Misc. Records
Where to Emigrate and Why - Frederick B. Goddard, Peoples Publ. Co., 1869
MISSOURI.
MISSOURI is endowed with a felicitous combination of all the natural advantages, apparently, that can contribute to the grandeur of a State, or the happiness and affluence of a people.
The latitudinal position of Missouri is within what has been called the "golden mean of the temperate zone;" summer is long and warm, and winter, while sometimes severe, early gives way to spring and its blossoming vegetation. The concurrent testimony of our many correspondents in different parts of the State, is, that the climate is generally mild, salubrious and delightful. The Mississippi River flows along its entire eastern border, and the Missouri traverses the State from west to east, dividing it into nearly equal sections. Innumerable tributaries of these great rivers permeate nearly all portions of the State, agreeably diversifying its wide extent of fertile soil, and furnishing abundant water-power for manufacturing purposes.
Missouri is the center of the water-system of the great Mississippi valley or basin, extending from the Alleghenies to the Rocky Mountains. Its position in this respect gives it unrivaled advantages for securing the commercial control of a vast region. The State has, in addition. an extensive and rapidly expanding system of railroads.
Missouri is also wonderfully rich in minerals. More than a hundred and fifty years ago, the mineral region of the present State—.estimated to contain nearly 20,000,000 acres—was described in a French chart as a "country full of mines" and it fully realizes the description. This region also possesses, in addition to its mineral wealth, a considerable degree of fertility, and is capable of sustaining a large population. The greatest length of the State is, from east to west, 318 miles, with a width of 280. It would be a journey of about 1,400 miles to travel around its border lines, which inclose 65,350 square miles, or 41,824,000 acres, of which there are yet in the hands of the General Government 1,800,000 acres to be disposed of as public land. The population is now estimated at upward of 1,500,000, and rapidly increasing under the influx of an excellent class of immigrants, who bring with them both capital and energy.
The surface configuration of Missouri varies much in the several divisions of the State. Especially is this the case in the two portions separated by the Missouri River, which are characterized by widely different geographical and geological features.
The northern part is nowhere mountainous, but is either flat, or rolling prairie, not unfrequently relieved by bluffs and hilly undulations. This portion is generally fertile and beautiful, is better adapted to agricultural pursuits, and under a better state of cultivation than the southern division.
South of the Missouri River, from Cape Girardeau, along the Mississippi to Arkansas—with the exception of a few bluffs upon the river's border—is an extensive region of alluvial or bottom lands, including many almost impenetrable cypress swamps and marshes. Portions of this tract have been reclaimed, and possess a very fertile soil, and it is believed that it may nearly all be drained and brought under cultivation.
From Cape Girardeau to the mouth of the Missouri, and westward to the dividing ridge between the Gasconade and the Osage rivers, the country is represented as generally quite undulating or hilly, with fertile bottoms along the streams. The region about the head-waters of the Gasconade and Big Black rivers, is frequently rugged and rocky, but abounding in mineral wealth. Here are to be found iron, lead, zinc, tin, manganese, antimony, cobalt, nickel, gypsum, plumbago, salt, buhrstone, marble, &c., &c.
The Ozark mountains, with the broken and elevated region of their spurs and foot-hills, cover at least half that portion of the State south of the Missouri River. From the Ozark range westward, rolling prairies sweep away to the Kansas line.
We are indebted to Prof. SYLVESTER WATERHOUSE, of St. Louis, for his pamphlet upon the "Resources of Missouri," from which we make the following extracts:―
The advance in the price of real estate already requites Missouri for the enfranchisement of her slaves. The Ordinance of Emancipation has inaugurated a better era. The State already begins to feel the generous impulses of freedom. A new life is invigorating the body politic. Enterprise, commerce, and manufactures are stimulated. Capital is flowing into the State. Corporations are forming for the development of our internal resources, and factories are rising for the fabrication of domestic materials. The unsunned wealth of our mines is coming to the light in larger quantities. The pleased earth is yielding to the hands of free labor a richer store of golden grain. Processions of emigrant wagons are moving along all our highways. It is estimated that there was, during last August and September, an accession of 25,000 people to the population of the State. There is a fresh vitality in the very air of Missouri. * * * Semi-tropic fruits mature in southern Missouri, while the productions of a higher latitude flourish in the northern portions of the State. The soil of the river bottoms and rolling prairie is inexhaustibly fertile, and even the mining regions are capable of supporting a large agricultural population. The surface of Missouri is varied and undulating. Hills and mountains diversify and intersect the State. The copious streams which flow from these elevations fertilize the valleys, and afford a motive-power which the level prairie can never supply. Missouri invites manufacturers to her borders with the offer of rich facilities. If natural adaptation is any index of destiny, then this State will ultimately become the workshop of the Mississippi Valley.
Missouri is heavily wooded. Her forests contain fuel and timber amply sufficient to meet the wants of a population of 10,000,000.
The mineral wealth of the State is illimitable. Probably no equal area on the face of the globe surpasses Missouri in the richness and variety of her minerals. Her vaults are stored with almost every kind of ore which the arts of man require. The key to all this wealth is a spade. The lock which secures this treasure is earth—any man can pick it.
During the rebellion, Missouri was cruelly vexed with evil spirits. But these have at length been cast out, and now the State, though rent and scarred by convulsions, is restored to sanity and health. It is now ready to commence an unobstructed career of development. The motives of freedom, fertility of soil, salubrity of climate, wealth of minerals, facilities for commerce and manufactures, and ease of railroad and river transportation, are the material advantages which invite the capitalist, the tradesman, and the artisan of every clime and nationality to a home in Missouri, to a co-operation in the development of its measureless resources, and to an enriching participation in its prosperity.
AGRICULTURE OF MISSOURI.—Missouri presents to the farmer those conditions of climate which are most favorable to husbandry. The cold of the Northern latitudes restricts variety of production, and blockades communication with icy barriers. The heat of the South enervates energy, and invites to indolence. Missouri enjoys the genial mean which permits the widest range of products, and the full exercise of physical powers.
The richness of the soil is practicably inexhaustible. In bottoms, the mold is sometimes six feet deep some farms, after bearing, without artificial fertilization, twenty-five successive crops, have yet failed to show any great decrease in productiveness. The strength of the land, and the length of the season, permit two harvests to be gathered from the same field every year. Winter wheat can always be succeeded by a crop of corn-fodder, or Hungarian grass, from the same ground. * * * The water of Missouri is abundant and healthful. Perennial springs and copious streams are found in every part of the State. The alluvium which the Mississippi holds in solution does not impair the salutary quality of its waters. The undulating surface of Missouri affords advantages of drainage and water-power, which are denied to level prairies. This is an important consideration. The necessity of thorough drainage to highly successful husbandry has been established, and the emigrant who would prefer the plains of other States to the gentle inequalities of Missouri, would betray a costly ignorance of his own interests.
The products which thrive in Missouri are too numerous for separate enumeration. The list would be an inventory of the productions of the temperate zone. All the cereals grow with rank luxuriance. The soil is rich in the chemical elements of which the different grains are composed. * * * Hemp and tobacco are two of the main staples of Missouri. Equal to the best growth of Kentucky and Virginia, they are a vast source of wealth to the State. Few crops yield a larger profit. Missouri produces more than forty-five per cent. of the hemp of the United States.
Missouri is admirably adapted to the cultivation of fruit. Apples, pears, peaches, plums, cherries, currants, strawberries, blackberries, quinces, apricots, and nectarines, reach a rare size and delicacy of flavor. Trees and vines grow rapidly and bear largely. In southern Missouri, the winters are so mild that fruit-trees are seldom injured by inclemency of the weather. The season, which even in northern Missouri permits plowing by the middle of March, can not be very severe or protracted plowing open winters, farmers have not infrequently done their plowing in December and January. In the genial climate of Missouri, the farmers may enjoy, from May to November, an uninterrupted succession of fresh fruits. Apples can be produced in illimitable quantities. The trees mature at least five years earlier than they do in New England. Peach-trees continue to bear from fifteen to twenty years, and apple-trees from twenty-five to thirty years. Two thousand bushels of peaches have been gathered from a single acre. Fruit culture is one of the most lucrative branches of husbandry in Missouri.
Unless the prophecies of scientific men are false, and the obvious intentions of nature are thwarted, Missouri is destined to be the vineyard of America. * * * The physical structure of southern Missouri is a prophecy of rich and delicious vintages, which the sagacious enterprise of our citizens should speedily fulfill.
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Our soil and climate are favorable to every staple of the temperate zone. In every direction, there are unopened avenues leading to wealth. Rich lands and certain competency are the prizes which the intelligent immigrant will draw. For the prudent and industrious settler there are no blanks. In this State, agriculture will assuredly bless its skillful follower with independence and worldly store.
St. Louis, easily accessible by river or rail, furnishes a ready and unfailing market for every production of the husbandman. The exuberant West invites the farmers of the Old World and of New England to forsake their ungrateful wastes for a soil which will show a richer appreciation of their tillage.
MINERALS OF MISSOURI.—Missouri may safely challenge the world to produce its superior in the number, extent, and value of its minerals. The immensity of its mineral wealth subjects even a truthful exposition to a suspicion of exaggeration. The sober calculations of geology seem to be mere figures of rhetoric. The imperfect explorations which have been made have disclosed the superiority, but not the full magnitude of the metallic resources of Missouri. Some of the vaults of nature's bank have been opened, but the treasure is too vast to be counted. The earth has hoarded in its coffers an unminted and incalculable wealth. The inventory of the mineral resources of Missouri enumerates springs—whose waters are impregnated with salt, sulphur, iron, and petroleum—jasper, agate, chalcedony, lithographic stone, vitreous sand, granite, marble, limestone, plastic and fire-clays, metallic paints, hydraulic cements, mill and grindstones, fire-rock, kaolin, emory, plumbago, nickel, cobalt, zinc, copper, silver, gold, lead, coal, and iron. Most of these minerals occur in quantities that are literally inexhaustible. In case of many of these articles, the mines and quarries of Missouri could easily supply the market of the world. If an incomplete geologic survey and the rude efforts of unscientific miners, who have as yet scarcely touched the vast deposits of the State, have disclosed such results, we may justly expect far richer developments when an exhaustive investigation has been made, and systematic mining been extensively prosecuted.
Of silver and gold, traces only have been discovered. Cobalt and nickel exist in profusion.
Zinc is very abundant. Its masses have often retarded the mining of more valuable ores. Thousands of tons of this metal, thrown away by the lead miners as a vexatious and worthless impediment to their progress, might be, with a profitable cheapness, reclaimed to the uses of commerce. The ore is very pure.
Copper has been found in fifteen counties.
Lead has been discovered in more than 500 localities. Its purple veins run through twenty counties, and intersect an area of more than 6,000 square miles.
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COAL—Coal underlies a large portion of Missouri. It has already been discovered in thirty counties. Beds of cannel coal, 45 feet thick, have been found. There are 160 square miles of coal in St. Louis County. The amount of coal in Cooper County has been estimated at 60,000,000 tons. Under every acre of Boone County, there is supposed to be at least $1,000 worth of coal. The deposits in the vicinity of Booneville cover an area of 2,000 square miles. The strata have a mean thickness of three feet, and are calculated to contain 60,000,000 tons of coal.
IRON abounds in different portions of Missouri, but the stupendous masses of almost solid iron, found in St. Francois, Iron, and Reynolds counties, dwarf the discoveries of other localities into insignificance. Before the blomaries of Ironton, the furnaces in other sections of the State must pale their ineffectual fires. The results of Dr. LITTON'S investigations have been often published, but perhaps the use for which this article is designed will justify their reproduction.
Shepherd Mountain is 660 feet high. The ore, which is magnetic and specular, contains a large percentage of pure iron. The height of Pilot Knob above the Mississippi River is 1,118 feet. Its base, 581 feet from the summit, is 360 acres. The iron is known to extend 440 feet below the surface. The upper section of 141 feet is judged to contain 14,000,000 tons of ore.
The elevation of Iron Mountain is 228 feet, and the area of its base 500 acres. The solid contents of the cone are 230,000,000 tons. It is thought that every foot beneath the surface will yield 3,000,000 tons of ore. At the depth of 180 feet, an artesian auger is still penetrating solid ore.
Dr. LITTON thinks that these mountains contain enough iron above the surface to afford for 200 years an annual supply of 1,000,000 tons. The ore is almost exclusively specular. It yields 56 per cent of pure iron. The iron is strong, tough, and fibrous.
These ores underlie some of the richest land in the State. The owner possesses at once a fertile farm and a valuable mine. In some cases, it is difficult to determine whether the agricultural or mineral resources are most productive. Full coffers are the reward of either industry. A poor man can earn enough in a few months to purchase a mineral farm. Under prescribed conditions, less than $20 will secure a homestead of 160 acres. The workman who, with a full knowledge of the fact, would prefer delving for a mere pittance in the mines of Europe to the independent ownership of a mine in Missouri, must be a miner who has not yet reached the years of discretion. He must be too young to have a mine of his own.
The mines of Missouri present a favorable contrast to the collieries of Britain. They are shallow, cool, and healthful. The thickness of the seams generally permits work in an erect position. Never, in a single instance, have the galleries of our coal mines been the scene of a fatal explosion. If the unembellished facts of our mineral resources and mining facilities could be diffused throughout the coal districts of England, thousands of British miners would no longer submit to their present hardships, but hasten to the favored State where higher wages and lighter labors would soon procure them a happy competency. The inducements which Missouri presents to the miner are great and substantial. Liberal wages will reward his service, and enable him to satisfy his love of independence and home by the early acquisition of a freehold. Political equality, social respect, and material success, await the myriads whom a knowledge of our mineral resources will soon make citizens of Missouri.
MANUFACTURES OF MISSOURI.—There is no branch of general industry to which Missouri has paid less attention than to manufactures. The rare advantages of the State have not been improved. The amount of our domestic products is by no means commensurate with our facilities for manufacture. But an era of greater activity has already begun. In St. Louis, for the year ending October, 1865, the United States Assessor reports an average of ten licenses a day for the opening of new establishments. During the same period, there was an increase of 5 per cent in the manufacture of clothing, cotton fabrics, boots, shoes, iron and wooden ware.
It is obviously unnecessary to enumerate the articles that ought to be manufactured in Missouri. There is scarcely a want or a luxury of human life which this State is not able to satisfy by products of domestic manufacture.
Accessible forests of various and valuable lumber cover whole counties, and yet we import annually 150,000,000 feet of lumber, at a cost of $6,000,000.
Admirable water-power abounds in almost every part of the State. It should be taught to drive the wheels of saw-mills, and to whirl the spindled of woolen and cotton mills. No sound reason can be offered why this State should not produce its own textile fabrics. The only cotton mill in St. Louis has met with a success that ought to lead to the erection of other factories.
ST. LOUIS.—St. Louis is ordained by the decrees of physical nature to become the great inland metropolis of this continent. It can not escape the magnificence of its destiny. Greatness is the necessity of its position. New York may be the head, but St. Louis will be the heart of America. The stream of traffic which must flow through this mart will enrich it with alluvial deposits of gold. Its central location and facilities of communication unmistakably indicate the leading part which this city will take in the exchange and distribution of the products of the Mississippi Valley. St. Louis is situated upon the west bank of the Mississippi, at an altitude of 400 feet above the level of the sea. It is far above the highest floods that ever swell the Father of waters. Its latitude is 38 deg. 37 min. 28 sec. north, and its longitude 90 deg. 15 min. 16 sec. west. It is 20 miles below the mouth of the Missouri, and 200 above the confluence of the Ohio.
This metropolis, though in the infancy of its greatness, is already a large city. Its length is about eight miles, and its width three. Suburban residences, the outposts of the grand advance, are now stationed six or seven miles from the river. The present population of St. Louis is 204,300. In 1865, the real and personal property of the city was assessed at $100,000,000, and in 1866, at $126,877,000.
RAILROADS OF MISSOURI.—The railroad system of Missouri is exhibited in the following tabular statement:―
Railroads. Miles.
Cairo and Fulton. 37
Missouri Valley 52
Atlantic and Pacific. 88
Iron Mountain 87
North Missouri. 168
Hannibal and St. Joseph 233
Missouri Pacific 283
Total length of railroads in operation within the State 948
A vast enlargement of our railroad facilities is contemplated. More than 10,000 miles of new lines have been projected on the west side of the Mississippi. A quarter of a century may elapse before the completion of these extensions; yet the very conception of them shows that the public mind is alive to their importance ?
EDUCATION.—Missouri encourages immigrants by a just and generous care for the education of their children. Immigrants will find here not only rare opportunities for material success, but excellent facilities for the cultivation of those spiritual forces which determine the destinies of men and the greatness of nations. * * * * * * *
The public schools of St. Louis were organized in 1833, and went into practical operation in 1839. They are now an honor to Western culture. Improved by the best results of experience, taught by an accomplished corps of instructors, and aided with the resources of valuable public libraries, they afford to the youth of this metropolis the means of a thorough popular education. The grades of our public schools are based upon a system of rigid classification. They culminate in the High School. Students enter this institution only through the ordeal of a competitive examination. Admittance, therefore, implies exemplary deportment, and successful scholarship. The discipline of the High School embraces the higher branches of an English education and the academic course of classic culture. The scholarly training of this institution qualifies its graduates for the duties of life, or the pursuit of polite learning.
* * There is no reason why St. Louis, with its admirable system of public schools and higher institutions of learning, should not become the center of Western culture. The metropolis of the West should diffuse throughout this valley those principles of mental and moral enlightenment on which our republican civilization rests.
PUBLIC LANDS.—Any public lands in Missouri, contemplated by the terms of the act, can be entered under the homestead law. The Government, accepts in payment for public lands cash, land warrant, and agricultural scrip. By act of Congress passed July 2, 1662, "this scrip, when duly assigned and attested by two witnesses, under such authority of said State as the act of the Legislature thereof may designate, may be surrendered at any land office in satisfaction of a location of one quarter of a section, or for any quantity in one legal subdivision less than one quarter section, where such location is taken in full for one quarter section—the location to be restricted to vacant public lands subject to entry at private sale at $1.25 per acre, mineral lands excluded, and whilst the aggregate location of all the claims under the said act may be taken in any of the territories without limitation as to the quantity located in any one of them, yet, in virtue of express limitation in the statute, not more than 1,000,000 acres of the total aggregate scrip-issue under said act can be located within the limits of any of the States." Agricultural scrip is now very cheap. It can be bought at sixty cents an acre; in other words, 160 acres of land, which the Government values at $200. can be purchased by means of this scrip for $96. But one difficulty attends the location of land with College scrip. Under a 160-acre land warrant, the sole requisition is that the forty-acre subdivisions shall lie in contiguous tracts. But a location with scrip demands that the land shall constitute a "quarter section" in the technical sense of the law. Divide a "section" into four equilateral parts―160 acres, if entered with scrip, must comprise one of these squares; no other form will satisfy the requirements of the law.
Professor WATERHOUSE thus closes his interesting description:―
Free Missouri, instinct with the spirit of progress, and loyal to the genius of Republican liberty, will welcome the immigrant to the enjoyment of her boundless advantages, and enrich his industry with generous recompense. Millions may accept the proffered hospitality without exhausting the ample board which Missouri spreads upon her "table" lands.
From the last Report of the General Land Office:—
SOIL—The soil of Missouri is remarkable for its variety and excellence. The most productive portions are the alluvions of the river-courses, which, though often mixed with sand, are rich in the elements of fertilization. Even in the mountain regions, there are rich valleys, and those tracts reported as inarable are covered with valuable growths of white pine. The marshes of the southeast, when properly drained, will constitute the best farming lands of the State. The river bottoms are covered with luxuriant growths of oak, elm, ash, hickory, cottonwood, linden, and white and black walnut. Thinner soils abound in white and pin oak; and, occasionally, are covered with heavy forests of yellow pine, crab-apples, pawpaws, hazel, and wild grapes of. a spontaneous luxuriance.
CLIMATE.—The climate is noted for extremes of temperature. In the winter, the rivers are often frozen so as to admit the crossing of heavily-loaded vehicles, while in summer it is extremely warm, its enervating effects being prevented by a very dry, pure atmosphere, generally favorable to health and longevity.
AGRICULTURE.—The splendid agricultural capacities of this State are attracting increased attention. In 1860, returns exhibited an advance of from fifty to five hundred per cent over the aggregate of 1850, in the production of live stock, cereal crops, tobacco, rice, hay, peas, beans, potatoes, fruits, wines, butter, cheese, molasses of all kinds, honey and wax, wool, slaughtered animals, and of the orchard and garden products. The great staple is Indian corn, to the production of which the rich prairies, and hot summers of Missouri are particularly adapted. More hemp is produced in this State than in any other, except Kentucky. The increase of cultivated land in ten years was threefold. During the subsequent years of domestic strife, the agricultural interests of the State were in a languishing condition; but the return of peace is rapidly restoring the elements of prosperity to all industrial interests.
MINERALS.—Missouri is richly endowed with mineral wealth. The iron region around Iron Mountain and Pilot Knob, is unsurpassed in the world for the abundance and purity of its deposits. On the Maramec River, and in some other localities, are found small quantities of lead.
Copper is found extensively deposited, being most abundant near the La Motte mines. It is also found with nickel, manganese, iron, cobalt, and lead, in combinations, yielding from thirty to forty per cent. All these metals, except nickel, exist in considerable quantities; also silver, in combination with lead ore and tin. Limestone, marble, and other eligible building material, are abundant, especially north of the Missouri. The geological formations of the State are principally those between the upper coal measures and the lower silurian rocks. The drift is spread over a large surface; in the north, vast beds of bituminous coal, including cannel coal, exist on both sides of the Missouri River. When these mineral resources shall receive their proper development, they will immensely enlarge the scope of industrial enterprise.
MANUFACTURES.—The manufacturing establishments, in 1860, numbered three thousand, one hundred and fifty-seven, with a capital of $20,034,220, employing a large laboring force. The expense of production, including raw material and labor, was $30,519,657, the value of the products being $41,781,651, giving a profit of $11,261,994, or fifty-five per cent on the capital. The articles produced were generally suited to home demands, and restricted to the simpler processes. Facilities for the higher branches of the useful, and for the fine arts, however, are known to exist, and will soon be developed, their aggregate showing a very marked advance over the previous decennial results.
RAILROADS.—In 1860, there were eight hundred and seventeen miles of railroad in operation. Late hostilities were destructive to such interests and property; but the injuries are being rapidly repaired by the renewing forces of peaceful industry. The position of Missouri in regard to continental railway lines, is eminently favorable, one of the direct routes from New York to San Francisco, passing through the State, which is destined to accommodate a constantly accumulating and extensive trade.
JEFFERSON CITY, the capital of the State, on the right bank of the Missouri, one hundred and twenty-eight miles from St. Louis, occupies an elevated site, with a commanding view of the river, and of the opposite cedar-crowned cliffs. It contains the capitol building, other State edifices, and is well supplied with churches, schools, and newspapers. Its present population is about four thousand.
ST. LOUIS is a great commercial and industrial emporium, commanding a large portion of the trade of the Mississippi River system. Its railroad connections have expanded its influence, increasing its commercial transactions. The accumulations of capital, the splendid industrial enterprise, the social refinement, and intellectual advantages, render it one of the most attractive cities on the continent, its present population being considerably in excess of two hundred thousand.
The State finances are comparatively easy, the administration economical, and the revenue amply adequate to the requirements of the State.
From the Report of the Department of Agriculture, May and June, 1868:―
PRESENT VALUE OF LAND AS COMPARED WITH 1860.―A number of the western counties of Missouri, including Holt, Jackson, St. Clair, McDonald, and Green, Texas, near the southern border, and Howard, Shelby, and Linn, in the northeastern portion of the State, report no material change in the average value of farm lands since 1860; whilst Montgomery reports an active decline of 20 per cent; Madison, 33 per cent, and Stoddard a still higher rate of decrease. Cooper, Ray, Osage, DeKalb, Calloway, Vernon, Audrain, Scotland, Lewis, Canton, Buchanan, Lincoln, and Scott, report advances ranging from 4 to 15 per cent; Gentry, 20 per cent; Christian, Cedar, Newton, and Dallas, 25 to 30 per cent; Cass, St. Genevieve, Mercer, 33 to 40 per cent; Pike, Mississippi, Harrison, Livingston, Iron, Chariton, Boone, Dade, Lawrence, Nodaway, 40 to 50 per cent; Cole, 65; Miller and Bates, 80 per cent; Moniteau, St. Louis, Phelps, Hickory, Johnson, and Henry, 100 to 150 per cent; and Jefferson reports an advance of 400 per cent. From the several estimates of our reporters, there appears to be an average of 30 to 35 per cent for the farm lands of the whole State since the date named. Our Jefferson reporter accounts for the large increase of price in that county as follows:―
"Our county is quite broken and hilly, and was considered almost worthless for farming, averaging about $5 per acre; but in 1863-64 the hills began to attract the attention of fruit-growers, since which time prices have been rapidly advancing."
In many counties lands depreciated largely during the war, but have been increasing in value since 1865; from that date they have generally recovered the decline, and made the advances noted above the values of 1860. In this regard our Shelby correspondent says:―
"Farm lands are now about the same as in 1860; they were 25 per cent lower in 1863-64, but have advanced at the rate indicated since the latter date. Good farms can be bought here for about $20 per acre."
Another correspondent, in Livingston County, writes as follows:—
"The price of farm lands in this county has increased about 50 per cent since 1860. Farms selling in 1860 at from $10 to $40, according to locality, improvement, &c., are now selling at from $15 to $60. For some time during the war real estate diminished in value very much below the prices of 1860, but toward the close of the war it increased rapidly, and has advanced steadily ever since, until it has reached the present rates, at which it seems to be on the stand."
PRICE OF WILD LANDS, &c.—The wild and unimproved lands of Missouri range in price from $1 to $70 per acre, embracing in character and soil as great a variety as in price. In Carter County this description of land is assessed at $1.30 per acre. In Stoddard it is worth $2.50 per acre on an average; of excellent quality; one-half called "swamp," but most of it usually dry and very fertile. Mississippi, $1.50 to $5 per acre, quality good. Scott, $3 per acre; northern part of the county hilly, and produces wheat, Indian corn, rye, barley, tobacco, fruits, &c.; the eastern and western parts, rich bottom land (which sometimes overflows); the central and southern parts sandy and differs in productiveness. Cape Girardeau, $1 and upward; four-fifths of the area of the county susceptible of cultivation; one-fifth suitable for pastures; some portions suited to the vine and other fruit culture. Madison, $3; rolling, heavily timbered with oak; soil thin. Iron, $1.25 to $10; various qualities. St. Genevieve, average $1; varies in quality from good, gently undulating, to thin and rocky lands. Jefferson, $20 to $25; nearly all the hills or ridges have been tested in fruit-raising, and proved successful. St. Louis, unimproved farm lands average about $70 per acre; hilly land about $30; bluffs along the rivers $10; the hills tolerably good farming lands, but good for fruit; the bluff lands rocky and of little value except for wood, though, as far as tried, grapes do well. Lincoln, $7.50; some of the best land unimproved for want of population; 422,945 acres in the county; population, 13,000. Pike, $10, and Montgomery, $8; adapted to wheat, Indian corn, tobacco, &c. Audrain, $6; good prairie lands; Lewis, $6.50 to $15 for prairie, and $15 to $25 for timber; three-fifths of the county timbered, the other two-fifths rolling prairie; Clark, $5 to $10; Scotland, $6.50; good upland prairie and rich bottoms; Linn, $5, prairie, high and dry, soil generally good, slightly sandy; will produce all the crops of the latitude—corn about 40 bushels, and wheat 20 bushels to the acre; Livingston, average, $13; prairie and timber; black, loamy soil; rolling prairie and river and creek bottoms. Mercer, $4 to $7 largely held by non-resident speculators; about two-thirds of the county unimproved, about equally divided between timber and prairie; high and rolling, nine-tenths susceptible of remunerative cultivation. Harrison, $1.25 to $5; black loam, quality good; Gentry, prairie $3, timber $12; the country is rolling prairie, with an abundance of timber; soil rich, dark loam, 20 inches deep, with clay subsoil. Nodaway, $4; capable of producing the crops of the latitude, particularly corn and grass; medium for wheat. Holt, $5, for lands lying near settlements; much not worth over $3 or $4; large tracts are held by speculators at $7 to $10 per acre. DeKalb, $10, upland prairie; La Fayette, $20 for prairie, claimed to be of finest quality, soil four feet deep; inferior quality, $10 per acre, will yield good crops of wheat, corn, oats, &c. Buchanan and Jackson, $20; Ray, $8 ; will produce wheat, corn, tobacco, &c. Johnson, $12; character good for farming purposes. Cass, $10 to $30 for timber and $4 to $15 for prairie; all good, tillable land, with from 12 to 30 inches virgin soil. Henry, prairie $6 to $10, timber $20 to $25; soil, alluvial limestone, black and rich. Bates, $6, limestone, with clay subsoil; prairie rolling, and on the ridges there is a good supply of lime and sandstone for building purposes. Vernon, about 350,000 acres of raw prairie in the market, at from $2 to $5 per acre; sandy loam and coarse black limestone soils, adapted to all the small grains and grasses. St. Clair $4, and Cedar $3; character diversified, from lands fitted only for pasturage to the richest of river bottom, which will produce 50 to 75 bushels of corn per acre. Dade, $2 to $5 for such as may be cultivated; considerable portions rendered unfit for cultivation by reason of mixture of rocks, sandstone, limestone, &c. Lawrence, $5; timber and prairie; three-fourths of the prairie susceptible of cultivation, all good grass lands; half the timber can be cultivated. Newton, bottom lands and best prairie, $10; inferior, $5 per acre. McDonald, $2 to $6; the county is broken and hilly; none but prairie or valley lands tillable. Green, lands fit for cultivation or in timber, $7; about 300,000 acres wild land in the county, 75,000 of which is owned by the Southwestern Pacific Railroad Company; prairie and timber, four-fifths cultivable. Christian, $3, and Texas, $1 to $5; partially timbered; soil gravelly, adapted to the culture of fruits, tobacco, and the cereals. Hickory, $4; lands productive. Dallas, $2 to $10; a portion susceptible of cultivation, the remainder valuable only for timber and pasturage. Phelps, $1 to $10; mostly broken, with some little prairie, but chiefly timbered; the valleys are very rich, and good for corn, the uplands for small grains and fruit. Miller, $1.25 to $5; variety of soils, from dark limestone loam to light or chocolate-colored, and clay subsoil. Osage, $6; rolling, with a top loam from 6 to 10 inches in depth; Cole, $1 to $10; much of it excellent wheat, grass, and orchard land; a portion of the cheap lands will be useful only for sheep pastures, having a flinty, gravelly surface, covered with oak, hickory, and some grass. Moniteau, $8 to $12; capable of producing 40 to 50 bushels to the acre. Cooper, $10; suited to fruit culture. Boone, $10; fit for general farming. Calloway, $8; will grow tobacco, wheat, and grass. Howard, $5 to $10; soil thin but productive. Chariton, $7.50 for prairie, $20 for timber; soil equal to any in the country.
There is still a great deal of Government land in Missouri subject to entry under the homestead laws, or purchasable at the established prices for public lands. In 1860 the total area not included in farms exceeded 21,000,000 of acres, against about 20,000,000 taken up in farms, only about 6,000,000 of which was actually under cultivation.
MINERALS.—Missouri is rich in minerals, and timber, and from its favorable location and great natural resources must at an early day take high rank among the great States of the Union. The Missouri River divides the State into two parts, having different physical characteristics. South of the river, as far west as the Osage, the surface is rolling, gradually rising into a hilly country. Beyond the Osage, at sonic distance, commences a vast expanse of prairie, stretching westward. The chief geological formations in these regions are solid strata of carboniferous and silurian limestone and sandstone, reposing on or around the unstratified primary rocks. In the hilly and broken regions, including a large portion of the State south of the Missouri, the soil is formed of disintegrated sandstone, and syenite and magnesian limestone. The soils composed of the latter materials are fertile, but in some parts of the mineral regions their productiveness is impaired by the admixture of iron oxides. That part of the State lying north of the Missouri is either rolling or quite flat, and in no place mountainous. The soils are equal to the best intervale lands, and cultivation is probably in a more advanced state than to the south of the river. Its geological substratum is chiefly carboniferous limestone, and the district is distinguished for its vast measures of bituminous coal. In the southeastern section of the State, from Cape Girardeau to the northern part of Arkansas, there are large tracts of marshy and inundated lands.
The principal minerals of the State are iron, lead, coal, copper, tin, limestone, sandstone, freestone, &c., &c. Iron is reported in greater or less abundance in Scott, Cape Girardeau, Iron, St. Genevieve, Mercer, Cedar, Green, Texas, La Fayette, Newton, Phelps, Osage, Cole, and other counties; coal in Lincoln, Montgomery, Audrain, Shelby, Lewis, Scotland, Linn, Livingston, Mercer, Harrison, Gentry, La Fayette, Nodaway, Cass, Henry, Bates, St. Clair, Vernon, Dade, Cole, Moniteau, Boone, Calloway, Howard, Chariton, &c.; lead in Madison, Iron, St. Genevieve, Jefferson, Mercer, Vernon, Cedar, Newton, La Fayette, Green, Texas, Dallas, Osage, Cole, &c.; copper in Vernon, Cedar, Green, Texas, and Cole; tin in Iron; slight traces of gold in Mercer, but not in paying quantities; silver in Cedar; nickel and cobalt in Madison; limestone and sandstone in Scott, Lewis, Livingston, De Kalb, Buchanan, Phelps, Cole, &c.; salt in Fayette and adjoining counties; chalk and potters' clay in Scott and La Fayette; fire and potters' clay in Audrain and Cole; superior white sand in St. Genevieve; antimony in Cedar; and glass sand in Cole. Our Lincoln reporter says that a bed of coal, ten miles long, one to three miles in width, and of unknown thickness, underlies that county; shafts having been sunk in the bed to the depth of eighteen feet without getting through. In Calloway there is a bed of cannel coal twenty-five to seventy-five feet in thickness, extending for miles, it is claimed, and lying within four miles of the Missouri River. A vein of coal in Cole County, on the Pacific Railroad, has been bored one hundred feet without exhausting the coal measure. In particular localities these several minerals have been largely worked, but generally the mineral resources of the State have been but slightly developed, want of capital being the chief drawback.
TIMBER.—Walnut, hickory, elm, ash, oak, hackberry, linn, dogwood, maple, cotton, pecan, sassafras, and other varieties of timber abound in many sections of the State, and in few, if any, counties is there a lack of timber for home uses. In some counties lumbering is extensively engaged in. Our Texas reporter says they have thousands of acres of pine timber, with four steam and ten water power mills now sawing lumber. In Mississippi County the timber is said to be very fine: "oaks, five feet in diameter; poplars, eight feet; cypress, fourteen feet (exceptions, but plenty four to eight feet in diameter); but few mills, yet fifty mills could make fortunes here, as there is plenty of timber and good shipping facilities." Oak wood brings from four to five dollars per cord in Jefferson City, Cole County. The Pacific Railroad is here supplied with fuel for the distance west of this county, where the line runs more than one hundred miles through a prairie country; much is also sold to steamboats along the Missouri River. Railroad ties for the Pacific Railroad are also furnished from this point.
CROPS.—Corn, wheat, oats, potatoes, tobacco, and hay, are the leading crops, but neither can be classed a specialty in any county, though Indian corn is by far the heaviest product of the State, reaching nearly 47,000,000 bushels in 1866, and over 50,000,000 bushels in 1867. The wheat crop of 1867 reached nearly 5,000,000 bushels; oats, 4,300,000 bushels; potatoes, 1,100,000 bushels; tobacco, 11,600,000 pounds; hay, 680,000 tons. The average gross receipts from the several crops per acre were about as follows: Corn, $18; wheat, $25; oats, $15; potatoes, $71; hay, $19; tobacco, $92. The corn and hay crops, particularly back from railroad facilities, are largely consumed upon the farms where grown, by cattle, horses, mules, and hogs, stock-raising having been largely engaged in within the past few years the as the most profitable branch of farming operations for the interior, distant from markets and railroads. Our Chariton reporter writes as follows:—
"Previous to the war, tobacco and hemp were specialties in this county, but since the change in our system of labor our farmers are rapidly adapting themselves to the change, and are turning their attention to stock-raising, for which our county is eminently adapted. Corn, wheat, rye, oats, potatoes, grass, and orchards are rapidly taking the place of the former crops, and our prairies being filled with cattle and mules, which will be more profitable."
Our Cole County correspondent says:—
"The old settlers grow mostly corn, which must be fed on the farm if made profitable, for only such as are within five miles of a shipping point can net 50 cents per bushel when the price in St. Louis is $1 per bushel. Eastern people and the Germans pursue a more varied husbandry, raising small grain for market, which finds ready sale at remunerative prices. The large merchant mills along the line of the Pacific Railroad are eagerly buying up all the wheat and rye to supply their milling capacities. Peaches, apples, and small fruits are becoming articles of freight west into Kansas, where all that can be shipped, find a ready market. Much attention is also being given to grapes, which will in a few years form a considerable item of our produce and trade westward. Hemp is a profitable crop in the rich bottoms, but labor for its cultivation is scarce."
Shelby County:—
Our principal crop is corn, timothy, and Hungarian grass. We raise and feed stock to get our money back. Our lands will yield 35 bushels of corn, and from one to one and a half tons of hay per acre, the corn selling at 30 to 60 cents per bushel, the hay $6 to $8 per ton.
Scotland County:―
Our farmers are giving the most attention to the hay crop, raising only sufficient grain for their stock. Taking the prices of the past few years as a standard, the profits of stock-raising far exceed those of any other branch of farming.
Cooper County:―
Wheat is the great staple of this county. The soil being of a porous nature, prevents the wheat from freezing out in winter. The average is about 20 bushels per acre. It costs about 75 cents to raise a bushel of wheat, worth $2.50 per bushel; profit per acre $30 to $40. Good wheat land is worth $40 to $50 per acre. So you see wheat is the most profitable crop.
De Kalb County:―
Wheat is the surest and most profitable crop. Average of wheat about 25 bushels per acre; corn, 40 bushels; oats, 35 bushels.
Phelps County:―
Until within a few years the principal crops were corn and its concentration, pork; but lately there has been more attention paid to the culture of wheat, and it bids fair to be of much importance, as we are having mills to convert it into flour, and railroads to export it. Corn will yield 25 to 50 bushels per acre in an ordinary season, worth 50 cents to $1 per bushel. Wheat in one instance, the past season, yielded 27 bushels per acre, but the average is not above one-half that amount, worth the present season $2 to $2.30 per bushel.
La Fayette County:—
Hemp is the special product, averaging about 600 tons annually. It is baled in the rough, and sold at river points to hacklers and shippers, at from $100 to $200 per ton. Flax does well, but is not raised extensively. Corn is next in importance, returning with very little labor, from 40 to 80 bushels per acre. The hoe is never used. With Eastern cultivation, 100 bushels and upward has been the yield. It is always a sure crop, and sells at from 30 to 60 cents per bushel. Wheat has been heretofore considered a doubtful crop, owing to the light quality of the soil allowing it to freeze out; this is obviated by sowing on rough ground or by drilling. But on newly broken ground the first three crops are certain; the second and third, generally the best. This season, on both old and new land, the crop is very abundant, and has been good for the last three years.
In Lawrence, profits are estimated as follows: Corn, $8.50 per acre; wheat, $10; oats, $12; Moniteau, wheat, $15 to $20 per-acre. The average yield in St. Louis County, is given as follows: 15 bushels of wheat, 50 bushels of corn, 60 bushels of potatoes, 1 ton of hay.
Cotton is cultivated to some extent in some of the southern counties, but is not a certain crop, nor upon the whole as profitable as other branches of farming. Hop culture is receiving some attention in Gentry and a few other counties, the soil and climate being thought favorable.
But a small proportion of the crop is spring wheat, though in a few of the northern counties it is given the preference, winter varieties being liable to freezing out in cold winters.
Fall wheat is generally put in the ground during the months of September and October, and the spring varieties in March and April; harvesting commences about the middle of June in the lower part of the State, extending to the middle of July, some of the spring-sown grain not ripening until August. In a majority of counties there is very little drilling, in many none at all, and no county reports more than one-half. In most localities, where tried, the drilling system is considered superior to the old mode, and is gradually being adopted. A correspondent says:―
"Wheat is largely cultivated, but generally badly managed; some, however, have used the drill to good purpose, and produced from 20 to 25 bushels to the acre."
Missouri wheat culture is no exception to the general system of the West—the largest possible crops upon the least amount of labor—almost every thing left to nature beyond the dropping of the seed. A correspondent writes:—
"The careful and scientific culture of wheat is not practiced in this county; no drills, and but few rollers. Wheat generally sown among the growing corn and scratched in with bull-tongue plow. The only wonder is, that we harvest any crop from such culture; yet from 10 to 23 bushels are generally realized."
Another reporter says:―
"The mode of culture is rather primitive in most cases, the seed being sown broadcast and covered with a shovel or triangular plow; a few plow the ground and harrow in the grain."
Some plow stubble ground twice, sow broadcast, and harrow twice. Fallow ground is usually plowed but once. Our Madison reporter says:―
"The soil is generally broken about four inches in August or September."
In Iron County the general culture is breaking the soil, sowing, and harrowing or brushing in; in dry seasons sown among the corn and plowed in. The average yield of wheat per acre in Missouri in 1866 was 16½ bushels; and in 1867 about 12½ bushels.
HAY AND PASTURE.—The wild prairie grasses, blue-joint, June grass, rye grass, white clover, sage, and swamp grasses, furnish the natural pastures of Missouri, the native prairie grass being generally superseded by blue grass, which appears in all sections of the State where the prairies are pastured freely. Timothy, orchard grass, red-top, and red clover are the principal cultivated grasses, but the prairies are the chief reliance for the subsistence of stock during the pasturing season, which is reported as ranging from six to eleven months in length in the several counties, the average in the State being about eight months, during which
stock can do well upon pasture alone, though a number of counties name nine months, and Pike runs up to eleven months. Our Chariton reporter writes upon this subject as follows:―
"Blue grass mixed with white clover in our pastures and commons, and on our prairies a luxuriant growth of prairie grass mixed with blue grass around farms. In some seasons stock will keep fat on the pastures until December. Pasturage on our prairies are free. The cost of herding large herds is about 20 cents per month per head; in pastures about $1 per head per month for cattle, horses, and mules, and about 15 cents per head for sheep. For wintering stock (about five months), about $12 per head for cattle, $20 per head for horses and mules, and $1 per head for sheep."
Our Green reporter, in the southwest, says that stock can feed exclusively on pastures nine months in that section, and he has seen stock pastured all winter and come out in the spring in good condition, the mode being to take the stock off blue grass in August and turn on again in December. In many cases stock subsist through the winter in the woods, and in the marshes and wet lands, and the hogs get fat upon the mast in winter without corn. The cost of pasturing cattle is but trifling in most localities, the range being free, and the only expense that of salt and herdsmen, and frequently the services of the latter are dispensed with. Our reporters return various figures under this head, from no expense up to $1 per head per month.
FRUIT.—With but two or three exceptions our correspondents speak favorably of the capabilities of their respective counties for fruit culture—apples, peaches, pears, plums, grapes, and the various small fruits, being generally successful, though in the northern part of the State peaches are uncertain, in some localities averaging not more than one crop in three or four years. A few extracts from reports of correspondents in different sections of the State will serve to illustrate the general character of counties adjacent.
St. Louis:―
This county is well adapted to fruit culture. Peaches are fine, and crop enormous, but are winter-killed at least once in three years, and partially so three times in five. Spring frosts hardly ever affect them. The Concord grape is entirely healthy here, never fails, and will yield under good treatment 10,000 to 12,000 pounds per acre; average about 8,000 pounds; never selling less than fifteen cents per pound.
Shelby County:―
Nearly every farm has an orchard, and the trees do well. Apple, pear, and plum trees bear nearly every year. Peach-trees grow thrifty, but do not bear more than one year out of two; but when they do bear they yield well, and the fruit is of superior quality. Many of our older orchards yield fifteen to twenty bushels to the tree, worth seventy-five cents per bushel.
Howard County:―
This being one of the first counties settled has more fruit than any county except St. Louis. Winter apples are chiefly cultivated, and three-fourths of the trees are Rawle's Jenneting, though most varieties of summer and winter apples do well. I have in my grounds, now nine years old; of summer apples: Strawberry, Harvest, Astrachan, Early Joe, Early June, summer Pearmain; and of winter and fall kinds: Rambo, Swaar, Spitzenburg, Rhode Island Greening, Northern Spy, Newtown Pippin, Fall Pippin, Golden Pippin, Lady Apple; &c., which are bearing freely and promise well. Peaches are very uncertain, except on the bluffs near the Missouri River. Standard and dwarf pears do well if properly trained and cared for. Nectarines and apricots uncertain, though I have had some fine crops. About 1,600 barrels of winter apples were shipped from our village (Glasgow) last fall by river, at 50 cents per bushel, though on the North Missouri Railroad, passing through the next tier of counties, the same varieties brought $1 per bushel.
Linn County:—
Our capabilities for fruit are very fine. We produce apples, pears, plums, peaches (about half the seasons), grapes, quinces, and all the small fruits. Apples, pears, and plums have not failed in ten years. Apple trees five years from the nursery last fall yielded $10 each in fruit. Many trees have been set during the war. Grapes are doing well; no mildew or rot for three years past, nor previous to that, except on Isabella. Varieties grown here: Concord, Clinton, Hartford Prolific, Delaware, Roger's Hybrid, No. 15, Isabella, Catawba, &c.
Chariton County:—
Apples are very profitable, and peaches do well when not killed by frost, and are very fine. Grapes succeed well. The past season peaches sold at from $1 to $4 per bushel; apples, 75 cents to $1 per bushel; grapes, 20 cents per pound. One farmer in this vicinity sold $2,500 worth from his orchard, the fruit being gathered by the purchasers. Another, from an orchard of about 1¼ acre, realized about $600.
Cass County:—
Splendid fruit country; apples most plentiful. Last season (1866) was an average crop. E. P. West, from twenty fifteenyear-old trees, gathered 300 bushels. Several orchards of from 120 to 150 trees, of about the same age, produced upward of $1,000 each at home. The Union Pacific Railroad will give us an unlimited market. Peaches bear three years in five.
In Livingston, one gentleman gathered from 100 trees 1,000 bushels of apples, worth 75 cents to $1 per bushel; peaches do not succeed so well; pears grow large and delicious; many persons are putting out vineyards, but the business is yet new. In De Kalb, one small orchard of twenty-seven trees, set nine years, yielded 117 bushels of apples, worth 75 cents per bushel; peaches yield about once in three or four years; pears, cherries, &c., do well. Our Pike reporter says that 50,000 bushels of apples are annually shipped from that county. In Lincoln, an orchard of 1,200 trees, fourteen years old, yielded $1,500 worth of apples last year, at $3 per barrel. Our Miller County reporter says:—
"I have never known any place to exceed this for fruit. Apples and pears receive most attention, but pears, grapes, and all the small fruits do well. I have one apple-tree (Winesap) only six years old from the seed, which last season yielded one bushel of good, well-grown fruit; the tree is three inches in diameter. A dwarf pear-tree, only four years from the bud, ripened seventy pears of the Seckel variety. Beat that anywhere else, and let us hear of it."
In Cooper County, apples rarely fail, and our correspondent says that ten acres, set out in good winter varieties, will be a fortune to a young man; he can set forty trees to the acre, which will bear in about five years, when he can get $5 per tree for his fruit standing, $200. per acre, $2,000 for his orchard. Our Cole reporter says:—
"All our uplands, ridges, and hills are specially adapted to the growing of peaches, apples, and grapes. We have already varieties of apples which are a sure and profitable crop. Early peaches, except chance seedlings, are still on trial; the Early Crawford has failed for two years past on account of ice in March, or perhaps from neglect. Late peaches do well. Cherries, pears, plums, &c., grow well. One pear orchard of several thousand trees is a failure, either from an unlucky choice of varieties or from want of proper cultivation. Grape vines do exceedingly well in soil which was at first thought sterile. Strawberries grow luxuriantly."
In the western and southwestern portions of the State, fruit culture promises to become a profitable branch of farming operations, a number of counties reporting the setting out of orchards of apples and peaches on an extended scale. Our La Fayette reporter writes as follows:―
"I think we can beat the world in fruit culture. We export north of the river to Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, and to all the Territories. Last year (1866) the crop was short, but still enormous. From all the data at band, I should estimate the crop of 1867 at not less than $500,000, besides home consumption."
The culture of the grape is encouragingly spoken of from various quarters. Our Dade reporter says:―
"As to fruit, our soil is wonderfully adapted to the growth of all kinds of fruit, especially the grape, apple, &c. The grape grows here spontaneously in astonishing quantities, and of quality almost equal to the imported varieties. Your correspondent could any day during the grape season fill his wagon-bed with grapes that grow spontaneously on the brush-land of his premises, and might repeat it for many days."
Jefferson County:―
Fruit is our specialty, including grapes, apples, peaches, pears, and all the small fruits. The grapevine grows wild all through the woods, the fruit hanging from our largest forest-trees. The vines grow from 10 to 20 feet the first year, and bear almost a full crop the second year. A peach bud will grow an inch in diameter and eight feet high the first year on a two-year-old root. Our soil, climate, and. elevation combine to make Jefferson the great fruit and wine county of Missouri. Our grapes and strawberries are 10 or 12 days in advance of any in the market. The grape and apple crops never fail; peaches have failed but once in 33 years, viz., in 1865. Peaches yielding $500 per acre, apples $300, pears $750, and grapes $900 to $1,000, are considered average crops. There are 350,000 fruit-trees, and 250,000 grapevines now planted in this county, with room for ten times the number.
CORRESPONDENCE.
CHILLICOTHE, LIVINGSTON COUNTY, MO.,
July 27, 1868.
SIR:―* * * We are fully alive to the importance of bringing before the emigrant the advantages our State offers him.
The special inducements offered now to the emigrant to our part of the State, are the numerous railroads now opening up, our excellent soil, and healthy climate. Lands are at present low, but rapidly advancing in price, especially upon the lines of railroad, where numerous towns are springing up, offering the emigrant immediate employment and remunerative wages, so that he may shortly buy land, and be independent. * * I might add that the Grand River Valley is, by common consent, considered to contain the richest and most productive land in this portion of the great Mississippi Valley. The river is navigable to this point, at moderately high water.
Respectfully, etc.
Wm. McILWRATH
F. B. GODDARD, Esq., New York.
Messrs. BEAZELL & BERRY write from. Chillicothe, July 28, 1868:—
* * * Our beautiful little town of 5,000 inhabitants, is situated in the heart of Grand River Valley, which contains the richest land in the State. * * * Emigrants are coming in rapidly, and we are growing fast in wealth and population. * * * Improved farms, 2 or 3 miles from town, are worth from $30 to $50 per acre; unimproved, $15 to $20. Ten miles from town, improved, $20 to $25; unimproved, $8 to $12. River and creek bottom lands can be got for from $5 to $7. Wheat is worth per bushel, $1.50; oats, 30 cts.; corn, 50 cts.; potatoes, $1; butter, 25 cts.; beef, alive, 4½ to 5 cts.; pork, gross, about the same; beans, $6; rye, 80 cts.; apples and peaches 75 cts. to $1. Good workhorses and mules, $100 to $125.
From Warrenton, Warren Co., July 28, 1868, Mr. P. P. STEWART writes:―
I have lived in this county 37 years, and have been a tiller of the soil. * * * Improved farms can be had for from $10 to $30 per acre. * * * We raise all the grains, tobacco, fruit, &c. * * * Farm hands, carpenters, blacksmiths, wagon-makers, masons, coopers, &c., are the kind of laborers most in demand here. * * * We have coal in abundance. * * * There are no Government lands in this part of the State. Our school and religious advantages are excellent. We have a mixed population; many Germans.
From Gentry County, July 30, 1868, Mr. JOHNSTON writes:—
* * * Raw lands, from $3 to $10 per acre, according to locality; improved, from $10 to $20. No Government lands. Wages of farmers, $1 to $1.25 per day, $20 per month. Twenty years' experience of this country, has proved to me that it is healthy.
From Kansas City, Aug. 11, 1868, Messrs. THACHER & WEBSTER write:—
* * * The price of land, immediately about the city, ranges from $50 to $500 per acre, owing to improvements and eligibility. This includes land within one and two miles. Unimproved land in Jackson Co., Mo. (this County), and Johnson Co., Kansas (adjoining), range from $5 to $30 per acre. Good improved farms from $25 to $50 per acre. There are no lands near this point, in either Missouri or Kansas, which can be pre-empted. Southern Kansas is the nearest point where any Government land of good quality can be pre-empted. Good bricklayers get from $5 to $5.50 per day; carpenters $3 to $4 per day; laborers $2 and $2.50 per day.
Corn sells at from 60 cts. to $1 per bushel; wheat, $2 to $2.10 for winter wheat. We have a good market, both east and west of us. This region is splendidly adapted to fruit. We have good public schools, and some fifteen churches. The inducement to emigrants is, the best land in the world at a fair rate; the best climate in the world, and soil adapted to any thing.
Very truly,
THACHER & WEBSTER
Our correspondent at St. Charles says lands are worth from $20 to $200 per acre. St. Charles Co. is considered the best wheat county in the State. Climate good. Plenty of coal and timber. Harvest labor this year was $2.50 to $3.50 per day; last year as high as $4 per day.
From Linn County, August 17, 1868, Mr. E. J. CRANDALL writes:—
* * * * The great rush of settlers to North Missouri this present season, so greatly in excess of that of any former year, is so marked and rapid, and characterized by so much intelligence, enterprise, and vigor, as to be a source of wonderment to many. * * * * *
The general face of the country is high and gently rolling prairie, watered by numerous streams that are skirted with a variety of timber. The larger streams being generally bordered by more or less bottom or grass lands. * * *
One man in this county has just finished thrashing a crop of two hundred and seventy acres, which averaged him nearly thirty-one bushels per acre and netted him here over two dollars per bushel. I harvested from 20 acres of new ground, from first plowing, twenty-eight bushels per acre, or over 560 bushels from 20 acres, all winter wheat.
Mr. JOSEPH L. STEVENS writes from Columbia:—
* * Our soil is a good average of the State, abounds in fine farms and orchards, and may well be termed the Blue Grass region of the State.
From Huntsville, Randolph County, July 30, 1868, Mr. W. R. SAMUEL writes:—
* * Country about equally divided into prairie and timber; soil, clayey loam, and very fertile. Price of improved farms $10 to $50 per acre. Farm laborers are much wanted at good prices. Good flouring mills are much needed. Plenty of coal. We have much blue grass, which the farmers think as valuable as an average corn crop.
Mr. JAMES W. OVERTON writes from Fulton, Calloway County:—
* * Soil varies in quality from the light oak ridge soil to the rich black loam of the Missouri River bottom. Price varies from $2.50 to $50 per acre; from $10 to $20 might, I think, be considered an average for good improved farms. The supply of labor is nothing like equal to the demand.
Mr. BRYAN writes from Moniteau County:—
There is no Government land near here worth entering. We have good lands from $2 to $10 near railroad. Farms much improved range higher.
Messrs. ROGERS & SHAW of Princeton, Mercer County, write:—
* * Both prairie and timber land; soil, black loam; unimproved, worth $3 to $15; improved, $10 to $40. Are now fifty miles from railroad, but shall have one within two years.
From Messrs. SMITH & KNIGHT of the Immigrant Aid Association, Kirksville, July 29, 1868:―
County diversified by prairie and timber; abundance of running water. Improved land is worth $5 to $30 per acre. Unimproved, $2.50 to $15
From our Shelby County correspondent, July 29, 1868:—
We have excellent farming lands: price for 20 miles -ound. improved, $20 to $40; unimproved, $5 to $15.
From Mr. Low, Caldwell County, July 28, 1868:―
Our soil is a deep, rich, black loam, which is in itself exceedingly rich after a short exposure. Unimproved lands in this section are worth from $6 to $20; improved, $20 to $50. Labor is in good demand. The people in this county are principally of Eastern origin, and of course schools and churches abound.
Mr. KINKEAD writes as follows from Jackson County:—
The price of farming lands, improvements included, near Westport from $30 to $2.50 per acre; unimproved lands from $10 to $1.25 per acre. Natural production of land, blue grass; subsoil, red clay; timber and prairie, pretty well divided. The same description extends throughout the county, except in price, which varies in cheapness as you go from Westport and Kansas City, the latter place being distant from the former 3½ miles, with good macadamized road to same.
From Pacific, Franklin County, Mr. E. KNOBEL writes:—
* * North of the Missouri River, all St. Louis County, all above Cole County, on the south bank of Missouri River, north of Township 44, and along the Kansas line, is, with few exceptions, very good land; in some parts, superior land, and can be taken as a fine farming country, in general. The other part of the State is chiefly hilly, with good lands in the bottoms, on the slopes, and sometimes fine table-lands on the top of hills. In the center of this part there is a great extent of prairie, but particularly along the Kansas line, and in North Missouri, and in the southwest.
From Lancaster, Schuyler County, July 30, 1868, Mr. A. J. BAKER writes:—
Our farming lands are mostly prairie, black sandy loam, and very fertile. Farm labor scarce and high. We need a tinner and stove man, bricklayers, carpenters, cabinet-makers, carriage manufactory, and painters. Price of land from $5 to $25 per acre.
Ironton, Iron County, August 6, 1868. From this point Mr. FRANZ DINGER writes:—
* * * Close to town, No. 1 land is worth from $25 to $1.25; two to three miles off good land. from $10 to $25 per acre, and second class land from $5 to $25 per acre; wild land entered from $1 to $10 per acre. There is not much good land in this county that is not already taken up. Corn, wheat, oats, rye, potatoes, are the general products. It is the best country for fruit culture and wine-raising; also the hilly lands are well adapted for sheep‑raising; in this county lie the celebrated Pilot Knob Hill iron banks; there are fine prospects of lead in this county. Near by are the rich Iron Mountain iron banks, as also in Madison County, joining the celebrated lead mines, called Mine La Motte. In the southern part of this county are found rich iron banks, also, prospects of copper and tin. Near by, within twelve miles, are the rich lately discovered tin mines. Climate mild and very healthy.
Coal has not as yet been discovered in this county or close vicinity. The terminus of the Iron Mountain Railroad is one mile north of us. Public schools in every district, and the county is well supplied with fine churches. The price of common labor is from $1.50 per day to $2.50 in the iron works; carpenters from $2.50 to $4.50 per day. Wages are generally good. There is not very much rich land in this county, but the uplands are very good, and well adapted for fruit-growing. The mineral resources are great. The country south of us in this State is not very much populated, owing to the war, but is now rapidly filling up. It is my opinion that southeast Missouri has been much neglected, and will yet prove to be the richest part of the State. Of the older inhabitants, a small proportion are emigrants from Tennessee, but the largest portion are Germans, and many from the Eastern States. Wool-growing here will pay well. The contemplated extension of the Iron Mountain Railroad will go through this county south.
From St. Joseph,, Buchanan County, July 28, 1868, 'Mr. THOMAS HARBINE writes:—
* * This is the second largest city in the State, and now contains 25,000 inhabitants. No city in the West has been more prosperous since the war, and none offers greater inducements to the emigrant. The laborer and mechanic are in great demand. We also especially want paper mills, agricultural implements, wagon manufacturers, oil mills, and match factories. * * * We have among us the best public schools in the country, open ten months in the year. * * Potatoes bring at retail 70 to 80 cents per bushel; butter, 25 cents per lb.; cheese, 15 cents; eggs, 20 cents per dozen; fish, fresh, 15 cents per lb.; beef, 10 to 15 cents; mutton, 10 to 12 cents; pork and veal, 12 cents. * * Soil, a deep black loam, and very fertile. Face of country diversified and rolling; unimproved land varies in price, from $15 to $40 per acre; improved $20 to $50. * * No farmer, with two or three thousand dollars, can make a better investment than here in Buchanan County. * *
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.