PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 201 



taken away many of the male inhabitants. At the Uxte election the connty 

 gave Lincoln 948, McClellan 271. Many of the McClellan men are Tar from 

 being- Rebels. A majority of them sympathize with the South, bnt not one 

 in six would harbor bushwliackeris. The radical Union men control tlie 

 connty. Warrenton, the connty seat, probably contains 2,000 inhabitants, 

 three hotels, one of which is a splendid brick buikling. The county clerk's 

 office is stone 'and brick, fire proof. There are four churches, and five 

 stores, a steam saw and grist-mill, and nearly all mechanics but cijopers. 

 They are scarce, though cooper stnff is plenty. 



" Warren county is composed of various soils. On the north it is mostly 

 prairie, together with tracts of heavily timbered land and creek bottom. 

 On the north it is river bottom from one to three miles wide, and in the 

 center and various parts it is hill or ridge land. The whole connty is well 

 supplied with an abundance of good timber and water, and building stone 

 in abundance. The lidge land is heavily timbered, some trees from three 

 to four feet across the stump, and will make from two to three cnts of rails 

 eleven feet long. The land is broken but tlie tillable portion of it is level 

 or gently rolling enough to carry ofl' the water after heavy rains, the most 

 beautiful sites for orchards and vineyards in the world. Unlike most hill 

 land, if you manure it, it stays there. We have to dig cisterns for water 

 fur domestic use, eight feet wide and from fifteen to thirty feet deep, which 

 furnishes an abundance for all purposes. In the valleys, which are nar- 

 row, there is an abundance of never failing springs, and splendid range for 

 all kinds of stock. Cattle or hogs turned out here in the spring, will return 

 in the fall, fat. Wheat raised on this ridge land will weigh from three to 

 five pounds more to the bushel than wheat raised on the adjoining bottom 

 lands, but it will not yield as many bushels per acre. A better wheat 

 country I never saw in Missouri. Farmers here who only run two plows 

 have sold, this winter, from GOO to 800 bushels of wheat at from $1.70 to 

 $I.8;'i per bushel. 



" I know of no land or farms to rent in my immediate neighborhood, but 

 there is a plenty to be had if j-ou come in time — the 1st of March is moving 

 time with us. Cash rent from one to three dollars per acre, or one-third of 

 the crop. A plenty of saw and grist mills all over the county. A plenty of 

 fruit of all kinds, which do much better than fruit in most of the other States. 

 Missouri can't be beat for fruit. At St. L(niis and Sherman there are a 

 plenty of good nurseries that raise fruit well adapted to our climate. Some 

 of us have been badly sold by the agents of eastern nurseries, which has 

 impaired our confidence. Squire Wilson, in the bottom, bought some beau- 

 tiful pear trees from the agent of a Rochester nursery at fifty cents apiece; 

 the folluwing year they bore a crop of crab apples. Timothy and clover do 

 well on the ridges, therefore this land is well adapted to sheep raising. 

 You can buy a small or large farm, with good improvements, at from three 

 to five dollars per acre, probably one-half or two-thirds of the land would 

 be level, good tillable land, the balance broken bnt heavily timbered. In 

 the hollows you arc apt to get a good sugar camp, large trees. It is fie- 

 quently the case that yon can niake a good field in the valley for corn, 

 wheat, kc, which we call branch bottom. Vine growing is a profitable 

 business in this State, especially on these high ridges. 



