The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1857-06-25
for the CVt
Starvation IN Iowa.

4
| Mn. EpIroR: As I have but recently re-
turned FROM tour through southwestern Iowa,
or, as it has been styled, the STARVING region"
l deem it my du.y to jot down the results OF
my experience, abd ask for them place in
the columns Of your valuable paper.
| The rumored restitution south and west of
the Des MONIES, induced company of four of
us (who happened 10 have business in Taylor
county,) TO purchase flour and bacon for our
| subsistence before starting. At that time (the
frs, day Of Juae.) flour was worth five dollars
per hundred pounds in Ottumwa, and two hun
dred pounds was all we could find in the mar
ket at that price. The few travellers and
teamsters we met during our first and second
! days. travel confirmed the rumors of starva.
ton :sjust short distance west Of where they
had been" However, feeling fortified in the
posse sson Of our iloar and side of bacon. we
| perseyered, allowing our teams to choose their
own gait that their strength might be reserved
for those trying times when an exceedingly
sparse growth Of grass could be alone depen-
ded upon to sustain their tagging energies.
AT each stopping we were assured that our
teams would there receive the last feed of
grain and hay they would get until their re-
turn. Notwithstanding This never omitted
story, we found an abundance Of all the me-
cessaries Of life 10 the end Of our trip, which
terminated within some sixty miles of st.
Joseph, Mo.
In all the villages through which we passed
we found -four, bacon, &c., in store and for
sale, at prices varying from five to seven dol
lars per hundred. 1t is true that many Of the
barrels were inscribed with the brand of the
St. Louis inspector, and the sacks hailed from
Missouri and Illinois mills. The crude idea
of starvation and want being humbug, a lit
tie speculation as to the causes which have
conspired to make it necessary that Missouri
required in State which, If not valuable in an
agricultural point Of view, is certainly worth
less in all others, seems necessary, not only for
the purpose of rightly under standing the error
into which our pee pie have fallen with view
to its avoidance in times to come but that the
interests of emigrants from the older states
may not be jeopardsed by unnecessary fears
Of the soil or climate of Iowa.
Although great many-almost all-of our
citizens seek to account for the whole Difficult
ty by saying that "the grass crop of last season
was short, and the spring las been unusually
late" they overlook the fact that the grass Of
last yea-, and the spring of this, have nothing
to do with the price or deficiency of bread ana
meat. They account satisfactorily for the
panic in regard to the sus,enance of stock I'M
I'll the coming of grass, but as they fed neither
flour nor bacon 10 their horses and cattle, why
is it that the one should be worth six and the
other fifteen cents per pound in sec ton of
the State SO remote, at present, from foreign
markets as to preclude the idea of over-ex-
port? The wheat crop Of las. year was not
abundant, but upon inquiry among The farmers
it is found that the yield was far frem being
so deficient as present prices would induce
superstition. If an average yield was not OBJ
tanned from the land sownthe country through,
we are mistaken in the data from which we
hazard the guess. The true causes Of our
trouble seem to be the drain upon our supplies
By the heavy emigration passing through the
State TO Kansas and Nebraska during the au.
tumn and early portion of the winter, and, a
most unfortunate distribution of occupations
among our home population. The first of these
propositions requires no comment, but the Sec
ond needs explanation, especially to those who
have not traversed the country Of WHICH I am
writing.
In passing through several of the new coan-
ties of the southern tier, the traveller will fad
hourishing county seat, redolent of new lum-
Der and fresh PART, numbering population
OF from two to six or eight hundred and up
on inquiry, will find the county blessed with
several cities and towns of equally ostenta-
tious pretensions ard yet, singular as it may
seem, he has not observed TO exceed dozen
respectable farms in the entire distance of
twenty five to thirty miles he may have trayell-
ed in it! Mile after mile do we toll on over
the most beautifully undulating prairies that
man ever beheld-the fertility Of the soil OF
which Is vouched for by the vigorous weeds
growing at the roadside, and the superabun-
dance Of its rich and nutritious grasses-we
come to decline, which, in half mile lets us
down fifty, seventy-ive, or perhaps hundred
! feet, into prairie bottom of variable width
there we pass forest of timber, comparing
favorably with the best IN the State, through
the mazes of which meanders spring fed and
never-failing stream Of pure. fresh water
another prairie bottom, a long ascent, and we
are again upon the high and rolling prairie
In the distance we behold the tops Of trees all
around US, marking the localities of heavy
, bodies of timber, but save cluster Of new ons
story frame houses and crazy log huts on
commanding ridge away yonder, and which
{ serve to identify the locality Of city famou!
in foreign advertisements and home gasconade
we see no where the slightest in jication Of Tho
! presence of man. The virgin soil remains un
turned, and the tardy axe has not yet falles
4 the trees obstructing the road. High, fiat
mucky prairies, aud wide, bottomless and sod
rotten sloughs are not to be found in the south
ern tier of counties west Of Wayne. The
prairies are all rolling-not SO rough as to pro-
duce fear of loss Of soil from washing, or t.
merit the epithet "hilly"-the ravines are al
S most all traversed BY rivalets Of spring water
E which are confined to narrow beds, deeply
- - IL. -