Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1883-05-03
Scraps" in Suckerdom-Tarif Com.
ing.

| Ed. Reqister-It is hard thing to write
when one has nothing to write about, and
| the most interesting thing for remark here
| is the prospect for crops-and one has to
| wait before anything definite can be told of
them. This. you know, is Uncle Sans truck
| patch or garden spot, and 1t makes Il mate
rial difference to jewellers elsewhere Wheth-
er we have good crops or bad ones. If their
crops are good, or even moderate, and ours
are poor, then thev have cause to rejoice, for
prices will rule high; and a. things go now,
We live and prosper not so much by our own
labor aS specializing upon and prOfting by
the miSfortunes of others. On the contrary,
if our crops are good, prices are likely to be
down. and others have cause to mourn our
good fortune. This may not be the poetical
way of putting it, for poetry is generally
more rosy than realistic, but that can not be
helped; facts are facts, whether they are po-
etica! or not-whether they are rosy or a
sombre grey; and it is fact that as things
are now ordered, We're it not for mere APP
pearances, it would he appropriate to wear
mourning at wedding and sing, fiddle and
dance at a funeral. This is not the dictum
of Il pesSimist, but of one who believes We
have made fundamental mistake in our po-
litical economy and that it would be more
sensible to correct the mistake than to cut
our Threats or take 4 "French' to avoid the
consequences of our inattention and FOLLY.
But the crops! Well, Eaters are mostly
planted: some of them up and frosted down
again. Last Monday the ground was frozen
too hard to plow; and last night we had frost
again. The early bird catches the first worm,
and so the early gardener catches the last
frosts; and in consequence of the truth of
this proposition, good many people, here
about, will have to plant their beans and 9TH
er garden truck over again. The Lord, who
tempers the wind to the shorn lamb, has been
tempering them to shear sheep here lately,
and some Of His creatures, who have to buy
their chance to work, are necessarily some
what down in the mouth about it now. Much
corn has already been planted, as the weather
has not hindered field work much: but con-
siderable delay was occaSiOned by the farm
ers having to send off for seed corn, very lit
tie of last years crop being sound enough to
grow. Carloads were brought from Kansas
and Nebraska, and yet there is a scarcity.
This Is Il new and somewhat startling eXpe-
rencc for this section; but unless we have
some radical changes in regard to matters
affecting the soil, and hence necessarily the
climate, we shall have some more new and
still more startling experiences to record in
our day and generation. Wheat came out of
the winter badly and mends very slowly,
though the weather has been very suitable
since Winter made his bow. But last year
was unusually wet during almost the whole
twelve months, and the land seems so leached
that the wheat plant makes Sickly growth.
Honey has now become constantly quot
ed article in our market reports, and several
thousand dollars have been put into the bee
business in this county, 10y several of the most
Htlitc Ill - worthy OF
note that bees came through the winter in
good condition, and are now building up
finely upon fruit bloom, which so far is not
injured by the frost, though tonight may
attention: for what with ice packs, wind and
hail storms, borerS and curculio, large fruit
becomes harder to get every wear.
Seed potatoes ranged from 81 to 81 80 per
bushel, and many have to do without veget-
ables. Nobody has died here vet for lack of
far
cept few yags and tramps-but a good
many people have sickened and died because
they could not get, or afford, food that was
healthy and best for them: and this lack of
vegetables was occasioned by drouth and the
bugs which the drouth engendered. Drouth
came because too much timber has been de-
stroyed and the natural reservoirs of water
drained, without either being replaced arti
nclally; this in town has been caused by men
holding more land than they could properly
Use or improve themselves and forcing others
upon poorer lands. You see where the rem |
edy must come in, if We ever seriously attempt
to remedy the present untoward tendency.
Now for some prophecy. The issue in the |
coming Presidential campaign will be upon |
the tariff question, and both the old parties |
will try to out-Herod each other i'm the direc- |
ton OF free trade. That is the prophecy; but |
1t isn't safe to say just how far they will go,
or whether third party will suddenly rise |
and gobble both of them. The tariff ques- |
ton led to 4 change in the Constitution of |
this country once, and it will do so again;
and when we getto the point that the tariff be-
comes the leading or sole issue, we are very
close to another. A young lawyer-and, you
know, we are ruled by lawyers-of Republic
can family and politics has started move
ment in this county for the formation OF
free trade club, looking to the ultimate, total
and final abolition of tariffs or import duties
altogether. That's only straw, but it shows
which way a big river runs; and if your DEM
ocratic lawyers can't get ahead of that, pull
down your signboard and rooster at once, for
here is not single ''grand old party" that
IAN stand impudently in front of the free trade
Dullgine and not get busted. FARMER.
SCOTT Co., H., April %, 1888.