The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1894-09-08
[Special Corrcsnondcnce.l

never, since first tho white man stuck
plow i'll the fat soil of this wonderful
valley has there been promise of so good
crop. oil things averaged, as now glad
dens the granger eye. OF course there
have been years In which this or that
crop did better. There was one year in
which wheat yielded as bounteously,
three or four when corn was as good
and many when fruit was better but
for an all around year, in which every
product does we'll and some have beaten
tho record, no year in our history equals
this of 1894. Wheat, midsummer fruits,
early vegetables, hay and small crops
these are already made and harvested,
and the prospect for the autulhnal yield
Is simply wonderful Equally encourage
ing to the farmers arc the prevailing
high prices for corn, hogs and hay.
Once more one sees the long lines of
wagons hauling old corn to tho country
depots, once more the dollar of the dad
dies jingles unsteady in the pockets of
the sons and rings with Wagnerian
harmony on the counters of the country
merchants and all things indicate not
obscurely the dawn of better day.
The Poetry of Maize.
l stood tho other day OH Il command
ing point overlooking the broadcast sec
ton of the Wabash river bottom lands.
Five miles to the north and seven to
the south, from the Opudu bluffs on the
west to the maple clad hills OH the east,
stretched one vast cornfield, broken only
by the river channel
~ mighty maize, but not without a plan
III all that area there was not a stalk
less than 10 feet high and many over
16, but for the most part single field
would average 12 or ID feet and the
tasscls were just mt their lovelicst The
wind blew softly from the south, and as
the vast yellow sea waved and sparkled
in the morning sunshine the spectator
was thrilled with joy and felt that most
sublime of all poctry-tho poetry which
cannot be uttered.
But where is the Wabash river?
Well 1t has not vanished entirely, rs
many smaller streams have done, but it
has shrunk to Il mere branch can be
wadcd by mere boy ut almost any
point north of Terrc Hautc The people
say that there has never been year
when so small a rainfall was so we'll
distributed for the farmer, but this
drought, following the great drought of
last year, has dried out the earth down
to bedrock. Last winters rain and SNOW
were not sufficient to thoroughly wet
the earth, and now the rain goes straight
down wherever it strikes. This years
drought" says an old observer, "came
just too late to hurt the corn, just early
enough to save the wheat and hay and
at exactly the right time to leave dry
season for the fruit and mast. If
committee of grumbling farmers-and
they are the grumblingcst people i'll the
world-had the ordering of it, they
couldn't have bcttered it-that is, with
no more rain to go OH. Just the same
the fishing rms arc dry, HHd the fish gro
dead. The swamps have burned over
and killed the moccasii! snakes, and tho
Wabash is shrunk to rivulct
The Shrunlicn Wabash.
Fifty years ago the Wabash was nayi.
gable for good sized steamers four
months i'll the year and sometimes six |
Early i'll March large Ohio river boats !
began to land ut Tcrre Hautc, and a !
month later the trip to Lafayette was
made with ease. The history of naviga-
cation condensed, twas first the canoe
made by the Indian Of Il seasoned log :
followed ny fire, then the canoe more
gracefully shaped With the help of the |
white mans hatchct, then in rapid sue. |
cession the piroguc, kcclboat, flatboat !
or 'broadhorn,' and finally the steam
boat.
1t was in 1916 that the first steamer
went down the Ohio The word had
gone through the settlements that it
was to come, and the pioneers tiockcd
from far and near and campcd on the
river banks to sec the painted wonder
moving without oar or sail Soon after
the first steamer landed at Tcrre Hautc
but by 1880 regular trade was estab-
hshed, and the whistles of the Plow.
boy, Fidelity, Victory, Republican
Blue Wing and many other noted boats
grew familiar to the valley farmers One
year GO boats went up to Lafayette and
returned with big cargocs of corn
wheat and whisky. That was the maxi
mum. Now it is only in rare seasons
that steamer ventures north of Terrc
Haute, and then tho captain studies the
clouds and at every landing posts him
self on the state of the infiowing
streams l have breasted the waves
made by u stern wheeler 40 miles above
Terfe Haute OH the first Saturday in
July. This year 10-year-old boy could
wade the river at the same point Sic
transit gloria ,Iovis Pluvii in occidente
deleta sylva--or words to that effect
The English of tho locality has it thus:
"Things amt like they used to be when