Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-08-07
Correspondence of the Herald.l
Letter from Missouri.
THE SOIL, FARMS, AND DESIGNATIONS OF
SECTIONS AND THEIR DIVISIONS.

BETHANY, Harrison Co., Mo-
July %, 1878.
Editor Of the Rutland Herald Per
haps a few lines from the far West
would be read with interest by some of
your subscribers.
The soil of Missouri is good. | have
been in twenty different States, includ-
ing some of the best, and have never
seen a better soil Corn, rye and oats
are natural productions of the soil. l
have seen good looking corn growing on
land that has been planted to corn for
ten years in succession, without manure.
The soil on the prairie is composed of
a dark loan, formed by decayed vegeta-
ton, mixed with clay, and looks when
wet like fathers old barn lot, on the
sides of the Green Mountains, used to,
and when it begins to dry it gets hard,
unless stirred but if plOwed when in
the right state it will be very light and
mellow when wet it is very sticky, and
will load a mans boots until he can
hardly walk.
All plOws have to be made of the best
of steel or the soil will not slip from
them, and a good pillow costs on an aver
age Fifteen dollars. When the pillow gets
dull it is sharpened by the blacksmith.
The general appearance of North Mis-
souri, is that of vast plain, but when
you travel over it you will pronounce it
uneven or rolling. We have no swamps
or lodges here the high land is all
prairie, with no vegetation but the wild
prairie grass none of it is entirely level,
some quite rolling and some nearly level.
We have no clear brooks, fed by never
failing springs, but drains formed by
nature which we call draws: yet the
small rivers or creeks never entirely dry
up: the timber is all on the low lands
along the banks of the creeks and rivers.
We have plenty OF wood and rough tim
Der, but no pine. Although we have
plenty of timber, yet many farmers live
five, and some eight miles from their
wood lots; but as roads are good
and we have no hills TO climb,
it is not as much of job to get wood
as some would suppose. The country
here was surveyed by the government
surveyors into townships, six miles
square or nearly so; they commenced,
we will say, at the Mississippi river,
which runs nearly south along the cast
ern boundary of the State, and measured
six miles west, and called this ra5sgs one,
running from the north TO the south
line of the State, and so on through the
State-the first being range one, the
next six miles range two. Then they
commenced at the south line and meas
ured north in the same way, and called
the first six miles torn one north, the
next tOaCrl t1OO north, and so on.
| live in town SO north, range 81 west.
Each township is surveyed into sections
one mile square; therefore each section
contains $40 acres of land, and each sec
ton is subdivided into manifestations,
which are One-half mile square, and con-
tain 100 acres; so you will see at once
that our land is easily described.
But have not told you how the sec
tions are numbered: We commence at
the northeast corner of the town, and
call the first square mile, section one the
next west, section two, so that section
six will reach the west line of the town !;
then the one south of six, seven, and
count back to the east line again, and so
on, and as there are thirty-six sections in
each town, section thirty-six will be in
the southeast corner. Now | will de-
scribe eighty acres of land, as described
in deed, the northwest corner of which
will be in the center of the town, and
extending one-half mile south and one
fourth east it is, the west half of the
northwest fourth of section twenty-five,
town sixty-three north, range twenty
seven west. But enough for this time,
at some future time will give you a
description of our crops, and the manner
of raising them. Z. R. G.