were done cutting the dry and high spots out 

 of 100 acres we had to bacli over and cut out 

 better than 15 acres of low spots where we for 

 sure "mired up" in the straight cutting. 



To make a crop — "crap tliey call it here — a 

 person will, if he has the least bit of energy 

 left, put forth all kinds of efforts and when 

 the ground is too wet to plow your corn, the 

 next best thing is the hoe and this is sure the 

 country of the hoe. "Chopping out" is usually 

 the way it is spoken of and is one of the 

 dreaded jobs on the farm, for it cannot be done 

 with a team or a riding corn cultivator, but . 

 must be done with the strong arm and down 

 in these bottom or "swamp" lands where the 

 cockleburrs grow apace, the sprouts do like- 

 wise and if you do not want to clear the land 

 next year, if you want to try and raise some 

 corn "this year, vou must chop it out. Then 

 it is a better way to get close to the stumps 

 pnd cut out the weeds, and with the thermome- 

 ter around the 100 mark it is for sure a HOT 

 job. Try it a season before you get tied up so 

 that you have to stay with it until you are 

 able to sell out. 



I mentioned about the "sticks" a few pages 

 back and there is one thing that these "sticl-s" 

 effectually do and that is to hide the view for 

 any distance and I was much amused at the 

 father-in-law of Mr. Arch Cooks, Mr. Charles 

 C Sixbey. He had been down for a week vis- 

 iting the folks, hoed a few rows of corn and 

 sweat like all of the natives do and when he 

 started for home I was joking him about leav- 

 ing so soon. He said he was going where he 

 could see something more than the clouds go 

 by and when you are back in the "swamps" 

 that is really about all you do see. 



I have called your attention to a number of 

 insects but I do not believe that I have out- 

 lined the pestiferous flea to you in all the glory 

 that they get out of their life and yours down 

 here. One thing that brings them to my mind 

 at this particular stage of my history is that 

 I recorded in my daily record the loss of sleep 

 that we were experiencing from their following 

 their avocation so assiduously. They sure are 

 the busy insects — work in relays and never lose 

 a minute. The country of the full grown flea. 

 Here they grow large enough that you do not 

 have to take a microscope to see them. The 

 seasons of the year are long and so is the work- 

 ing period of the flea. Some people try shak- 

 ing insect powder in the beds to drive them 

 out. Few people keep anything on the floors 

 in which they can hide, but I think you will 

 agree with me, if you follow my instruction, 

 to try it a season down here before investing 

 in any property that the best way to get rid 

 of them is to move out of the country. See if 

 I'm not right. 



July 20th, 1910, one of my mares died; also 

 threshing wheat this day and when in town 

 the next dav one of the Land Company people 

 asked me about the loss of the animal. Some- 

 bodv had reported it all right. 



July 25th, 1910, we lost a fine sow from the 

 heat; a neighbor, Mr. James Midget, lost some- 

 thing like ten head. Pretty hot when hogs die 

 right out in the open. Thermometer registered 

 95 m the shade at noon and 103 in the sun. 

 These are the kind of days that "boil you out," 

 so to speak, and when the following wintry 

 weather comes you sure feel the cold. 



Now, I was led to believe that flies were not 

 bothersome in this country, that they did not 

 trouble the stock like in the North and after I 

 had been down here a season, found out that 

 it was not the case. One of the reasons I 

 think that people do not consider the flies so 

 bad is that there is so many other pestiferous 

 insects that are worse that it rather detracts 

 from the glory of the f^y. You come down here 

 and live a season and see for yourself if this 

 is not about the case. Locate along one of 

 these "lanes" that lead from the "swamps" up 

 on the higher ground, where the poor, dumb 

 brutes that have to hunt through the wild lands 

 for their food come to spend the nights away 

 from the "swamp" insects as far as they can 

 get and see from the myriads of flies that they 



leave at \iiur homes as they pass if this is 

 not true. 1 know it to be so and have no 

 hesitancy in "putting you next," so to speak, 

 and if you do not believe it just come down 

 and see. Another thing right here as to the 

 insects in the swamps, especially the mosqui- 

 toes. You can go to these swamp lands and find 

 a tight barn and its use is to house the mules 

 in, in the summer time, to keep the mosquitoes 

 from eating them up at nights. 



August loth, 1910, helped my friend, Moser, 

 thresh his wheat and such a lot of smutty 

 wheat as there was in this country this sea.son 

 and as smut, you know, injures the berry for 

 flour purposes, the milling companies were com- 

 pelled to and did cut the prices on this dam- 

 aged wheat from five to fifteen cents per 

 bushel. Then treating the seed wheat that fall' 

 for smut was tried by numerous farmers, which 

 was followed up by most everybody in the fall 

 of 1911 and as the wheat crop of 1912 was not 

 over a half crop, there was a great deal of 

 comment as to whether the treatment hurt or 

 (lid not. 



Had five acres of watermelons out this year 

 and as we could not eat them all, tried selling 

 some of them. Hard to sell but at last did con- 

 tract with a Mr. Stubbs of the Sikeston Mer- 

 cantile Company to load him a car of Monte 

 Ciistoes at Matthews, for which I was to re- 

 ceive $70. I had to load them four tiers deep 

 and I put 1,670 melons in the car. Notified 

 Mr. Stubbs that the car was loaded and in 

 about five days I received a remittance from 

 the Humphreys Produce Company of St. Louis 

 for $33.75 This is all I received off of my five 

 acres of melons, other than the few we had to 

 eat. Try it and see if you can figure any profit 

 out of it at those figures. I never saw and 

 talked to Mr. Stubbs about it as I supposed he 

 knew what he was doing and although 1 could 

 have used the difference between $70 and $33.75. 

 yet I did not think it would make Mr. Stubbs 

 rich. I never raised any more melons, and if 

 I were you and went down into this country 

 to farm I would go easy on the melons. 



August 18th. 1910. lost another one of my 

 mares. Them that has must lose you know. 



August 20th, 1910. Along about this time 

 there was a dissolution in the Messrs. Smith 

 Bros. & Co. Land Company, the Messrs. Smith 

 Bros, continuing on by themselves and Messrs. 

 W. A. White, 'W. P. Lindley. .1. F. Cox and 

 E. J. Keith retiring and organizing a company 

 by themselves and under the name of the 

 Hoosier Land & Investment Company. I men- 

 . tion this at this time, for up to this time I 

 was only tied up with one company and from 

 now on until I succeeded in getting out of 

 Missouri I was being looked after by two com- 

 panies and they sure did it. 



Sickness, how next to death it is the great- 

 est source of anxiety and worry that comes to 

 the human family. So far our family, fresh 

 from the North had had not much cause to 

 even consider it in our daily life, though we 

 were ever mindful of our eating good food, 

 sanitary surroundings and everything that we 

 thought of to ward against disease, but we were 

 not to escape. Though it is represented to 

 you or was to us that there is seldom if ever 

 a case of typhoid fever in this country, yet 

 on the 24th of August, 1910, our daughter, Mil- 

 dred, began to have a fever and as it was yet 

 in a seeming mild stage, and wanting to know 

 what to do for her and save tlie expense of a 

 visit of a doctor from Sikeston — they charged 

 $12 a trip to our house — on the 25th of August, 

 Mrs. Studabaker took her to Sikeston and Di'. 

 Otis Miller pronounced it bordering on typhoid 

 fever. Gave her medicine and instructions how- 

 to possibly evade it and for the next four days 

 we cared' for her and gave her the treatment 

 prescribed, but on the 29th of August we had 

 him call and so we were in for a siege of it 

 and for the next month we were running a 

 miniature hospital with her mamma and I tak- 

 ing turns at nursing, and when they tell you 

 that typhoid fever seldom if ever occurs in this 

 country owing to the good water supply, that 

 is if they do tell you as they did us, just re- 

 member our case and the picture of clippings 



14 



