are having a regular Iowa storm.  When you write to me don't forget to write about the storms & weather generally.  We have had severe weath for the last three weeks, snow & cold then rain & mud then cold & snow.  This is not the mild & pleasant winters of California & the poorest & most miserable looking country I ever saw.  The whole country is covered with a kind flint & cinder or melted flint.  There are exceptions on the River & Creek bottoms where there is some verry land & the setlers raise good corn & wheat a poor quality of small potatoes & turnips.  But as for chickens they cultivate a good quality of which we appropriate very freely.  We have some splendid messes of chicken soup.  The 21 & 22nd Iowa are here, & will be Brigaded with the 23rd under Col Stone, & Brigadier Gen Fitz Henry Warren.  They are from Rolla here & from what they say of the country it is if posible a more barren country than we have seen, you have heard a great deal said about cheap lands in Missouri.  From St Louis as far as I have seen & from St Louis to Rolla & in fact all of the south East half of the state is a poor barren, rocky, worthless country
