They have visited fire brick factories in the Eastern States, and purchased machinery of the latest and best models to be found, including a fire clay grinding mill, which has a roller that weighs four thousand pounds, and is capable of reducing a quantity of clay sufficient to make four thousand bricks per day. This mill and other machinery is driven by a twenty-four horse power engine.

The great and rapidly increasing demand for these bricks is such that the proprietors are making their arrangements to so enlarge their works and to increase their facilities, as to be able to supply any demand which may be made upon them. Their present facilities for manufacturing are fourteen thousand per week. They are now increasing them to twenty-two thousand per week, and even this, as may be seen, is only the "beginning of the end."

The works of this establishment are even now the most conveniently arranged of any manufacturing works of any sort we have ever seen.

Situated at the foot of the hill, within a few steps of the railroad, in the opening of a hollow, the material for their work is mined out above, and is dumped down upon the floor, where it is ground, after which it is dumped again down upon the moulding and drying floor.

There is also a fine vein of coal in the same hill, high above the works, which is mined and dumped down to the furnace in the same manner.

The deposit of fire clay is inexhaustible.

It is seven feet

thick, four feet of which is of a very superior quality, from which is made their No. 1 brick.

The shipment of these brick is rapidly becoming a prominent commodity of transportation from this county, and as the demand hitherto has been greater than the supply, the prospect is that it will soon grow to be immense.

The Terra Cotta Work, which is being manufactured at this establishment, is a feature of artistic creation, which cannot fail to attract very general attention. It is neat and smooth, tasteful and beautifully ornamental, and can be made of every order, style and purpose. The parties who own, and who are directing this establishment, have the enterprise and ability, as well as ample means to build up a very large business.

The indications, indeed, are that the Goddess of Art, as well as the Vulcan of Metals, once had homes among these romantic Vermillion hills.

THE EVANSVILLE, TERRE HAUTE AND CHICAGO RAILROAD.

Through the energetic and persevering efforts chiefly of Josephus Collett, Jr., this important thoroughfare was completed from Terre Haute to Danville, Illinois, in 1870. Of course there were many obstacles to encounter in accomplishing such an enterprise, but whatever they were they are all overcome, and the people owe to its chief manager and friend a debt of gratitude which it will be difficult for them to pay. Mr. Collett, however, makes no demands upon the public gratitude, for he feels that he is fully paid for all services rendered when he sees the road, as he now does, in "the full tide of successful operation," and comparing with any other in the State.

Running through as beautiful valleys of lands as any the Wabash contains, where industry and the agricultural improvements of the age have made almost the entire country a flower

garden of verdure and beauty, the scenery along the full length of the road can not but feast the eye of the traveler, while the regularity and substantial smoothness of the entire track will not fail to make the impression that it has been well built and is well managed, and will compare favorably with any other road in the West. Connecting directly, as it does, at Danville, Ill., with the Danville and Chicago Railway, it is properly a complete and immediate north and south road from Evansville to Chicago.

As President of this road, Mr. Collett shows his capacity to manage as well as build such a thoroughfare, and while the management remains in the same hands its healthful interests and success need not be doubted.

George Penn and W. D. Guernsey, conductors, whom we have met on this road, are modest, business gentlemen, who merit the confidence of their present eminent standing.

This road has thirteen stations within the bounds of Vermillion county, all of them at present small in population, but the enterprize of the coming years will no doubt greatly enlarge them.

INDIANA AND ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD.

This is a new road, of which H. B. Hammond is President, and is now completed from Decatur, Illinois, to Montezuma, in Parke county. Its Indiana division will pass through Parke, Hendricks and Marion counties, to Indianapolis. This latter portion we learn will soon be put under contract and completed to our State capital, making another addition to its already superior railroad center.

The completion of this road will add no little to the opening up of the mineral wealth of this county, as it passes directly

through a portion of its richest coal fields and unexplored stone quarries, and near the inexhaustable beds of fire brick clay, thus opening the way to industrious enterprises where fortunes will be made for thousands in the coming years.

AGRICULTURAL SPECIALTIES.

The agricultural products of this county, in connection with its general wealth, furnish good evidence of its prosperity, as well as of its industry, enterprise, and rich productive power. The farmers we have met in the county are men of more than the ordinary culture and intelligence; quite a number of them we found to be good scholars and well posted in all the affairs of general business, commercial interests, the economy of gov ernment, and with the modern developments and improvements in agriculture. It is not, therefore, strange that Vermillion county is in a state of good cultivation, and presents to the eye of an intelligent observer as much domestic and rural comfort and beauty as any other county in the State.

It will be seen from the following exhibits, which we gather from the Ninth Census Reports for 1870, that the agricultural interests of the county are well sustained in every department :