Saline County, Missouri - The whole text, 1881 (part 3 of 28)

Snow is rather scarce in our climate, and rarely continually covers the ground for more than a few days or a week. In some years, it amounted, when melted to 5^ inches; in others to only one-half inch; the average is about 2J inches.

The atmospherical pressure (indicated by the stage of the barometer) is with us, in summer, more uniform and regular than on the Atlantic coast, while in winter it fluctuates considerably, and often very rapidly. The average barometrical pressure is highest in January, falls till May, and gradually rises again until January; it is most variable from November to March, and least so from June to August.

Healthfulness Of The State

Authentic reports to the Health Board of St. Louis is have shown that the annual sickness rate of the city of St. Louis about seventeen and a half days to each member of the population. Dr. Boardman, of Boston, has ascertained the sickness rate of the city of Boston to be about twentyfour days of annual sickness to each individual. The general correctness of these conclusions are further substantiated by army statistics. Dr. Playfair, of England, after careful inquiry, computed the ratio of one death to twenty-eight cases of sickness in a mixed population.

The state of Massachusetts has for many years had a state board of Health, by whom sanitary improvements have been diligently and scien tificaUy prosecuted, under state authority; and the annual death-rate has thereby been somewhat reduced. In 1870 Massachusetts had a population of 1,457,351 and there were during the same period 25,859 deaths from all causes. A mortality equal to 1.77 per cent of the population. At 6 the same lime Missouri had a population of 1,721,295, and there were during that year 27,982 deaths from all causes. A mortality rate equivalent to 1.63 per cent, of the population. It thus appears, if the calculation is made and the relative proportion between the populations and the death rates of the two states maintained, that vital security is greater in Missouri, as compared with Massachusetts, to an extent represented by the annual saving of 2,474 lives. But this is not all. The authorities on vital statistics estimate that two persons are constantly sick for every one that dies; and Dr. Jarvis shows, from the experience of health-assurance companies in this country, that on an average each person loses from 19 to 20 days per year by sickness. Then we have this result: Two persons sick to one death, equal 4,948, multiplied by 20, gives 98,960 days per year less of sickness in Missouri than in Massachusetts, in proportion to population. Then reckon the amount of care and anxiety and suffering and the loss of time, and cost for nursing and medicines and doctor's bills - and yon will begin to get some idea of what these figures really mean, in favor of our state, with its dry, salubrious climate, in cpmparison with Massachusetts, the only other state for which the figures were at hand to make the comparison.

The Missouri state board of agriculture was created a body corporate by statute, in 1877, and it was provided that the governor, the state superintendent of schools, the president of the state university and the dean of the state agricultural college, should be ex-officio members of the board. The officers of the secretary and treasurer are required to be at the agricultural college, at Columbia, in Boone county; and the annual meetings are to be held there, on the first Wednesday of November in each year. The presidents or duly authorized delegates of county agricultural societies, are rightful members of the state board, "for deliberation and consultation as to the wants, prospects and condition of the agricultural interests of the state, to receive the reports of district and county societies, and to fill by elections all vacancies in the board."

The law further provides that, " It shall be the duty of all agricultural and horticultural societies, organized and established in accordance with the laws of this state, to make a full report of their transactions to the Missouri state board of agriculture, at each annual meeting thereof."

The state board is required " to make an annual report to the general assembly of the state, embracing the proceedings of the board for the past year, and an abstract of the reports and proceedings of the several agricultural and horticultural societies, as well as a general view of the condition of agriculture and horticulture throughout the state, accompaiiied by such recommendations, including especially such a system of public instruction upon those subjects as may be deemed interesting and useful." Provision is then made for printing fourteen thousand copies (two thousand in the German language), for distribution to all who will use them.

Our Staple Crops

First of all the crops grown in the state, in amount and value, is Indian corn. There is not a county in the state in which it is not successfully and profitably grown. The broad alluvial bottoms along our great rivers yield immense crops of this valuable cereal, and our fertile prairies are but little, if any, behind them in their yield.

Next in importance among the cereals is -wheat, which grows and yields well in every part of the state. Except in a few northern counties, spring wheat is but little grown, the main attention being bestowed upon the winter varieties, which are especially a favorite crop upon the loess and clay loams, and upon the oak uplands of the state. The well known fact that the best flour to stand transportation and exposure in hot and humid climates, is made from wheat grown toward the southern border of the wheat zone, has made Missouri flour a favorite for shipment to South American markets. Flour made in Missouri, from Missouri wheat, won the Medal of Merit &\. the World's Exposition, at Vienna, in 1873. The average yield and the certainty of the wheat crop in Missouri, give the state a high rank among the states producing this cereal.

Oats grow and yield well in the state, producing heavy straw, plump and heavy grains; but the crop does not figure very largely in our markets, being mainly grown for home consumption.

Tobacco, of two or three varieties, grows well, and Missouri tobacco enjoys a fine reputation for excellence. The state embraces some of the best tobacco lands in the country. It is a staple in nearly every county in the state, and some of the counties make it a leading crop. Missouri ranks sixth in its production.

Cotton, except in small patches for home use, is raised only in the southern counties of the state. Stoddard, Scott, New Madrid, Pemiscot, Dunklin, Mississippi and Lawrence, all raise more or less for shipment, and, in some of the counties named, it is an important crop.

Sweet Potatoes grow upon our sandy soils to great size and excellence, and our farmers raise a great abundance for home use, and the city . markets are always well supplied.

Sorghum, and other varieties of the Chinese sugar cane, are extensively grown, and many thousands of gallons of syrup are annually made for home use. Recent improvements in manufacturing sugar from these

Broom Corn is extensively grown in Missouri, and the brush being longer and finer than that grown in the eastern states, commands a much better price in market.

Garden Vegetables are produced in great profusion and variety, and the more arid regions of western Kansas and New Mexico, and the mining districts of Colorado, afford an ever-increasing market for these and other agricultural products from our state. Watermelons, muskmelons, etc., grow to great perfection, and are shipped in large quantities from some portions of the state to cities farther north.

The U. S. forestry statistics of 1875, give Missouri 21,707,220 acres of land in farms -,20,116,786 acres not in farms; of wood land in farms there were 8,965,229 acres, and the total woodlands in the state was reported as 19,623,619 acres.

There is a curious bit of agricultural history which illustrates the rapid development of the western country, and at the same time shows, by the inevitable logic of events already transpired, the magnificent position of Missouri as the greatest wheat center on the globe. In 1849 the center of the wheat product of the United States was the meridian of 81 '^ west of Greenwich, passing north and south through the eastern border counties of Ohio. In 1859 that line had moved westward a little more than two degrees of longitude, and passed through the eastern border counties of Indiana, the city of Fort Wayne being on the line. In 1869 the wheat center had moved not quite two degrees further west, and was that year a few miles west of Chicago and Milwaukee; and the center of our National corn crop was on the same line at this time. In ] 877 this line had moved still further west, and was now represented by a line drawn on a map of the United States from Marquette, on Lake Superior, down through Janesville, Wisconsin, and through Mendota, LaSalle, 'Vandalia and Cairo, in Illinois. The corn center will not move much if any further west; but the wheat center, by reason of the rapid development of this crop in Minnesota, Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas, is now, in 1881, as far wast as St. Louis ; and it will not be likely to migrate further than Jefferson City at any time in the future, because there is no important wheatgrowing territory further west still unoccupied. The new settlements westward must be chiefly by mining and manufacturing peoples, hence, consumers rather than producers of the great cereal crqps.

The conclusion of the whole matter, then, is that St. Louis is now, and will for several decades continue to be, practically on the center line of the aggregate product of wheat and corn in the United States, propor- tioned from east to west limits of the national domain. And this fact assures Missouri of pre-eminent commercial rank among the grand sisterhood of states.

The following table shows the number of pounds weight which constitute a lawful bushel in Missouri, of the different articles named, as established in 1879:

The standard bushel for coke and charcoal is to contain 2,680 cubic inches; apple barrels, length, 28^ inches; chines, ^ of an inch at ends; diameter of head, 17J inches; inside diameter at the center of the barrel, 20i inches.

Horticulture

The state horticultural society was organized in January, 1859, and has kept up its annual meetings in spite of all difficulties. Each congressional district of the state is classed as a separate horticultural district, and is represented in the society by a vice-president, who is expected to keep himself posted on the interests of this industry in his district, and make report (or procure some one to do it), at the annual meeting. The officers of this society for 1880, were: President, Hon. Norman J. Colman, St. Louis; Vice Presidents: 1st congressional district, H. Michel, St. Louis; 2d, Dr. C. W. Spaulding, Cliff Cave; 3d, J. Rhodes, Bridgeton; 4th, H. D. Wilson, Cape Girardeau; 5th, W. S. Jewett, Crystal City; 6th, M.

Apples. - ^All the standard varieties of the temperate zone are raised in their highest perfection in the state of Missouri; but in such a large area of country as our state comprises, and with such a great variety of soils, and other conditions, each diflFerent kind has its locality of best success. It is therefore not possible to indicate what varieties are best for the state; each district will have its favorites. At the national exhibit, in 1878, Missouri showed one hundred and forty plates of apples. Distinguished pomologists assert that ten counties in north Missouri can show apples in as great variety and perfection as any ten other states in the Union.

Perhaps no better proof can be given of the general excellence of Missouri fruits than the fact that at the meeting of the American pomological society, in September, 1878, medals were awarded to Missouri for the best displays of apples, pears and wines, and also one for the best general display of fruits. These honors were gained in competition with every state in the union, represented by their choicest fruits, and at an exhibition held at Rochester, New York, which had long been regarded as the very center of the fruit growing interests of the country. The fruits exhibited on that occasion were from different parts of the state. St. Joseph, Independence, Morrison, Columbia, Hermann, St. Louis coimty, Boone county, and other districts were represented, and shared the honors of our great victory.

The varieties that appear to have received most favor at the meeting of our state agricultural society, in 1880, were Ben Davis, Winesap, Jonathan, Dominie, Rawle's Janet, Milam, Northern Spy, Carthouse, Newtown Pippin, Summer Pippin, Red June, Early Harvest, Red Astrachan, Late Summer, Dutchess of Oldenburg, Early Pennock, St. Lawrence, Maiden Blush, Rambo, Grimes' Golden, Limber Twig, Little Romanite.

Peaches. - The southeastern portion of the state, along the line of the Iron Mountain railroad, and the western portion, where the marly deposits are so rich and extensive, are pre-eminently the peach districts, and in these regions the peach seems almost indigenous, never failing to produce 'abundant crops; and yet fruit-growers in these districts say that they are never able to supply the demand, Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado taking all from the western region, and St. Louis having to draw upon other states for her supplies. Peaches may be relied upon as a profitable crop in all that part of the state south of the Missouri river, and, indeed, are largely grown much further north, St. Joseph exporting large amounts.

In some localities the trees have occasionally been winter-killed, when not in suitable soil or not sheltered; but, on the whole, Missouri may fairly be set down as a peach-growing state. Mr. R. Lynn, of Rockport, in the northwest part of the state, says he has raised three good paying crops of peaches in seven years, the first crop being the third year from planting; his best crop was in 1878. "

Pears. - Pears do well throughout the state, especially in the region of Clay, Jackson and Cass counties. The trees attain a great size and age - a diameter of from twelve to fifteen inches is common; and there are trees a short distance south of St. Louis over two hundred years old, and still bearing fuU crops. The pear, although the most luscious fruit grown in northern latitudes, is also one of the most difficult to raise successfully - ^hence it is a matter of reasonable pride and gratification that this fruit has done so well in our state. At the national pomological exhibition, of 1878, there were from this state: From the Missouri Valley horticultural society, Kansas City, twenty varieties of pears; from Jacob Rhodes, Bridgeton, nine varieties ; from J. Madinger, St. Joseph, six varieties; from W. Stark, Louisiana, two varieties. Some of the finest specimens at the exhibition were grown near St. Louis, on stocks of the white thorn.

Grapes. - For several years the chief fruit-growing interest of our state seemed to center on the grape - at least, it was more discussed and advocated in fashionably circles, than all the other fruits put together. The anti-prohibition sentiment rallied around the grape-growing industry for the manufacture of native wines, as the great panacea for all the ills and horrors of intemperance. But aside from any matter of sentiment in the case, it does seem as though we excel all other states of the Union in the variety and richness of our grapes, both of native and cultivated varieties.^

From Prof. Swallow's report on the country along the lines of the southwestern branch of the Missouri Pacific railroad, published in 1859, we learn that seven different native grapes have been found in Missouri. 1. Vih's Lahrusca, commonly called " fox grape." The Isabella, Catawba, Schuylkill and Bland's seedling, are cultivated and popular varieties derived from this wild grape. 2. Vitis Aestivalis, or "summer grape." This is found in all parts of the state. 3. Vitis- Cordifolia; winter grape, or "frost grape " as it is more commonly called. 4. Vitis Rifaria, or "river grape," grows along streams and is quite large. 5. Vitis Vul^ina; caWed also Muscadine. It grows mostly in the south part of the state, and is a large fine fruit. The cultivated grape called Scuppernong is derived from this wild variety. 6. Vitis Bifinnata; found in Cape Girardeau and Pemiscot counties. 7. Vitis Jndivisa; found in central and western counties.

There are few or no grasses that are peculiar to Missouri; and fortunately so, for there is no permanent advantage in being adapted to peculiar crops any more than in being a peculiar people. The great blessing's of life are universal and widespread. It results that all the valuable members of this great and beneficial family of plants are adapted to and capable of being introduced and cultivated in this state. Flint, in his standard work on grasses, says: "Whoever has blue grass has the basis of all agricultural prosperity, and that man, if he have not the finest horses, cattle and sheep, has no one to blame but himself. Others, in other circumstances, may do well. He can hardly avoid doing well if hie will try."

Blue grass is indigenous in Missouri. When the timber is removed it springs up spontaneously on the land, and, when the prairie is reclaimed, it soon takes possession and supersedes all other grasses. This famous grass is the foundation on which the mighty stock industry of Kentucky* has been built, and has given a world-renowned reputation to its fine blood horses, cattle and sheep. The combing-wool sheep and the fine mutton breeds have obtained a national reputation for wool and mutton in that state, and their usefulness has but begun. What blue grass has done for Kentucky, it is now doing foi- Missouri. An acre of this grass is worth an acre of corn.

Recent experience has proved that alfalfa or lucerne, that most fattening of all grasses, grows luxuriantly in this region, yielding each year three or four good crops of hay.

As early as 1867, our state board of agriculture reported destruction by grasshoppers (the Rocky Mountain locust,) in the western part of the state the previous fall; and also, that there had been visitations more or less injurious in former years. But their greatest and most grievous invasion occurred" in the fall of 1874, when 33 counties of western Missouri suffered from their ruthless ravages. Our state entomologist, Prof. C. V. Riley, made such a thorough, diligent and masterful study of their origin and habits, and the causes, methods and consequences of their migrations, that he became the standard authority on grasshoppers all over the civilized world. In 1876 the government appointed a special commission of entomologists to investigate the character and movements of these pests, and report for the benefit of the whole infested region, which comprised the country west of St. Paul, Minnesota, Jefferson City, Missouri, and Galveston, Texas, ranging from the Gulf of Mexico on the south, to

* "Kentucky blue grass," (so-called), is not native to that state : it is the same as the English spear grass, the New England June grass, or meadow grass - or, in hotanical language, poa pratensis.

Lake Winnipeg and Manitoba in the British possessions northward, and as far west as the headquarters of the Columbia river. The most prominent scientists on this commission were our own Prof. Riley, and Prof. Samuel Aughey, of the state university of Nebraska. '

The results of this United States commission were little if anything more than a tedious elaboration of what Prof. Riley had presented in three annual reports as state entomologist of Missouri. No new points of any special importance were discovered concerning them. The development of this subject, therefore, belongs to the history of what Missouri has done for science, for agriculture and for the public weal. In his seventh annual report to our state board of agriculture, 1875, Prof. Riley says:

"There is some difference of opinion as to the precise natural habitat and breeding places of these insects, but the facts all indicate that it is by nature a denizen of high altitudes, breeding in the valleys, parks and plateaus of the Rocky Mountain region of Colorado, and especially of Montana, Wyoming and British America. Prof. Cyrus Thomas, who has had an excellent opportunity of studying it, through his connection with Hayden's geological survey of the territories, reports it as occurring from Texas to British America, and from the Mississippi westward to the Sierra Nevada range. But in all this vast extent of country, and especially in the more southern latitudes, there is every reason to'believe that it breeds only on the higher mountain elevations, and where the atmosphere is very dry and attenuated, and the soil, seldom, if ever, gets soaked with moisture. Prof. Thomas found it most numerous in all stages of growth, along the higher valleys and canyons of Colorado, tracing it up above the perennial snows, where the insects must have hatched, as it was found in the adolescent stage. In crossing the mountains in Colorado, it often gets chilled in passing snows, and thus perishes in immense numbers, where bears delight to feast upon it. My own belief is that the insect is at home in the higher altitudes of Utah, Idaho, Colorado, W3foming,> Montana, northwest Dakota, and British America. It breeds in all this region, but particularly on the vast hot and dry plains and plateaus of the last named territories, and on the plains west of the mountains ; its range being bounded, perhaps, on the east by that of the buffalo grass.

" Mr. Wm. N. Byers, of Denver, Colorado, shows that they hatch in immense quantities in the valleys of the three forks of the Missouri river and along the Yellowstone, and how they move on from there, when fledged, in a southeast direction, at about ten miles a day. The swarms of 1867 were traced, as he states, from their hatching grounds in west Dakota, and Montana, along the east flank of the P-ocky Mountains, in the valleys and plains of the Black Hills, and between them and the main Rocky Mountain range. It all this immense stretch of country, as is well known, there are immense tracts of barren, almost desert land, while other tracts for hundreds, of miles bear only a scanty vegetation, the short buffalo grass of the more fertile prairies giving way now to a more luxuriant vegetation along the water courses, now to the sage bush and a few cacti. Another physical peculiarity is found in the fact that while the spring on these immense plains often opens as early, even away up into British America, as it does with us in the latitude of St. Louis, yet the vegetation is often- dried and actually burned out before the first of July, so that not a green thing is to be found. Our Rocky Mountain locust, therefore, hatching out in untold myriads in the hot sandy plains, five or six thousand feet above the level of the sea, will often perish in immense numbers if the scant vegetation of its native home dries up before it acquires wings; but if the season is propitious, and the insect becomes fledged before its food supplies is exhausted, the newly acquired wings prove its salvation. It may also become periodically so prodigiously mmtiplied in its native breeding place, that, even in favorable seasons, everything green is devoured by the time it becomes winged.

" In either case, prompted by that most exigent law of hunger - spurred on for very life - it rises in immense clouds in the air to seek for fresh pastures where it may stay its ravenous appetite. Borne along by prevailing winds that sweep over these immense treeless plains from the northwest, often at the rate of fifty or sixty miles an hour, the darkening locust clouds are soon carried into the more moist and fertile country to the southeast, where, with sharpened appetites, they fall upon the crops like a plague and a blight.

" Many of the more feeble or of the more recently fledged perish, no doubt, on he way, but the main army succeeds, with favorable wind, in bridging over the parched country which offers no nourishment. The hotter and dryer the season, and the greater the extent of the drouth, the earlier will they be prompted to migrate, and the farther will they push on to the east and south.

" The comparatively sudden change from the attenuated and dry atmosphere of five to eight thousand feet or more above the sea level, to the more humid and dense atmosphere of one thousand feet below that level, does not agree with them. The first generation hatched in this low country is unhealthy, and the few that attain maturity do not breed, but become intestate and go to the dogs. At least such is the case in our own state and the whole of the Mississippi valley proper. As we go west or northwest and approach nearer and nearer the insect's native home, the power to propagate itself and become localized, becomes, of course, greater and greater, until at last we reach the country where it is found perpetually. Thus in the western parts of Kansas and Nebraska the progeny from the mountain swarms may multiply to the second or even third generation, and wing their way in more local and feeble bevies to the country east and south. Yet eventually they vanish from off the face of the earth,*nless fortunate enough to be carried back by favorable winds to the high and dry country where they flourish.

" That they often instinctively seek to return to their native haunts is proven by the fact that they are often seen flying early in the season in a northwesterly direction. As a rule, however, the wind which saved the first comers from starvation by bearing them away from their native home, keeps them and their issue to tlite east and south, and thus, in the end proves their destruction. For in the Mississippi valley they are doomed, sooner or later. There is nothing more certain than that the insect is not autochthonous in west Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, or even Minnesota, and that when forced to migrate from its native home, from the causes already mentioned, it no longer thrives in this country."

February 23, 1877, our state legislature passed a law providing for the payment of a bounty at one dollar per bushel in March, fifty cents per bushel in April, and twenty-five cents per bushel in May, for grasshoppers ; and five dollars per bushel for their eggs at any lime. Nebraska did still better, by making ever}^ road supervisor in the state a grasshopper policeman, and giving him authority to call out every man from sixteen to sixty years old, to spend two days killing young grasshoppers from the time they begin to hatch in the spring.

All the grasshopper states now have some sort of protective laws; and if another invasion occurs, by concerted and organized effort the amount of damage suffered can be reduced to a small per cent as compared with our last " plague of the locusts."

It is not certainly known just what modes of navigation were used by the prehistoric mound-builders, although we hare some relics of their time, or possibly of a still earlier race, which are deemed to show that they made wooden dug-outs or troughs, by burning them into a sort of boat-like shape and condition. And it is supposed that, prior to this they lashed together logs or fragments of drift-wood, and made rude rafts upon which they could cross rivers or float' down, but of course could not return with them. Some remains have been found in northwestern Iowa* which are supposed to prove that men used wooden dug-out boats during the age when Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska were the bottom of a vast inland sea or lake, into which the Missouri and Platte rivers emptied their muddy waters and deposited what Prof. Swallow calls the "bluff formation" over these states; and Prof. Whitney found in California undisputable propf of man's existence there a whole geological age prior to the period when the great fresh water Missouri sea existed, (see note to chart, on page 67) ; hence the fact that raft and dugout navigation was in use among the islands and shallows of this immense mud-lake or inland sea, seems not improbable.

However, the modem Indians, before the white man appeared in these western wilds, had the art of making light and elegant canoes of birch bark, and could manage them in the water with wonderful skill. They made long. journeys in them, both up and down stream; and when they wanted to go from one stream to another these canoes were so light that two men could carry one on their shoulders and march twenty or twentyfive miles a day with it if necessary. But they were too light and frail for the freighting service of the white man's commerce.

* Reported to the Amerioiin Association for the Advancement of Science, at its St; Louis meeting, in August, 1878, by W. J. McG-ee, geologist, of Farley, Iowa.

The European explorers of this new world utilized the Indian canoes as far as practicable, often making considerable voyages in them; sometimes two were lashed together b)'^ means of coupling poles laid across on top of them, thus making a boat with two hulls. This rig could not be upset, and was easy to tow or paddle, besides making a sort of overdeck on which to carry baggage. But the thin, frail material was too easily punctured to be safe, and boats made of plank were always in demand. At first the boats were buiU in the "scow" fashion, with full width flat bottom and full width sled-runner bow. But they soon learned that in order to make any headway going up stream they must adopt the keel bottom and water-cutter prow style; and for more than a hundred years the traffic of all our navigable western rivers was carried on mainly by means of what were called keel-boats. The manner of propelling them up stream we have described elsewhere.

The Lewis And Clarke Expedition

The Missouri river was first opened to commerce and geography by Lewis and Clarke, who were commissioned by President Jefferson, in 1803, to explore it. They lift St. Louis May 14, 1804. The outfit consisted of twenty-six men; one keel-boat fifty-five feet long, drawing three feet of water, and provided with one large square sail and twenty-two oars. Also, two open boats, one of six, and one of seven oars. May 16th they were at St. Charles ; on the 25th they reached LaCharrette, a small village sixtjr-five miles above the mouth of the river, not far from where Marthasville, in Warren county, is now located, and which was the last white settlement up the river. June 1st they reached the mouth of the Osage river, which was so called because the Osage tribe of Indians dwelt along its course. June 26th, they reached the mouth of the Kansas river, where Kansas City now flourishes in all her glory, and remained here two days for rest and repairs. The Kansas tribe of Indians had two villages in this vicinity. July 8th they wer« at the mouth of the Nodawa, where now is the village of Amazonia, in Andrew county; and on the 11th they landed at the mouth of the Nemaha river. On the 14th they passed the mouth of the Nishnabotna river, and noted that it was only 300 yards distant from the Missouri at a point twelve miles above its mouth.

This was their last point within the boundaries of the present state of Missouri. St. Louis was then the territorial capital of the whole region they were to explore through to the mouth of the Columbia river on the Pacific coast. This was one of the great exploring adventures of the world's history, and its narrative is full of romantic and thrilling interest, but space forbids its presentation here. The party followed up the entire length of the Missouri river, then down the Columbia to the Pacific ocean, reaching that point November 14th, 1805. Here thej' wintered; and on March 23d, 1806, they started on their return trip by the same route, arriving at St. Louis September 23d, at 12 o'clock - ^not a man missing from the party that first started out; and the people of St. Louis gave them an enthusiastic ovation.

First Steamboats In Missouri

Steam came at last, and revolutionized the business of navigation and commerce throughout the world. The first steamboat that ever lashed the Missouri shore with its waves, or made our river hills and forests echo back her pulsating puffs, was the " General Pike," from Louisville, which landed at St. Louis, August 2, 1817. Such boats had passed a few times up and down the whole length of the Ohio river, and between Louisville and New Orleans, before this, so that the people of St. Louis had heard about them from the keel-boat navigators. They were therefore overjoyed when the first one landed at the foot of their main business street, and thus placed them for the first time in steam communication with the rest of the civilized world. The event was celebrated with the most enthusiastic manifestations of* delight by the ringing of bells, firing of guns, floating of flags and streamers, building of bonfires, etc. The second one, the " Constitution," arrived October 2 ; and from that onward the arrival of steamboats became a very commonplace affair.

The first boat that ever entered the Missouri river was the "Independence," commanded by Captain Nelson. She left St. Louis May 15, 1819, and on the 28th arrived at Franklin, a flourishing young city that stood on the north bank of the Missouri river, opposite where Boonville is now located. There was a U. S. land office at Franklin, and it was the metropolis of the up-Missouri region, or as it was then called, the "Boone's Lick Country."* When this first steamboat arrived the citizens got up a grand reception and public dinner in honor of the captain and crew. The boat proceeded up as far as the mouth of the Chariton river, where there was then a small village called Chariton, but from that point turned back, picking up freight for St. Louis and Louisville at the settlements as she passed down. The town site of Old Franklin was long ago all washed away, and the Missouri river now flows over the very spot where then were going on all the industries of a busy, thriving, populous young city.

The second steamboat to enter the Missouri river (and what is given in most histories as the first) was in connection with Major S. H. Long's U. S. exploring expedition, and occurred June 21, 1819, not quite a month after the trip of the " Independence." Major Long's fleet consisted of four steamboats, the " Western Engineer," " Expedition," " Thomas Jefferson"'and "R. M.Johnson," together with nine keel-boats. The "Jefferson," however, was wrecked and lost a few days after. The

Boone had first explored this region and discovered some rich salt springs, and two of his sons manufactured salt and shipped it from Franklin for several years.

"Western Engineer" was a double stem wheel boat, and had projecting from her bow a figure-head representing a huge open-jawed, red-mouthed, forked-tongued serpent, and out of this hideous orifice the puffs of steam escaped from the engines. The men on board had many a hearty laugh from watching the Indians on shore. When the strange monster came in sight, rolling out smoke and sparks from its chimney like a fiery mane, and puffing great mouthfuls of steam from its wide open jaws, they would look an instant, then yell, and run like deer to hide away from their terrible visitor. They thought it was the Spirit of E^l, the very devil himself, coming to devour them. But their ideas and their actions were not a whit more foolish than those of the sailors on the Hudson river, who leaped from their vessels and swam ashore to hide, when Fulton's first steamboat came puffing and glaring and smoking and splashing toward them, like a wheezy demon broke loose from the bottomless pit. Major Long was engaged five years in exploring all the region between the Mississippi river and the Rocky Mountains which is drained by the Missouri and its tributaries ; and his steamboats were certainly the first that ever passed up the Missouri to any great distance. Long's Peak, in Colorado, 14,272 feet high, was named after him.

From this time forward the commerce and travel by steamboats to and from St. Louis grew rapidly into enormous proportions, and small towns sprung up in quick succession on every stream where a. boat with paddle wheels could make its way. For half a century steamboating was the most economical and expeditious mode of commerce in vogue for inland traffic; and Missouri, with her whole eastern boundary washed by the " Father of Waters," and the equally large and navigable " Big Muddy " meandering entirely across her territory from east to west, and for nearly two hundred miles along her northwestern border, became an imperial center of the steamboating interest and industry.

About 1830 the art of constructing iron-railed traffic-ways, with steampropelled carriages upon them, began^ to be developed in our eastern states. But it was not until 1855 that these new devices for quick transit began to affect the steamboating interests of Missouri. (The first railroads to St. Louis were opened in that year; the railroad history of the state will be found in another place.) Then commenced the memorable struggle of the western steamboat interests, with headquarters at St. Louis, to prevent any railroad bridge from being built across the Mississippi, Missouri or Ohio rivers. They held that such structures would inevitably be an artificial obstruction to the free and safe navigation of these great natural highways. But it was evident enough to clearthinking people that the steamboat business must decline if railroads were permitted to cross the great rivers without the expense of breaking bulk, and this was the " true inwardness " of the anti-railroad bridge combination. The issue was made against the first railroad bridge that ever spanned the Mississippi, the one at Rock Island, Illinois. In a long course of controversy and litigation the railroads came out ahead, and steamboating gradually declined, both in the freight and passenger traffic, to less than half its former proportions.

The Baege System

However, the tables have been turned again ; and now, in 1881, THE BAEGE SYSTEM has suddenly leaped forth to break the threatening power of monopoly which the.' great east and -west railroad lines for a while enjoyed.

The first step in the historic progress of this grand revolution in the commercial relations and connections of the entire Mississippi and Missouri valley regions, was the successful construction of the jetties at the mouth of the Mississippi river by Capt. James B. Eads, a worthy and distinguished citizen of St. Louis. This great enterprise was undertaken by Capt. Eads under an act of congress approved March 3d, J875. It required him to obtain a channel 20 feet deep and 200 feet wide at the bottom, within thirty months from the passage of the act, upon which a payment of $500,000 would be made; and upon obtaining channels of two feet additional depth, with correspondingly increased widths at bottom, until a depth of 30 feet and a width at bottom of 350 feet was secured, payments of $500,000 were to be made, with additional payments for maintenance of channel. The total cost to the government of a channel 30 feet deep by 350 feet wide would be $5,250,000. Capt. Eads was also to receive $100,000 per year for twenty years, to keep the works in repair and maintain the channel.

Before the jetty works were commenced, there existed an immense bar of sand or silt, with a depth of only eight feet of water over it, between the deep water of the Mississippi and the navigable water of the Gulf. But at the close of the year there was a wide and ample ' channel of 23 J feet; and for the greater portion of the distance between the jetties, over this same bar, there was a channel from 28 to 85 feet deep. The scheme has been so entirely successful that it has attained a world-wide celebrity and commercial importance, owing to the fact that the largest class of sea-going vessels can now be towed in and out of the Mississippi river without risk or difficulty; and it is this achievement by our honored fellowcitizen which has made possible the success of the grain-barge system of shipments from St. Louis direct to Europe, that is now revolutionizing the entire trade and commerce of the major half of the United States. The following facts will serve to show what has already been accomplished in this direction.

" There were started from St^ Louis yesterday about eighty trains of ^rain to New Orleans, or what amounts to the same thing, three different barge companies started tows down the river with 567,000 bushels of grain. This amount would have filled about 1,200 railway cars, and would have taken eighty trains of fifteen cars or sixty trains of twenty cars each to transport. All this grain was put into fifteen barges, and a matter of 2,600 tons of miscellaneous freight besides. All these three tow-boats started down the river with a freight list that would have filled between thirteen and fourteen hundred railway cars, and will be delivered to New Orleans in from five to nine days.

"The exact statement of the cost of transportation of flour from St. Louis via New Orleans to Liverpool and to Boston, per barrel, is ninety cents freight and four cents drayage to boat at levee at St. Louis, or ninetyfour cents to Liverpool, while the freight per barrel to Boston by rail, in car-loads- of one hundred and twenty-five barrels, from East St. Louis, is ninety-one cents, or from St. Louis (eight cents transfer across the bridge added,) ninety-nine cents, or five cents less to Liverpool by river and ocean, than by rail to Boston. This rate to Liverpool via New Orleans was negotiated March 30 by the St. Louis, New Orleans and Foreign Dispatch Company."

George H. Morgan, Esq., secretary of the St. Louis "Merchant's Exchange," furnished the writer of this history with the following statement of grain shipments by barge line from St. Louis to New Orleans: 1881. Wheat. Com. Oats. Rye.

Thus it will be seen that the tide has fairly turned ; that St. Louis is now practically a commercial seaport, and will, within the next twelve months, become the greatest grain-shipping city on the American continent.

Railroads In Missouri

RAILROADS IN MISSOURI. The earliest account of any movement in this state with regard to railroads is to the effect that on the 20th of April, 1835, a railroad convention was held in St. Louis, and resolutions were adopted in favor of building two railroads - one from St. Louis to Fayette, in Howard county; and the other one southward to Iron Mountain, Pilot Knob, etc.* The reason for projecting a railroad from St. Louis into the great iron region is obvious enough ; but why they should at that early day have thought of building more than one hundred and fifty miles of railroad to reach a town that was only twelve miles from Old Franklin, on the banks of the Missouri river, is an unsolved mystery. It indicates, at least, that those " early

*The first steam railroad in this country was the Baltimore and Susquehanna line, in 1830; though horse railroads had been used before, especially at coal mines and marble quarries, and in two cases engines had been used on such roads.

fathers" were not under the control of any narrow or shallow views concerning the practical value of railroads, or the future grandeur of Sf. Louis as the central point for all trans-Mississippi traffic. In this first railroad convention ever held west of the Allegheny Mountains there were sixty-four delegates in attendance, representing eleven counties ; but practically nothing ever came of their deliberations.

In 1840 a State Board of Internal Improvement was created, and it made a survey for a railroad from St. Louis to the Iron Mountain, by the way of Big River. February 7th, 1849, Col. Thomas H. Benton, senator from Missouri, introduced into the U. S. senate a bill to provide for the location and construction of a central national road from the Pacific ocean to the Mississippi river, to be an iron railway where practicable, and the rest a wagon way. February 20th, same year, a public meeting was held in St. Louis, which petitioned the legislature for a charter and right-of-way for a railway across the state from St. Louis to the western boundary; and on the 12th of March this charter was granted.

Next a meeting was held which called a national convention at St. Louis to consider the project of a national Pacific railway across the continent. This convention was held October 15, 16, 17, 18, 1849. Fifteen states were represented; the grand project was warmly commended, and a strong memorial sent to Congress asking the public authorities to take some action in the matter.

The Missouri Pacific was the first railroad commenced and first finished in the State. Incorporated March 12, 1849; authorized capital $10,000,- 000; opened to Cheltenham, March 23, 1852; amount of state aid, $7,000,000; St. Louis county aid $700,000; land sold, 127,209 acres; entire length from St. Louis to Kansas City, 382 miles ; total cost, $14,- 382,208.

The successive stages of its construction were: Chartered, March 12, 1859; first ground broken, by Mayor Kennett of St. Louis, July 4, 1851; road opened to Cheltenham, Dec. 23, 1852; to Kirkwood in May, and to Franklin July 23, 1853; completed to Washington, February 11, 1855; to Hermann, August 7, the same year;* and to Jefferson City, March 12, 1856 ; completed to California in Moniteau county, May, 14, 1858; to Tipton, July 26, same year; and to Syracuse, August, 1, 1859; opened to Otter-

*November 1, 1855, a large excursion train left St. Louis to celebrate the opening of the railroad through to Medora station, about twenty miles beyond Hermann. It was a long trainflUed with business men of ths city and their families, and the occasion was one of great festivity and rejoicing. But while the train was cros8ing_ the Gasconade river the bridge gave way, and plunged cars, bridge and people in one mixed and horrible wreck into the gulf of waters flf^ feet down. The president and chief engineer of the road, and -SO prominent citizens of St. Louis were killed, while scores of others were more or less injured. It was the first and the most terrible railroad accident that has ever occurred in the state.

ville, August 24, 1860; to Smithton, November 1, same year; and to Sedalia in February 1861. Here it stopped during the first two years of the war. But Pettis county voted $75,000 to aid it, and Jackson county $200,000. Commenced running trains to Dresden, May 10, 1863; to Warrensburg, July 3, 1864; in 1865 the road was opened to Holden, May 28 ; to Pleasant Hill, July 19 ; to Independence, September 19. Meanwhile work had been going on from Kansas City westward, the two gangs of workmen meeting at Independence; and on this 19th day of September, 1865, the last rail was laid and the last spike driven, which connected Missouri's two principal cities with iron bands unbroken from east to west line of thenoble commonwealth. On the next day, the president of the road Mr. Daniel R. Garrison, left Kansas City at 3 a. m., and arrived in St. Louis at 5 p. M., thus making the first through trip over the completed line.

There is now not a county north of the Missouri river which has not one or more railroads within its limits ; and of the seventy counties south of the Missouri, only 22 have no railroad reaching them. However, new roads and branches are being built each year, so that within a few years every county will be provided with good railroad facilities.

January 1, 1880, there were, in round numbers, 3,600 miles of railroad in operation in the state, embraced in about fifty different main lines and branches, allowned by thirty-five different corporations, and operated by twenty-five different companies, as shown in the following table:

Posta.L And Telegraph Facilities

There are within the state 15,208 miles of postal routes, of which 10,426 miles are by stage and horseback, 575 miles by steamboat, and 4,207 miles by railroad, the whole involving a cost for the year 1878-9 of $768,904. There are 1,700 post towns - ^but four states in the union have a greater number. These are all offices of registration, where letters and parcels can be registered for transmission through the males to all parts of this and foreign countries. In 200 of these post-offices, moneyorders may be purchased, payable at all similar offices in the United States, and a portion of them issue orders drawn on Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, etc.

The following statistics of the capital employed in manufacturing industries, and the amount of production, is collated from careful estimates made in 1876, the latest at hand, although it is well known that great increase of these industries has been made since that date. These estimates showed that the state then contained 14,245 manufacturing establishments, using 1,965 steam engines, representing 58,101 horse-power, 465 water wheels, equaling 7,972 horse-power, and employing 80,000 hands. The capital employed in manufacturing was about $100,000,- 000; the material used in 1876 amounted to about $140,000,000; the wages paid were $40,000,000, and the products put upon, the market were over $250,000,000. Outside of St. Louis the leading manufacturing counties of the state are Jackson, about $2,000,000; Buchanan, $7,000,- 000; St. Charles, $4,500,000; Marion, $3,600,000; Franklin, $3,000,000; Greene, $1,500,000; Cape Girardeau, $1,500,000; Platte, Boone and Lafayette, upwards of $1,000,000 each, followed by several counties nearly reaching the last sum.

Of the manufacturing in Missouri, more than three-fourths is done in St. Louis, which produced, in 1879, about $275,000,000 of manufactured articles. The city has, for some years past, ranked as the third in the United States in the amount of her manufactures, leaving a wide gap between her and Chicago and Boston, each of which cities manufactures a little more than one-half as much in amount as St. Louis, and leaves a doubt as to which of them is entitled to rank as the fourth manufacturing city.

Flour. - In St. Louis there are twenty-four flouring mills, having a daily productive capacity of 11,000 barrels. The total amount of flour received and manufactured by the dealers and millers of St. Louis, in

1879, was 4,154,757 barrels, of which over 3,000,000 were exported. They also made 426,963 barrels of corn meal and 28,595 barrels of hominy and grits. . Of their exports, 619,103 barrels were sent to European nations and to South America.

' Cotton. - There are in the city two mills, which consume from 15,000 to 20,000 bales annually. To supply the manufactured cotton goods annually sold in St. Louis will require mills of ten times the capacity of those now in operation.

Principal Cities

SL Louts is the commercial metropolis not only of the state of Missouri but also of th-e Mississippi and Missouri valley regions of cpuntry; and the history of Missouri is to a very large extent the history of St. Louis. There is- so much concerning this imperial city embodied in other parts of this work that little need be added here.

St. Louis is situated upon the west bank of the Mississippi, at an altitude of four hundred feet above the level of the sea. It is far above the highest floods that ever swell the Father of Waters. Its latitude is 38 deg., 37 min., 28 sec, north, and its longitude 90 deg., 15 min., 16 sec, west. It is twenty miles below the mouth of the Missouri, and 200 above the confluence of the Ohio. It is 744 miles below the falls of St. Anthony, and 1194 miles above New Orleans. Its location very nearly bisects the direct distance of 1,400 miles between Superior City and the Balize. It is the geographical center of a valle}^ which embraces 1,200,000 square miles. In its course of 3,200 miles the Mississippi borders upon Missouri 470 miles. Of the 3,000 miles of the Missouri, 500 lie within the limits of our own state, and St. Louis is mistress of more than 16,500 miles of river navigation. "

, The Missouri Gazette, the first newspaper, was establised in 1808, by Joseph Charless, and subsequently merged in the present Missouri Republican. The town was incorporated in 1809, and a board of trustees elected to conduct the municipal government. In 1812 the territory of Missouri was designated, and a legislative assembly authorized. The Missouri Bank was incorporated in 1814. The first steamboat arrived at the foot of Market street in the year 1815, followed soon by others. In 1819 the first steamer ascended the Missouri, and the first through boat from New Orleans arrived, having occupied twenty-seven days in the trip. In 1821 a city directory was issued. The facts stated in this volume show that the town was then an important and thriving one. In 1825 Lafayette visited the city and received a grand public ovation. This year the United States arsenal and Jefferson barracks were established.

In 1827 there were hardly a dozen German families in St. Louis, where now there are as many thousands of them. In 1830 the population was 6,654. In 1835 the first railroad convention was held. [See page 106.] In 1837 the population was 16,187, and 184 steamboats were engaged in the commerce of the city. The decade between 1840 and 1850 saw increased advancement in all kinds of industry, and in architectural growth. We find that in 1840 there were manufactured 19,075 barrels of flour, 18,656 barrels of whisky, and 1,075 barrels of beef inspected, and other branches of business had cori-espondingly increased. In 1846, the now extensive Mercantile Library was founded. The close of the decade, 1849, brought upon the city the double misfortune of fire and pestilence. On May 19th, the principal business section was swept away by a conflagration originating in a steamboat at the levee; and, during the summer of the same year, the population was scourged by cholera. In 1851, the first railroad enterprise - the building of the Missouri Pacific - was inaugurated, and quickly followed by others. [See page 1-05.] The-decennial increase of population has been as follows:

During 1880 St. Louis received 1,703,874 barrels of flour; manufactured 2,077,625 barrels; and shipped 3,292,803 barrels. Of this amount 975,970 barrels were shipped in sacks to England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Holland, France, Belgium, Germany, Brazil, Cuba and Mexico. During the same year St. Louis shipped 11,313,879 bushels of wheat; and of this amount 5,913,272 bushels went to foreign countries via New Orleans, while the rest went eastward by rail. The receipts of corn were 22,298,- 077 bushels ; shipments, 17,571,322 bushels,»of which 9,804,392 went by barges to New Orleans for foreign ports, 3,157,684 to the south for consumption, and 4 591,944 eastward by rail or Ohio river. The receipts of cotton were 496,570 bales, and shipments 478,219 bales.

The above principal items are gleaned from the commercial pantheon of statistics published in January, 1881, by the Merchants' Exchange of St. Louis.

Kansas Ctiy.-^ln 1724 the Kansas tribe of Indians had their chief town a few miles below the mouth of the Kansas river, and M. DeBourgmont, the French commandant of this region, held a grand peace council with different tribes gathered at this place for the purpose, on July 3d of that year. This is the e.arliest historic record of white men in the vicinity of where Kansas City now stands. In 1 808 the U.S. government established a fort apd Indian agency here, calling it Fort Osage, which was not abandoned until 1825, when the Indian title to a certain strip of country here was extinguished. In 1821 Francis G. Chouteau established a trading post on the Missouri river about three miles below the site of Kansas City, but a flood in the spring of 1826 swept away everything he had, and he then settled six miles up the Kansas river.

The original town plat of Kansas City consisted of 40 acres, and was laid out in 1839. In 1846 some additional ground was laid off, and a public sale of lots netted $7,000, averaging $200 per lot.

The first charter was procured in the winter of 1852-3, and in the spring of 1853 was organized the first municipal government. The first established newspaper made its appearance in 1854, with the title of the " Kansas City Enterprise," now known as the " Kansas City Journal." During the years 1855-6-7, the border troubles very visibly affected the prosperity of the city, so that business in those years did not exceed, all told, the sum of $2,000,000; but at the close of the struggle, in 1857, business began to revive, and it was then stated, in the St. Louis " Intelligencer," that she had the largest trade of any city of her size in the world. This may be distinguished as the great steamboat era. It was estimated that, in the year 1857, one hundred and twenty-five boats discharged at the Kansas City levee over twenty-five million pounds of merchandise. In May of this year, also, the steamboats were employed to carry the United States mail, and in 1858 the first telegraph pole in Jackson county was erected.

The first bank established in Kansas City was a branch of the Mechanics' Bank, of St. Louis, organized May 1, 1859, and the second was a branch of the Union Bank, organized in July of the same year. The first jobbing dry goods house opened in July, 1857. The first city loan for local improvement was made in 1855, amounting to $10,000, all taken at home, and expended in improving and widening the levee ; and, in 1858, another loan of $100,000 for street improvements. Only in the matter of railroads was Kansas City seriously affected by the panic of 1857; government moneys, immigration over the border, and the New Mexican trade tiding her safely over the sea of financial excitement and prostration. She had also become, even as early as the year 1854, a noted mart for the purchase and sale of live stock, the immense freighting across the plains inviting trade in this direction, arid in the annual reviews of the papers it is said that, in 1857, the receipts for that year, in mules and cattle, were estimated at $200,000, and also that, in 1858, about 20,000 head of stock cattle were driven here from Texas and the Indian territory. In 1857 over six hundred freighting wagons left Kansas City with loads for Santa Fe, New Mexico.

St. Joseph railroad, the Kansas Pacific railroad, the Kansas City, Lawrence & Southern railroad, the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Gulf railroad, the Chicago & Alton railroad, the Atchison & Nebraska railroad, the Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs railroad, the Missouri Pacific railway, the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railway, the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific railway, the Atchison, Topeka & Sante Fe railroad, the Kansas City & Eastern railroad, (narrow gauge). The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad has extended its road to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and to Guyamas, on the Pacific coast ; to San Francisco, California, and is building to the City of Mexico.

The elevator storage capacity in the city January 1, 1881, was 1,500,- 000 bushels. In 1879 about 1,600 new buildings were erected, costing $1,500,000. The U. S. postoflSce and custom house building cost $200,-

000. The union depot building cost $300,000. The Kansas City stock yards rank as second only to those of Chicago in the extent and completeness of their facilities for the cattle trade.

St. Joseph. In 1803 Joseph Robidon, a French fur trader, located here, and continued to occupy his place and trade with the Indians for 33 years. Up to 1843 the place contained only two log cabins, and a small flouring mill on Black Snake creek. In June, 1843, Mr. Robidoux received his title from the government to 160 acres of land, and laid out the city, which was called St. Joseph in his honor, and not, as is commonly supposed, in honor of the Saint Joseph of the church calendar. January

St. Joseph is situated on the east bank of the Missouri, 545 miles from its mouth, 2,000 miles from the great falls, nearly 1,300 miles below the mouth of the Yellpwstone, 310 miles from St. Louis by railroad, with which it is connected by three different lines, and 565 miles from St. Louis by river; but it is only 180 miles on an air line from the Mississippi river. The latitude of St. Joseph is 39 degrees 47 minutes north, and the same parallel passes through Indianapolis, and within less than four miles of Denver, Colorado, Springfield, Illinois, and the famous Mason and Dixon's line, separating Maryland and Pennsylvania, reaching the Atlantic coast half way from Cape May to New York City, and the Pacific, two degrees

statistics are gathered mostly from the able annual reports of W. H. Miller, Esq., who has been secretary of the Kansas City Board of Trade continuously since 1873.

north of San Francisco, nea:r Cape Mendicino. A straight line drawn on the map from Augusta, the capital of Maine, to San Diego in California, passes through Detroit, Chicago, and St. Joseph, and this last city is just halfway from end to end of this line

St. Joseph has an altitude of about 1,030 feet above the sea, which is 200 feet higher than St. Paul, 400 feet higher than Chicago, and nearly 600 feet higher than St. Louis. The city is romantically and beautifully 'situated, the business portion lying in a huge basin on a great bend in the Missouri river, while tfie residence part of the city clambers up the mound-shaped hills, which rise on all sides like a vast amphitheater.

The wholesale and retail trade is figured above $40,000,000 annually, while it is said that there are no fewer than eight commercial houses which have a cash capital of $1,000,000 each. It is stated on reliable authority, that there is handled at this point 1.5,000,000 bushels of corn, 5,000,000 of wheat, 250,000 rye, and 500,000 barley, per annum. The stock yards cover seven acres, and belong to a stock company. There are received at the yards 120,000 to 150,000 hogs per annum, and 10,000 to 12,000 cattle. The figures do not include direct shipments to several . large packing houses, which will increase the number of hogs to 300,000. There are four packing houses in the city - one having a capacit}?- of ] 5,000 hogs per day.

The railroad lines which connect St. Joseph with the rest of the business world are the Hannibal & St. Joseph, the pioneer road of the state, extending east across the entire state to Hannibal and Quincyon the Mississippi river ; the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific, forming a direct line to St. Louis; the St. Joseph & Western, extending across the great iron bridge, through Kansas and Nebraska, to a junction at Giand Island with the Union Pacific, of which it is really a part ; the Missouri Pacific, another connecting line with St. Louis; the Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs, extending south to Kansas City and north to Omaha, with its Nodaway Valley branch, extending througli the Nodaway valley, and its Chicago branch, making connection with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy; the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe; the St. Joseph & Des Moines, now owned and operated by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy; the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, and the Atchison & Nebraska.

Position And Natural History

The county of Saline is situated in a vast bend of the Missouri river, which bounds it upon three sides, north, east and west, and occupies very nearly the geographical center of the state, upon the 39th parallel of latitude, and between 93d and 94th meridian.* The county is exactly bounded as follows: northwest, north and east by the Missouri river, west by Lafayette county, southeast by Cooper, and south by Pettis county. The Chicago & Alton railroad, from Chicago to Kansas City, crossing the Missouri river at Glasgow, on the eastern boundary ot the county, passes centrally through it from east to west, thus locating it upon one of the great trunk railway lines from the east to the west - the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. Saline county is centrally situated in what is known as central Missouri, probably the richest body of farming lands in the United States. It is indeed, as described by the Chicago Commercial Advertiser i "the classic ground of American agriculture, and for depth, availability and wealth of soil, versatility and bounty of production and beautv of landscape, is surpassed by no farm region of the habitable world."

The advantages which nature has placed within reach of the citizens of this richly dowered county, are so multifarious that he is enabled to dig deeply or to skim the surface for wealth, with the almost certain assurance of finding it there. Agriculture will richly reward him - or, if he goes deeper, there are inexhaustible mines of coal and lead. The general surface of the county is that of high, rolling prairie, with high bluflFs and rich bottoms bordering the streams. Along Blackwater and in the eastern part of the county there is some rough hilly country.

But the two most remarkable exceptions to the generally undulating surface are "the Pinnacles," in Miami township, and the Petite Saw Plains, in Grand Pass township. The Pinnacles are a range of high river bluffs, rising abruptly from the Missouri river, just above the town of Miami, and ending with equal abruptness on the south, in one of the

* The county lies between latitude 38 deg., 52 min., and 39 deg., 30 min., and longitude 15 deg., 55 min., and 16 deg., 80 min., west from Washington, as determined by Mr. A. J. Pickett. The town of Marshall is in latitude 39 deg., 3 min., and longitude 16 deg., 15 min.

loveliest and most fertile prairies that ever charmed the eye of man. The Petite Saw Plains embrace a high and almost level table of land some six or seven miles long, and averaging about three miles wide. This plateau rises from the Missouri riyer bottom by an abrupt bluff, is elevated above the bottom about forty feet and contains a rich alluvial soil that for depth and fertility has probably no superior in the world. In the old ante-bellum hemp period of Saline these plains were almost ignored, the old hemp-raisers believing that land so level must be wet. Since the war these rich alluvial lands have been largely purchased by sturdy farmers from Ohio, and they now rank as among the very best farming lands in the county, and command the highest prices.

Of the range of the Pinnacles there are several bluff hills, having different names, such as the " Devil's Back-bone," " Sugar Loaf," " Potato Hill," etc. The " Devil's Back-bone " is a high, bold bluff, one hundred and fifty feet high, running from north to south, and situated just at the turn or end of the river bottom, known as the Laynesville bottom. The top of this pinnacle is a ridge, something like a hay-rick in shape, its rugged appearance and its back-bone similitude giving it its name. The " Potato Hill " is a little higher than the " Devil's Back-bone," and its name also indicates its shape, which is like an ordinary potato hill. It is due south of the " Back-bone." Still a little higher than the " Potato HiU " is the " Sugar Loaf," near which, or rather out of which, wells the ebbing and flowing spring.

Notwithstanding the general prairie character of the county, a vast belt of timber land, of from one-half to six miles wide, fringes the Missouri river, and corresponding belts fringe all the lesser streams, of which there are many. The largest of these lesser streams is Blackwater river - or Black-fork of the LaMine, which enters the county at Salt Pond township, the southwest corner, and passes through Salt Pond and Liberty townships, divides Salt Fork and Blackwater, and flows into the La Mine, in Cooper county, a short distance from the Saline line. Blackwater averages, in Saline, about 100 feet in width,, but is useless for navigation. The next most important - or rather the most important stream - for it drains much the largest portion of the county - is Salt Fork creek, a tributary of Blackwater, entering the county from Lafayette, in township 60, range 23, Grand Pass township ; it flows in a general southeasterly direction through the central portion of the county, and enters the Blackwater on the line between the Salt Fork, Blackwater and Arrow- Rock townships, and a few miles above where the Blackwater passes out of Saline into Cooper county. Following its meanders, the length of this stream in the county is from fifty to sixty miles ; and one remarkable feature connected with it is, that soon after it enters the county, it approaches so near the Missoiiri river, that a stout boy can easily throw a stone across the divide. This divide or passage is what is known as the Grand Pass, about a mile and a half long, from w;hich the creek turns off in an easterly and southeasterly direction, and hs waters do not reach the Missouri until they find it through the LaMine. During the unusual freshet of 1875, Salt Fork broke over at the lowest portion of this divide of the Grand Pass, and for several days a large part of the surplus waters of the creek flowed into the small lakes or ponds, with which the Missouri river bottom here abounds. No channel was cut, however, through the divide, and when the waters subsided, the bed of the creek and the Grand Pass resumed their former position, aspect, and relation to each other. By digging a canal thirty or thirty-five feet deep and about one hundred and fifty yards long. Salt Fork could be permanently turned into the Missouri river, at this point, and thereby cut off" from all the rest of the county.

Davis creek, at the mouth of which the town of Brownsville is situated, is also one of the largest tributaries of Blackwater, but as it enters Saline from Lafayette at its southwest corner and enters Blackwater just at Brownsville, it runs but a short distance in the county. There are a vast number of smaller streams flowing into the Blackwater, Davis, Salt Fork and into the Missouri river, but scarcely important enough for especial mention here, except to state that, in almost every instance, no matter how insignificant, these streams are skirted with belts of timber.

Salt Branch, though no larger than many other streams in the county, is remarkable for taking its rise in the " Great Salt Springs," in Elmwood township, and from the extreme saltness of its waters, which enter Salt Fork, in Grand Pass township, about ten miles after it enters the county, and impart to it that saline character, from which it takes its name, " Salt Fork of Blackwater." Above the mouth of Salt Branch, in Grand Pass township, the waters of Salt Fork are sweet and without a trace of salt, while, below the mouth of Salt Branch, the water is so decidedly salty that stock having access to it never require to be salted.

Timber

It being a prairie county, the timber of Saline is, of course, not so abundant as in many other counties, but there is sufficient for all the present wants of the people. In fact, the increase in the growth ' of timber has been much greater than the increase of the demand. With every year the demand for timber as fuel decreases, and that for coal increases ; and when the coal fields of this county become systematically worked, the demand for wood as fuel will, in a great measure, cease. The original timber growth is almost entirely confined to the margins of the streams; but the streams are numerous, and there are but few points on the prairie where the distance to timber is more than four or five miles. Besides, since the prairies have all been put under cultivation, and the prairie fires have ceased, timber has grown spontaneously and rapidly in many places, and now, wherever the spectator may locate himself upon the beautiful rolling prairies, spfendid groves of timber will greet and rest his eye in every direction.

The timber growth of Saline county embraces most of the species common to the temperate zone : Hickory, black ash, black and white walnut, oak of a dozen different varieties, cottonwood, red and white elm, sycamore, birch, buckeye, coffee-bean, linn, water-maple, hackberry, willow, pecan, wild cherry, etc., all grow spontaneously and abundantly. Heretofore, as in aU new countries, where timber is abundant, there has been a great wastage of the best timber, and millions of rails split from the best order of black walnut, oak, cherry, etc., are lying in the old-fashioned worm fences, rotting away, and the men who own them purchase their walnut, oak, or cherry furniture, from manufactories a thousand miles to the east of them.

In the fall of the year the vast wooded bottoms along the Missouri river, and most of the larger streams, abound in pecans, hickorynuts, and "mast" of nearly every kind. Wild grapes, summer grapes and fox grapes, flourish and bear luxuriantly in all the woodlands. The cottonwood is the most common growth of all, perhaps - especially since the prairies have been settled. Wherever permitted to do so, in the last fifty years, groves of cottonwood have sprung up, and grown rapidly into tall

Soil And Productions

The soil of Saline county consists chiefly of a rich black loam, varying from twelve to thirty-six inches in depth, and gradually shades off into a yellow fine loam from ten to twenty feet in depth, which is a porous subsoil, of the greatest advantage to the farmer, enabling him practically to defy the vicissitudes of the seasons. Saline has been often, and with more than usual justice, called "the garden of Missouri." There is no other county in the state that contains so large an area of rich and productive lands, and so small a percentage of waste lands. It is chiefly undulating prairie, the proportion of prairie to woodland being about as three to one - except the southeastern portion of the county, where the woodland exceeds the prairie, and some of the oldest and finest farms have been cleared from the virgin forest.

Whether for agriculture or for raising stock, Saline has few equals and no superior. The soil yields with marvelous bounty to the hands of the cultivator. Hemp has always been the western test for first-class soil, and previous to the war, when slave labor was employed, hemp was largely grown in this county. No county in the state contains so large an area of hemp land. Since the war, corn has become the chief staple, though the acreage of wheat has steadily increased, and it actually now disputes with King Corn for the crown. The yield of corn is wonderful, averaging one year with another, the county over, as much as fortj^ bushels per acre. In 1875, a premium having been offered for the best ten acres of corn grown in Saline, the average yield of the eighteen or twenty contestants was over one hundred bushels per acre, and the premium ten acres averaged one hundred and twenty-four bushels to the acre. Seventy-five bushels to the acre is no unusual yield, and the farmer grumbles greatly if his farm yields him less than fifty bushels.

The yield of wheat varies from fifteen to forty bushels per acre, and all the other cereals, such as oats, barley, etc., make a rich and profitable return to the husbandman. In the eastern and northeastern portions of the county tobacco is* successfully and profitably cultivated ; but like hemp, its cultivation has fallen off since compulsory labor could no longer be obta^ied.

The cultivated grasses, such as Hungarian, millet, clover, etc., yield enormously, while blue grass springs up spontaneously and flourishes luxuriantly wherever a spot of land ceases to be cultivated. The wild prairie grasses, of which there were many varieties, which once covered threefourths of the county, are fast disappearing before the blue grass.

All the fruits that grow in the temperate climate, flourish in Saline, especially in the " loess " soil, which embraces about two-thirds of the county. Previous to the war comparatively but few orchards had been planted, but since that time, they have been set out upon almost every farm, and now there are apples enough grown to supply all of central Missouri. Apples, peaches, pears, cherries, nectarines, plums, etc., flourish everywhere in the county, but especially in the eastern and northeastern portion.

Water

Until recent years the farmers and citizens of Saline county have depended almost entirely for water upon shallow, surface wells, and as a consequence the drinking water has been very inferior, and more or less impregnated with miasma. Scattered in difterent portions of the county there are some splendid natural springs, as, for instance, "Riser's Spring" near Riser's bridge over Salt Fork, on the Marshall and Lexington state road, about eight miles west of Marshall. This is a large bold spring, gushing from the creek blufTin a stream as thick as a man's arm. It has never been known to fail, and for nearly half a century has supplied all the farmers in the vicinity with drinking and stock water. During the trying droughts of 1878, 1879 and 1880, when most of the surface wells and springs failed, the people of Saline have had their attention forcibly turned to deeply bored wells, and wind-mill pumps. At the average depth of one hundred feet, the river level - most excellent water is invariably obtained - cold, pure and free from any trace of miasmata . CLIMATE, RAIN-FALL, ETC.

Saline county is situated on the 39th parallel of latitude, and between the 93d and 94th meridian west from Greenwich (or to give its latitude and longitude exactly, is situated between 38 degrees 52 minutes, And 39 degrees 20 minutes, north latitude - and between 15 degrees 55 minutes, and 16 degrees 30 minutes longitude west from Washington,) and its climate may be called temperate, with occasional extremes of both heat and cold. The winters are usually about four months in length, from December 1st to April 1st; they are sometimes mild and dry - sometimes mild and wet - often changeable, alternating warm and cold - and sometimes long unbroken cold of from four to five months, as the winter of 1880-81, The first two months of the spring, March and April, are generally cold and changeable, with May warm and salubrious. During the latter part of June, and all of July the summers are generally fiercely hot, the thermometer ranging fi-om 86 degrees to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. In August, the summer heats begin gradually to subside, until September, which with October, is the most delightful season of the year in Saline. The Indian summer begins late in October, or early in November, and the weather often continues mild and charming until Christmas. There is no section of the United States where the autumns are so delightful as in Saline, and central Missouri generally.

There is really little difference between the climate of this county and that of more eastern states on the same parallel ot latitude, except perhaps during the fall season, in which Saline has greatly the advantage. Following is given a record of the range of the thermometer during a period of thirty years, as carefully compiled by Mr. Jesse J. Ferril, one of the old settlers of the county. In 1850 there was frost and ice on the 7th day of Maj-. January 18, 1852, at sunrise mercury stood at 18 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. April 6th, snow fell to the depth of six inches - ^^while ice, mingled with dead buffalo ran thick in the river for several days.

The winter of 1871-2 was long and very cold, continuing from the 19th of November to the 6th of February, with only four days between in which the thermometer rose above the freezing point. The winter of 1875-6 was the warmest that had been known for forty years, the mercury ranging in December and January Irom 26 to 63 degrees Fahrenheit at 6 A. M.

Rain-Fall

The following table exhibits the amount of rain falling on the earth each year during a period of thirty-three or thirty-four years, at the town of Miami, in this county, as kept by Mr. Jesse J. Ferrill, beginning with the year 1847:

1877 - October, 8.53; November, 2.42; December, 3.46, which is a total of 14.41 for three months, the greatest fall of any three months during the thirty-three years.

There is a remarkable feature peculiar to a great number of the natural springs of this county, the strong impregnation of their waters with common salt. This saline character of so many diflerent springs in different parts of the county, first suggested the name of the county, as well as the names of several of its most important streams. Some of these springs are impregnated with sulphur and other minerals, but the largest portion of them contain only muriate of soda, or common salt. "Nearly all of the mineral springs observed in this county," says Prof. Meek, "are found along streams which have excavated their valleys down nearly or quite to the lower carboniferous rocks, or through these into the upper Devonian. * * I do not think from this fact, however, that the salines of this county have their origin in their lower carboniferous or upper Devonian rocks, which are generally not very thick here, but that they are probably more deeply seated, and merely find more ready outlets through the fissures in these limestones whefe they are not overlaid by the impervious clays of the coal measures." These springs are very numerous, and are scattered all over the county; but the most remarkable of them all is what is known as the "Big Salt spring," in Elm wood township, section 2.0, township 50, range 22, about eight or nine miles west of Marshall, and forming the head of Sak branch. They are situated in a circular depression of the surrounding high prairie, the depression being as much as eighty or eighty-five feet. On either side of this valiey the hills are made up of coal measure rocks, while in the valley below, the soil is composed of light-colored clay. There are several of these large salt springs, and many smaller ones more or less impregnated with sulphur and other minerals, all of which find an outlet in the salt branch. The largest of these is a circular pool measuring about 60 feet in its greatest diameter; this is the famous White spring, of which there is a legend, that many years ago a teamster with his wagon and yoke of cattle was passing near by, and seeing the pool turned to it to water his cattle. The oxen being hot and thirsty, rushed into the pool to drink, and that was the last ever seen of cattle, wagon or teamster. This spring was for a long time thought to be too deep to be sounded, but it has since been found to be only about 25 to 30 feet deep. It flows in a bold stream of 30 cubic inches, and is kept in a constant state of ebulition by the escape of gases, which appear to boil up from the bottom. The water has a strong saline taste, and an odor of hydro-sulphuric acid, depositing a white fiocculent precipitate. The general appearance of the water is white, but it varies a good deal in this respect, sometimes being nearly clear. Near by, to the south, is what is known as the "Blue Spring," which is about 30 feet in diameter and almost perfectly round. It is twenty to twenty-five feet deep, more strongly saline than the White spring, more deeply impregnated with sulphurous gases, but differs from it in the clear, limpid character of its water. It is this limpid clearness that gives its name of the Blue spring. This water is so strongly impregnated with sulphuretted-hydrogen gas that it will blacken silver in a few seconds.

Salt was manufactured here by the early settlers by simply boiling down the water in kettles, when communication with St. Louis was difficult and dangerous, and consumed a long period of time. There was also one attempt, by Mr. Jones, to manufacture salt here by solar evaporation, a good many years ago, which resulted in failure, only because of the very limited means of the gentleman who made the attempt. ' At that early day, timber for making vats had to be wagoned a long distance, the expense being very heavy, and the enterprise too great for the purse behind it. But now, with the C. & A. R. R. almost touching the springs, and all the more modern means of transportation, there is no reason why salt should not be manufactured here in larger quantities than at the Onandaga salt works in New York, where by solar evaporation alone 600,000 bushels of salt are made annually. The cost of operation at these is springs, where the supply of water is absolutely unlimited, and the location several degrees further south, cannot but be far less than at Onandaga, while the salt has been proved to be of the very finest quality. It was even attempted, and to some extent successfully carried out during the late war between the sections, when it was almost impossible for the citizens to obtain salt and other necessaries from the east. The crude attempts at manufacture heretofore made, have, however, tested the capacity of this water, and there is little doubt that salt^ will yet be manufactured here in enormous quantities. These springs are located in section 20, township 50 and range 22.

Due west from the old fort, in township 52, range 21, on the farm of Mr. A. J. Vanmeter, there is a remarkable spring, that ebbs and flows with as much regularity as the tides of the ocean. This spring is just under the, Pinnacles bluff, and about midway of the range. Its flood is between the new moon and the first quarter in each month, when it bubbles up from the center with considerable force, throwing up sand, leaves and sticks, and flows out in a channel about sixteen feet wide by one foot deep. When it is quiet it is circular in form, and about ten feet in diameter, and is very deep - indeed, it is so deep that its bottom has never been reached by the means for sounding which could be obtained on an ordinary country farm. When it begins to flow it belches up in the center and bubbles like a pot of soap, and then runs ofT like a mill-race. For about three hours it bubbles up and flows rapidly, and then ebbs back to its former station - ebbing and flowing during the dryest as well as the wet seasons. In winter it often freezes over when quiet, but when the new moon comes it bursts its icy fetters and wells up with considerable force.

Sweet Springs

Naturally Saline, county embraces a self sustaining empire in itself. Nearly all the necessary wants of man, and many of the luxuries, may here be dug from the soil, or are supplied by nature ready to his hand. Few counties in all this broad land have been so bountifully supplied by nature. All that is necessary for man to eat and wear may be grown from the soil. Coals for fuel and manufacturing purposes are here without limit.

Sweet Water Springs. The larger portion of the county rests upon abounding coal measures, that are inexhaustible for thousands of years to come. Salt, that great and universal necessity, can here be made, whether by heat or evaporation, in quantities sufficient to supply the world almost, and at cheaper rates than the county now purchases it from the north and east. And, should the citizens of this favored county become sick, nature supplies them with healing remedies. A cave in the eastern part of the county, Clay township, supplies pure nitre - many valuable medicinal herbs grow wild and may be had for the gathering - while a thousand mineral and chalybeate springs bubble up spontaneously in every portion of the county; the most important and most famous of which are the celebrated Sweet Springs, in Salt Pond township, section 14, township 48, range 23, near the town of Brownsville, in the southwestern corner of the county.

Hotel, Sweet "Water Springs. These springs are very near the geographical center of the state, in an elevated healthy region, fully 500 feet above St. Louis, and were formerly owned by Rev. J. L. Yantis, an eminent Presbyterian minister. Some years ago the land embracing these springs, about thirty acres, was purchased by a number of gentlemen, formerly the Sweet Springs company, who have since built a spacious hotel, many cottages, and in niany ways have highly adorned and beautified the grounds, and now, both as to beauty and reputation they will vie with any of the older watering resorts of the east. The springs proper flow from a limestone ledge on the banks of Blackwater - but within a radius of five miles, taking the hotel as the center, there are almost innumerable springs containing salt, sulphur, iron, magnesia and other valuable minerals. The chief medicinal springs are the Sweet, within the grounds, and the "Akesion," a short distance down the river, a pleasant drive from the hotel, which are amply fitted up for bath- ing and swimming. This " Akesion Spring," abounds in chlorides, nitrates, sulphates, carbonates, etc. Below is the exact analysis of this famous spring:

As will be seen from the above analysis, there is a close correspondence between the waters of this Akesion Spring and the mineral waters of Hamburg Kissingen, in Germany, and as the name Akesion mtimates, they have great healing properties, and act admirably in all diseases of the stomach, bowels, kidneys, bladder, and diseases peculiar to females.

Sweet Spring Water

The ingredients of this spring, as ^ven above, differ materially from all other known springs, resembling more nearly the ingredients of the King's Well at Bath, England, than any of the American or German springs of celebrity. The waters of this spring are limpid and have a pure, sweetish taste. Their action is strongly diuretic, and have exhibited wonderful curative and tonic properties upon dyspepsia, dysentery, diarrhea, diseases of the kidneys and urinary organs, and many of the diseases peculiar to women.

These springs will yet be the Saratoga of the Mississippi valley, and there is every reason why they should become so. The present Sweet Springs Company, composed chiefly of D. W. and Leslie Marmaduker have already expended many thousands of dollars upon the buildings and grounds, and are constantly adding to their improvements, beautifying and adorning. An elegant hotel, with every modern appointment, is ever ready for guests, to vi^hich, more recently, a long line of beautiful cottages has been added. The health-giving properties of the waters of both the Sweet and Akesion springs are far superior to the Saratoga waters, as will be evident to any experienced medical man on an examination of the different analyses, and they are surpassed by none in America, not even the famous Hot Springs of Arkansas.

The saltpetre cave, to which allusion has been made, is located on Mr. Thornton's place on Fish creek. This cave yields pure nitre, but like many of the most valuable productions from nature's laboratory in this county, has never been utilized.

The geological structure of this county, ascending, is first, Silurian - saccharoidal - sandstone and Trenton limestone; second, Devonian - semi-crystalline Umestone, and Cooper marble; third. Carboniferous - chouteau limestone; encrinital limestone, Archimedes limestone, ferruginous sandstone and coal measures; and fourth, Quaternary - drift, bluff or loess deposit, and alluvium of Missouri valley. These lower rocks exhibit little evidence of disturbance, and generally have a horizontal appearance to the eye, except in one locality about six miles north of Arrow Rock, on the river, where there has evidently been an upheaval, bringing the saccharoidal sandstone and Trenton limestone above the surface at the river, while at Arrow Rock below and Cambridge above, the lower carboniferous is again seen at the water's edge, which indicates a distinct north and south dip from that place. The saccharoidal sandstone as it here projects, is known over that region as the " salt Vock," from its resemblance to common salt, is the oldest rock to be seen in the county, and this is, probably, the only place where it can be seen. The Trenton limestone, which here appears just over the saccharoidal sandstone, is a reddish, impure and crystalline Hmestone,jfull of white quartz and calcspar. This and one other, a half mile above, are probably the only out-croppings of this rock in the county.

Devonian

Semi-crystalhne Limestone, is a grayish, granular limestone, presenting a rough, irregular fracture, with a semi-crystaUine appearance. It may be seen in the bluff, about a mile and a half below the mouth of Fish creek, section 36, township 51, range 19, where it reposes upon the Silurian rpcks.

Carboniferous

Chouteau limestone is a pure, compact grey limestone, which nearly equals the encrinital in thickness. It is generally hidden by other carboniferous rocks, except in a few instances where the streams have excavated their beds so as to bring it into view. It is oftenest exposed along Blackwater in the southwestern portion of the county, at the mouth of Salt Fork, for instance, and in section 32, township 49, range 20, where a bluff 200 feet in height exhibits it, with other rocks above and below. The blufts on Cow creek and Rock creek also expose this limestone.