Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1869-06-10
THE RUTLAND WEEKLY HERALD THURSDAY, sJUNE 1859

2,OO0 peopls. And these villages have
been nearly all built within the last two
years.
All of them are larger, and some three
or four times as large as they were before
the war. The country too is filling up
in similar manner. Farm houses and
fences spring up as if by magic. But still
there are thousands of acres of land for
sale in each country.
By an act of Congress, made before the
war, the United States granted all the
+" swamp lands" that were then unsold, TO
the county in which they were located.
By this law the counties of Missouri were
put in possession of immense tracts OF the
incest rolling prairie and timber lands
I ever saw. There are no swamp lands
in this part of the State The nearest APP
,proach to it are the rich alluvial bottoms
that are usually covered with growth
of heavy timber, consisting mainly OF
Hickory, Elm, Black Walnut, and various
kinds of oak. l think about one-fourth
of the area is covered with timber of this
kind, and the remaining three fourths is
/ as nice rolling prairie as human eye ever
saw.
In jackson, Cass and Jasper counties
the rock is limestone. In the intervening
counties it is usually sandstone that
overlies beds of bitumenous coal; The rock
SO far affects the soil in the latter
district as to make it sandy loan
in many places-a soil that is not so
seriously affected by extreme wet or dry
weather as are the stiff clay soils. OF the
six counties that visited, | think Yer
non the best for the Immigrant to locate
in In all the vallies or river bottoms
there is heavy growth of timber, that,
as I am informed by Peter Teel of Dry
wood, F. O., can he bought at ten dollars
per acre, and along side of this the
prairie land, as good as l ever saw, can
be got at five to ten dollars per acre. A
railroad from Sedalia, Mo, to Neosho,
Kansas, is surveyed through this county,
and will be in running order within a
,ery few years Up to this time the en-
migration has ce,ntered into the valley of
the Missouri on the north, and around
Fort Scott upon the south, leaving Yer
ron County which occupies midway
position between them comparatively I'M
settled
I In jackson County, where now write,
farms were bought three years ago for So
per acre, that since the railroad came
/ through have been sold at $50 per acre.
There will be a similar rise i'll the price
Of land in Vernon county, when rail-
county but Vianthe radicals have ma
jority, and they will soon have it in this.
II is safe to count upon every emigrant
for those who were conservative or demo
Gratis in other state :, become radicals here.
When one is called to decide whether he
will 30 with the re bells, who in this re-
gion invariably oppose internal improve
ments, schools, ch urches, and improved
! farming Implement u, or so with the pro-
erosion party, lac is not long in decide
ing.
The old inhabitants of this country
kept large herds of cattle, horses and
mules that roamed At pleasure upon the
broad prairies. and would be glad to have
that state of things continued Every
farm that is bought and fenced takes Just
so much out of their pasture lands.
They vote the right of polished steel
pillow to-day. a. bad as they did Sharp's
rifles ten years ago. Radicals own and
use them.
+ Till since the war, it Was not known
whether this was good country for
wheat not for it was not sowel-corn
was raised alike for man and beast and
the food of the former was principally
"hog corn-eake and hominy.' And the
old settlers still use the corn,cake instead
of wheat bread or biscuit, and claim that
they prefer it.
have not said all that intended to,
but | perceive that my letter is already
too long, therefore ! will close and may
say more of this country in my next let
+, ter. H.