The sun., 1901-07-28
DRY TINES ~ MISSOURI.
A Pioneer Tells Of Some Previous Droushts in
the Southwest.

From the Carthage Press.
why, In 1855 IL was 40 dry that most far mers
could not raise a peck OF oorn 10 thousand
acres" said Judge John 0nstott. the Jasper
county pioneer There has been more or
leas OF a drought during some portions OF nearly
every year since I came here in 1889. That's
true OF every locally. | don't remember
about all tho droughts here, not even all
the severe ones. suppose though | do re-
call some mighty bad one,
About the worst drought remember
was In 1895 when my father was raising his
second crop In this country. There was not
a drop OF rain from the 10th OF June to the
10th OF October yet we raised good crops
because the corn had good start in the spring
and was well tasselled ont befo re the drought
commenced Our farm was in the rich
river bottom and we got seyenty-two bushels
Of corn and two wasonlands Of pumpkins
to the acre that fall We got some of the
Indians to hel p gather the corn An Indians 3
wages was all the pumpkin his sQuaw could
carry away In one load l remember one
old squaw came for her pumpkins and piled
over. She was only 100 or 200 yards from
the fence She managed to waddle TO tho
fence and over IL with her load. That gave
bundle and made two loads out OF IT, We
had no thermometers In those early days
g measure the heat by, blt | remember
OF 1885. and people IA ked about 1t for year!
aiterward The prairie grass was high and
the prairie fires would have been tremendous
at the height OF the drought II Il had not
been that the Indians burned of the, prairie
every year as soon as the grass would burn
and bctorc i got 80 dTy frGT dlnn tns dS2ussr
was when the farmers on the prairie uplands,
couldn't raise peck Of corn to thousand
acres. The drought set ~ t the latter t part Of
There was n little rain in August, but L was
too late TO do the corn any good had
m D II the o4e than and PSSd9Ta Pwod IN more
bSsha To Ss acre . quit sH
Ing their corn when when the t drought ,s se' IN
farms bat no one equalled even my small
yield In the early settlement Of the country
crop failure was not ,n1h @ a., serious lou matter ma
much feeding was done, And then people
could not sell all OF their crops any way
They carried bis stores from one season 10
carried two years or more,
Il remember one year when there was no
snow / don't remember what year II was,
but the roads were as dusty as at their worst
in summer | remember another year, but
the first week In March TO the tth OF June
Corn lay In tho ground for months ungerni-
mated When the rain came in June 1t grew
"
The v heat was so stunted that when June
came il was no higher than the width OF my
hand When the rain came IT developed
rapidly. and grew rs high as my knee with
immense heads The grain was Of fine
quality. too. 1t was barely hi gh enough to
cradle | remember that when the men
came To thresh II they only hnd two horses
there at drt. The other horses were slow
il coming | told them 70 hitch their tive
grain and no straw, md they could run the
machine. They did 40, ana thre@hed out
ninety bushels In AN hour
I'm iSs5 therc was "A terrible prairie fire
here. | don't rememb' about any drought,
Int il must have been very dry, was Just
af,ar the war aud nearly all the farms had
beer abandoned owing To The war times,
and had grown up In high grass and weeds.
A nrr started IN some way near Diamond
and swept this way for miles, " crossed
Centre Creek ~ II no stream was there The
wind made II bear On 70 the west, ard II
bounced nlong the wcst side of Carthage,
Here II met large ira ct which had been
burned OF by a back rrr and that stopped ",
Otherwse | believe " would have consumed
SprIng River and gone on clear To Fort scott,
Kan. Many farmhouses In it, course were
L,,r "A