The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1868-05-28
Hl.borough Highland County Ohio, Thursday May as 1sos
ICorrespondenoe Of the News.
Letter from Iowa.

r. OsKALoosA, Iowa, May 9th, 1865.
Weather, Crops. CEc.-A Highlander i0ho has
made Fortune 81. .Iolga, and How he Did
1t 20 14lFFs HFHk
Mr.. EDTToR:-Yo correspondent from
Leesburg, speaks Of farmers in that section
being behind-hand with their Spring work
on account of rain, &c. I think they viii
be as much behind here from the same
cause. We have had no rains during the
latter part Of autumn, and ali winter until
about the last of February; since that it has
been making up for. lost time pretty well5
and for two orthree weeks past the top Of the /
ground has scarcely had a chance to get
dry, owing to the many eopious showers.
The prospects for fruit are good, SO far.
Apples, cherries, grapes and most other
small fruits do we'll here; peaches and
pears not SO plenty; ounces, none at all.
Wild fruits grow in great abundance and OF
superior quality to those found in Ohio, es-
pecially crab apples and red plums. Who
ever thought of cooking crab apples IN
Ohio? but here they are used in every way
that other apples are, except it be eaten
raw then they are not 80 palatable.
Green apples q don't mean crabs) are sell |
ing now at from 81 so to 81 90 per bushel,
dried I21 cts. per pound, dried peaches 25
cts.
Wild pIunls make an excellent pie, equal to
cherry pie, and tastes somewhat similar.
They are easily kept over. Many persons
barrel them up in cold 'Oater, and keep
them for winter use; or they may be cooked,
put into stone jars and cloth tied over
the top, and they keep all right.
But my chief object in writing was to
send you a clipping from the Des Molnes
State Register, that your readers might see
'.How it Pays to Farm in Iowa." and as
the gentleman referred to is from ''0ld
HighIand,' - perhaps he has some friends
back there who will be glad to hear of his
prosperity.
But enough for the present.
SALLIE.
/ I'VE take great pleasure in copying the
article sent us by our correspondent, and are
sure the many friends of the worthy gen
tIeman to whom it refers, Mr.. Jacob Van
pelt, formerly of Fairfield tp., will be glad
to hear that he has so greatly improved
his condition by emigrating to the giant
4 Young State OF the West.-Ed. News ] i |
BIG SHIPMENT OF BIG CATFLE.-HOw IT
,lHr -7 PAYS TO FARM IN IOWA. .' .-I
In company with Mayor Spofford and
behind his State Fair grays we visited the
IstOek yard of the Rock Island road yester-
Idav. to see some fine beef cattle which had
lust been sold by our farming friend Van
Pelt, of near Indianola, to John Bowling,
=, of PENNSYLVANIA. There were in the drove
los head of cattle-mOstly three year old
steers. Stock men pronounce the lot the
finest drove ever driven into the city.
They were surely as fine herd of cattle as
we ever saw on their way to the sbambles.
Many ofthe steers were Of Van Pelt's own
raising. That gentleman being one of the
most experienced and successful stock
: growers in the State, he knows the differ
T ence between breeding the easily fatted,
! thrifty, profitable Durham, and the long
horned, gangly kneed, prairie rangers of
: scalawags and scrubs. We noticed one
, fine woke of steers not three years old till
/ next May, which weighed nearly 3,7OO
pounds. Figure them up at eight cents a
lDound and see what they come to. The
: lClrOve had no "sky flyers" or "cOrncrib-
lbers" in it-all were choice and fat and
, sleek, and some Ofthem weighed over two
Thousand pounds. &
Mr.. Van Pelt fatted these cattle at his
own farm near Indianola; and the pleasant
part Of the story is that he sold them at
7 eight cents gross at hOme-the drove Of
7 nd fyyn hrin
very healthy sum Of t'0elUe thousand four
thundred and tlOenty-three dollars. In adj
!. dition to this sale OF cattle he sold drove
? of hogs-the number of which we havefOr-
: Ieotten-for FIVE thousand more, making
total sale of nearly eighteen thousand dot
+, lars at one trade. The hogs were fatted by
! ''following" the cattle.
e Mr.. Van Pelt has fatted and sold during
8 the present -seasOn-last fall and now
lover ttiTft,-three ti0WSGld worth Of cattle
. and hogs. In November last we made
I mention of one of his sales Of stock, giving
atthe same time slightsketch Ofthe man.
The article, being fair illustration Of what
I ! a farmer can do in Iowa, Travelled through
1.-THE Iowa papers, and all over the United
States, and attracted much attention 7tO
lthis State. Mr.. Van Pelt came to Iowa IN
> / 1852 from Highland County, Ohio a very
= poOr. man. When he arrived in Henry
+, County, he had no property but one horse,
and that a very poor one. He told us yes
;, lterday shat the first stock he ever bought
in Iowa were a couple Ofpigs.and as he had
no money to pay for them, he mauled 200
: rails in payment therefor. Renting farm
and living in Henry county, he managed
to rake together 5000, with which he came
- Ito Warren county, and bought some land
of his own. BY industry, honesty, good
a management and the advantage of living
= in Iowa, he was gradually elevated and
enriched himself till he is now one OF the
first and heaviest farmers in the United
States, and at present has one farm OF
,42O acres which he can sell at any hour
for $50 per acre, making him worth easily
enough over one hundred thousand dol
lars.
Think of that, We people of the East. If
one man alone and unaided, and with only
a capital of one old superannuated horse
can come to Iowa, and in Is years make
himself one of the wealthiest men in a
wealthy State, isn't it pretty good CON-
pliment to the State and to the man. and
lcouldn't thousands of others, now in the
East and in poverty, profit by his example
and come hithcr7 From a condition OF
poverty, and the humblest life, Mr.. Van
D. PeIt, by his energy and toll raised himself
INTO Il peESull VI iAAituSllel e1AAe- elAH'S-
has Golfers deep and wide; and as he IS a
imam lust now in the meridian of life and
the most robust health, has a prospect Ol
living many years to enjoy his wealth and
. elevation. There are thousands Of such
eases in Iowa; and the State still presents
the same chances and advantages for 9TH
ers who have a like grit, muscle and incli'
nation.
K Elk Gov. Brown, of Georgia, has in
lcurred a great deal of very bitter hos
tility from the opponents of the Con
gressional policy of reconstruction il