Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-04-16
A LETTER. FROM FARMER. -
Wheat Dead-A Year of Elections
Judge Russells "reminiscences.

After long suspense, lit is now known
that wheat is so nearly killed out that
we have good chance Of living on
corn-dodgers for year or so hence.
Even seed will have to be purchased,
and at what price? The acreage next
fall will be necessarily small, as COM
paratively few will be able to purchase
seed. Here in this rich prairie state,
beef has become a luxury on the tables
of most farmers, as it is too costly for
them to eat; now that wheat is almost
a complete failure, it will be hog and
hOminv indeed.
have been watching the weather
reports in the REGISTER for years, and
am surprised at the fact of there being
so little difference between here and
there. You seem to have the same kind
of weather we do l.ere and even storms
coming from the south ard southwest
strike us but few hours after they
strike you; yet you are nearly three
degrees south of this point, west of the
Mississippi, and in broken, mountain
Gus country. In one respect the two
Ocations differ: you are more liable to
late frosts in the spring and early frosts
in the fall The winters cold, too,
though simultaneous, is more intense
here.
Tell my old neighbors in Iron county
if they have old wheat, to hang on to
If Vour w ritor hoe mora tho >, onour h
for next year, and neighbor has three
years crops on hand, or what the rats
and mice have left of of them; but this
is not commonly the case, as good
bad in the field people felt forced to
thresh last year before winter set in.
Glover where we'll set badly win
ter-killed wherever the bitter north
and northwest winds struck it.
We have an election for State Sena-
tor this month, and one for Circuit
Judge some time in June. The con.
ventiOns are lawyer packed, as usual
and both candidates will be lawyers, il
is safe to predict.
have read with much interest the
letters of Judge Russell upon the early
settlement of Iron county, as there is
much in them that reminds one of the
early days in this part, most of the set
tiers being from the southern or slave
states; indeed. in my boyhood, there
was one neighbor we visited who
brought two young slaves to this coun-
ty from Kentucky, and they became
| free here. l remember wooden mold
board plows, and there is a scar upon
the hand that is laid upon this paper
now, made with the classic sickle or
reap-hook, when that was the princi-
pal implement for cutting small grain,
though the cradle was just coming in
| to use.
But in one thing I must differ with
the Judge, and that is when he con-
graduates the boys and girls upon be-
ing born when there are so many inn
prOvements in tools, vehicles, etc. The
four little "Pukes," Hattie, Ernest,
Willie, and Mamie, that were born to
Luc Ill DCllONACW, niC ioSe OohliuS up W
womanhood and manhood, and for
their sake 1 wish this country was as
new and unimproved as it was when
1 was of their years, even if our tools
were as rude and our methods as crude
as they then were. In mechanical
science We have refrigerated. 1t seems
to have escaped the Judges notice al
together that such advances in one res
pect must necessarily compel rstrogres-
sion socially, for since under our laws
men are denied all natural right to the
means of life, and the land itself is a
thing of barter and sale, all advance
must necessarily be for the advantage
of a compare tive few. If in those early
DAYS some landlord had held the raw
land at as high price as it is held at
now. men would have been no more
neighborly than they are now, but
they would have been as mercenary,
as grasping-nay, as cruel-as they are
now. We are not, with all this in
creased power to produce wealth, as
happy as We were then. Until we use
common sense in government, We can
look down hill, only, and go from bad
to worse. FARMER.
Scott Co., H., April IL, 1925.