The Council Bluffs nonpareil. [volume] (Council Bluffs [Iowa]) 1857-1867, 1857-07-18
new. nom The UPPER Miss.sri.

leyening from point on the upper NtsOuIl I,
!, 800 miles distant from ST. Louis, and iS0
| miles beyond Fort Union, 6 the mouth OF
the Yellowstone. At O'Clock YESTERDAY,
! IS days had elapsed since her departures from
this port, on business connected with the
American Fur Company. She brought down
about 5000 packs Of fnrs, and 50 mountain
GERS, men attired partly in Indian garb, and
with faces almost as dark as that of the In
dian.
The Spread Eagle left Fort Randall last
Monday morning, and consequently made
/ fast run from that point. Welearn from her
pilot that she was compelled to return ON ac-
| count of the river above Fort Union beng
| low and falling. and that it is so narrow Is
scarcely to admit of boat being turned
round. From the information he received,
| he is convinced that there will be no further
rise Of any Importance this year, in the Mis-
/ souri,. as the snow in the mountains was melt
ing very gradually, and not much Of it was
left.
| The Indians. as far as known, were quiet,
and showed no disposition to fight among
themselves, or to trouble the whites, except
/ Ing on one occasion. as follows: Tn the down
trip, a band Of armed Assiniboins were OBJ
served congregated on the bank, and made
signals inviting the boat TO land. The ON
GERS no, thinking it quite safe to do so, DE-
termined to pause, and sounded the bell as
if about to land, but kept her moving swift
ly past.
The Indians were of course highly dis
/ pleased at this movement and fred voliey
at the boat No one was hurt. This was
the last seen of these Indians. 1t will be rec
objected that there were several cases of small
pox on board of the steamer Clara, when she
visited the upper Missouri last year. twas
afterwards aseertained that the dreadful ma
lady found its way about the same time into
the lodges of certain tribe of Indians, and
made fearful havoc, sweeping away large
part of their number, and almost depopuiat-
| ing one or two of their villages. The surviv-
| ing Indians of that tribe are TO this day great.
" incensed against the Clara, and speak OF
| her in terms Of hatred and vindietiSeness.-
81. Louis Dem.
! Western SpeeuIation-Sensible Opinion.
In an editorial letter to the Boston Tray
| eHer, dated ut keokuk, we find Il more
truthful view of the state of affairs and
prospects ut the West than is observed by
many of our Eastern exchanges, most of
which seem to think that because We are
draining their regionof capital and enter
prising men. we must therefore be going to
destruction ''by the lightning line.
kak Wing. ..... -.F
My observations have certainly been has
ty, they may have been superficial; but such
as they have been, they lead me irresistably
to the conclusion that commercial writers at
the East are wrong in ascribing to specula-
! 1; ~, l,nl, b.,
in the money market, land furthermore, warn
| ing Eastern farmers not to emigrate to the
West. For my part, believe that if
many who still cling to the East We're to
come out to the fertile valleys of this great
| West, it would be greatly to their advan-
tagc. Where they now are, they can hope
| for but little more than they already pos
sess. Here, there is nothing reasonable or
desirable for which they may not justly hope.
| Now it seems, and is II very plain PROPOSE
| ton, when the best prairie lands of Iowa,
than which the sun never shoue upon lands
more beautiful, can be purchased for from
| l,25 to $1,000 per acre, and when one acre
of that land will produce from forty to one
| hundred bushels of corn, and when corn is
worth as it is, and will be for years at least,
! so cents per bushel, that farming in the
West must be profitable to an extent never
! before known. Here, upon the same extent
of ground, three fold can be produced above
| that in New England, with scarcely one
| third the labor. There are many other
facts, Of course, which should enter into a
correct calculation of the relative advanta-
ges Of farming at the East and the West;
| such as the price of land, and the notorious
! fact that for thirds of what is produ-
ced on a farm, there is a better market here
| than in New England. The advantages are
all on one side, and will be so long as i'm
migration continues. An old lady residing
about twenty miles from this city. informed
me the other day, that for the last year the
income from her poultry yard was some SIS
per week, during nearly the whole year, aud
that during the same season her COWS paid
for themselves i'll few weeks. and well they
might-with butter ranging Mt from % to
80 cents per pound: milk to s cents per
quart; eggs from l. to 40 cents a dozen,
&C., &c. Many farmers who had not the
| means to purchase farms are getting rich in
renting lands, paying from 81 to S4 per
acre annually, for farms under cultivation,
and with the necessary improvements. Lands
within ID miles of the city can be purchased
now, for from s. to $50 per acre, and that
too of the very best kind of land, having the
advantage of Il market for every kind of
produce better than even the New England
railroad towns possess.
1t seems to me apparent that it is not the
speculation, but the short crops which have
caused the stagnation in business that now
exists almost universally. When money is
invested in land, it remains in the country,
and cannot directly c0nduce to scarcity.
But when money is invested in tilllng the
soil and the crops fail, that amount Of cap
ital is thrown away, is destroyed, and it is
this which cOnduces to stringencv in the
money market, and consequently to stagna-
ton in business. Now it Is a notorious fact
that two OUT Of the last three crops have
been, rs to some important articles of
produce, almost universal failures. There
have been two very cold successive winters,
late springs and dry summers, which have
so affected the crops that in the midst of the
richest corn growing country in the world,
corn has sold at even S. bushel, potatoes
at 81, and everything elserequired for con-
sumption, at the same rates.
Now any one must see that whether or |
not there has been one dollar invested in
land, more than was actually cultivated,
the present condition of things would be |
the natural and inevitable results Of such /
crops. 1t is to my mind equally apparent
that If the crops had been universally good |
and abundant, it would be impossible for
the present state of things to exist. /
1t is simply folly for papers like the New
York Herald and other croakers to compare |
the present with the times of '36 and '37,
and to draw any conclusions from the one
to apply to the other. We have no United |
States Bank nor any other monIed monopo- |
ly about which jackson and a Biddle may |
quarrel, and which expiring, unprepared for |
death, shall again shake to their founda-
tions the finances Of the country, and engulf t
in ruin the business and the property of the |
millions of our citizens. The country is not /
now, as then, flooded with a worse than /
worthless currency, created by an ilv d. !
gested system of legislation, to supply the .
place of defunct National Bank. Then
the country was full Of produce for which i
there was no market, so tina, farming, which, /.
must always be one great resource, and con- !
stitute the means Of our national wealth, /
was ruinous Investment. even in the rnids, .
of the most tount,ful crons ASax a,,r .,