| 189 is quite pure, and the health of the people good. The crops this year are better than further north, the wet spring damaging them less; though much of the corn was planted two and three times, owing to the depredations of the field mouse, which destroyed the seed after planting. It is fifty miles overland from Independence.
Lamoni is about one hundred and thirty miles north and east of Independence, and is on the prairie west and south from Grand River. The land is good, so is the water; wood is easily obtained. The crops this year were injured by the wet spring, but at present writing the promise is quite fair, though not so good as further south, except the grass, which is much the same. The prairie lands are only a trifle more rolling than immediately about Stewartsville, and no more so than the north of Dekalb County, though not so flat as some parts of Clinton County. Fruit was best about Independence; so was the corn. Jackson County, about Independence, is the best watered and timbered, and contains the best site probably for city purposes. Decatur and Dekalb Counties offer the best farming lands and localities, as far as we went. Land ranges much the same in price, and is all the way from four to sixty-five dollars per acre, owing to the "lay of the land," its location, and its improvements; and in respect to prices for suitable farming land, neither locality has a preference. So far as we can judge from what we saw, there is more land still open for settlement in large bodies in Decatur and Ringgold, the next county west, Iowa, than in Dekalb and Buchanan, Missouri, and far more in Dekalb and Gentry than in Jackson. No land can be bought in either place near to railway communication at very cheap rates, as all eligible lands, including those belonging to the railroad companies, are marked, and prices set thereon according to their value. Many already holding farms are willing to sell, and various causes are assigned therefor. About Stewartsville, some who have settled on railroad lands have failed to make payments; some because of indolence and neglect, others by reason of a failure of the crops, the grasshoppers having gathered two harvests for them. These will sell: some cheaply, others not so; and he who buys must meet the railway claims. Taxes in Missouri, this year, were less than in Iowa, notwithstanding the heavy debt of the State, the assessment being less. Iowa is out of debt, and proposes to keep out, hence heavy assessments, which must decrease as her land fills up. Cattle look better in Northern Missouri and Southern Iowa, than in the counties further south, and the pasturage on the prairie is better than in the timber. Hogs are permitted free range in Missouri, but not in Iowa.
Quite a number of German Saints have settled in Dekalb County, near to Stewartsville; and they would be glad to receive others who may be desirous of getting with the church. They deem that they are in the "regions round about," and are proposing to help build up Zion. . . .
Lamoni, and the settlement in Decatur County, Iowa, is just north of the Missouri line, and was at the time the command to gather into the
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