Misc. Records

Where to Emigrate and Why - Frederick B. Goddard, Peoples Publ. Co., 1869

ARKANSAS

        THIS State lies between Missouri on the north and Louisiana on the south; the Mississippi forms the greater portion of its eastern boundary, separating it from Kentucky and Tennessee. Upon the west is Indian Territory, where many tribes of Indians from various portions of the United States have settled, holding separate reservations of land which are secured to them by treaty, and guaranteed against the intrusion of white settlers. The several Indian nations form entirely distinct communities, and each has its own government, subject only to the sovereignty of the United States. The Indian Territory is a country of vast undulating plains, well watered, with a great deal of inexhaustibly fertile land, and possessing, according to those familiar with it, a delightful and salubrious climate. The Territory abounds in buffalo and other game, which are hunted by the Indians. Fort Smith, in Arkansas, upon the border, is noted as a depot of Indian supplies.

        Arkansas is 242 miles in length from north to south, with a varying breadth of from 170 to 229 miles. Its area contains 33,406,720 acres, of which 11,700,000 are public lands, belonging to the United States. The present population of this State is about half a million. Arkansas is blessed with a delightful climate, very favorable for agricultural pursuits, and a soil which may be generally described as extremely fertile. In addition to the Mississippi River upon its eastern border, the Arkansas, one of the larger tributaries of the Mississippi, traverses the State in a southeasterly direction, dividing it into two nearly equal sections, and is navigable far beyond the limits of the State. The Red River, the White, St. Francis, and Washita, are also large and navigable streams, and all combine to render the State a highly favored one in respect to natural facilities for internal navigation. A portion of the Mississippi and Little Rock Railroad has been completed, and some hundreds of miles of additional railroad have been projected, and will probably soon be constructed. Arkansas presents a great diversity of surface features.

        The eastern portion of the State, included in a belt or strip of territory along the Mississippi River, from 30 to 100 miles in width, is low and marshy, annually overflowed by the waters of the Mississippi, and covered with dense forests of cypress, gum, and sycamore, affording no sites suitable for large towns in its present condition. The country through which the St. Francis flows, in the northeast part of the State, is also swampy, alternating in lakes, marshes, and cypress forests: Westward from these swamp regions, the face of the country gradually rises and becomes hilly, interspersed with rolling prairies and extensive forests. Still further to the west it becomes more undulating and rugged, until it rises into the Ozark Mountains, which consist of numerous irregular ridges, seldom attaining an elevation of more than 1,500 or 2,000 feet.

        The principal crops of Arkansas are cotton, corn, tobacco, and wheat. The soil of the bottom lands is of unbounded productiveness, and some of the uplands are very fertile, while others will hardly repay cultivation. In some portions of the State the smaller streams are dry in summer, and the land suffers from drought.     Chills and fevers prevail in the low, swampy districts of Arkansas, as in other States where similar characteristics exist, but as a whole, the State is healthy. The uplands, especially, equal in salubrity the most favored regions of the West. In the ten years from. 1850 to 1860, the amount of land under cultivation was largely increased and the value of farms and farm implements increased six-fold. Comparatively little attention has been given to manufactures in Arkansas. It is, however, stated that this branch of industry received considerable impetus during the civil war, but there are no statistics attainable to show its extent. Oar communications from various parts of the State nearly all refer to its mineral wealth, which consists chiefly of iron, coal, lead, zinc, manganese, gypsum, salt, and deposits of anthracite, cannel, and bituminous coal.

        In regard to educational facilities, one of our correspondents says: " We have now the free school system just starting, under the supervision of the State authorities, and hope soon to equal our sister States of the Northeast in point of education. All religious societies are respected, but the people are mostly Methodists and Presbyterians."

        One of the most remarkable features of Arkansas is its hot springs, which are situated sixty miles southwest of Little Rock, the capital of the State. These springs are much resorted to by invalids suffering from chronic diseases, such as rheumatism, &c., and many instances of remarkable cures are recorded in their favor. We have received from one of our correspondents, a copy of the Report of a Geological Reconnoissance of the counties of Arkansas, by David Dale Owen, in which we find that there are forty-two of these springs in Hot Springs County. They are of different degrees of temperature, varying with the changing seasons, and differing in their chemical properties. Mr. Owen says:—

        I have been repeatedly asked to what I attributed the medical virtues of these waters. I reply, mainly to their high temperatures. Here, at the Hot Springs of Arkansas, there is the most abundant supply of water at a scalding temperature; several of the springs ranging, at the fountain-head, as high as 148° of Fahrenheit's thermometer, the waters of which, after being conducted in open troughs down the hillside to the reservoirs above the bath-houses, and standing some time, are just as hot as the skin can bear, and the waste water conducted under the adjoining vapor bath-houses, sends up a steam, through the latticed floor, of a temperature so hot that few can endure it. If, then, the Warm Springs of Virginia, which have a temperature of only 96° to 98°, exercise, as experience has proved, a most potent effect in the cure of many diseases, "mainly by their temperature," how much more positive must be the effect of waters of so much higher temperatures; especially when a stream of it, in diameter as large as a man's arm, can be directed, at pleasure, with great force, on any organ.

        In many forms of chronic diseases especially, its effects are truly astonishing. The copious diaphoresis which the hot-bath establishes, opens in itself, a main channel for the expulsion of principles injurious to health, made manifest by its peculiar odor; a similar effect, in a diminished degree, is also effected by drinking the hot water—a common, indeed almost universal practice, among invalids at the Hot Springs.

        The impression produced by the hot douche, as above described, is indeed powerful, arousing into action sluggish and torpid secretions; the languid circulation is thus purified of morbific matters, and thereby renewed vigor and healthful action are given both to the absorbents, lymphatics, and to the excretory apparatus— a combined effect, which no medicine is capable of accomplishing.

        Silica and carbonate of lime, the most abundant mineral constituents of the Hot Springs, can have comparatively little specific action on the animal functions. The carbonates of alkalies present, proved by the distinct alkaline reaction of the watery solution of the solid contents evaporated to dryness, can not be without their therapeutic effects, in common however, with a great many of the well and spring waters of middle and southern Arkansas, which also contain some alkaline carbonates.

        The large quantity of free carbonic acid which the water contains, and which rises in volumes through the water at the fountain of many of the springs, has undoubtedly an exhilarating effect on the system; and it is no doubt from the water of the Hot Springs coming to the surface charged with this gas, that invalids are enabled to drink it freely at a temperature at which ordinary tepid water, from which all the gas has been expelled by ebullition, would act as an emetic.

        The small quantities of chlorides and sulphates of magnesia may have a slight medicinal effect; but there are not more of these salts present than are to be found in many spring and well waters employed for domestic purposes.

        We give Dr. WILLIAM ELDERHORST'S analysis of 1,000 grammes of water from the so-called "Arsenic Spring," to wit:—

        In this analysis, the carbonic acid united with a portion of the lime and magnesia was not estimated.

        The silicates, which were left undissolved on treating the residue obtained by evaporating the waters to dryness in a platina capsule, with hydrochloric acid, were fused with a mixture of carbonate of soda and potash, and qualitatively examined. They were found to contain silica, lime, magnesia, iron, and manganese.

There are numerous hotels and boarding-houses at the Hot Springs for the accommodations of invalids. Hot Springs County is a hilly or mountainous region, one of the ridges containing a large deposit of novaculite (Wachita oilstone or whetstone), which equals in whiteness, closeness of texture, and subdued waxy luster, the best varieties of Carrara marble. Some of this is wrought by the neighboring whetstone mills, but the greater quantity is transported to mills located at New Albany, Indiana, where it is sawed and fashioned into whet­stone, and razor honestones. The firmer and harder varieties are used by the engraver.

        The following, relative to the price of lands, &c., of Arkansas, is from a Report of the Department of Agriculture:―

        1. Two counties, Newton and Benton, report considerable increase in prices of lands since 1860; others give an average decrease of 60 per cent (varying from 20 to 90 per cent.) since 1860. Jefferson reports lands almost for nothing; farms worth $100 per acre before the war, would now bring hardly $5 per acre. Drew reports forced sales at what the creditor pleases to bid—sometimes only a few cents per acre; Clark, 80 to 90 per cent decrease on best lands for cash, and no buyers at that; Montgomery, prices much depressed for two years after the war; but a good crop this year, and emigrants coming in, have brought them up to 25 or 30 per cent of prices in 1860; Sebastian reports decrease at "ten-tenths," but looking up. The average depreciation for the State is 55 per cent.

        2. Homesteads and other Government lands at usual rates in Johnson, Clark, and Conway counties; some very fertile, but few entries. Hilly, heavily timbered lands in Montgomery at $1.25; Madison, at $3 ; Benton, table-lands of Ozark Mountains, $3 to $5. These are fertile for cereals, fruits, peas, beans, &c. Johnson reports Government lands held by speculators at $5 to $8 for river lands, and $3 to $5 for uplands; and State lands, swamp and overflowed, at 50 to 75 cents—the same held by speculators at $1 to $3, and if good farm lands, $3 to $5; Sebastian river lands, $8 to $15, and uplands $2.50 to $5; produce cereals, potatoes, vegetables, and cotton; Union, various soils, at 75 cents; uplands produce 200 to 300 pounds cotton, and ten to twenty bushels corn; St. Francis, varied soils, $1.25; will produce 400 pounds of cotton, 36 bushels of corn, or 20 bushels of wheat, or oats; Mississippi rice lands, annually overflowed and requiring levees, at 50 cents. Monroe, good black loam, at 50 cents to $10; will produce 500 pounds cotton, 30 pounds corn, and. 25 bushels wheat; Prairie, hill or upland for 75 cents, and bottom land for $1. The upland prairie or timber lands will produce 35 bushels corn and 20 bushels wheat; under good system of cultivation, one-half more. In Drew, farms produce 200 to 300 pounds ginned cotton, 15 to 25 bushels corn, and 150 to 250 bushels sweet potatoes, without manuring; generally well timbered; forced sales at two and three cents per acre. In Clark, at forced sales, a section (640 acres) sold for $15, and a quarter (160 acres) for $5. No voluntary sales; money scarce.

        3. Soils reported "rich" and "fertile," in Newton, Madison, Mississippi, Prairie, Conway, and Jefferson. Timber, of many varieties, reported in Newton, Madison, Sebastian, Union, Prairie, and. White counties; pineries in Benton, Clark, and Prairie, and cypress forests in Monroe (timber can be floated to the mills in overflows at little cost), and Prairie counties. In Newton County lead and silver are found on the surface; in Madison, iron, coal, and lead; Montgomery, lead, silver, gold, and copper; Sebastian and Union, coal; White, coal and salt by boring; but all undeveloped except a little coal for smithing. Benton abounds in minerals undeveloped. Clark reports that since the demise of King Cotton they have no resources—"every thing lies around loose;" sandy lands abound in magnificent timber, but nothing is developed. Prairie County reports soil unsurpassed for farmers, timber for lumberers, black-oak and hides for tanners, railroad and river facilities abundant, healthy climate, good water, and. plenty of good schools. Drew is the center of the cotton region, and well supplied. with water facilities for transportation. Jefferson has excellent soil, pleasant climate, and healthy country, but all destitute.

        4. Union, Mississippi, St. Francis, Clark, Prairie, White, and Conway report that cotton was their specialty, but likely to be abandoned. Sebastian, Monroe, White, and Drew report cotton and corn, the latter probably to supersede the former. Montgomery and. Madison, corn for bread, and, for feeding cattle and hogs for market. Newton, corn, wheat, and sorghum abundant, and with little labor. Johnson, wheat, corn, and potatoes for home market, and cotton for export. Sebastian, corn, cotton, and some wheat, but not cultivated in farmer-like manner. In Benton, apples are becoming a specialty; trees bear fruit at five years old; five to ten bushels at ten years old, the fruit selling at fifty cents, to be taken to Texas, where it commands high figures.

        Prices reported in Montgomery: corn at 50 cents to $1, and raised at a profit of fifty to one hundred per cent; in Johnson, corn, 60 to 75 cents; wheat $2; sweet potatoes, 50 cents per bushel; Sebastian, wheat at $1.50 to $2.

        5. In Montgomery, white and red May. Walker is best, not so early, and therefore subject to rust. White May not so early as red, but a much prettier grain. In Newton, Mediterranean and Walker; Johnson, red May, Walker, and red and white Mediterranean, the latter yielding most when they succeed, but eight or ten days later; Benton, flint or May; Prairie, long bearded red, on account of the attacks of the small blackbird; White County, May wheat; Conway, little May; Drew, white and red winter. The earliest ripening always preferred on account of insects, birds, or disease. Usual sowing is in October and November Newton and Madison in September, some as late as December, and in Prairie County, from October 15 to February 15. Harvest is in June, generally, but commences in some counties by the middle of May. In all cases they sow broadcast, generally on corn ground before the corn is removed, sometimes among the grass and weeds, and plow or harrow in. If the ground is first cultivated or plowed, the grain is brushed in Reporters generally state the yield at from five to thirty bushels, and agree that careful cultivation would greatly increase it. In Monroe and St. Francis little or no wheat is cultivated.

        6. Principal wild grasses are crab-grass on the poor, and nimble Will on the richer lands; along rivers the cane shoots furnish pasture the year round; besides these, blue sedge on elevated timber lands, and winter grass on river lands in some counties; wild pea vines in the woods of Madison; blue-grass, red-top and timothy are natives in Benton County, and only need renewing every three or four years in Mississippi County; barren grass on sandy lands and a perennial on the black lands of Clark County; clovers, timothy, rye, and oats grow wild in Prairie County, and prairie and other grasses are named by some. No special pastures are grown, but cattle are turned out on ranges till after harvest, and grow fat. On cane lands they keep fat the whole year. In some counties from three to four months of foddering, with cotton seed and a little salt, is needed; pine, cane, and other thickets are sufficient shelter. Two acres of cotton seed will keep a cow well with wild pasture. Hence cost of keeping is merely nominal, and in many counties stock raising could be made profitable.

        7. Except in Benton little or no attention is given to fruit-raising for profit, yet in all counties peaches and. apples do well, in some very well in abundance and quality, save that acclimated apples must be raised for winter keeping. Figs do well in Clark, where peaches rarely fail, and apples not once in thirty years, some trees yielding seventy-five bushels each. Prairie County has several large nurseries, and peaches and pears are larger and better flavored than at the North. Jefferson reports the pear and peach as succeeding best, and the Ouachita grape (now cultivated in France) as originating there, wild. Chickasaw plums, very fine, grow wild in great abundance in Montgomery, White, and. Drew. And several varieties of excellent wild grapes are abundant in Johnson, Union, Benton, Drew (which reports gooseberries and currants as not succeeding well), and Jefferson. Cultivated sorts of grapes do not succeed well in Union, White, and Drew, as they are apt to mildew and rot. The want of enterprise and skill to raise fruit for market, and open facilities of transportation, alone prevent a number of counties from reaping profit from fruit cultivation.

CORRESPONDENCE.

FRED'K B. GODDARD, Esq.:―

        SIR : * * * The mountainous portions of our State abound in minerals of every variety. Take a State map for reference, beginning in the northeastern part of the State. Greene County presents a continued surface of exceedingly rich Mississippi bottom lands. Randolph has a large proportion of rich bottom lands, the western part being hilly (with rich valleys), and indications of lead and iron ores. Lawrence has a large quantity of rich land, being a rich limestone soil throughout the county. Immense quantities of zinc, iron, and lead ores are in Lawrence, and can be easily worked. Fulton presents a very broken surface, with many rich creek valleys, and fine mineral prospects. Izard bears the same description as Fulton, with more rich valley land on White River. Marion alternates between mountainous and valley lands, and some prairie; much of the soil rich; and here zinc, iron, and lead ores are abundant, and coal is said to have been discovered recently in fine quantities. Carroll is partly mountainous and partly prairie, very good soil and abundance of lead ore. Benton is mostly rich prairie lands. Washington the same as Benton. Madison very mountainous, with rich valleys, and abundantly supplied with lead ore. Searcy same as Madison. Van Buren same. Independence, hilly, with rich valleys, and abounds in lead, lime, manganese, marble (very superior), iron, &c. Jackson, very rich bottom lands. Cross, Craighead, Crittenden, Mississippi, Phillips, Madison, Monroe, and Woodruff counties, are rich bottom lands, without minerals.

                                                                                                                                                                                        LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS,
                                                                                                                                                                                                        September 11, 1868.

        White is possessed of fine bottom and uplands, with some coal of good quality. Conway same as White. Pope has fine bottom lands, considerable hills, and abounds with fine coal and lead. Johnson, Franklin; and Crawford have fine soils and are the coal fields of Arkansas north of the Arkansas River, and these coals are very fine and abundant; also lead abounds in these counties. Sebastian is mostly prairie lands and rich, and one continued coal field of fine quality. Yell and Perry are mountainous, with fine rich valleys. Pulaski has large bodies of rich lands and some mountains, and here we find the rich Kellogg silver mines and iron in abundance. The State capitol is located at Little Rock. Prairie is nearly all prairie, and has some splendid lands, fine pasturage, and excellent navigation. Arkansas is made up of prairie and bottom lands of fine quality. Desha is all rich bottom, very fine. Jefferson, very rich lands. Saline, hilly, with very rich valleys and recently discovered silver mines, fine iron ore, &c. Montgomery, Scott, Polk, and Hot Springs counties are very mountainous, with rich valleys and fine indications of various kinds of rich ores. Gold has been found in Montgomery, and silver in Scott and Polk, but the distance from navigation retards their working as yet. The celebrated Hot Springs are in Hot Springs County, and have a world-wide reputation for their wonderful cures of rheumatism, and all chronic complaints and secret diseases. Dallas County presents a rolling surface, good lands, &c. Bradly, Drew, Ashley, Union, Ouachita, Columbia, and Hempstead are gently rolling sandy soils, with many rich valleys and fine ridges. Chicot is all rich bottom. Sevier is rich bottom mostly; and Pike is mostly rich bottom land, with mountains in the northern part, where the great Bellah silver mines are held by a company that neither works nor will allow any one else to work them. Clark County (I very near forgot) is mostly mountainous, but has some very rich lands known as the "rich lands" of "old Clark."

        Thus I have given a brief sketch of each county as to soil and ores, and would here add that all the hilly and mountainous portions of the State are finely watered with never-failing springs of all qualities of water, such as pure freestone, lime, chalybeate, sulphur, &c. Timber of all varieties abound, except where prairies are mentioned above, such as oaks (white, black, red, post, willow, overcup, water, pine, Spanish, &c.), pine, cypress, ash, hickory (several varieties), gum (sweet and black), walnut, poplar, chincapin, elm, maple (sugar and common), lynn, &c.

        I have been over Arkansas a great deal, and speak what I know when I assert that this State presents more advantages than any State in the Union, from the fact that we can grow abundance of corn, cotton, wheat, oats, rye, barley, sorghum, potatoes (Irish and sweet), peaches, apples, pears, cherries, plums, apricots, and in grapes she excels—many fine varieties growing native on the hill-sides, and needing but little culture to make them as fine as the best.

        I could say much more, but time presses and I must close. Very respectfully,

                                                                                                                            JAMES A. MARTIN.

        Mr. FRANKLIN DOSWELL writes from Jacksonport, in the White River Valley, August 8, 1868, that cotton, corn, and the castor bean, are the money crops, and that many farmers contend that stock-raising is the most profitable, and certain to bring money to the farmer. He continues:—

        Going eastward from White and Black rivers, the traveler will find a level surface (to Crowley's Ridge), a distance of fifty miles, where he first ascends the high lands. He strikes a fine sand drift, of moderate fertility, though inexhaustible, producing about 35 bushels of corn, and 350 pounds of lint cotton to the acre. In favorable seasons, larger crops may be anticipated. This soil is not adapted to wheat and the perennial grasses, though it produces fair crops of oats, and abundant crops of rye. The timber is light, being scrubby oak, hickory, and dogwood. The lands are easily reclaimed, and considered the surest for cotton, and on these accounts are preferred by many.

        Continuing eastward, the traveler finds a rich chocolate alluvium, with a heavy growth of red-gum, black-oak, black walnut, and some ash, with tear-blanket, pawpaw, and buckeye as undergrowth. These are fine lands, producing a bale (500 pounds) of cotton, 40 to 60 bushels of corn, and fair crops of wheat and grass. These lands, though of fine quality, friable and easily cultivated, are so heavily timbered as to render their reclamation difficult, but when reclaimed are much sought after.

        Interspersed among these lands are tracts of tertiary blue clay, supporting a growth of post oak and water oak. These are our poorer lands, and until within a few years past, they were considered worthless, when it was discovered that they would produce fine crops of red-top, and are now regarded more favorably.

        Returning to White or Black River, and going westward, the traveler finds an elevated, rolling country, becoming broken and mountainous as he proceeds, and watered by numerous streams of limpid water. The soil is varied in quality, but generally adapted to the cereals and grasses, as well as stock-raising. Vast quantities of our beef cattle find a market in St. Louis, New Orleans, and even California. Lands are cheap, the recent emancipation of the slaves rendering labor very scarce. There is a universal disposition among owners of large tracts of land to realize. The mountain lands range from 12½ cents, the Government price, to $20 for fine improved farms of small size and convenient location. The mountain lands are appreciating in value more rapidly than any other, the recent fluctuation in the price of cotton, rendering the culture of that staple rather hazardous, upon a large scale. The bottom, or overflowed lands, vary from 75 cents to $10; the former the Government price, the latter for improved lands. The overflows confine the farmer on these lands to a more limited choice of crops. (Our overflows afford the farmer ample time to prepare for them as the rise is slow, and rarely continue over the fields longer than a week.) The lands to the east of White and Black rivers are more valuable, varying in price from 50 to 75 cents, Government price, to $30 for improved lands in the most favored localities. But lands are abundant and cheap. There is a disposition to sell, and a welcome for every honest immigrant, come from whatever quarter he may, and remunerative employment for every industrious laborer.

        Agricultural labor is more in demand than any other. The supply is limited, and demand good.

        The mountainous regions are as healthy as any portion of the world. The immigrant for a season or two, opening a new farm on the east of White or Black River, would be liable to malarious diseases, which however, are rarely fatal without great imprudence and exposure.

        We have no coal, the geological formation being below the coal era. The Archimedes limestone caps the highest hills to the south and west of White River, but the strata dipping to the southwest, coal, as might be expected, is found on the Arkansas.

        Mr. JOHN R. MCDANIEL, writes from Arkadelphia, Clark County, Arkansas, August 7, 1868:—

        The character of the farming lands in this section is various; we have almost any kind. The lands cultivated for the most part are of the character known as black land and black sandy land in the upland regions, and the bottom land lying along the creeks and rivers; both and all of which are very productive, generally. There are, besides, sandy hill lands, not however of the kind found in the older and more eastern States, but rather productive. Immediately north, and beginning in this county, are ranges of hills and mountains. The price of land here now, is almost any thing that can be got for it, owing to the unsettled state of political affairs, the want of a proper system of labor, and the scarcity of money.

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.