The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1859-04-19
on a track which led us toward the rising ground

on track which led us toward the rising ground
and among some new settlements.
One man here had entered to eighty acre
lot last Spring. had built his house, broken about
ten acres and sowed it with wheat, and had his
little crop of 'sod" corn gathered and stacked out
of harms way, close to his dwelling. The first
care of an American settler on the prairie is to
provide for the first Winter If he starts in May
he plows few acres up, and very commonly plants
Indian coin on it by making slit with his on
the tough upturned sod, into which he drops the
seed. Rude though this preparation appears, it is
generally followed by a crop, sometimes very
good one. Having thus started his "sod" corn,
he constructs his house, and spends the rest of the
Summer in ''breaking" the prairie in preparation
for a wheat crop, and in cutting and making some
prairie hay for the Winter provinder of his live
stock He also plants few culinary vegetables
and potatoes. In the end of August he sows his
wheat, and, when that is completed, he harvests
his "sod'' corn. This keeps him out of the mar
kct the very first winter, it is often made to
suffice for the food both of the family and the live
stock. "Hog and honliny" is not unfrequently
the only food that the settler has to set before his
guest during the first year Of his possession. And
though homely it is wholesome When the crop
of Indian corn is secured there is time to begin
making fences The neighbors have mutual in
terest in this, and assist each other. The fences
are made of posts and sawn pine timber; the posts
of cedar, seven feet long, cost 3D. each, and both
posts and rails prepared in the forest, so that
the settler buys them ready for his purpose at
either the nearest railway station or grove of tim
ber whichever happens to be the most convenient
The holes for the post not dug out as with us,
but are bored with an auger made for the purpose,
and the work of fencing thus goes on with much
neatness and regularity, and the fences, being all
made in the same manner and with timber of the
same dimensions are very uniform and substantial
Atthis settlement we found the owner with four of
his neighbors all busy in the work of fencing,
one boring, one driving in the posts, and the
others sorting and mailing on the rails.
The "snake" fence which is common in all the
timbered parts of America, is seldom met with or
the prairie, and there only in the neghborhood of
timber grove. 1t is very substantial and ex-
cellent fence, but consumes too much timber in
any country where that article is somewhat scarce.
In this days ride, all the older settlers with
whom We met, complained of the wheat crop a
failure this season. but the Indian was pretty
good. One man who had settled here two years
ago on good land, for which he then paid 3)s. an
acre, offered to sell it to us, with his Improve
ments as they are called, viz: his house anda little
bit of inclcsure which he had made, at 62s. Cd. an
acre. He was a considerable distance from a rail-
way station.
My next stop was at Pana, about thirty miles
further south, where junction Is made with line
of railway which leads to the Mississippi, opposite
St Louis From this point I traversed the coun-
try some fifty sixty miles, and found the prairie
in many districts almost unbroken. Here and
there patches of unincosed corn arc seen, and
sometimes incipient towns. The face Of the coun-
try is generally beautifully unduated, with groves
of timber in sight, the soil of blackish color on
gray subsoil 1t seemed very desirable locality,
and commands the market of St Louis as well as
that of Chicago. French gentleman, sugar
planter in Louisiana, three years ago bought a
large tract in this quarter of about $4,000 acres,
at 46s an acre, which he is settling with colony
of French Canadians He brought 400 people
the first year, and nearly as many more the next.
He sells to them in small lots at Cos an acre. and
it is said that the settlement is likely to succeed.
The difference of price is not all profit, as he in
ours sundry OUTLAWS in starting the settlers.
MONEY VERSUS HUsBANDs-A correspondent
of Worcester paper relates the following incident:
just as the train about starting for Green
field on Friday morning, or the Vermont and the