The weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1858-1860, 1859-06-21

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hibited On % many fields, and tho psrmeat-
ing nagnetiem shat could alike inspire the
Nanhals ard the hunablest soldiers
with IN attachment 70 his person and his
shout Tire rEsspeycsis" in the agonies Of
death. The world will be disappointed If the
Napoleon Of our time, with his remarkable
mental powers and bic indisputable diplo-
matte successes, does not prove much tanner
eagle. amid the din and carnage Of battle,
than he whose peerless flights and fell swoops
he would fain emulate.
Horace Greedy on Pioneer Farming.
We cut the following from Greely's lest
letter from Kansas. The truths written Of
hansas squatters are equally applicable to y
large class Of farmers in Illinois and Iowa
and We reprint with the hope that somebody
may benefit By perueal:
But an unpleasant truth must be stated /:
There are too many idle, shiftless people in
Kansaa l speak mot here of lawyers, gen.
tlemen spectators and other non-producers,
who are in excess here as elsewhere; allude
directly to those who call themselves settlers,
and who would be farmers if they were any
thing To see man squatted on q quarter
section in cabin which would make fair
hog pen, but 10 unfit for human habitation,
and there living from hand to mouth by lit.
tie Of this and little Of that, with hardly an
acre Of prairie broken sometimes without q
fence up), with no garden, NO fruit trees,
mo nothing waiting for some one to come
along and buy out his claim" and let him
move on to repeat the operation somewhere
else-this 10 enough to give cheerful man
the horrors. Ask the squatter what he
means, and he can give you a hundred good
excuses tor his miserable condition: he has
no breaking team he has little or no good
rail timber; he has had 'the shakes - his
family have been sick he lost two years and
some stock by the Border Rufians &c, &c
But all this don't overbear the facts that, il
he has no good timber, some of his neighbors
have it in abundance, and would be very glad
to have him work part of it into rails on shares
at q fare rate and if he has no breaking
team, he can hire out in haying and harvest,
and get nearly or quite two acres broken next
month for every faithful weeks work he
chooses to give at That busy season The
poorest man ought thus to be able to get ten
acres broken, fenced and into crop each year.
For poor men gradually hew farms out OF
heavy timber, where every fenced and cult.
veted acre has cost twice to thrice the work
it does here.
And it is sad to note that hardly half the
settlers make any sort of provision for win
| tering their cattle, even by cutting stack
IS hn~
viii put up ton of it 1.-The has corn field,
the squatters cattle are welcome to pick at
that all Winter; if he has none, they must
60 into the bottoms and browse through as
they can. OF course his calves are miserable
affairs his cows UNFIT to make butter from
till the best of the season is over his oxen,
should he have pair, must be recruiting
from their Winter famine just when he most
urgently needs their work. And this exposure
cattle all winter to these fierce prairie
winds is alike inhuman and wasteful. I
asked settler the other day how he could
do it. II had no time to make a shelter for
them "But had you no Sundays did you
not hove them at your disposal? 80, yes |
| don't work Sundays" "Well, you should
have worked every one Of them, rather
than let your cattle SILVER in the cold blasts
all Winter-it would have been a work of
humanity and mercy to cut and haul logs,
get up cattle stall. cover it with prairie hay,
which l will warrant to be more religious
than anything you did on those Sundays"
But the squatter was of different opinion.
How a man located in little squalid cabin
on one of those rich "claims" can sleep moon
lit nights under the average circumstances of
his class, passes my comprehension. should
want to work moderately but resolutely at
least fourteen hours of each secular day until
l had made myself comfortable with fence
around at least eighty acres, a quarter of this
partitioned of for my working cattle, a decent,
warm shelter to cover them in cold or stormy
weather, a tolerable habitation for my family,
at least forty acres in crop, and young or
chard growing. For one commencing with
next to nothing | estimate this as the work
of five years; after which, he might take
things more easily, awaiting the fruit from
his orchard and the coming up of his boys to
help him But for the first four or five years,
the pioneer should work every hour that he
does not absolutely need for rest Every
hours work then will save him many hours
in after life.
For farmers who come in with liberal
means, the task is of course much easier -
Let us suppose one to be worth $1,000 the
day he lands on the Kansas shore of the
Missouri, and see how quickly he can make
farm and a home. He arrives, we will saw,
in August, when he can see Just what the
country produces, whether in state ofna-
ture or under cultivation He buys a quar-
section (Which is land enough for any man)
in choice locality, including thirty or forty
N Of hnr 1oA
for SO per acre, charges 81 900 Of the 81 900
thus called for to the account of the Pro-
Slavery Democracy for defeating the Free
Land bill, and sets to work with two good
hired men. He buys FIVE yoke of oxen fora
breaking team, span of good wagon horses,
a COW in fresh milk, and three heifers which
will be cows next Spring, puts up cabin
that will just do, and is ready to commence
breaking by the LIST of September. AS his
men break he follows with the horses, sowing
and narrowing in wheat SO long as that will
answer, but does not stop breaking till the
ground is frozen. Now he begins to cut and
draw timber for filter habitaton to which
to welcome his family in the Spring Having
done this he gets good mechanics to finish it,
while he and his men 60 to work at fencing
by cutting sawlogs for light narrow
boards, IT there be sawmill con-
venient; if not, then by cutting for and
splitting rails. So soon as the dryest land
will answer for it he begins to put in Spring
Wheat; then Oats; then Corn; and putting
up fence whenever the soil IS too wet for pillow.
ing; let him not forget to have few acres
set in fruit trees, some of them
dwarfs for early bearing. Thus his money
will not have been exhausted by the ensuing
Fall, when he will have crops coming In and
more than huodred acres of his land bro
ken and subdued for future cultivation.
see no reason why resoiute, good manager
should not be comfortable after his first year
Or two, and thenceforth take the world as
easily as need be. He who comes in with
but 81, 900, 81 600, or$500 must of course be
much longer in working his way to position
Of comfort and independence but if he will
work right ahead, wasting nothing, neither