The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1881-01-21
Letter from the West.
PILOT GROVE, MISSOURI, Jan. I'd, 1881.

PILOT GROVE, MISSOURI, Jan. I'd, 1881.
This is q fine country and Missouri is de-
stined to be among the first States in the
Union. The lands are rich and productive,
and grass grows luxuriantly without any
coaxing in the shape of expensive fertilizers
and manures Stock of all kinds grow with.
out any attention from their lazy owners; for
| must say that the laZiness of the native
Missourian is terrible indeed. The wonder is
how they can keep out of the poor house.
| But the stock will increase and the feed will
grow in spite of them. They let the stock
run in the fields and eat the provender where
it stands. Cattle, sheep and hogs are as high
here as they are in the east. Grain of all
| kinds is cheaper here than there. The most
| of the farmers thresh their wheat out of the
| shocks to save the trouble of stacking it, and
| take whatever price it will bring at the time.
| There is always time, however, when wheat
will bring dollar a bushel here, and the
| thrifty farmers stack their grain and wait for
| that time.
There are some fine houses out here, but the
majority of them are fearfully and wonder
fully made. AS a general thing everything is
just as unhandy as possible. The great draw
| back to this country is the water which at
this time is alarmingy scarce. Many persons
| have to haul water for miles for their cattle
| and hogs. The seasons here are either Excess
sively dry or immoderately wet There is
no medium. We have had three dry seasons
in succession, which causes the great scarcity
of water.
We had fine wheat crop this season, but
the corn crop was light, owing to the ravages
of the chinch bug. They are always bad in
dry seasons, but the first wet season will clear
the country of them for several seasons. The
weather has been severely cold-every one
says the coolest experienced for many years,
and the people being so poorly fixed to stand
cold weather, 1t goes very hard with them
Three persons froze to death near this place.
last week. One of them, an old colored
woman froze to death in her bed Her hus-
band went to get help, and froze to death in
the snow. A white man froze to death the
same night, and two brakemen came into
Sedalia on the cars, frozen to DEATH So you
may imagine that it is cool. 1t is amusing to
see the sleighs How the Bel Air boys would
SNOWFALL them! An old sled with two
mules to draw it, and often nothing but
rope halter on their heads and no bits in their
mouths All the bells they have are in the
sleigh, SO we are never annoyed by the jung
ling of the bells
Everybody rides out here. and if they are
only going fifty yards they will chase a horse
over a sixty acre field fifty times but what
they will ride. There are no carriages out
here but wagons Qrish,) except in the towns
and villages. There is generally n nice little
village at every railroad depot
Pilot Grove is nice little town. 1t has
four or five stores and first. class and well
filled boarding school for young ladies and
gentlemen, 1t is taught by Prof johnson,
oneof the most exquisitely polite gentlemen
you ever met. He has five or six assistant
teachers, and very serious time trying to
keep the young ladies from speaking to or
even thinking of the young gentlemen.
This is without doubt good place for in
dustrious people with small means There is
an abundance of small fruit, wild and domes-
tic We have fine peaches and plums in
abundance. There is plum grove in this
place and there were wagon loads of them
on the bushes. J. J. H.