the subject in our immediate neighborlidod at 

 fever heat, and as Mr. White, President of the 

 Hoosier Land and Investment Company of 

 Sikeston, controlled the farm to the west of us, 

 when he called to see about the progress of the 

 work here he talked our conditions over with 

 his tenants there, and they had the nerve to 

 take exceptions to our ways of doing, even to 

 telling us wliy we did not succeed, as JNIr. White 

 said "We would never be able to pay out on 

 the faini if we had lo dig it all out of the 

 land; tliat the way they met their payments, 

 they sold lands and made it out of their com- 

 missions." 



Now if you are figuring on locating in this 

 country to make money on either a limited 

 capital or a large capital, it might be well 

 for you to make a careful investigation before 

 so doing. Take this little work as a guide; if 

 you find it true, tlien I have done you some 

 good; if you find it otherwise, I trust you will 

 feel that 1 only delayed you a little. 



May 2S. 1911. — Thermometer showed at noon 

 100 degrees in the shade, at 1 p. m. 103 in the 

 shade and 113 in the sun, and in this low alti- 

 tude. 332 feet above sea level and such a 

 humid atmosphere, it was almost unbearable, 

 'then we had these HOT spells nuinerous times 

 throughout the season, for on the 4th of June 

 it was 100 degrees in the shade, on July 2d it 

 was 101 degrees, July 3d 101, and July 4th 

 104; on Aug. 8th it was 100 in the shade and, 

 while the temperatures did not run this high 

 in the meantime, yet It was awfully hot and 

 dry weather. I note on the 17th of June we 

 had the first real rain for 48 days, so when 

 anyone tells, you that the heat is never ex- 

 cessive, that there are always rains when need- 

 ed, just remember this part of my record, for 

 I kept it day by day for my own satisfaction, 

 and now I am giving it to you without any 

 great cost to you, trusting you will profit 

 thereby. 



June 2, 1911. — Now I know that hogs die 

 with hog cholera wherever hogs are raised, but 

 what makes the disease more easily communi- 

 cated in this country is the fact that, owing to 

 the stock laws permitting all stock to run at 

 large, the sick hogs wander up and down your 

 "lane" and, while you may be ever so careful 

 to keep your stock up and feed it, yet the 

 danger exists from the animals in the lanes, 

 and on this date I first heard of the disease 

 being in the neighborhood. And on the 23d of 

 June I lost my first hog out of a bunch of 45 

 and until the 15th of September buried 36, 

 leaving me 9 hogs. It was general over the 

 community. You might wonder why there were 

 not some of us advanced enough to try vaccina- 

 tion, but to get the serum was the question. 



It is the pride of most every farmer in 

 "Swamp-east," or was, that he is never both- 

 ered with clods, but this conceit, if that is 

 the right name for it, was all taken out in 

 this corn season — that is, the corn . season of 

 1911 — wlien clods was the prevailing condition 

 of the land. 



June 6th, 1911, rolled around, but we were 

 still the possessors, or in charge of the farm. 

 The Smith Land Co.'s contract expired this 

 day, and. while they had led us to believe that 

 we would be sold out sure by this time, yet 

 such was not the case, and we had many anx- 

 ious moments before we were. 



June 8, 1911. — To Sikeston and made settle- 

 ments. Sure, there was a lot covered by that 

 short, terse statement. To make settlements, 

 as a rule, you must have some money, and to 

 get that money to make settlements we had to 

 and did make some real sacrifices. Before 

 coming to Missouri we had invested a sum 

 in a hotel property in a northern Indiana 

 city and it gave promise of large returns, but 

 we had to and did sell it to get money to pro- 

 tect our Missouri investment, and, while it did 

 give us a longer lease of life on our invest- 

 ment down there, yet it cut us off from par- 

 ticipating in the "cutting of the watermelon," 

 so to speak, in connection witli the other in- 

 vestment. Now. what were these accounts in 

 .'-!iker.ton tliat were so troublesome? Well, one 

 was brought about in this way: I bought a 



team of mules — old ones — of Mr. E. J. Keith of 

 the Hoosier Land and Investment Company; 

 one of them died and I sold the other one 

 back to Mr. Keith, leaving me owing him about 

 .$45, for which I gave him my note and a chat- 

 tel mortgage on a cow. The note was due. 

 Mr. Keith, needing his money for house fur- 

 nishings, had traded the note to the Way Fur- 

 niture Company, and Mr. Way was going to 

 collect it, and I was mighty glad to be able to 

 get the money to pay it without further costs. 



Another pressing claim was my grocery ac- 

 count — now, mind you, I was doing my dealing 

 ALL with the Farmers' Supply Co., and they 

 held a mortgage against all my crops, and I 

 was fully tied. Now, you cannot run a farm 

 without supplies. I was paying my help in 

 groceries and we needed a few for ourselves 

 also, and this was an ideal time to try a fel- 

 low out to see if he could raise any funds, and 

 I was mighty glad I could raise them, even if 

 I did have to sacrifice to do it, and by paying 

 a part of my grocery account and leaving the 

 chattel mortgage stand against all I hoped to 

 raise this season, I was able to continue to get 

 supplies. Now, read this over again, friend, 

 and when you go to "Swamp-east" Missouri to 

 farm on limited capital remember what I have 

 here told you and be careful how you tie your- 

 self up, for your best friehds and business part- 

 ners (Mr. Matthews had called it a partner- 

 ship between us) sometimes will try to settle 

 with you when you are close vtp. 



July 23, 1911. — Right on threshing day our 

 eldest boy took sick with malarial fever and, 

 besides his suffering and care to nurse him, was 

 deprived of his help at this, the busiest time of 

 the season's work. Called doctor from Sikeston, 

 and they sure know how to charge $12 a visit. 

 In going into a new country, did you give 

 yourself a chance to observe their ways and 

 customs, hear their conversations among them- 

 selves, you will learn more than it would be 

 possible for anyone to tell you, no matter how 

 hard you were trying to find out everything 

 to your advantage. 



I have in mind a conversation that took place 

 between a couple of tenants' families one morn- 

 ing and will give it here, just as I heard it, 

 other tlian different personal names. 



At this time of year — August 1st — just when 

 malaria, chills and fever are getting a real good 

 hold for the season, as a rule, then such con- 

 versations as this are quite common, and they 

 do not confine themselves just to the tenants 

 on the farms, either. 



"Hello, Mame, how's th' old man?" 

 "Oh, he's all right." 

 "How's the rest of th' folks?" 

 "Oh, they're all right. How're yure folks?" 

 "Oh, they're all kicking, but Mam's got th'ir 

 chills." 



"That's tew bad; is she doing envthing fur 

 'em?" 



"Yep, she's gittin' better naow, since she's 

 take'n Thedford's Black Draught for the Liver." 

 Malaria, chills and ague, as we all know, are 

 products of swamps, stagnant w^ater and poor 

 or insufficient drainage, and I fear will be a 

 prime asset of this country for years to come. 



Until a way is found to keep the old Missis- 

 sippi from covering this country, in part, at 

 least, once or twice each year with back water 

 and the sloughs and other low places drained 

 other than by evaporation, a person or family to 

 stand this climate needs either to be immune 

 to the malarial, ague or chill germ, or able to 

 withstand the effect on their constitutions of 

 the many antidotes for those poisons, such as 

 arsenic, strychnine, quinine or their many com- 

 binations. 



Aug. 7, 1911. — Just to show you the wide 

 range of prices that a farm can be bought at 

 in this country, Mr. Matthews informed me that 

 he had tried to sell my farm to a gentleman — 

 Wade Sitz — for $80 per acre. Now, we had cut 

 our expectations down to $85 per acre net to us, 

 so that the land companies might be able tr. 

 find a buyer for the property, and they were 

 wanting and asking all the way up to $105 

 lier acre for it. and here wae Mr. Matthews 

 liimself offering the farm to a prospective buyer 



18 



