Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1883-11-10
DADE COUNTY.
GREENFIELD, DApE COUNTY, Mo

DADE COUNTY.
GREENFIELD, DADE COUNTY, Mo.
EDITOR INTELLIGENCER:-Before
is a copy of the Intelligencer contain
ing an article on "Western Missouri
written by "Zach." Werefer to the al
ticle for the reason that "Zask" doe
Dade county an injustice in the mentio
he makes Of it in that letter. "Zach
a he stopped for dinner the first da
of his journey at Toadrock, when i
fact there is no such place in the state
and again he says, "Archie is a mic
little town on the L. & S. R.. in Cas-
county; !" when in fact Archie is a nic'
little town on the L. & s. Il. r. il
Vernon county, and at least thirty
miles from any part Of Cass county
From these statements in his letter W.
draw the inference that "Zach" go1
lost the first day of his trip and on
tinued SO until a few quarts from the
ssFountain of Life" at Eldorado Springs
took the scales from his eyes, for from
thence it appears he struck a bee line
for the bosom of his family. Our
friendship for him prompts the advice,
never again to wander from that sacred
refuge.
As many of your readers from La
fayette and adjoining counties are
moving to Southwest Missouri, it may
be that to such a few facts about Dade
county will be of interest. Dade is in
the second tier of counties from the
west and in the third from the south.
The area is about five hundred square
miles, about equally divided between
prairie and timber. but with the former
slightly in larger proportion. Al
most all of the prairie and 3 large
quantity of the timber lands is rich and
productive, growing from thirty to
sixty bushels of corn, and averaging
eighteen bushels Of wheat to the acre.
Hailing from old Lafayette it is not
presumption in me to say that II
know good crops Of corn when I See
them, and 1 seldom ever saw q better
corn crop than that grown in this coun-
ty this year. Last week I drove out in
the western part of the county, near
the new home of Capt. BENZ. Neale,
and a finer expanse of prairie country
never greeted my eyes, equal in all
things to the prairies Of Vernon, and
superior in that it is well watered
everywhere by living streams. Great
herds of cattle, the pride of Southwest
Missouri, dotted the hillside and
valley everywhere. The cattle range
will in a few years be under fence and
the s'stubborn glebe" will soon have to
yield to the flow of the industrious
farmer. Raw prairie land here can be
bought at from ten to fifteen dollars
per acre; improved farms at from fif-
teen to thirty dollars per acre. Under
thousands of acres of this prairie land,
and but q short distance below the sur I
face, lie inexhaustible beds of coal
that sells to the machine shops in
Springfield for so per cent. more than
any other coal shipped into that town. :
The wealth Of Dade county does
not find its resting place in its unsur- ,
passed prairie, but in those frowning
hills "rock-ribbed and eternal as the !
SUM-" While prospecting for zinc in
those hills in 1875, a solid boulder of : !
lead weighing fifty thousand pounds
was discovered. The Dade county Min Z
ing and Smelling Company was imme-
diately organized and at the close of Z
that year over half q million pounds of
lead had been mined and smelted. The .
Springfield Lead and Zinc Company was
also organized and the annual income I
of the county from lead and zinc alone b
amounted to more than one hundred q
thousand dollars per year; this, toe, be-
fore the county had any railroad facili-
ties for shipping the ore. Upon the I
domp of the railroad, the mines for
cause known only to the directors
suspended operations, but enough has
been done to demonstrate that the lead
and zinc mines Of our county are as q
fine as any in the state, and almost in CT
and the mines and smell CT
will soon be in full blast again. t.
Iron in large quantities has been found !,
in several portions of the county, and :,
are being taken to develop these :
mines alse. Big Sac, Little Sac and g
rivers, and numerous creeks 81
wend their way across the county,,
furnishing enough water power to run X
nearly all the machinery in Southwest g,
Missouri, and this item alone is destined o.
at a day more or less distant to take an ),
important rank in the industries of our =.
section. Greenfield, the county seat. "
has fifteen hundred inhabitants, is sub b
stantially built, well supplied with ii
churches, n college, and is represent
in every line of industry common to q
the country, and is rapidly growing. W
No section Of America is better adapted v
to fruit raising, and that branch of o.
industry now we'll represented is rapid- =
Iy increasing. But to me thu
Growing glory Of Dade county lies not d
in any of tho resources of which I have 4
yet spoken, but in the heavy growth of
blue grass that springs up everywhere, g
Yeu fence in a tract of prairie land a
with the rank prairie grass on it, pas.
ture it closely a year or two, and the p
blue grass will take the field; it is even n
taking the unfenced range wherever 8
the cattle have grazed the wild grass q
closely. 1t is found on every hillside in
every fence corner, and in fact every- F
where that vegetable life can possibly j..
take root. 1 have seen. here manv
tracts of land with blue brass standing
twelve inches high, grass that will keep g
cattle fat in our mild climate all win g
ter, and on land that can be bought for n
eight or ten dollars an acre. If nv {
memory serves me right, land that win
support such a pasturage in the riyer G.
n cannot no hnnrh& In, .