RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
NOV. 45 
NOTES FROM NORTHWESTERN MIS¬ 
SOURI. 
WniLE so much attention is called to other 
parts of the Great West, in the Rural, may I 
he allowed to sa.y a little of this region which 
is in the extreme northwest corner of Missouri, 
embracing Atchison and Holt counties. Al¬ 
though these two counties are so newly settled, 
yet in the census of 1870 they took a very 
high rauk as producers. Nearly half of them 
is composed of the very fertile, alluvial soil 
of the Missouri River bottom lands. From 
these bottom lands, which are nearly all 
prairie, the ascent leads up very lofty hills to 
the upland prairies. On these arc some of 
the loveliest views in the world. As far as the 
vision cuu extend, it takesin parts of Kansas, 
Nebraska aud Iowa. On clear days one can 
plainly see a tree or house 25 miles off, with¬ 
out the aid of any glass. The soil of all this 
region, on both sides of the Missouri River, 
is of inexhaustible fertility, and is without that 
impervious subsoil which is a characteristic of 
some other parts of the Missouri prairies. Rain 
may therefore fall for a week without pre¬ 
venting the plows from running. I think this 
deep porosity of the soil has caused a perma¬ 
nent change in the climate, for when the cen¬ 
tury-mulled 60d has been torn loose, the waters 
no longer run off, but penetrate far down, to 
be pumpeclup by the warm rays of the sun in 
due season- Accordingly, so many millions 
of new acres Laving, of late years, been plowed 
over west aud north of this, tbe air has lost its 
aridity, aud continues very damp during the 
whole summer. For eight years past this has 
been noted. If this chaugehaB really occurred 
—and these late years seem to declare that, 
it has—then farewell to the two drawbacks to 
successful agriculture here—droughts and 
burning wiuds; wiuds so dry aud hot that they 
withered the foliage. 
The question of most interest to newcomers 
with families, is health. To preserve this bles¬ 
sing let those whom e not accustomed to the 
low laDds of the West, keep away from the 
bottoms and margins of streams, no matter 
how small the latter may be, and also from 
the neighborhood of ravines. These upland 
prairies are the healthiest regions in the world. 
I except no part. Lands are very cheap—as 
cheap as in Kansas. Unimproved prairies 
are $10 per acre; improved, from $15 to $23, 
according to the nature of improvements. 
Tbe lands are now going up, aud will soon 
be as high as those in the best parts of Illi¬ 
nois. Our winters are milder aud shorter 
than in central Ohio, and the roads, with rare 
exceptions, are very good and dry all winter 
and spring. To-day the foliage is as green as 
in June. 
Owing to the superiority of this region for 
fruit-raising, Holt county is known as ‘ The 
Orchard County.” This term more properly 
applies to the southern part—about one-third 
of the county. There are many farmers here 
who get, every year, from one to five thousand 
dollars each for their fruit. There are several 
farmers iu Holt county who are very rich, 
having made all their money here. There are 
some who are worth from $100,000 aud up¬ 
wards to close on to half a million (!!), Yet the 
county is not half settled. 
The same may he said of Atchison. Those 
travelers who ride over the Kansas City, St Jo¬ 
seph & C. B. R. R., as they passthrough the fat 
acres that bound the road, will see why ilie-e 
men have become rich. World-wide travelers 
admit that this globe has no such sight. And 
I say that the time is rapidly coming when 
this wonderful Missouri Valley, Which stretches 
so level and so far, beginulug just above For¬ 
est City Station and extending away beyond 
Yankton, Dakota, will liave an exalted rep¬ 
utation in the world. People talk of this spot 
as being the Garden of the West, of that as be¬ 
ing tbe Paradise, of another playing the rote of 
the Nile Valley, hut all must rank far behind 
this. Bayard Taylor truly declared it to be “ tbe 
largest body of the most splendid farming land 
in this world." Of this, to tell the truth, the 
very central Eden for farmers, because of its 
superior productiveness, is the valley of the 
Nishuabotnas about 50 miles above here, ex¬ 
tending northeast from the Missouri boundary 
to Red Oak, Iowa,—a beautitul rolling bot¬ 
tom land, immensly wide, entirely prairie; 
a very remarkable region. The fruit line 
does not extend far above ibis poiut. In 
truth, the northern part of this county is ill 
adapted to its growth, owing to exposure to 
wind; and hard lrcoziugs. There is a belt of 
hill country beginning a little west of this, 
from five to teu miles wide and extending not 
over 40 miles southeast, which of all the West 
is the best adapted to the raising of apples and 
especial of early peaches. Thousands of teams 
visit this place every year from Nebraska, 
Dakota and Kansas, lor fruit. This being the 
the first poiut they reach iu seeking fruits, they 
pay us the best prices here. Not one-third of 
this region is occupied, and the lands arc very 
cheap, about four to five dollars per acre. Any 
young man can get him a few acres, say 10, 
and by putting them in early Peaches, Black¬ 
berries, Raspberries and Apples, he may be¬ 
come a weli-to do man soou. A competence 
here is certain ; hut perverse humanity pre¬ 
fers the almost certain poverty and starvation 
ol tbe mines for the slim chance of striking a 
bonanza. Here arc produced the finest 
peaches, without exception, and almost with 
dead certainty, that were ever seen. Any poor, 
ambitious youth can get his fiuit farm in order 
while working out to keep himself and buy 
trees. 
fine more point. Soon good timber will be 
worth its weight in—well—almost in silver. 
If a company were to put a half section or so 
iu first-class timber and cultivate it, securing 
meanwhile a State bouuty, by 12 or 14 years 
what magnificent returns there would be! 
There is no speculation to compare with it. 
But men prefer insurance, lotteries, cards etc. 
Yet here is a certain fortune for one’s family 
in return for a small outlay. Who will make it? 
Oregon, Holt Go., Ocl. 20. “ Holt.” 
-*•-*--«- 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
0.,Mt.Vernon,KnoxCo. Oct.26 —Wheat needs 
rain badly. Potatoes are all dug and some are 
rotting. I find it is not a good plan to use any 
manure for potatoes, unless it is well rotted ; 
for where other sorts have been applied, the 
tubers have rolled worse than in any other 
part of the Add. Corn turned out, a much 
better crop than was expected. Frost here¬ 
abouts has been much earlier and more severe 
on low lauds than on uplands, and as we are 
on a ridge here, we have about two months 
more line weather than our low-land neigh¬ 
bors, escaping late spring andjearly fall frosts. 
I have planted a small grapery chiefly of Con¬ 
cords, with some of the White Lady recom¬ 
mended by the Rukal. m. w. 
Onto, Atlanta, Pickaway Co., Nov. 2.—In 
consequence of a drought now prevailing here¬ 
abouts, wheat is suffering badly, and some of it 
also has been nearly destroyed by the Hessian 
fly and rust. A heavy acreage was sown this 
fall. Corn is being gathered and brings in 
market from 35c. to 40«i. per bushel; wheat, 
$1.25@1.30; hQga are dull at $3@3.80 per 100 
pounds; cattle are selling for $3 to $4 50; 
horses $80 to 125 per head. A. l. 
Illinois, Baileyville, Ogle Co., Oct. 28 —The 
first three weeks of Oetober were unusually 
warm, but since then the weather has been 
cooler, with occasional hard frosts ; no snow 
here yet, and the weather is highly favorable 
for gathering autumn crops. Corn-huslcing is 
now more thau hall completed; potatoes are 
all dug and apples picked. Tbe yield of corn 
is satisfactory, but not as large as appearances 
in August indicated. Potatoes are of good 
quality, but rather scarce, though enough for 
home consumption and some, to ship. Apples 
are alight crop, and the recent hot weather 
has prematurely ripened them, so they are uot 
keeping well. The growing grain has a fine 
appearance, aud pasturage is good, but it is 
now iu need of rain. Timely showers have 
kept vegetation irorn suffering, but our streams 
are low. r w. u. d. 
III., Crystal Lake, McHenry Co., Oct. 23.— 
We have had the worst season for raising 
sorghum or Early Amber ever experienced iu 
this section. Not more than one-fourth of the 
cane ripened, and the juice only averaged 7$ 
degrees Baume; yet with all these drawbacks 
we have made about 45,000 pounds of sugar 
and demonstrated the. fact that sugar can be 
made from the Amber cane iu paying quanti¬ 
ties on a large scale. With ripe cane and juice 
testing as strong as it bus done in most sec¬ 
tions, we would have accomplished astonish¬ 
ing results. As it is, I have no doubt but that 
the opinion of our Commissioner of Agricul¬ 
ture, Gen. Lu Due, ou tbe feasibility of profit¬ 
ably supplying our entire home demand for 
sugar by making it from sorghum, will be 
verified within six years, this county producing 
all ibe sugar it will need. a. j. n, 
Wis., River Falls, Pierce Co., Oct. 20.—We 
liked the Beauly of Hebron potato and the Acme 
tomato very well. From our seed potato we 
raised a heaping half bushel of good-sized 
tubers. Although the corn grew to an immense 
bight, it did not yield well or mature before 
frost. The Millet grew well, but is no better 
for fodder than sweet corn. Of the flower 
seeds only thiee grew. s. w. 
Nebraska, Kearney, Buffalo Co., Oct. 21.— 
We live iu the midst of the country described 
by Fremont and others as “ The Great Ameri¬ 
can Desert, ”—an arid waste, whose only vege- 
tatiou was Sage-brush, Cactus, Baud burrs und 
a stunted growth of Buffalo-grass. But what 
does the traveler see here now, us he is whirled 
across the Great Pluins” by tbe never-tiring 
11 iron horse ?” He secs thousands of stacks of 
straw, from which millions of bushels of grain 
have been thrashed during the present fall. 
He sees thousands of acres of corn awaiting 
the bu*y hands of the homesteaders to gather 
the yellow treasure, and a golden one it will be 
this year. He sees millions of cattle and sheep 
grazing on fertile prairies. He sees thousands 
of hay stacks to feed these herds this winter. 
He sees dozens of thrifty villages and towns 
along the line of the railroad, and hears the 
clatter of hammers in the hands of hundreds 
of carpenters, and the hum of busy workmen 
as they arc transforming these villages and 
towns iuto cities, lie sees thousands of acres 
of virgin sod turned over the past season for 
cropping the coming one. Tins is only a part 
of the abundant life and wealth that lie secs 
to-day ou the “ Great American Desert,” and 
should lie return in half-a-dozen years, he will 
see here the Garden of America, the Granary 
of the World. A. vv. w. 
Maryland, Denton, Caroline Co.. Oct. 30.— 
This season has afforded a grand opportunity 
to those wishing to post themselves as to com¬ 
parative merits of peaches on our “Shore.” 
In fact, we had a few too many peaches here 
iu the middle of the peach season. Even your 
huge city exhibited symptoms of surfeit: hut 
to work among them day after day, gathering 
them fresh and fragrant from the burdened 
trees, changing from good varieties to belter, 
until best is reached, how he who lias a strong 
liking for the fruit, or as it is 001011101113 ' put 
in Eastern Shore parlance, I 10 that is a lover of 
peaches, sighs for a stomach of larger dimen¬ 
sions ! A mere theorist falls far short in these 
sweet realities. a. w. k. 
West Va., Huntington, Cabell Co.—I entered 
for a premium on the Blount Corn ; manured 
highly a good piece of garden soil; planted 
3x3 feet, ou the loth of May, one grain in the 
hill. It catnc up well, was well cared for, 
watered during dry weather, and urged along 
generally. It sent out “lots” of suckers, which 
I destroyed, except one to the bill, two stalks 
at three feet each way being enough of any 
corn, iu this country. It set from three to 
seven cars to the stalk, and I was sure of a 
premium. But when I read of parties, with 
their com only partly grown, having stalks 34 
inches iu diameter (10 inches around) and 16$ 
feel high, I retired—as did my corn. It was 
ripe by September 28, about twelve feet high, 
with from two to three small ears (we call 
them “nubbins'' here) ou the stalk. I had 
“ popcorn ” that beat it two to one, having six 
to eight full cars to the stalk. It only cost uie 
$5 to raise 50 cents’ worth of the Blount. I 
had also one pound of it from Thorburn, 
which I planted on rich, virgin soil; but it 
won't do here. The “ Chester Mammoth” is a 
much better field corn—ears, 15 inches long ; 
stalks, seven feet high, I got also one pound 
of the Beauty of Hebron, besides what the 
Rural sent me. It is all right—early, pro 
duetive, large and good. The Acme tomato is 
the best I have raised,—better even thau the 
Trophy. The Golden Rural is good, but yellow 
aud small. Pearl Millet does tolerably well,— 
a good fodder plant; but the season is too cold 
for it here to mature seed fully. The Defiance 
wheat had such a sickly look, that I threw it 
away—aud iu doing so. did well. 1 hud an 
ouuce of the Royal Australian prize wheat 
from Burpee of Phila., Pa., which 1 sowed for 
a prize, and expect to gel one. It did not have 
a good chance either, having been sowed on 
October 2Gth, a hard winter aud au excessive¬ 
ly dry spring following, so as to nearly destroy 
my crop of Fultz wheat, as I got only six 
bushels per acre, iustoad of 20 last year. I 
sowed the ounce iu five drills, 12 inches apart; 
grains dropped by hand, five to six inches in 
the rows. About a quarter of it froze out: but 
i got five gallons from the ounce, and some 
stools have as much as 07 heads, five to six 
inches long, to the grain of wheat, while most 
of them had from 25 to 35 heads. The ground 
had no manuring, was uot rich, aud no extra 
care was taken of the wheat, it having been only 
once hoed out to destroy the weeds. I sowed 
it on Sept. 20 this year, because 1 think it is a 
good wheat. Apples are scarce here—one- 
tenth of a crop. The wheat crop was poor, on 
account of dry weather—from six to ten bush¬ 
els per aero. Late rains redeemed the corn, 
which we liad “given up,” aud we now have a 
fair crop. e. d. b . 
Querist, 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
South Carolina Mineral l'lunqiliates. 
0. \V. F., Blaekstone, Mass., asks. 1, what is 
South Carolina phosphate lock, aud where is 
it found; 2 whut is the analy sis of it, and also 
of raw bone; 3, what is the price per ton 
of the rock, ground aud ungrouud; 4, the 
amount of sulphuric acid required to convert 
a tou of the rock into superphosphate, un- 
grouud aud ground. 
Ans.— 1. The mineral phosphates of South 
Carolina, iu the rough stato, consist of bard 
masses of grayish or blueish-white rock, which 
break readily into fragments, und which have 
been culled nodules. They are irregular in 
form, water-worn and rounded, often perfora¬ 
ted by boring moilusks, though generally only 
the casts of these remain. Under the micro¬ 
scope they exhibit unmistakable charaoters of 
bone, and are easily soluble, eveu in dilute 
acids. The chief beds are on the Ashley River, 
extending from about seven miles above 
Charleston for ten or fifteen miles. The land 
rolls In low bluffs, generally 20 to 40 feet high 
and at right, angles to the course of the river. 
Between tho bluffs are swamp lands, once well 
drained for cotton culture. In these low lands 
the rich top soil is from four to six inches 
deep: then follows a light sandy stratum, 
generally 18 inches deep, underneath which is 
the stratum of nodular phosphates, varying 
from four to 18 inches in thickness, rarely in¬ 
creasing to two feet. The nodules arc gener¬ 
ally buried in adhesive blue clay aud sand, 
though sometimes they are packed close to¬ 
gether in continuous beds, or arc in the form 
of large lumps or conglomerates of soft, 
chalky consistency, as if originally a soft, 
pasty mass of phospbatic mud that in tlu 
course of ages had become semi-consolidated. 
Associated with the nodules is a wonderful 
assortment of the remains of marine and ter¬ 
restrial animals, but chiefly of the former. 
Under tbe bed of nodules a phospbatic murl 
occurs, reaching to the depth of 400 feet, as 
ascertained by boring, containing as much as 
14 per cent, of phosphate of lime, and of vast 
extent. 
2. The composition of the phospbatic rocks 
varies considerably. Prof. C. W. Shepherd, Ji\, 
of Charleston, gives the following analysis of 
nodules varying in size from that of a man’s 
fist up to that of a man’s head: 
Moisture dri von off at 212 IT. 3 05 
Water and organic matter. 8.03 
Sami unit teMiuioxide of iron. 12.83 
Carbonate of time. 8.u6 
Sulphate ol lime. 2 20 
Phosphate of lime and iron. 69.00 
101.17 
The phosphate of iron rarely exceeded 5 per 
cent. The amount of nitrogen did not exceed 
0.5 per cent, of ammonia. 
According to the analyses of Dr. T. Antisell, 
the chemist attached to the Department of Ag¬ 
riculture at Washington, in 1808, specimens 
of the phosphatic rocks sent to him contained: 
No. - )" NoTl 
2.50 1.80 
19.40 9 20 
12.20 6.00 
56.00 64.10 
8.00 17.10 
Trace. Trace. 
1.80 1.10 
99,90 99.90 
No. 1 represents the nodules, and No. 2 the 
fossil boues found associated with them in the 
beds. According to Fremy, the analysis of 
the raw bone of an ox, deprived of its organic 
matter, is as follows: 
Per cent, of ash. 3.17 
Phosphate of lime. 62.50 
Phosphate of mairnesja. 2.70 
Carbonate of lime. v.au 
Tiie following analysis of dry ox bones is by 
Berzelius: 
Phosphate of lime with a little fluoride of calcium 67.35 
Bone gelatine fall the organic matter). 33.80 
Carbonate of tunc. 3.85 
Phosphate of m;iKia sia. 2.05 
Koila aud a little chloride of sodium.. 3.45 
100.00 
The nitrogen in the organic matter varies 
from two to about four per cent. 
3. Crude rock is sold ouly by the cargo, and 
in this w ay it is worth, per ton of 2,210 pounds, 
from $5.50 to $0.50, according to its quality. 
The grouud rock is worth, per tou of 2,000 
pounds, from $12 to $14, according to its qual¬ 
ity also. 
4. Before reducing the rocks to a commer¬ 
cial superphosphate, they are always ground, 
and a large item of expense is incurred iu free¬ 
ing them from clay and other cxtraucous mat¬ 
ter. The quantity of sulphuric acid required 
to acidulate the ground rock depends some¬ 
what upon the percentage of carbonate of lime 
it contains. An outside proportion of sul¬ 
phuric acid—50° in strength—would be equal 
weights of acid aud rock. For preparing 
good acid phosphate, or superphosphate, from 
1.500 to 1 GOO pounds of 50°-acid are used to 
every 2.000 pounds of ground rock; but for 
the highest grade a larger proportion of acid 
is required. The retail price of this super¬ 
phosphate is $25 per tou. Ground rock is 
seldom or never called for by farmers, aud uu- 
ground rock never. 
fcliecp on Rich, Moist Land. 
E. B., Windham Co., Conn., asks what is 
the best breed of sheep for rich, moist laud. 
Ans. —Moist, rich laud is unfavorable for 
sheep ; at least for any breed uow kept in this 
country'. This kind of laud is cure to provoke 
bilious diseases, which result iu what is known 
as tho liver rot; a disease in which the liver 
becomes clogged and inactive, and unable to 
free the blood from bile; when the bleed is 
overcharged with this secretion, all the tissues 
and the fat, are colored a deep-yellow, and by- 
and-by diarrhea or dysentery results, being 
finally fatal. This is the inevitable conse¬ 
quence ol keeping slioep for a long period 
upon moist lauds. But if the sheep are kept 
only for fattening aud are pastured but one 
season, the condition produced by such a 
pasture is favorable for rapid fattening, and 
the yyjlpw-colored fat is eveu attractive to 
Moisture ami nrpanie matter. ... 
Insoluble silicates aud sand. 
Phosphate of iron aud alumina. 
Phosphate of lime. 
Carbonate, of limit. 
Magnesia.. 
Alkaline salts,chloride aud sulphur.... 
