returned to S'ikeston that the boys would settle 

 up with ine In full, as they had the money to 

 do it with. Now, to make my point clear on 

 this, will have to tell you in regards to their 

 renting the farm to a Mr. Gable, which was, 

 or ought to have been, subject to my contraci 

 that I sold out under in which I stated I was to 

 have possession of the ground and buildings 

 where we lived, and the cornstalk land, until 

 February 15th, 1913, and it seems that Mr. Gable 

 was not made aware ot this fact; at least the\' 

 were trying to get me to give up possessioii 

 and board with Gable, and let him have the 

 larni. To maiie it real effective, Mr. White 

 told me that they would pay me my money 

 if 1 would consent to do this. Now imagine 

 the situaiion, if you can— this family moving 

 in with you in a home that had not proven 

 any too large for your own family, and all to 

 get a settlement that was due you anyhow. 

 1 told Mr. White I could wait, and when he 

 saw that his bluff would not work he told me 

 to come in the first of the week and they would 

 see if thej" could raise the money. I am onl\- 

 putting you wise, so to speak, for, should you 

 go down to this country to live, you will run 

 up against some of these people and, while the.v 

 might not treat you that way, yet you will be 

 posted as to the fact of the way they treated 

 me. 



December 11th and 14th, 1912. — In the rec- 

 lamation of this "S'^VAMP■' country the great 

 thing is the ditches and their permanency, foi 

 these ditches have to be made and paid for, 

 and the land has to do this out of the crops. 



Novv' this country is underlaid with a body 

 of sand of a very fine nature; in fact, it is su 

 washy that it is spoken of generally as "quick- 

 sand," and, whether that is right or wrong, 

 scientifically speaking, yet it does not have 

 much stability to it, especially when immersed 

 in watei', and when, in digging one of these 

 ditches through this sand, it is not long in 

 filling up [0 whatever depth you find the sand 

 under the top soil, so when I speak of not being 

 able to maintain a ditch deeper than to where 

 you strike this sand vein, you will understand 

 what is meant. Now I was here long enough 

 to see the harm done your land and crops by 

 impossibility of water to get off in time after 

 one of these very heavy rains — to see some of 

 these old ditches recleaned, etc. One I will 

 speak of in particular was just one mile to 

 the west of our home, 1 nown as Ash slough 

 or Second ditch, and in the summer of 1911 

 it was redug and made considerably wider and 

 to a. deptli of ten feet. Wanting to give facts 

 as to the filling up of this ditch, on the 11th 

 of December, 1912, I went to this ditch at a 

 point where the section line between Sections 

 12 and 13 crosses the same, and as there was 

 a small lateral ditch dug into Ash slough here, 

 I went a few rods up the ditch so as to not be 

 too close to the inflow of this lateral, and 

 here measured it as to depth and found it to 

 be forty-four inches to the water, and water 

 eighteen inches deep, or a total depth of five 

 feet and two inches, and this after it had been 

 dug only about one year and six months, and 

 the end of the filling up is not yet. for the 

 banks are still caving. Then I went to the 

 Bank ditch, which ran through my farm, and 

 measui-ed this as to depth and found it was 

 three feet to water, and water eight inches 

 deep, or a total depth of forty-four inches. 

 Measured it about five rods south of where 

 my north line crosses this ditch. Now. as to 

 my method of measuring, I. drove stakes in the 

 gi-ound at a natural level and from their tops 

 di-ew a string taut, and then measured from 

 the point on the stakes where it was tied to 

 the .ground, and then at the banks of the ditch 

 measured down from the strin.g to get the 

 original level of the ground, and then drew a 

 string taut across the ditch and from the level 

 of this string measured the depth. You see. 

 when >ou ride across one of these dredged 

 ditches, or along them, you look down at the 

 water and are apt to think and remark as to 

 how deep they are, never taking a thought to 

 look down on the other side of the dump as 

 to how far it is down to the ground. 



Now I contend that they will never be able to 



maintain a depth of drainage in this country 

 unless they find a way to keep this "quick 

 sand'' from undermining the banks of the ditch 

 and filling it up. In a conversation with Mr. 

 Murry, surveyor uf Scott County and head of 

 the Murry Construction Company of Sikeston, 

 he bears me out in this, and added further that 

 the onl>' way to do it successfully would be to 

 concrete the bottoms of them, which any good 

 thinking peison will see at a glance is im- 

 practicable, not to say impossible. 



I had come to the conclusion, and I believe 

 jou will also, once you go to this country and 

 study the pioposition carefully, that the only 

 time that you will^et a crop in this country 

 is when it is an ordinary dry year. 



December 17th, 1912. — Into Sikeston, and, 

 even if Mr. White could not get me to give 

 Mr. Gable a room in the house to live in and 

 allow him to bring over his chickens, they paid 

 me what was coming, as shown by note on 

 the land deal, and I immediately made settle- 

 ments where I had accounts, and in taking up 

 the note given Mr. Matthews, to protect store 

 account, and the extra 2 per cent interest he 

 charged me for allowing me to sell out as I did, 

 and here I want to elaborate a little on the 

 interest question. A part of this note was 

 given for extra interest on interest, and on 

 top of that I paid interest on it and also the 

 store account. At other times I did not have 

 to always pay interest on store account, but 

 this was the last chance, so it seemed to me. 



December 30th, 1912. — Went down to New 

 Madrid to pay taxes and on the way went 

 west of Kewanee to take another picture of 

 the land that I took picture of this spring, 

 intending to show \ou how effectually a crop 

 of corn hid from view the stumps in a field. 

 but, sorry to say, the field I took picture of 



A "Cleared" Field, 



this spring, which is reproduced here, they were 

 not able to get in, as the back waters from 

 (he :Mississippi and the' local rains kept it 

 wet too long, e\en, if it was only a quarter of a 

 mile from a dredged ditch. 



If you come to this country to buy land 

 when" the crop is on, don't be afraid to care- 

 fullj' go through the field and gain a veiy good 

 idea YOURSEDF as to how many stumps there 

 is in it, because these stumps take up room, 

 or they take time and money to get them out, 

 and you can very easily buy up a big job and 

 you are liable to regret it, once the crop is off 

 and you see how you were STl'NG! 



On down the Frisco right of way, to a point 

 as thej' mark it, 182-10, where the picture of 

 the "RAPIDS" was taken last spring, and the 



27 



