482 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Suppose a settler should come here now, and, after buying a piece 

 of land which mij:jht consume nearly all his ready capital, where and how 

 would he live until he could produce something? Let me tell him. This 

 is not a treeless waste, like western Kansas, nor yet like it where the poor 

 man may do nothing during the winter season but consume what he has 

 produced in the summer. Here he will find on his own land timber suffi- 

 cient in size and quantity to build a log house and a log stable. These 

 will serve admirably until he can turn around or until he can afford some- 

 thing better. This will answer the "where" of the question. Then with 

 his team and a pair of willing hands he could find steady employment 

 through the mild winter, at fair wages in the lumber camps, at the quar- 

 rie's, in the mines, or in half a score of other convenient places. This 

 settles the aforesaid " how," and by the time the frost is out of the ground 

 he will be ready to go to work on his own place, with a cash balance 

 materially greater than it is now. No, indeed, this is not a country for 

 a poor man of leisure, or for the man of small means who is afraid of 

 work. Every county down here now has a coroner, and the only busi- 

 ness these officials have is to gather such men and plant them deep. 



This is no great corn country. An acre of ground can be depended 

 upon, however, to produce from twenty-five to thirty-five bushels. This 

 is not fifty to seventy-five bushels, but, as Mercutio puts it, " 'twill serve." 

 In fact, it is ample to get mast fed hogs in prime condition for the mar- 

 ket, keep our horses through the year, and our cattle through the short 

 winter. And here we challenge any stockman of the famous corn belt 

 to show as great a net profit from his lands as we can show from ours. 1 

 want to emphasize this point by saying that no other cheap land country 

 in the Union offers so many inducements to the humble beginner in stock 

 raising as this does. Wheat of an excellent quality, and oats, are grown 

 here in sufficient quantities to supply home demands. Millet makes an 

 excellent crop ; timothy and clover do well, and blue grass, sown on 

 sparsely covered timber lands, soon gets a good set and flourishes as 

 luxuriously as it does in the famous blue grass region of Kentucky. 



The leading native grass is a blue stem, which is very valuable for 

 pasture and feed. The existence of this kind of grass speaks volumes 

 for the soil in which it grows. Tobacco has not as yet been extensive- 

 ly cultivated here, but enough has been grown to show that its raising 

 on a large scale would be profitable, and that its quality is second to 

 none produced in other parts of the United States, the best of Virginia 

 tobacco not excepted. Potatoes and all other garden crops are sure, 

 yield bounteously, and in themselves are almost sufficient to keep the 

 wolf from the door of the even half-way industrious man. The man who 



