Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 December 1876 — Boughing It [ARTICLE]

Boughing It

Mr. ,0. B. Steward has kindly placed at our disposal a letter from Mr. Charles W. Clifton, who is now traveling in Texas, from which the following extracts are taken: Little Rock, Ark., November 26, 1876.—After leaving Rensselaer our party drove nearly due south to Marshfield, in Warren county; thence by way of Danville, HI., to St. Louis, Mo._' We had very good roads and fair weather save two days of rain. Our first Saturday night out, while camping on the West Okaw river in Illinois there occurred as heavy a thunder shower as ever I had the pleasure of being out in. St. Louis failed to imprest us very favorably; possibly owing to a damp day, muddy streets and the scattered condition of the freight offices. I don’t know that it is like Rome, a city of seven hi Us, but it is a city of many hills. Leaving St Louis we took the old state road to Little Rock, Ark. The country through which we passed is a succession of hills and mountains, densely wooded whereever there is room for a tree to grow between the rocks. There are more rocks than trees, and any size to suit one’s fancy, from that of a walnut to a meeting house. Many times two hills are seen with no intervening valley—the wagon going down one while the horses are climbing another. We found squatters here and there, but how they subsist God only inowc. Little farms 20 to 100 yards wide winding down a little stream. Blades are stripped from every stalk of corn and scrupulously cared for; which are sold to. us for -two “bits’* to three “bits” 4 dozen handbundles. Corn is critbed.in the husk to pieserve it from the ravages of the weevil. It is sold at 25 cents to 50 cents a bushel. Land rates from $1 to §5 an acre;

improved farms from $3 to ilO an acre; cows are worth JlO a head; yearlings S 3; good horses SSO to $75 each, common ones, such as I drive are worth $35 to S4O; best mules only S6O to $75. The hills afford very good range for sheep, which sell at $1 to $1.50 a head. Every farmer we spoke to, with a single exception, wanted to sell and go to Texas; the exception thought California the Promise Land. Just three weeks to a day from the time wo started from Jasper county we crossed the state line of Arkansas near Warm Sprint's. The general features of the country remain the same as those already described until the bottoms of the Black and Cash rivers are reached, where it is flat, marshy, and the soil very fertile. Cotton, hogs, children and ague are here produced in abundance. Asking a physician if there was any laud in that region that could be homesteaded, he pointed to a graveyard we were passing and remarked: “Yes, eighteen different parties have taken claims there in just four weeks.’’ Not being quite ready to take a homestead of that kind, after hunting and trapping four days along the Cash bottoms, we returned to southern Missouri in search ot a pigeon coost that we had been told of. Bqt the nearer we got to ( it the further away it was. However, they w'ere found at last in - Fulton county, Ark. One night’s sport and off again for Little Rock, near where w r e are camped to-night. Prices of stock and feed are about the same here as in southern Missouri, with perhaps a slight advance. Here cotton is the chief crop, next follow in order corn, wheat, pea nuts (called gruber peas), oats and potatoes.

Peanuts sell for 50 cents a bushel. For once in our lives we have, all we can eat of them. Winter has hardly reached herq yet, and the foliage of many trees is still green. To day we passed a tobacco patch not yet killed by frost, and saw iu one yard roses in full bloom. Game is scarce. Deer have nearly all

died with the black tongue, and other kinds are pretty well hunted out. We now do not expect mtidh sport until we reach the Red river region south of the Indian Terri* tory, where, we are informed, there is Mil abundance of bear, deer, turkey, geese ami duck. Onr health has been good although we saw more sick people between St. Louis and this place than 1 ever heard of m the same length of time. Ague is as common as poverty, and that—well, Nubbin’ Ridge is Paradise compared with the region we passed through. However, the country is changing for the better rapidly, though the inhabitants still depend on travelers to support them. I judge this to be the case from the charges they have subjected ns to. This morning we were charged 50cents toll for the privilege of crossing a bridge neither so long nor so good as that over the Iroquois at Rensselaer.. z