russian and Siberian seem best adapted to the extreme change as their hardiness attests. It will be no greater progress than has been made with grapes and many other fruits. Pears promise well. The late blooming sorts nearly every year produce some fruit, and years when they bloom late enough to escape the frost, such varieties as LeConte and Keifer, produce an abundant crop of large, beautiful fruit. THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. 235 Trees seldom blight and in my six years experience in Hammond and vicinity I have not seen a case of blight. It is no uncommon thing to see LeConte trees well cared for put out limbs ten feet long in a single season, and the wood matures perfectly. Peach trees grow finely on ground where there is good natural drainage, and bear satisfactorily. Early bearing is produced in all kinds of tree fruits and it is not uncommon to see seedling peach trees bear quite plentifully at two years old. One such under our own observation matured over two hundred after being thinned out. An illustration of what successful peach culture means to property in the Piney Woods, is the experience' in Maryland. Six or eight years ago land that sold in that state for $5 an acre now brings $300. Why? Because they have discovered that it is' well adapted to peach growing. Plums, especially .the Oriental varieties, grow to perfection. The Abundance, three years from the graft, have borne two full crops. The flavor is first-class and there are no curculio marks. One tree last year ripened forty-one plums, any one of which was twice the diameter of the trunk at the ground. The Kelsey bears plums that will weigh one quarter of a pound each. Several varieties bloom later and ripen earlier, such as the Burbank, Chabot, Satsuma, Ogon, Bailey and others; are thrifty growers, early bearers and bid fair to revolutionize the plum cultivation and compete with the California product. The wild goose plum and other natives are hardy and productive with better crops and better fruit than we ever saw north of the Ohio river. Japan Persimmons grow well and hundreds of trees will be of bearing age this season, and a very few have already produced fine fruit. Quinces^are a success and the quality of the fruit better than in most sections north. The Japan Quince is also raised and single specimens have weighed twenty-five ounces each. " Here Mr Irish lighted a home-grown, home-made cigar, and we could see he was approaching another favorite. "Figs:�Stick a fig branch in the ground and it will grow and bear fruit for more than half a century. It is the most ancient fruit we cultivate. Figs are medicine as well as food, and the finest sauce known is preserved figs. Right in the face of this fact, they are hardly known in the North. Delicious sweet 236 THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. pickles are also made from them. An old tree will bear from twenty to fifty bushels, and I have even heard of seventy bushels from a phenomenal tree. One of the most valuable fruits of this climate is the fig. There are numerous varieties, but the most popular and productive is the small brown, or Celeste, which is about the size of a Seckel pear. The tree is productive at an early age and is extremely long-lived. It succeeds on any soil, is a heavy bearer, has no insect enemies whatever and yields its enormous crops, which ripen in succession through a long season. The fruit forms on young wood, hence frosts, which occasionally nip the branches slightly, do not affect the yield. In its fresh state the fig is both delicious and wholesome and it is equally so when preserved. Unfortunately it cannot be shipped fresh, as it must be allowed to ripen on the tree and is then too soft to handle. This renders it of less importance commercially than would otherwise be the case, but this defect is fully atoned for by the demand for the preserved fruit. Immense quantities are put up annually by the large canning factories of Biloxi and the supply has never been equal to the demand. The fresh fruit brings from three to seven cents per pound at the factory, or from $2.40 to $3.20 per bushel. No crop pays the grower so large a profit, as twenty pounds of ripe fruit per day during a season of several weeks duration is not an unusual yield,' while the largest trees have been known to bring an income of a dollar a day. Continuous rains during the ripening season are the only injury, aside from the depredations of birds, to which this fruit is liable. Pecans are being planted by those who look ahead expecting they or their generation will reap the benefits. They seldom yield paying crops in ten or more years, but he who plants five acres and tends them well is reasonably sure to leave a good income to his successors for fifty to one hundred years. One small grove of ten trees now in bearing, sixteen years old, produced this year more net value than an acre of wheat in Minnesota. One tree had over a hundred and twenty pounds worth fifteen cents per pound. Others did nearly as well. There are several varieties of the Pecan. Some of the large paper shell bring in the wholesale market twenty to forty cents per pound. The tree nearest resembles the hickory, its timber being excellent for wagon work, handles and the like. It is a beautiful shade tree, its spreading branches making a grateful shade for man and animals. Tobacco is being experimented with, and trials thus far THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. 237 give an amount equal to any of the tobacco growing sections of the country, and the quality as far as has been tested is good, but it requires experience in curing and handling. The suckers after cutting in July make a second crop of superior texture. Old growers who saw it in the field last year pronounced it equal to any grown in states North or West. A county in Florida that was almost bankrupt has become wealthy by the culture of tobacco, and it does equally as well, if not better, in these Piney Woods. It averaged about 500 pounds to the acre last season and brought thirty-one cents a pound, in the county mentioned. The celebrated Perique tobacco, an article of commerce very much in demand, can be successfully grown in Louisiana. The amount of tobacco grown in Florida cuts no figure in the market. Carefully gathered statistics show that there are 600,000 smokers in New York city every night, and a small average is three cigars to a smoker; that is, 1,800,-000 cigars each night, at twenty-five pounds, tobacco to the thousand, or 450,000 pounds smoked in New York alone each night." Mr. Irish pauses. His tale of Piney Woods products is ended. Everyone of our party has mentally made an investment in this entrancing region. Those in feeble health will settle here at once, and we all feel that "When old age comes creepin' on And our hair is turning gray," we will prolong that peaceful period in a Piney Woods home. Great-wheeled log carts, drawn by diminutive creole. oxen roll by us; rich, sweet harmonies float up. from the strawberry fields, the pitch pine torch sputters in its iron basket at the station, the down train whistles, and soon we speed away again. "Keb Stick." The capital of a state is seldom the metropolis, but frequently an important and interesting city ; and we may reasonably assume that the official headquarters of the remarkable state we are investigating demands our attention and will furnish additional food for our enthusiasm. Baton Rouge occupies a site well chosen, although selected in the seventeenth century. The name is Indian and means THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. 239 "Red Stick," from a red boundary post that marked the dividing line between the possessions of two tribes of Indians. 'By the river, as followed by the adventurous Iberville and his gallant band, it is 120 miles from the Gulf of Mexico to the first highlands to the North. By the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley railway of to-day it is but eighty-nine miles; the crow gets there by fanning the air over a course seventy-two miles long. The waving line of sloping terrace here rises to a point high above the highest floods. On the summit of these bluffs that mark the prehistoric shore line of the Gulf, commanding a view of the wide-spreading lowlands, the gleaming, castellated walls of Louisiana's capitol may be seen. The situation is beautiful in the extreme and is occupied by ten or twelve thousand inhabitants. The picturesque location is supplemented by advantages for a thriving commercial and manufacturing city. Thus far these have been but scantily utilized. The spirit of progress, however, has at last stirred within her; and, under its quickening impulses, the last decade has witnessed marked improvement. Within that period, from an overgrown village she has developed into a small, though comely, city. Two banks, an insurance company, a board of trade, systems of street railway, electric lighting and waterworks have been established and are now being sucessfully operated. She has only within the last few years been connected with the world by two trunk lines of railroad�the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley forming the link from New Orleans to Memphis in the great southern trans-continental route to the Pacific Ocean, and the Texas & Pacific, one of the main lines in the net-work of Gould's immense southwestern system of railroads. Since 1880 she has nearly doubled her population and more than doubled her trade and manufactures. The roll of her factories already established is not yet a very large one. All that have been established, however, have proved successful. The Capital Oil Mill, magnificently equipped, and located at the lower limits of the city, annually converts thousands of tons of cotton seed into oil cake and cotton seed meal, all of which bring good prices in the markets of the World and yield handsome dividends to the stockholders. The Baton Rouge Brickyard Company ships millions of brick every year, which find ready sale at remunerative prices in the countless markets easily reached by river and rail. The Burton Lumber Company operates a splendidly equipped saw mill within the city limits, which cuts an average of 240 THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA! 40,ooo feet of lumber per day, and, manufactures shingles by the million. The timber used is cypress, pine, oak and ash, of which the supply is unlimited. The Mississippi river and its countless affluents bring all the forests of the great valley to the very doors of the mill. Its products find ready sale in the markets of Chicago and New York, and in Europe. The demand lor them is so great that the mill is always behind with its orders. There is abundant room here for several more such saw mills. The Artificial Ice and Cold Storage Company has a hundred thousand dollar building and plant,.with a capacity of sixty tons per day. The country for" many miles around is supplied with the best quality of ice from this factory. Apart from a small broom factory, a small door, sash and blind factory and several cotton and moss ginneries, this completes the list of factories now in active operation. The great river practically places the vast coal fields of the Ohio Valley, at the very gates of the city. Of raw material there is a superabundance in cotton, sugar, rice and woods of all kinds, literally crying aloud to be spun, woven, refined, milled and worked into countless thousands of finished forms right here on the spot where they grow. A cotton compress is so urgent a necessity, that a local movement has already begun looking to the erection of one here in the near future. This will make Baton Rouge a cotton market, and it will be sought by foreign buyers of this staple. A cotton factory, with the latest improved machinery and' fullest capacity, would find a favorable location at this point! The cotton fields begin at the northern limits of the city, and are noted for the production of a quality of cotton much sought for the strength of its staple and the beauty of its texture. To the south and west stretch almost limitless fields of sugar cane. A central sugar factory and a large improved sugar refinery, with sufficient capital, properly managed, could not fail to succeed here./ No more suitable location could be found in the United States for the establishment of very extensive cooperage works. The raw material and the demand for the finished product are both already here. Cypress, of which the supply is abundant and cheap, furnishes a stave that no other wood can excel. The sugar plantations, that line both sides of the river for miles and miles, annually consume hundreds of thdusands' of barrels, all of which are now brought from a distance. The potato crop, of THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. Ml late years assuming respectable proportions, is also shipped away in imported barrels. Cypress is equally good for the manufacture of cisterns, tanks, tubs, pails and .all other kinds of hollow ware. It is as light and as easily worked as white pine, and as durable as red cedar. For doors, sash and blinds, it has no equal; and a large factory established here for the manufacture of those articles would undoubtedly pay handsomely. In fact, ho better location could be found for the manufacture of almost every article of commerce of which wood forms a considerable constituent part. Notable among them are furniture, wagons and other wheeled vehicles and agricultural implements. The primeval forest, much of which has been preserved intact, contiguous to the city on the north and east, offers for furniture an abundance of poplar, red gum, ash, oak, magnolia and many other hard woods ; for wagons and other wheeled vehicles and agricultural implements, this forest can be relied on for hickory and white oak of the very best quality. Ash is so abundant that thousands of cords are annually consumed in Baton Rouge and shipped to New Orleans for firewood. "White oak is even now being cut into pipe staves and shipped to Europe almost from the very city limits. Not more than ten imiles above the city, a large saw mill has been lately erected for the sole purpose of squaring out logs of oak, gum and hickory for shipment in the log to England, to be there shaped into the forms they should take before leaving Baton Rouge. But it is not to the manufacturer alone that Baton Rouge offers an inviting field for investment. Hands are plentiful and cheap; $1.00 to $5.00 per acre for wild land, and $5.00 to $20.00 per acre for improved land are the ruling prices. The lands, adjacent to�the city on the south and west are alluvial and richer than the vale of the Ganges. The highlands to the north and east are of the bluff formation, a deep and rich chocolate brown loam. They lie nearly level, but are sufficiently undulating to make the natural drainage good. Sugar cane and cotton can be profitably grown on these highlands, as well as on the low lands. In ante-bellum days, some of the finest sugar and cotton estates in the South were established on these fertile highlands. They are, however, especially adapted to fruit growing, truck farming and stock raising.. It is a little too far north for the tropical fruits, though the orange, banana and Japan plum flourish here in sheltered spots, and the fig is perfectly at home.# Peaches, apricots, plums, pomegranates, grapes, melons of every variety and all the fruits of the temperate zone 16 THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. 243 do well here. Pecan trees, both wild and cultivated, are numerous ; they grow to a great size and bear abundantly, To illustrate the possibilities of Louisiana soil and climate, a Baton Rouge instance may be cited. In January, one-tenth of an acre was planted in Iris^h potatoes. When these received their last working, corn was planted in the water furrow. Twelve barrels of choice potatoes were dug from this one-tenth of an acre in May. The same land furnished the family green corn in June. As the ears were .gathered, the stalks were cut and sweet potato vines set out. A fine crop of sweet potatoes was harvested in October. The same land was then sown in turnips, that matured in December, thus making four full field crops on the same land in one year. Not only the material but all other conditions are here to make life bright, happy and wholesome. Church privileges are ample and varied enough to satisfy all faiths and creeds. Religious and political tolerance are characteristic of the cosmopolitan population of this favored city. A good public school system in* the city and country meets the wants of the people. In the city is established the Louisana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, amply endowed and ably officered. Here are taught the classics, belles lettres, the sciences, the mechanic arts, agricultural and millitary tactics. The State institutions for the education of the deaf and dumb and of the blind are also located here, as well as private schools for the higher education of women. Law and order are admirably preserved ; it would be difficult to find a community where the public peace is less often disturbed. The health of city and country is excellent. The high, dry table land offers no harbor for malaria, and the bug-a-boo of yellow fever has long since been shorn of its terrors by the adoption of scientific and effective methods of disinfection and quarantine. Fourteen years ago Yellow Jack paid his last visit to the city ; he will never come again. Baton Rouge is the home of flowers and song birds. The forests surrounding the city are full of the magnolia grandiflora, honey suckle and yellow jasmine, and the gardens are crowded with camelias and roses that bloom all winter. So enchanted with this spot did those who first came here become, that they �consecrated it an earthly paradise and named it Feliciana�the Happy Land�which appellation gave two adjoining parishes the names they bear to-day. 244: THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. As we enter the shades of the great palmetto swamp below Hammond, it occurs to us that "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." Jack needn't grow dull in the South. It is just as much a paradise for the sportsman as it is for the planter or lumberman. The pursuit of game in the open woods of the Yazoo Delta and the pine hills is made under the most favorable circumstances. You may shoot quail, ducks, geese, grouse, wild turkey, squirrels, rabbits, 'possum, deer and bear in abundance. And you will find growing wild blackberries, dewberries, plums, huckleberries, persimmons, grapes, may-pops, haws and black cherries. If you desire to vary your wild fruit diet with equally wild nuts, help yourself to beechnuts, hazlenuts, hickorynuts, pecans, walnuts, and chinquapins. But here we are by the "Old Basin," where ride the sloops that come in through Lake Pontchartrain, and before us is the elegant new depot of the Illinois Central at New Orleans. Cfye Crescent City. It has been apparent to our party for sometime as we moved southward, that we were nearing some huge cornucopia, where the surplus of this inexhaustible region concentrated. We have reached it. The most important city of the South is New Orleans. This importance is mercantile, commercial, historical and prospective. It is a city actually pushed into^ prominence by its remarkably advantageous location and the lavish hand of Nature. On the one side are wharves miles long, that invite the ocean vessels of the world, as well as river and gulf craft great and small, and on the other the railways from every point of the compass where a road-bed can be made, center here. To the business man, especially, no more interesting dty exists. We are told the largest grocery stock in the United States is carried in New Orleans, and no building yet constructed can contain the vast quantities of merchandise that accumulate for distribution at this port: it takes the dome of Heaven to roof in the acres of stores that cover the levee. This Spring the largest freight steamer in the world left Liverpool with water ballast and swung up alongside the levee wharf of the Crescent City to take on her maiden cargo. She was four hundred and sixty-five feet long, had a fifty-two feet beam, and a depth of hold thirty-six feet. She took on one thousand 246 THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. three hundred tons of coal for the passage, and loaded with one hundred and sixty-five thousand bushels of wheat (over four hundred car loads), eight thousand bales of cotton (with room for four hundred more), fifteen thousand five hundred staves, ten thousand six hundred sacks of cotton seed cake, and nine thousand sacks of cotton seed meal. Few of the manufacturing establishments of New Orleans date their existence back of the last decade, and many have sprung up within the past few years, yet some of them are the largest of their kind in the world. From sixty thousand to seventy thousand yards of canvass are annually made up into tents and awnings, and sold throughout the Southern States, and one bagging factory employs two hundred men, and makes up five million yards of material every year. There are knit from cotton yarn spun in the South and East, at one New Orleans factory, some fifty thousand or sixty thousand pairs of seamless half-hose annually. These goods are distributed from important centers all over the United States �New York, Cleveland, Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver and Baltimore. Another mill turns out four thousand pairs of hose daily, using two or three bales of cotton for that purpose. Still another knitting plant makes ladies', gentlemen's and children's underwear, turning out two hundred and fifty dozen pieces per day, which are sold through the country from New York to Texas. Two great cotton mill plants attract the attention of our visitors ; each occupies an entire square. One makes fifty-five thousand yards per day of sheetings, shirtings, drillings, tickings, cheviots, cottonades, towels, fancy shirtings, battings, etc. To make these goods thirty-seven thousand five hundred spindles and one thousand and sixty looms are in full operation, employing about one thousand men, women and children. The products of the other plant are cotton sheetings, shirtings, drills, osnaburgs, duck, rope, twine and ball thread. The capacity is eight thousand pounds per day. An immense amount of clothing is manufactured in New Orleans. There are at least sixteen factories for this purpose. They operate over five hundred sewing machines, run by electricity, and give employment to nearly four thousand people. About four hundred operatives find employment in the manufacture of shoes, turning out nearly one thousand seven hundred pairs each day. THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. 247 There are a number of box-making factories, giving employment to several hundred people in the aggregate. One company manufacturing boxes and lumber, and importing and dealing in mahogany, have a capacity of two thousand boxes and twenty-five thousand feet of lumber a day. Another makes annually eighty thousand cigar boxes, and a paper box factory turns out five thousand a day. Over one thousand men are employed in New Orleans iron works, one of which melts one thousand tons of iron annually. In these works are constructed the most improved machinery for sugar, rice, cotton, saw and grain mills ; also steam engines, boilers and steamship work. The out-put of some of these works is valued at half a million dollars. There are, in this connection, brass foundries of the most complete character. Pressed, ornamental and building brick are made by the million�eight million five hundred thousand being moulded and burned last year. The New Orleans Brewing Association operate six large breweries, employ five hundred men, and turn out keg and bottled beer at the rate of five hundred thousand barrels per annum. This business suggests barrels, of which four hundred thousand are made yearly, and corks, twenty thousand being the daily out-put of the latter. This city has an electrical manufacturing and supply company, the apparatus being sold throughout the Southern States, Cuba and Mexico. Four large furniture factories represent an important industry here. All kinds of office and house furniture, as well as woven wire springs, mattresses and cots come under the head of this industry. As may be inferred from its proximity to the great timber belt, the lumber interests of New Orleans are extensive. One sash factory employs one hundred and twenty-five men, and has a territory for its supplies all through the Southern States and a large part of Central America ; another employs one hundred and ten men ; still another two hundred and twenty-five hands. The out-put of sawed lumber from the several, mills, aside from the sash, doors, blinds, etc., is nearly half a million feet daily. The factory of the Louisiana Cypress Lumber Co., Limited, is an immense concern. Its out-put is seventy-five thousand feet of cypress lumber, fifty thousand laths and one million shingles per day. Four hundred men are employed, and the territory supplied ranges from Maine to Colorado. Large orders are THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. 249 received from Europe, principally from Germany, France and England. Nine three-story brick buildings, an actual space of 80,000 square feet, are occupied by a coffin factory. The coffins, caskets and undertakers' supplies find a market in nine States, Mexico and Cuba. The product is one hundred coffins a day. The Sunlight gas machines are made in New Orleans at the rate of thirty per month, and are sold in the United States, Mexico, Central America and France. There are some industries peculiar to the South, and these very naturally receive a good deal of attention at the Gulf Port. In the South, for instance, rain water is extensively used and the cisterns are large wooden tanks above ground. There are two large factories here for building these cisterns. One turns out 1,200 cisterns a year, and both find a large home market as well as one in Central America. Another necessary industry in the South is ice making. Nearly 200 tons a day are made here. This ice is very pure, most of it being made from artesian water distilled. It is cast in blocks of 200 pounds each. The third exclusively Southern industry is ginning, dyeing, washing and baling Spanish moss. There are three factories, the product being upholstering and mattress moss and vegetable hair. The combined amount prepared by these three establishments is about 150 bales a day. Creole mustard and sauces are manufactured at the rate of 500 gallons a month. Candles and starch are made in large quantities, and 10,000,000 pounds of laundry and toilet soaps go into the market from New Orleans every year. The manufacture of carbonated beverages keeps busy five extensive plants. Cotton seed oil is refined at the rate of 250 barrels a day. Some statistics are wearying, but the youthful industries of this old city are remarkably entertaining. For instance we find paint works with a capacity of 1,000,000 pounds of white lead, 75,000 gallons of mixed paints, 50,000 pounds of putty, and proportionate amounts of 400 articles of various kinds connected with the paint trade. From 3,000 to 4,000 clay furnaces, 10,000 flower pots and from 2,000 to 3,000 pieces of stoneware is the monthly result of New Orleans potteries. Two hundred hides are tanned every day, and 10,000 tons of fertilizers suited to the culture of cotton, corn, fruit and vegetables are annuall} manufactured. Two plants do gold, silver and nickel plating and bronzing, besides wire work. The tin and sheet iron work- THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. J51 ers run four good-sized establishments, one of which uses 15,000 boxes of tin-plate a year and employs ninety men, Notwithstanding the wide range we have covered, three great products remain for our consideration: The establishment of the American Sugar Refining Company is by far the most extensive in the city, covering 4 five full squares of ground. The enormous buildings are finished inside with brick and iron, and fitted with all of the latest improved machinery. Refined sugars and molasses of all grades are produced, the capacity being 2,000,000 pounds per day. Employment is given to 1,300 men, whose wages range from $45 to $400 a month! The rice crop of 1892 was the largest ever grown, being estimated between 1,500,000 and 2,000,000 sacks of 162 pounds each. The rice mills of New Orleans have a capacity of nearly �6,000 sacks a day. A glance at-the tobacco business and we will have concluded that our visitors have a general knowledge of what is being manufactured in this interesting city. One would imagine from the cigars, cigarettes and smoking tobacco made in New Orleans alone, that the human family did nothing but smoke. There are eight factories here. In six of them an aggregate of 73,800,000 cigars are made, annually. One factory alone has a yearly out-put of 100,000,000 cigarettes, besides 15,000,000 cigars, 500,000 pounds of fine cut tobacco and 50,000 pounds of snuff. Over two thousand people are employed to do the work of these factories. The growing importance of export and import business at New Orleans is recognized by the great railway systems. The Southport elevators of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad, just above the city, are a striking example of that recognition; their total capacity is 450,000 bushels of grain. From the 20th of August, when the grain business opened last year, up to February 15th of this spring, these elevators handled 3,105,000 bushels of grain for export, an increase of 555,000 bushels over the corresponding period last year. For the season ending August 1st, 1892, this road delivered direct to 214 vessels 225,054 tons, consisting of 175,105 bales of cotton, also shipments of cotton seed meal, cotton seed cake, grain and forest products. It also received for the same period, 2,100 tons of import freight from the vessels. For a single month, the first one of this year, the amount of freight delivered to the steamers was 101,500 tons. The docks of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad are 252 THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. ample for all export and import traffic. The government has placed the seal of its endorsement on Southport, by expending considerable money at that place in sinking mattresses to protect the property against incursion by the .river, thus recognizing its importance as a receiving and distributing port. The receipts and exports of flour and grain at and from the port of New Orleans, monthly during 1892, were: RECEIPTS. FLOUR WHEAT CORN OATS RYE Barrels. bushels.,* bushels. bushels. bushels. January------_---------------- 70,404 1,038,373 1,064', 660 327.095 80,400 February- _____ � 86,485 I,379*233 l,$8o,o6o 333J70 93,600 March____ - -____ _ _ 77,400 1,647,893 1,522,557 313,015 92,450 April-----_------------------- 62,850 1,2,16,067 1,778,177 300,190 23,40O May_________________________ 65,102 213,763 712,838 304,450 2,40O June-------------------------- 51,853 76,330 105,150 231,870 July�� -_____.__-_____-__ 62,738 299,052 160,550 1,068,135 August--------------------- � 76,012 1,422,411 137,382 762,865 September-------_�------_i 62,625 1,811,21b 27,303 3H,2I5 October---------:______------- 79,904 1,383,876 85,587 167,750 November-------------_------ 76,928- 1,805,942 100,599 I55'890 December------------_----� 68,763 2,298,006 226,256 180,830 Total �----_ ______----. 842,064 I4,592,i56 7,501,128 4,459,495 292,250 EXPORTS. FLOUR WHEAT CORN OATS RYE barrels. bushels. bushels. bushels. bushels. January---------~------------ 38,347 i,755,649 946,177 8,530 75>994 February-----,---------------- 82,680 1,608,005 1,545,747 7,125 33,40O March��-��_____________ 39 3�7 1,627,099 1,638,090 H,730 177,151 April_____________-_______ 3i,302 1,801,555 1,763,646 7,805 55,205 May----------_______________ 25,100 .814,825 643,018 8,200 10,500 Junei------------_---------- 15,693 95,000 17,770 6,115 July-----------------------_____ 21,126 235,Hi 131,886 9,435 August------------.____------ 14,238 961,806 82,281 6,900 September________------.----- 20,898 933,303 24,802 7,99� October--------______________ 23,139 1,141,545 H,34o 7,255 November--------------_____ 33,153 1,465,446 66,210 10,525 December-----_-----------___ 39.38o 1,896,035 50,436" 7,575 Total_______________________ 384,363 14,335,409 6,924,403 99,185 352,250 We make a distinction between ' 'resources " and ' 'attractions," but in New Orleans the resources themselves are attractive. SOUTHPORT ELEVATORS OF ILLINOIS CENTRAL R. 254 THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. However, there is an interest attached to the city that is magnetic and does not deal with the practical. This bustling mart has been in the possession at different times of four nations, and its history runs back through a period of nearly three centuries. It is seldom one enters into the true enjoyment of the place on a first visit, even if the visitor be an enthusiast on the subject of Southern literature. The old cathedrals, with their treasures of altar and statuary; the venerable buildings that locate some historical romance; the beauties of St Charles street, where elegant homes are partially obscured by clinging ivy and myriads of ros,es; the French market, the cemeteries,�all may be seen on your first advent into this swamp encircled metropolis, but a full appreciation comes only on succeeding trips. Out-of-the-way nooks and second hand stores are fruitful fields for the discovery of rare antiquities. In no direction from New Orleans can an excursion be taken that does not reveal a new source of delight. Along the shell road to Lake Pontchartrain; eastward on the Gulf Coast; down to the Jetties; up innumerable rivers and bayous; out west into Acadia, where at times, when the great hedges of Cherokee roses are in blossom, the train seems to be running in the cleft of a gigantic bouquet,-�everywhere the roads lead you through gates that open into fields of enjoyment. Although its age is reckoned by centuries, New Orleans has the gaiety of a child. Where else on earth is such a pageantry as the Mardi Gras treated with absolute seriousness? Where else can such quaint superstitions be found? It is a city of wholesome and innocent pleasure; of politeness and generous hospitality. We will never see a train leave the Illinois Central depot for the South without a strong desire to go aboard and be borne swiftly across the parallels of latitude that intervene between its lake terminus in the North and this sunny, fascinating centre of Southern life. 256 THE TEN BEST STATES OF AMERICA. 3n Conclusion. The tour of "The Ten Best States" is ended, and the thousands of miles of "Their Commercial Highway" have been traversed. We have made good our pledges in the "Invitation." With varied products and diversified climate, each state has the elements of health and prosperity. Statements that the eye could not verify, have been substantiated by accepted authority. If the trip was taken for health, we have shown our party where Nature exercises her highest degree of restoring power ; if for safe speculation, we have indicated lands that pay an almost fabulous per cent, on the investment, besides having a value that under no circumstances can retrograde ; if for settlement, we have visited localities where homes may be founded with a greater promise and less money than in any other part of the world ; if for banking or mercantile business, we have been where the minimum of capital brings the maximum of returns. As for pleasure, we know from long experience that journeys over the Illinois Central pall not by repetition, for they terminate amid scenes of such manifold and intense interest, that we have only been able to suggest their charms. When we consider the possibilities based on the experiments in these States, we confront a degree of future advancement that has no parallel in the industrial history of nations. Confident that those possibilities have been strongly and clearly indicated in this book, we write The End. A copy of this book can be had by applying to the undersigned, repreaen-tatiues of the Illinois Central Railroad Co. They will also take pleasure in answering such inquiries pertaining to the business of their several departments as may be suggested by its pages. Write or call on the one located nearest you, as per the following list: REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD CO. PASSENGER DEPARTMENT. IEW YORK CITY, N, Y.-343 Broadway, A J. McDOUGALL, Eastern Passengei Agent. CHICAGO, ILL-194 Clark Street, F. B. BOWES, General Noithern Passenger Agent MAW CHESTER, IOWA, J F MERRY, Ass't General Passengei Agent. ST� LOUIS, MO-217 North Fourth Street, JOHN BENTLEY, Agent. MEW ORLEANS, LA,9 J. W COLEMAN, Ass't General Passengei Agent. MEMPHIS, TENH., JAMES DtNKINS, Division Passengei Agent. FREIGHT DEPARTMENT, NEW YOE1 �ITYS N9 Y.-343 Broadway, G. H. STEARNS, General Eastern Agent BOSTON, MASSe~228 Washington Street, C. A. FLORENCE, General Agent. CHICAGO, ILL-Central Station, W E. KEEPERS, Geneial Freight Agent NEW ORLEANS, LA,, D. B. MOREY, General Freight Agent MEMPHIS, TENN., W. D. HURLBUT, Ass't General Fieight Agent. RAILROAD LANDS. E. P SKENE, Land Commissioner. Chicago, Illinois. G. W McGINNIS, Ass't Land Commissioner, Memphis, Tenn. INDUSTRIES. GEO, C POWER, Industiial Commissioner, Chicago, Illinois J. T. HARAHAN, 2d vice-president. T. J. HUDSON, traffic manager. M. C. MARKHAM, ass't traffic MG'r. A. H. HANSON, gen. pass. agent. iROp., ENGH'8, CHICAGO., MAP Of Illinois Central Railroad AfMO CONNECTIONS.