1860. 



NEW ENGLA^^) FARMER. 



217 



Fw the New England Farmer. 



A 'WAIF FROM KANSAS. 



Prairie Lands — Western Lif',' — Steamboats — Prospects, and 

 Corn-Dodgers. 



As the ceaseless flow of the ocean, as the tide 

 of emigration has been, and slill continues west- 

 ward, civilization walks closely after the foot- 

 prints of stupid, indolent barbarism, and scatters 

 m her march intelligence, refinement and wealth. 

 I could not help noticing the fact, as business 

 called me out into the territory a few days ago, 

 and I remarked the improvement and comfort fol- 

 lowing the wake of emigration. Many comforta- 

 ble cabins and pleasant adorning cottages are be- 

 ing erected upon the soil but lately occupied by 

 the rude luit of the red man. Thousands of 

 acres of rich prairie land are being surrounded by 

 rail fences, all "saddled and bridled" to protect 

 the crops from the cattle which are allowed to 

 run over this great pasture. Steamboats laden 

 with wealthy freight and noble humanity, are 

 plowing the waters, where a few years ago the 

 lone IncUan dared hardly venture with his bark- 

 canoe or "dug-out," lest it should be snagged, or 

 wrecked upon a sand-bar, which obstructions are 

 very prevalent in many of these vv'estern rivers. 

 But the readers of your monthly, who have always 

 had fine farms, and nestled beside comfortable, 

 loving firesides, reaped the benefit of good books 

 and intellectual society ; enjoyed the privileges of 

 lectures, concerts, and those amusements which 

 only a refined society can countenance, can never 

 realize, mentally, the heroic self-denial of a west- 

 ern emigrant, or the discomforts and hardships of 

 a pioneer life. Where there is but little social 

 good existing in the woods and upon the prairies 

 of the western world, unless the pioneer possesses 

 great moral strength and high self-respect, he is 

 soon prevailed upon to take up with the social 

 evils existing, conspicuous among which are whis- 

 keyology and theology, the former leading to gam- 

 bling, fighting, and every species of debauchery, 

 and the latter to a low, grovelling, narrow-minded 

 sectarianism. 



Winter has "broken his back-bone," and we are 

 glad. A few days ago, a dazzling robe of white 

 was thrown over the bosom of mother earth, but 

 the relentless sun is wearing it off again. The 

 prairie grass is deftly shaking off the weight which 

 bears it down. The river is breaking from the icy 

 arms of winter, and rushing onward to the embrace 

 of its mother ocean. Only among the forest aisles 

 does it seem the most desolate, v/here the trees 

 throw their naked arms up against the sky, and 

 creak a mournful dirge for their green robes, and 

 the warblers that hid arid sung among their 

 branches. 



Suffering has been great this hard winter, es- 

 pecially among the poorer classes. Kansas has 

 not been free from the closeness of suffering's 

 gripe, but we make the best of it, and if we get 

 corn-dodgers and pork enough to satisfy the crav- 

 ings of nature, we feel contented, and are waiting 

 patiently for the opening of navigation and the 

 rush of eager aspirants for wealth, towards the 

 golden bait existing at the Rocky Mountains. Of 

 course, as they will start from the river, most of 

 them vvill get their outfits at the river towns, so 

 that many will reap the greatest harvest at the 

 beginning of the journey. 



But those persons in Kansas, who have expe- 

 rienced the most hardship this winter, are mostly 

 those who have laziness existing in their bones, 

 and rather than work, will prowl around their 

 neighbors' houses to steal. Why, not far from 

 here, I know a man so lazy — and he has a claim, 

 too — that when he gets hungry, he will steal one 

 ear of corn, and grind the corn between two stones, 

 to get sufficient meal for his wife to make a corn- 

 dodger with, then they eat it and are happy. Cer- 

 tainly, they do not "live to eat," but only "cat to 

 live," and they have great faith in the promises 

 conveyed in the sixth chapter of Matthew. 



Doubtless, some of the notable housewives of 

 the east would like to know how to manufacture a 

 "corn-dodger." Take any quantity of unsifted 

 meal, and stir it thick with cold water. Put noth- 

 ing else in. Draw out upon the hearth some hot 

 ashes, make a hole in the middle, and pour the 

 wet meal into it, and flatten it down to an inch in 

 thickness. Cover it over Avith hot ashes and coals, 

 and let it bake. The ashes keep the sweetness 

 of the meal from evaporating. Now that is what 

 I call a simple and easy way of making a cake, 

 and it is excell(?nt another way. It makes first- 

 rate brick-bats, not easily broken. Try it, ladies, 

 and always keep one in your pocket to defend 

 yourselves both from the assaults of hunger and 

 of man. 



But come along, gentlemen, and bring your im- 

 plements of industry. We want you, and "Uncle 

 Sam is rich enough to give us all a farm," when 

 the homestead bill is passed, and if it don't, we'll 

 buy a farm. 



"We'll sweep the prairies, as of old 



Our fathei-s swept the sea, 



And make the West, as they the East, 



The homestead of the free !" 



Kansas is the geographical centre of the United 

 States, and out at Fort Riley is the exact centre, 

 and there several thousand acres of land are laid 

 off for the possession of the United States. The 

 river will always be a public thoroughfare, and 

 river property always valuable. When these strin- 

 gent times get loosened and men can hold up their 

 heads again, when Kansas revives entirely from 

 the severe struggle for freedom, and this prostrat- 

 ing financial crisis, then the money will fly, for- 

 tunes will be quickly made, and down-east visa- 

 ges and sober, undecided gaits will be "no-whar, 

 I reckon." Susie Vogl. 



Sumner, K. T., 1860. 



Mineral Matter Essential to the Growth 

 OF Aniaials as well as Plants. — Liebig, in 

 his "Letters on Modern Agriculture," says, "Were 

 it possible for a plant to grow, flower and bear 

 seed without the co-operation of mineral matters, 

 it would be utterly valueless to man and animals. 

 A dog will die of hunger in the presence of a dish 

 full of raw or boiled white and yolk of eggs, in 

 which is wanting one of the substances most im- 

 portant for the formation of blood. The first tri- 

 al teaches him that such food is as inefficient as a 

 stone, for the purposes of nutrition. 



Gillyflower Scions. — We cannot inform 

 "Inquirer" where he can obtain the soions he in- 

 quires for. 



