The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1881-08-23

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch saws
Accounts OF the terrible effects of tn,
drouth are not confined to the southern
district Of Illinois. A Post Dispatch re
porter met to-day we'll known agricul
lurist from central Missouri, who gave tn,
following gloomy report:
The condition is fearful, and il behOove,
us to admonish our citizens that season
of general scarcity is at hand and that Wis
providence would dictate the careful gar
nering of what there is. Between St. Loui.
and Jefferson City, along the line Of the
Missouri Pacific railroad, are fields IF corn
that would not make ten barrels TO the
county.
At Washington q csttle-feeder asked
me ii could furnish him two car loads
Of corn at fifty cents per bushel. I give
this simply as an item showing how scarce
it is. If a man owning stock is willing
to pay fifty cents a bushel for corn, and
then ship it 200 miles, it is certainly to
keep stock from dying, for there is no
money in feeding cattle UNDER such circum-
stances. Above Jefferson City the pros
pect is little better, and the early plant
ing will yield something near half crop.
In johnson county the yield will not
stand comparison with any crop known in
this country for years. Stock hogs that
would have readily brought FIVE cents two
weeks ago could not be given away to-
day. We are out of corn and have not
Egypt to 20 to. Nor is the corn famine
all that we fear and dread. Fruit is al.
most a failure. Grapes and apples are
and whitening on vines and
trees. Provident housewives are rapidlv
converting them into such edible forms q
will best preserve them for future nee.
Potatoes are whitening and rotting in the
ground, while meadows and pastures are
curing without having been cut From
St. Louis to Kansas City, along the line of
the Pacific road, is a belt of blackened
earth, ashes and deadened forest trees.
The sparks from the engines are readily
lighting and burning all herbal vegetation,
and the heat of the flames soaring and
browning the foliage Of the forest trees.
As sat writing at home the other day
could see q row Of soft-wood maple trees
of some eight years growth, and q few
catalpas. Fully one-third of the leaves of
the naples are brown and dry, and half
those of the catalpas lay scat
tered and scared on the ground
beneath. In order to save the
fodder ere it becomes too dry to
handle, one man in the eastern portion of
johnson county has been cutting and put
ting his corn in the shock as fast Is posi-
bic since the 10th inst. Though the DO
lar wave has reached US and overcast the
ky with clouds, We have rs yet no rain,
nor are the prospects considered Aattering.
Even should it come now no amount Of
rain can do more than preserve sufficient
life in corn to enable men to cut and save
i for fodder. The cry of I'VE want i'm
migration and must say nothing about
his" should not be considered for mo-
nent. The drouth covers the greater por-
ion, If not the whole, of the Mississippi
valley and the west. If We can say any
hing to cause men to carefully gather
md save what We have, We will be able to
get through, and q proper understanding
# the condition of things would, If any
hing, produce such IN effect. Missouri
md Illinois are too we'll known - a&ri-
cultural sections for one years drouth to
,uin their reputation. Besides, intelligent
are fully aware that when the
heavens fall the swallows are Ill caught,
hence cannot expect in universal drouth
% find Missouri and Illinois grand and
AT ohln >v~n,,Asnn.