Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1867-10-04
Letter from Kansas.
GENEVA, ALLEN Co. KANSAS.
September 18th, 1867.


FRIEND WILLARD :-Presuming that YOU.
and perhaps some Of your readers would
like 10 hear a word now and then from this
far off western State. even If that word is
written by an amateur farmer, have ven
tured before and will venture again to write
you a line or 50 about our prospects here for
the present, and our hopes for the future.
The harvest Is now past. the summer is
ended, and the most Of us. we trust. are
saved from want the coming winter. Provi-
dence has dealt bountifully with us this
season-iar more than expected in the
spring There was a time last spring, as |
believe | wrote you, when our prospects for
the future looked anything but encouraging.
1t was cold and backward, and the rainy,
disagreeablc weather seemed determined
never to leave Vegetation did not put
forth until long after the usual time, evi-
IDENTIFY dreading TO come in contact with the
chilly air and frosty nights. Stock of all
kinds persisted by the thousands, and in
many instances men, women, and children
suffered for food and the common neccssaries
of life Doubtless. there grain enough
in the country. but il could not he had for
love nor money. Owners held on 70 it not
for the sake of higher price much as for
fear OF Il famine Mr.. Hovev. proprietor of
the Touring mills at lola after securing the
country for wheat. declared that there was
not half enough in the Neasho Valley to sus-
tain the people till harvest, and corn was
even more scarce than wheat. After the
wet weather in the spring had ceased. it
still continued cold. Soon the ground be-
came dry and an early drouth seemed to be
impending over the country. Add to this
the fear that the grasshoppers would destroy
our crops the coming season, and YOU can
readily imagine that 10 some persons our
future prospects had tinSe Of gloom about
them Some Of the more desponding ones
nrophesied tdat there would be a greater
scarcity OF provisions, and greater suffering
in Kansas this wear than in 1860. And if 50
where should we look for relief this time
: We would be ashamed to accept aid from the
East again. Eastern people, though gener-
Gus and kind, might think, | heard one
remark, that if they had got Kansas people
to support they would want to have then
removed nearer home. There were many
who thought if the grasshoppers or locust
destroyed our crops this year, there woult
be, no alternative but TO leave the country o.
, starve There were those who actually be
leved there would be a general skedaddling
from Kansas before fall. But what gooc
would it do to skedaddle i? If We planted
cron here and the locusts, or g. low cusses,
as the irreverent nicknamed them, should
eat it up. il would be too late to move any
where else to make a crop. and we might az
well take the risk of starving to deatl
in Kansas as anywhere else. We could no
certainly lose anything by staying, while W
a would save the trouble and expense of mov
= ing. Then. again, these locusts were nevel
:, known to stay but one year any single
locality, but each generation sought neV
:, place to deposit their eggs and commit thei
depredations. Now, it might so happen !
we should move from Kansas. that we shoul'
go exactly where they would come next year
We should be in fix then, surely.
Il After considerable anxious thinking, tn
20 most of farmers concluded it would be tn
!, most sensible way to just go forward, plan