mw^m^n-^A me ■■ ■ C" / I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. # ^■iwz ¥^^' \ i # ^UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.^ ,1 \. ^'' iFffaff. fmS little book is designed to anticipate and answer many of the questions which would be asked by persons contemplating a removal from some other region to Kansas. At the same time it has been my purpose to convey information which will be of service not only to Kansas immigrants but to all other immigrants as well. For instance, the articles upon " The Survey of Government Lands," indorsed by the Surveyor General of Kansas; and upon "Acquiring Title to Government Lands," in- dorsed by the United States Land Officers, are intended to be so explicit that with their help any person may locate Government Land by its corners, and then take proper steps to acquire a title by any of the various methods established by Government. I have endeavored to be strictly impartial as relates to different localities in Kansas, and have written as if addressing an intimate friend who was entirely ignorant concerning the subjects discussed. It is designed to furnish a hand-book which will be worth all its costs to any person interested in the "West. Vi PREFACE. This book is the outgrowth of experience in rela- tion to the matters of which it treats, and the reader is requested to bear in mind that it is not written by a professional author. It is hoped that upon this ground its many defects will be more leniently regarded. The map has been drawn and engraved with great care, and everything upon it is from official sources excepting the proposed railroad lines. With this exception it is intended to be strictly accurate, and it is probable that most of the projected roads will be constructed in a few years. I gladly record my gratitude to the numberless friends who have rendered valuable service in fur- nishing material for this work, and especially to the members of the Legislature of 1871, which almost without dissent appropriated twenty-five hundred dollars to aid in its publication. Without these kind offices on the part of my friends and those who desire to see the State correctly described, it would have been impossible to sell the work for the small sum at which it is offered. To Mr. J. G. Haskell, the accomplished architect of the State Capitol, State University and many other buildings which bespeak his taste and skill, I am deeply indebted for assistance in the matter of engravings. Through his introduction I have been able to obtain precisely what was wanted from Mr. S. S. Kilburn,^96 Washington Street; Boston, Massa- PREFACE. VU chusetts, whose promptness and accuracy I can com- mend and whose work commends itself. Two or three coarser engravings were obtained from other sources, but they give accurate views of the objects presented. The views given are only samples of what is to be seen in Kansas. From several towns it happened to be impossible to procure such views as were wanted ; and there are buildings, bridges, water powers, etc., in all parts of the State which would interest the reader equally with those given. The engravings are nearly all from photographs, but in a few instances, the buildings are not yet com- pleted, and the views given are from the architect's plans. It is believed that this feature of the book will commend itself to all who desire to know Kansas as it is. This book points out various means whereby more extended information can be obtained in regard to any particular locality, and the author will also an- swer all letters addressed to him at Topeka, with stamps inclosed. I shall give especial attention to all changes in the laws, or in the rulings of the Gen- eral Land Office^ in relation to public lands, and will furnish the same at a trifling expense to my correspondents. C. C. H. mn BOUNDARIES AND AREA. 5i HE parallel of 40 degrees north latitude, which M , passes eastward a little north of Springfield, Y Illinois, and Indianapolis, Indiana; and through Columbus, Ohio, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, forms the northern line of the State of Kansas. The southern boundary line of Kansas is the parallel of 37 degrees, which is the latitude of Southern Kentucky and Virginia, passing through Norfolk in the latter State. Westward from Kansas this line strikes the Pacific coast fifty miles south of San Francisco. Nebraska lies on the north of Kansas ; Missouri on the east ; the Indian territory on the south ; and Colorado on the west. Kansas is about 210 miles wide and 430 miles long. Its area is about 90,000 square miles, or 57,600,000 acres. RIVERS. A considerable portion of the boundary line be- tween Missouri and Kansas is formed by the Mis- souri river, upon the windings of which navigable stream, the State presents a water front to the east of about one hundred and fifty miles. This river is navigable for steamboats for twenty-five hundred miles above the northern State line, north and west- ward to Fort Benton, near the Hocky Mountains and British Possessions; and southeastward five hundred miles to the point of intersection with the Missis- ;10 Hutchinson's Kansas. sippi, twenty-five miles above St. Louis. The length of the bridge which spans the Missouri at Leaven- worth City, is one thousand feet, but the river is, in places, half a mile wide. The other principal rivers of the State are as fol- lows : The Kansas or Kaw Eiver, is formed by the confluence of the Eepublican and Smoky Hill Elvers, near Junction City, and is about one hundred and fifty miles in length. The Smok}^ Hill Eiver rises near the Eocky Moun- tains, in Colorado. It receives the Saline Eiver, which is about two hundred miles long, and the Solomon, about two hundred and fifty miles in length. The Eepublican Eiver rises in Colorado, flows through Northwestern Kansas into Nebraska, whence it returns to Kansas, about one hundred and fifty miles west of the eastern line of the State. Its length from its source is more than four hundred miles. The Kansas Eiver receives on the north, at Man- hattan, the Big Blue Eiver, which rises in Nebraska and is about one hundred and twenty-five miles long; and the Grasshopper, about seventy-five miles in length. On the south it receives, near Lawrence, the Wakarusa, which is nearly fifty miles in length. The Kansas Eiver flows nearly due east from Junc- tion City, and enters the Missouri Eiver at a point where the latter, making a great bend to the east- ward, leaves the State line. About two-thirds of the State lies south of the Kansas and Smoky Hill Elvers, whence that portion is frequently called Southern Kansas, and the remainder of the State Northern Kansas. The Kansas Eiver is not prac- tically navigable, although steamboats have ascended it, in one instance to Fort Eiley, which is on the Smoky Hill, above the mouth of the Eepublican. The Marais des Cygnes Eiver, or Eiver of Swans, which Whittier has immortalized in song, rises east RIVERS. 11 of the center of the State, and flowing south of east about one hundred and twenty -five miles, crosses the State line near Fort Scott, and becomes the Osage Eiver of Missouri. Spring Eiver enters Kansas from Missouri, and flows about thirty miles in the southeast corner of this State, whence it enters the Indian Territory. Old building erected 1865. The ]N"eosho River rises near the center of the State, receives the Cottonwood and other confluent streams, flows southeast a distance of about two hundred miles, and enters the Indian Territory twenty-five miles west of the southeastern corner of Kansas. 12 HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS, The Cottonwood, which enters the N'eosho near Emporia, is much the larger stream at their junc- tion. It is about one hundred miles long. The Verdigris Eiver flows south nearly parallel to the Neosho, and enters the Indian Territory about one hundred miles from its source. It receives Fall Eiver on the west, which is about sixty miles long. The Arkansas Eiver rises far up among the Eocky Mountains in the South Park of Colorado, and re- ceives many tributaries in the latter State. It crosses three-fourths of the length of Kansas, flowing east and southeast, and with its tributaries, waters two- thirds of Southern Kansas. It then flows through the northeastern one-third of the Indian Territory, receiving all the remaining streams of Southern Kansas, crosses the State of Arkansas, and enters the Mississippi Eiver midway between Memphis and Yicksburg. Its entire length is more than two thousand miles; its windings in Kansas must amount to about five hundred miles. The first tributary of the Arkansas, commencing on the north or east side, near the south line of the State, at Arkansas City, is the Walnut, which flows from the north a distance of about seventy-five miles, receiving as tributary, the Whitewater. At Wichita the Arkansas receives the Little Arkansas, a deep flowing river, about seventy-five miles in length, Next comes in the Cow Creek, nearly as long, and at Fort Zarah, on the northernmost part of the Big Bend of the Arkansas, Walnut Eiver enters from the w^cst, it being about one hundred miles long. Beyond are Ash Creek, Pawnee Fork, &c. On the south or west side of the Arkansas it receives the Sha-kus-ka, the Nin-ne-scah or Good Eiver, the Cow Skin and others, from fifty to seventj^-five miles long. In the southwestern corner of Kansas the Cimar- ron flows a considerable distance in the State and receives the waters of Medicine Lodge, Mule Creek, SURFACE AND SCENERY. IS INes-cu-tun-ga, Bluff Creek, &c., each from fifty to one hundred miles long. This region has not yet been surveyed, so that these streams, as well as streams of importance in Northwestern Kansas, are not put down on the map. There are numerous streams from twenty-five to seventy-five miles long, including tributaries of the Eepublican and Solomon Hivers, which have not been mentioned. The rivers named above, with their innumerable tributaries, fed by rivulets flowing from never-failing springs, have given to Kansas its reputation of being the best watered region of all the prairie States. SURFACE AND SCENERY. To describe the surface and scenery of Kansas so that it can be appreciated by those who have never seen a prairie State is quite impossible, and scarcely less difficult is it to describe it to one who has only seen the flat prairies of Central Illinois. In general it may be called an undulating plateau, the surface of which very gently slopes from the western line, which baa an altitude of about thirty-five hundred feet above the ocean, to the eastern line, which is seven hundred and fifty feet above the ocean at the mouth of the Kansas Eiver. The rise of the first one hundred miles on the Kansas Pacific Eailroad from the Eastern State line to Wamego is two hundred and fifty-four feet; for the second hundred miles to Brookville the rise is three hundred and forty-eight feet; the rise of the third hundred miles to Ellis is seven hundred and sixty-nine feet, and the rise thence to Eagle Tail which is near the Western State line is thirteen hundred and seventeen feet. The interval lands along the water courses, called bottoms, are from one fourth of a mile to three miles in width, but towards the western part of the State 14 Hutchinson's Kansas. are sometimes from five to ten miles wide. JSTone of the bottom land in the State is regularly subject to overflow and when high waters occur on a few streams they subside in three or four days. The ordinary flow of water, in the larger streams, is fifteen or twenty feet below the surface of the bottom lands, almost invariably insuring perfect drainage. The bottoms in the eastern half of the State are about equally divided between wooded and open lands. Leaving the bottoms, one comes upon the next highest surface called second bottom. This forma- tion is almost entirely absent from many streams of the State, and it varies so much in different places that it can hardly be described. It varies in extent from a narrow belt, to a width of two or three miles, and usually rises gently as it recedes from the stream. The surface is diversified by gentle roUs ordinarily running nearly at right angles with the streams, with their crowns from an eighth to a half mile apart and rising twenty to forty feet above the intervening depressions. Back from the second bottoms the traveler strikes the bluffs which rise to a hight of from fifty to two hundred or three hundred feet, with a slope of about twenty to thirty degrees. Once upon the summit of the bluff the traveler sees stretching before him what we term the upland prairies, a succession of rolls similar to those upon the second bottom, but with mu.h longer slopes forming a series of earthy billows. Their crests or summits are from a quarter of a mile to a mile apart, and perhaps twenty to eighty feet above the intervening depression or miniature valley. Down many of these little valleys flow rills of clear water, frequently making a narrow guUey as they break through the bluffs and near the streams to which they are tributary. These rills, which sometimes attain the dignity and SURFACE AND SCENERY. 15 names of creeks are, in Eastern Kansas, usually fringed with timber as they approach the main stream. On the upper front of the bluffs, ledges fre- quently crop out in bold parapets a few feet high, and along the crests of the large prairie rolls these ledges wind like ribbons around the irregular face. There is no portion of the State which is flat and and monotonous, or cut up by disagreeable and in- convenient gullies and ravines. The western half of the State is not so much diversified in its scenery, but it has everywhere a rolling and varied surface. No other such scene is to be found in the United States as presents itself to the traveler who stands upon one of the higher Kansas bluffs. The patient reader, wearied by the formal description we have given of the surface of the country, must now give scope to his imagination else he will not see Kansas as it is. Nature, ever symmetrical in her combina^ tions, is irregular in all her details, and nowhere is this better shown than in the picture we are contem- plating. The prairie rolls vary in direction and size nearly as much as the streams and bluffs, and in some localities they are short and comparatively sharp, while in a mile or two they so broaden their extent and lower their surfaces as to appear nearly level to one from a mountainous region. No two streams or bottoms or bluffs or prairies are alike in all this beautiful country. Here is a broad valley miles in extent, and embracing in itself and its sur- roundings many of the features we have so imper- fectly detailed. The bluffs advance and recede at capricious pleasure: on one side of the stream push- ing their promontory fronts like the parapets of some vast fortification full into the low lands, or not far away closing nearly together upon either side of the stream, or again with gentle descent approach their grass clad slopes till their harmonious shades mingle with the rich verdure of the forests below. i!i^!ii:iiliilliiiiii!ilii!iiiliilllliiiliili^ SURFACE AND SCENERY. 17 Elsewhere, lowlands, bluff and prairie so impercepti- bly blend their various characteristics that the fea- tures of none can be accurately traced, while here and there the eye rests upon an isolated mound of a few acres in extent, which rises to the level of the high prairies beyond.. These views combine the qualities of grandeur in their vast extent and of the picturesque in their loveliness of detail to such a degree that the poet preacher, Eev. Eobert Pierpont, upon his visit to Kansas exclaimed : " God doubtless might have made a lovelier country, but it is certain that he never did it." The landscape, even of the unsettled portions of Kansas carries with it an impression that this is not really a new country, but an old one long since deserted of its inhabitants. Concerning this feature, which immediately strikes all observant travelers, Bayard Taylor remarks: "The counterpart of this region is not to be found in the United States, yet there was a suggestion of other landscapes in it which puzzled me considerably until I happened to recall some parts of France, especially the valleys in the neighborhood of Epernay. Here too, there was rather an air of old culture than of new settle- ment, only the houses, gardens and orchards were wanting." Upon the surface of hill and dale which we have described place the artificial groves and hedges, which four or five years suffice to perfect, place here the flocks and herds and growing crops, and you have a scene of pastoral beauty which few countries can equal. Such views are now to be found in the older portions of the State and will in a few years be com- mon throughout its extent. 1* 18 Hutchinson's Kansas. SOIL. ^ The soil of Kansas is similar to that of other prairie States. Indeed, this State having been largely settled by Illinoisians, its agricultural resources have always been estimated in comparison with that State — confessedly the Garden State of all the world. Those of us who have lived in both States and cul- tivated land in both States, do not object to even this high standard of comparison, and it may be said then, that Kansas soil is as deep as Illinois soil. This opinion is the result of examination with my pocket rule in hundreds of places in both States. Owing to the rolling surface, its drainage is incomparably bet- ter, and it will consequently endure the extremes of dryness or moisture much better than Illinois soil. It does not "heave " as much by the action of frosts, and is superior in this, as well as in other respects, for winter wheat. The vicissitudes of agriculture which are incident to every new country, have severely tried the rep- utation of this soil for productiveness. Add to this the exceptional occurrence of a dry season, which found a people who were poor when they came to Kansas, now stripped of every resource by the long continued Border war, and it is surprising that the State has obtained so remarkable a reputation for its productiveness. But since the settlers learned that men must work for a living here as well as elsewhere, and plow and plant in season, and attend their crops as they would attend them in other States, Kansas has made returns that place her in the very front rank as an agricultural State. Formerly men thought that corn needed little or no cultivation here, and were quite indifferent as to the time of putting in crops. With proper cultivation the results satisfy the most incred- SOIL. 19 ulous, as may be seen by the following comparative table of products. T^A^BLE Showing average yield in bushels per acre in fifteen of the most productive States, copied from the Eeports of the United States Agricultural Depart- ment, Fractions are omitted. Eeport for 1870 not yet published. PRODUCTS. Report for 1865 Indian Corn Wheat Rye Oats Barley Potatoes Report for 1866 Indian Corn- ... Whevt Rye Oats Barley Potatoes Report for 1867 Indian Corn Wheat Rye Oats Barley Potatoes Report for 1868 Indian Corn Wheat Rye Oats Barley Potatoes Report for 1869 Indian Corn Wheat Rye Oats Barley Potatoes i ni a o S 1 1 1 a i 1 a § >> o a a o 6 i 1 a 1 o i 1 £3 1 « a a i 43 33 SI 24 40 34 41 38 40 35 39 41 42 38 18 17 17 15 12 7 9 15 8 11 12 16 14 20 16 14 14 15 13 9 12 14 12 16 16 17 18 22 39 26 85 34 34 24 31 37 29 36 26 40 38 41 28 19 23 22 22 21 22 22 22 21 23 26 25 29 164 104 121 107 75 59 83 145 84 117 122 141 120 197 3S 34 33 27 34 31 38 32 36 31 30 28 31 20 14 17 15 n 6 4 13 5 13 16 14 16 18 17 13 16 13 9 10 15 12 16 19 16 19 40 29 32 33 33 21 32 34 29 34 30 33 37 29 22 23 23 22 13 19 25 19 25 25 25 25 148 139 109 107 99 88 78 110 79 86 92 91 72 36 35 33 30 32 24 28 31 29 23 27 33 33 3e 15 16 17 14 12 8 11 12 10 11 12 12 12 12 15 15 14 15 13 10 13 17 14 15 16 16 19 18 30 26 27 26 30 18 31 29 10 30 30 35 42 38 23 22 23 20 ^0 17 24 20 21 22 21 25 29 23 116 96 68 84 74 50 75 97 73 60 73 96 108 110] 38 37 34 32 35 32 34 33 34 34 30 33 37 33 16 15 15 14 12 8 13 12 11 11 14 13 14 15 14 16 14 15 13 11 13 18 14 16 18 18 19 20 30 24 27 26 27 22 29 30 26 31 32 32 33 36 23 20 20 21 21 16 22 23 20 25 24 24 26 25 135 116 117 94 88 80 79 94 88 71 90 77 96 151 34 34 31 27 31 25 30 28 23 23 30 26 33 29 18 18 17 16 14 11 15 15 14 11 14 15 13 16 16 18 12 14 13 11 14 16 15 14 16 15 16 18 35 31 33 35 35 19 33 3S 29 32 33 36 37 37 22 25 23 24 23 19 25 24 22 20 23 2=. 26 25 1 160 106 108 114 102 69 112 155 106 103 115 107 123 112 tl 41 15 23 34 3S 119 34 ai 26 39 29 81 38 14 20 36 26 109 IS 15 20 25 23 85 48 18 35 43 30 149 20 HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS. The bottom lands are usually considered most val- uable, but they do not invariably produce the best crops. In a wet season the uplands are most pro- ductive. The soil on the bottoms is from two to ten feet deep, and on the uplands, from one to three JOHN BROWN'S CABIN. The above cut is from a photagraph taken for this book by Barker, photographic artist, of Ottawa, Kansas, who has copies for sale. It is a view of the only building now standing in which John Brown, the Abolitionist, ever lived in Kansas. No less than six of those who fell at Harper's Ferry upon the occasion of Brown's raid into Virginia, had eaten and slept in this cabin. The figure with uncovered head is the venerable James Hanway, and the other Mr. Wasson, who were neighbors, com- panions and friends of Captain Brown. The former at one time lived in this cabin, when it was that Old John Brown wrote his famous " Parallels" under its roof, (ftiee Kedpath's "Life of Brown," page 218.) Through the doorway, and against the open space made by the falling of the huge old fashioned chimney, may be seen the ends of ox-bows suspended to dry. These tell the story of " the piping times of peace" which have come since the days when John Brown threw himself into the laws of death to rescue an oppressed people. The cabin, now rapidly falling to decay, stands in Franklin county, about two miles from Lane post-office. SOIL. 21 feet deep. In the eastern half of the State, it is a black, sandy loam, intermixed with vegetable mold, and the soil of the entire State has in its composi- tion what is lacking in many prairie soils, an abun- dant supply of mineral constituents. It is for. this reason that many practical men who are familiar with the entire west believe that Kansas soil will prove to be permanently rich, when other soils now very productive will be exhausted. Lime is everywhere abundant in this soil, and gypsum or land plaster is found over a very large extent in the central and western portion of the State, intermingled largely with the soil, as well as existing in ledges^ ready to be used as a fertilizer at a trifling cost. Under date of March 31, 1871, Professor Wm. H. Saunders, M. D. of the State University, furnishes me with the following analysis of average prairie soil, the specimen being taken at the depth of seven inches below the surface : Organic matter ------ 11. C5 Silica 69.83 Alumina - - - - - - - - 8.66 Sesqui oxide of iron -".--. 2.05 Potassa - 1.05 Soda - - a trace Lime - 3.28 Magnesia 2.00 Chlorine 0.00 Sulphuric acid a trace Phosphoric acid 2.08 100.00 The Professor says: " From the above it will be seen that we have a a soil rich in all the chemical elements necessary for the vigorous growth of vegetation, and thor- 22 " HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS. ough, intelligent cultivation will certainly bring the mo8t gratifying reward." There are to be found, occasionally, small isolated tracts, where a stiff sub-soil comes near the surface^ and which at first only produces light crops, but greatly improves by cultivation. The common grass of the prairies is of tender, rapid growing varieties, covering the earth like a mat, but the grass growing on these " patches" is short, wiry and scattering. It is called " buffalo grass," but is distinct and totally different from the nutritious grass with its long curled leaf, which covers the western half of Kansas, and upon which vast buffalo herds feed and fatten. Not one acre in a thousand in Kansas is of the objectionable " buffalo land" character described above, and even this land with deep plowing (it is very heavy plowing the first time), or by the appli- cation of a little manure to give it " life" — eight or ten loads per acre — produces excellent crops of all kinds. Lime is also beneficial to such soils. It is confessedly capital wheat land. There is rarely more than one to ten acres of it in a body, and some- times a few square feet only. It is not found on one farm. in ten in the State, but settlers who, in the early history of the State, happened to cultivate a patch of it, at once jumped to the conclusion that Kansas was a barren region. This land is some- times improperly called "alkali land." The unerr- ing certainty with which it is detected by the grass, and the insignificant amount of it in the country, almost makes it inexcusable to devote so much space to the subject; but I desire to state the facts about Kansas, whether favorable or unfavorable, so that strangers need not be deceived when purchasing land. After the above went to press, I learned that Prof. W. H. Saunders had made an analysis of this soil, and upon application for his opinion of its qualities SOIL. 23 I received the following letter, under date of April 6th, 1871 : "I have the following replj^ to make in answer to your letter of inquiry respecting the nature of ' alkali spots' on ' buffalo wallows.' Any one can easily detect them in cultivated ground by the color, which is much lighter than the surrounding soil, especially after a spell of dry weather, when a white, efflorescent powder forms on the surface of these spots. "The composition of the soil, which is an exceed- ingly tough and compact clay, is chiefly silicate of alumina, containing a little organic matter, a little sesquioxide of iron, and occasionally a little lime. This soil has become strongly impregnated with sulphate of magnesia, (epsom-salt,) which is the white powder seen on the surface. This salt in small quantity, is valuable as a fertilizer, but when in excess is very destructive to vegetation, hence the barren nature of these spots. " Of more practical interest, however, is the ques- tion : what can be done to render these spots fertile? This, fortunately, admits of easy solution. After the soil is well loosend, a top-dressing of quick-lime, applied just before a rain, will decompose the sul- phate of magnesia, and form sulphate of lime, (gyp- sum,) a valuable fertilizer, while the magnesia will soon absorb carbonic acid and be converted into car- bonate of magnesia, which being insoluble in water, will be much less injurious to vegetation. Lime should not be thus applied when a crop is on the ground, for the caustic action of the lime and mag- nesia would destroy it. This method is liable to the objection that it simply converts the noxious agent into a less injurious form, but does not assist in removing it from the soil. "A much more effectual and better way is simply to thoroughly pulverize the soil as deeply as possible 24 Hutchinson's Kansas. at least once a year. The magnesian salt, being very soluble in water, will be leached out by the rains, and the soil thus permanently freed from its presence ; fertilizers then applied will render the soil productive. The experience of those who have tried this method confirms me in the belief that it is the best way to treat this soil. The popular notion, that these spots contain an alkali and that the soil has been rendered hard by the wallowing of the buffalo, is erroneous. The soil contains no alkali, and its hardness is owing to its chemical composi- tion, but the buffalo have discovered the salt taste of the soil impregnated with the sulphate of magnesia, and, by long repeated licking and tramping, have worn considerable depressions in j^laces, which dur- ing the wet season are filled with water." Occasionally sandstone soil is found in tracts of a few square miles. This is confessedly the best fruit land in the State, and is highly regarded by many persons for purposes of cultivation, owing to the fact that it is ready for spring work sooner than lime- stone soil, and can be more readily cultivated during a wet time. Many of the limestone ledges lie higher than the sandstone formation, and it is probably from this cause that there is a good deal of lime to be found even in sand stone soils, but if this is lack- ing it may be cheaply supplied, because lime is every- where present, either in the form of limestone (lime and carbonic acid), or gypsum (lime and sulphuric acid). There is less waste land in Kansas than in almost any other State in the Union. In fact there is really no waste land at all, because there are neither swamps nor sloughs, and the entire State can be cul- tivated, excepting those portions covered with timber or where rock prevails. The latter feature is fully described elsewhere, «and it will be seen that the rock of Kansas is of SOIL. 25 immense value to the State. It is only necessary to say here that there is probably not one acre in five hundred in the State where rock is so exposed as to make cultivation impossible, and even this is not waste land, for it affords excellent pasturage with a plenty of springs and running water. Bayard Taylor says: "I consider the country within one hundred and fifty miles of the Missouri Eiver in Kansas, to be the finest unbroken tract of farming land in the world." HUMBOLDT BRIDGE. The above is a King's Wrought Iron Bridge of 190 span. It cost about $13,000. The soil of the western half of Kansas is very different in appearance from that of the eastern half of the State. While the latter is black, the former is usually light colored, or reddish toward the southwestern part of the State, excepting upon the larger river bottoms, but the soil of western Kansas is the deepest, running from two to ten feet. Perhaps upon no point is there a greater lack of knowledge concerning Kansas, even by some citi- 2 26 HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS. zens of the State, than in relation to this western Kansas soil. This soil has mingled with it very little vegetable mold or humus — that deposit of decayed vegetable matter which gives to the soil of eastern Kansas its dark color. The attentive observer will notice a perceptible difference in this respect however, even at the extreme western State line, between the surface and the soil two feet below. In some localities, espe- cially on bottom lands, the surface is quite dark, and gradually grows lighter as you penetrate the earth. This is called by geologists, " The Bluff Forma- tion," so named by Professor Swallow, because it forms a large proportion of the bluffs which are so conspicuous and unique in the scenery about Council Bluffs, Iowa, and in general all along the Missouri River bluffs above the mouth of the Kansas River. This formation occupies the surface of a consider- able portion of western Iowa, extending east in the north part of the State a distance of forty or fifty miles. Its eastern limit seems to run in a south- westerly direction, and it forms the surface of nearly all the State of Nebraska, and of the western half of Kansas. It also underlies a good portion of east- ern Kansas, but is here largely affected by the char- acter of the subjacent rocks. This accounts for the fact, which has often been remarked with wonder, that the sub-soil in many places upon being thrown to the surface, and exposed to the action of the air and frost, produces as good crops as the surface soil. Its analysis by the Missouri State Survey, gives, when dried at 212° Fahr., 77 per cent impalpable sand ; 11 per cent alumina (clay); 3i per cent, lime; 5 J per cent pottassa, magnesia and carbonic acid, and about 3t per cent of water and loss. This analysis proves its agricultural value; but that point is sufficiently demonstrated by long experience. SOIL. 27 The best of crops grow upon this soil in Iowa and Nebraska, as I can personally testify. Its sand is so fine that no grit is perceptible to the touch, and those who cultivate it in Iowa, cull it a fine light clay, but it has none of the phj'sical characteristics of a stiff claj' soil. It never bakes, is ready for cul- tivation in a few hours after a rain, and with deep jplovjing \vill keep crops in a thriving condition with very little rain. As the reader well knows, it is not essential that a soil be black in order that it be productive. With the single exception of corn, as good crops are raised upon much of the red land of Virginia and Tennessee as is ever grown upon the blackest soils of Illinois or Kansas, and deep plowing is all that this red land needs for Indian corn. Having seen the luxuriant crops that are grown in northwestern Iowa about Sioux City, upon the light colored soil which we have described, as well as the heavy crops upon newly cleared red lands of Virginia and Tennessee, I have learned not to con- demn land until it is tried, whether its color be black, white or red. In Kansas this soil has not been largely culti- vated, (although it is held in high esteem by those western settlers who have tilled it,) because there are at least twenty million acres of rich black soil unoc- cupied in the State. But no man appreciates Kansas as he ought, until he realizes that it not only ranks pre-eminent as a grain producing and blue grass State, but that within its limits and within one or two days drive of its rich farms, are to be found the finest of pasture fields now open and easily accessi- ble to the public. Here is free grazing upon the bufi^alo grass and winter grasses which grow on the rich soil we have just described. Not only this but with deep plowing^ and deep and early drilling of the seed, this is to be the great winter wheat storehouse 28 of the nation. It is not too far north or south ; its altitude gives it a superb harvesting season, while there is rain enough for growing the crop during the cool season, The admixture of lime and gypsum, with all this soil, is a matter of the utmost moment. That gypsum is almost universal, admits of little doubt, for it is seen in ledges in many j^laces^ and it is found crystalized in the form of thin semi-trans- parent sheets, wherever geologists have explored western Kansas. The blue-stem, a tall variety of prairie grass, chiefly used for hay in eastern Kansas, and which only grows on rich corn land, is rapidly extending westward upon this soil, and taking the place of buffalo grass. Finally, the bottom lands of the Kansas and Arkansas Elvers, are largely made up of the wash of these western regions, and there is no better soil in the world than these valleys afford. CLIMATE. Many flowing sentences and well rounded periods have been framed in the endeavor to describe the climate of Kansas. It has been called "Arcadia," but more frequently travelers who have been around the globe, and enraptured citizens who write to their friends in the East, call it an " Italian clime." In truth, it is neither Arcadia nor Italy — at least it is 7iot one unbroken round of golden days and halcyon nights, but it is quite certain that there is no region in the United States, east of the Eocky Mountains, where there is more bright, sunshiny days than we have in Kansas. The winters are more mild than in the same latitude east of us, and the thermometer rarely sinks below zero. During midsummer the heat at noonday sometimes ranges for several days from 80 to 100 degrees, but the air is so dry and pure that one scarcely realizes the range of the mer- CLIMATE. 29 cury, while the nights are invariably cool and re- freshing. Men work on buildings and in other ex- jDOsed situations, with safety, at a temperature which would be fatal in the eastern States. The soil is so fruitful that farmers never feel obliged to expose themselves to severe weather, sum- mer or 'vinter. Especially is our climate held in high esteem by those who escape to it from the ex- tremes of northern frigidity, or from the torrid heats of southern latitudes. It must not be forgotten that Kansas is a State of great extent and of various climate. Sometimes there are two or three inches of snow in the north- eastern part of the State, l^hich lays on the ground three or four days, and at the same time there will be no snow at all on the southern border of the State; at other times a light fall of snow may cover the State for a week, but there is no preparation made for sleighing, because there is rarely more than one such snow during a winter. Ice usually forms in December or January from four to eight inches in thickness, but rarely thicker than six inches, and two or three winters have occurred when no ice formed thick enough to store in ice houses. Farmers can plow during ten months of nearly every year in this State, and some years every month. I have seen masons laying stone and mortar during every month of the year, although not in every month in any one year, perhaps, because after building has generally ceased, and the hands are discharged and tools scattered, it is not customary to commence again until spring opens, which here occurs in Feb- ruary. Still there are cold days here and people ought to come prepared for them ; but there are also bitter cold daj^s in Tennessee or Texas, and taking our av- erage climate, it is mild and agreeable. Whenever, as during the past winter, it is very cold here, the 80 HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS. telegraph always announces that it is colder in the same latitude east, and much colder north of us. During the past winter, 1870-71, we had three con- siderable snow storms; the first six inches deep, of light snow, and each of the others about three inches deep. This was accompanied by almost continuous cold weather, sufficiently so to keep the ground cov- ered with snow for four or five weeks. It has been, by far, the severest winter I ever experienced in the State, and it is the universal testimony of the "relia- ble old settlers " that the snow never before laid on the ground so long. The extraordinary clearness of the atmosphere strikes all strangers as worthy of mention. Non- residents can form no C(feception of this peculiarity of our climate, but one may here distinguish objects at a long distance, which could hardly be seen at all, if the same distance away in the east. The vision is thereby strengthened, and man's natural powers increased, giving greater zest to the pleasure with which one rides across our prairie swells. The most disagreeable feature of our climate is the wind, but none complain of the cool breezes which healthfully agitate the atmosphere during the sum- mer months. Besides, all prairie regions are subject to more winds than timbered countries. The winds are no more severe here than in other prairie States, and the groves and hedges, which may be speedily growUj will abate their force and break up their currents. One of the greatest blessings of our Kansas cli- mate, is the cool nights which invariably follow even the hottest days. These nights are so well described by the Lawrence Daily Journal, that I quote as follows : " The cool nights of Kansas refresh and invigo- rate everj'thing. No sooner does old Sol conclude to bathe his burning forehead in the sea of night, CLIMATE. 31 than the whole atmosphere changes and everything is lovel}^. " We recall with a twinge of agony, terrific sum- mer nights spent in the northeastern States, when the thermometer indicated the same degree of heat at twelve midnight as at twelve noon, but nothing could be more agreeable than our Kansas climate in this respect. However hot the day, the night is ADAMS HOUSE, MANHATTAN. cool and bracing. A day in which a man is re- minded of Sydney Smith's desire to 'get out of his flesh and sit down in his bones,' is followed by a night in which long before daybreak a fellow finds himself feeling sleepily around the foot of his bed 32 HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS. for his blanket. After such a night one arises refreshed for the labors, and fortified against the heat of another day." As the records of scientitic observations are the true criterion by which to judge of any climate, I solicited from Prof F; H. Snow, the following tables, for which I am under special obligations to him, as well as for other records which are presented else- where : . Compiled b}^ Prof Frank H. Snow, of Kansas State University at Lawrence. Table of Mean Temperature of twenty States for five years, from January 1st, 1865, to January 1st, 1870, compiled from Eeports of the Department of Agriculture: STATES. Kansas Maine New Hampshire Vermont Massachusetts Connecticut New York New Jersey Pennsylvania Maryland Kentucky Ohio Michigaa Indiana Illinois Wisconsin Minnesota Iowa Missouri Nebraska Mean for 20 States SPRING. SUMMER AUTUMN. WINTER. 52.2 75.5 54.3 ■ 29.1 40.7 66.4 46.6 19.8 41.7 66.7 46.6 20.4 40.4 66.1 45.6 18.4 45.0 68.6 49.7 25.5 45.0 69.1 50.4 25.8 43.9 69.7 50.0 24.9 49.8 72.3 543 30 3 47.3 71.7 52.0 28.1 51.7 74.2 55.6 32.4 54.4 74.5 55.7 35.2 49.4 72.6 52.7 29.1 42 4 67.8 49.1 24.2 50.4 74.2 53.2 29.7 47.6 72.9 52.0 25.8 41.8 68.6 47.8 20.5 39.4 67.8 45.3 14.0 44.5 71.2 48.9 20.3 52.5 75.5 ;55.0 30.7 45.9 73.4 51.0 22.9 46 3 70-9 o>.8 25 4 52.8 43.4 43.8 42.7 47.2 47.6 47.1 51.7 49.7 53.5 54.9 50.9 45.9 51.9 49.6 44.7 41.6 46.2 53.4 48.4 CLIMATE. 33 Meteorological Summary for 1870 hy Prof. Snow. The following table gives the mean temperature, the extremes of temperature, and the rainfall for each month of the year 1870: MONTHS. January... February.. March April May June July August September October .... November December., Year 1870.. Year 1869.. Year 1868.. MEAN. MAXIMUM. MINIMUM. 29.43 56.5 —1.0 35 42 69.0 —4.0 37.69 71.0 1 56 84 91.0 19.0 68.00 90.0 44.0 73.71 102.0 44.0 80.27 99.0 55.0 73.54 98.0 53.0 67.88 88.5 53.9 56.50 79.0 29.0 44.92 72.0 17.0 28.70 64.0 —10.0 54.50 102.0 —10 50.36 96.0 —5.0 53.36 1010 —16.5 0.67 O.03 1.86 l.erceptibly increased below two hundred feet." This company is yet in its infancy, but they have a number of vats with movable covers, and by solar evaporation have manufactured salt for three years. They have produced several thousand bushels with very satisfactory pecuniary results, as is proven by the increased number of vats used each year, and the erection of dwellings for workmen. This salt, in its unrefined state, as taken from the vats, has been analyzed by Professor Gossman, of Syracuse, New York, with the following result : Chloride of Sodium (saU) 980.565 Sulphate of Lime 17.220 Sulphate of Soda 3.511 Chloride of Magnesium 2.400 Chloride of Calcium Kot a trace It is to be noticed that ^' not a trace " of Chloride of Calcium was discovered by this analysis, agreeing SALT.' 85 perfectly in this important particular, with the analysis already given from Professor Chandler, of the Tiithill marsh salt and brine. It is asserted upon good authority that no other brines have yet been discovered in the United States that are entirely free from these '•' deleterious bitter waters." Even the celebrated ^' Petite Ause " deposit of salt in Louisiana, which has been repeatedly claimed as the purest salt in the world, contains Chloride of Calcium, as shown by the following analysis, made by Dr. Rindall in 1863, acting under the direction of the United States G-overnment : Chloride of Soditim (salt) 98.86 Sulphate of Lime 76 Chloride of Magnesium 25 Chloride of Calcium 13 100.00 In order to make butter which can be preserved sweet and good any considerable length of time, it has become the universal custom of dairymen to use ground rock salt, manufactured with great care and at considerable cost in the United States. But here in Kansas, in the center of the Union, are found inexhaustible stores of salt, entirely free from these hitter ivaters. This salt supply is also where it will be in great local demand, both for dairy purposes and for pack- ing beef. There can be no question in the minds of any who read this book that numerous beef-packing establishments will soon be erected where cattle are so easily grown and fattened, and salt so easily man- ufactured. And those who examine the testimony given by the letter of Rev. J. Sternberg must con- cede that Kansas promises wonderful results in dairy products also. Add to this the fact that there are no salt works west of Michigan, and it will be seen that here are openings for enterprising capital- ists which cannot long remain unoccupied. People will ask the thoughtless question, '' Why have not these salt resources been developed? " One might as well ask why people settled in the forbid- ding regions east of the AUeghanies, when Illinois and Kansas were all unoccupied. It takes time to develop great resources, and it is an advantage which Kansas offers to the enterprising, that there is something here to he developed. The Saginaw Salt Works produced twenty thous- and bushels in 1860, but now they produce three mil- lion bushels annually. The demand for salt in each State is nearly one bushel per annum to every inhab- itant, and probably more than that in the great beef and pork packing Western States. IRON. Iron ores, varying considerably in character, have been found in various portions of the State ; but, as yet, nothing has been discovered which gives any promise of competing with the vast supply of iron found in Missouri, at a distance of only about one hundred miles from our eastern border; and, in Col- orado, but three hundred miles from our western border. We have the coal for manufacturing, and it is not far to bring iron, either from the east or the west. But it is not improbable that it will yet be found in paying quantities in unexplored Western Kansas. Professor Swallow sayfe : " The tertiary strata in the western part of the State probably contain extensive beds of this ore." Professor Mudge says : " We have been shown a specimen of brown hematite iron ore from the western part of the State of very supe- rior quality, and containing nearly sixty per cent, of iron. LEAD. Lead has been taken out to a small extent in Linn TIN. 87 county, and those familiar with the locality believe that it would be profitable to develop the mines. It is evident from the debris about the excavations that considerable work has been done here many years ago, but there is no clue by which we can determine who were the miners, and there are no evidences of ancient habitations in that vicinity. Lead ore from Howard county was presented to the Kansas Historical Society by Professor J. D. Parker, in December, 1870, and was analyzed by Professor W. H. Saunders of the State University, with the following result : i^ Sulphur 13 33 Lead 86.67 100.00 The analysis will be seen to be satisfactory, but whether the ore exists in paying quantities is unde- termined. Geologists tell us that there is no probability that lead exists in any considerable quantities in Kansas; but it has often been asserted by friendly Indians that they knew of extensive deposits of lead ore. The Ottawas, who lately removed to the Indian Ter- ritory from Franklin county, were confident that within a half mile of a certain spring on their reser- vation, there is lead in abundance. 1 once had in my possession a very fine specimen of lead ore, which an Indian of the Sac and Fox tribe asserted that he found on their reservation in Osage county, but the location he would not point out. Uneducated Indi- ans believe that the Great Spirit will be angry if they reveal to white men any mineral deposits. TIN. Concerning this metal, Professor Mudge holds the following language : "Frequent reports have been in circulation that this, usually rare mineral, is found mmi^f^n^'^fivmm]mwr'r '^''uj'iiii;'iiii.';:!iliill'li' ALUM. 89 here. Several fine specimens of rich protoxyd of tin have been, on several occasions, produced by the Indians. As their statements concerning them were, in some cases, not true, it still remains an unsettled question whether -they originated in the State. H< ^ 5Si ;(c 5{S " Until we find some eruptive rocks breaking through the recent strata, we must conclude that it is not native to Kansas. The western portion of the State, however, is so far a geological terra-incognita that it is possible that some local igneous action may have brought tin to the surface." ALUM. On page 28 of Professor Mudge's report occurs the following : " We have noticed the presence of alum in quite a number of places in the State. At Zeandale it is found in small crj^stals; also, at several points on Mill creek, in Wabaunsee county. In the eastern part of T. 4, E. 10, west, it is found in connection with a seam of lignite coal. It is associated with native sulphur. A similar deposit is seen on Chap- man creek, in T. 11, E. 2. east, about twenty miles west of Fort Eiley, with the additional associate of salt-petre or nitrate of potash. It is also found in various places on the southern side of the Smoky Hill, from Salina eastward, oyer a tract of fifteen or twenty miles in extent. It exists in a sufficient quan- tity to make a commercial commodity, whenever capital and labor shall become more abundant in our State. " In England, alum is manufactured from alum slate and analagous minerals, in which it becomes neces- sary to calcine and pulverize the material before the alum can be extracted. But in our deposits the arti-^ 4* 90 HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS. cle is SO free that the manufacture will be rauch more easy and economical." HYDRAULIC CEMENT. Professor Swallow says : " Limestone suitable for hydraulic cement is abundant." From Professor Mudge I quote as follows : •'A bed of brown hydraulic limestone was worked, about eight or ten years ago, by the late Dr. F. Barker^ at his farm four miles northwest of Lawrence. Not being familiar with the manufac- ture of the article, he probably did not succeed as well as a person of experience. Still he made a good cement, which was used by various builders at Law- rence, for cisterns and other similar purposes. Many of the cisterns are still in use, with the cement in good condition. They show a durability which compares favorably with the best Kentucky cements now sold in our State. Dr. Barker was intending to pursue the business more systematically and extensively, when his death closed the opera- tions. No one has worked the bed since his decease. His experiment, so far as it was tried, was perfectly satisfactory, and the stratum has all the qualities of a good hydraulic cement. This bed of hydraulic limestone extends across the country over Leaven- worth and Atchison counties, and- also southwest- erly, nearly, if not quite, to the southerly bounds of the State, and probably it will be found to retain good cement properties in the whole of that exten- sive area." It is probably the same bed which has but re- cently been opened in Cowley county, near the Arkansas Eiver, which I am informed produces an excellent article of cement. PETROLEUM. This oil flows to the surface through the fractures PAINTS. 91 in sandstone rock in many places. The Indians from earliest times, have collected it from springs and used it for medicinal purposes. Whether it exists in sufficient quantities to furnish an article of commerce, remains unsettled. Considerable expenditures have been made in borings in Miami county, and oil in quantities was obtained, but the final results were unsatisfactory. Professor Mudge says : ''It is found at so many different places, that it is reasonable to suppose that a large body may exist below. The nature of the clay shales which com- pose a large portion of the deposits for seven or eight hundred feet below the surface, would not readily allow it to come up, if it were there. Should it be found in paying quantities it is probable that it will be below the coal measures. No one should invest in the business more than he could afford to lose without embarrassment. The question cannot be considered as settled without numerous borings to a depth of eight hundred or one thousand feet." PAINTS. Professor Swallow says : " There are several beds of purjDle shales in the coal measures which appear to have all the properties of a good outside j^aint. One of these beds has been used at Parkville and other places, and found beautiful, durable, and fire proof when used in thick coats. The bed thus proved is over ten feet thick, and crops out in the bluff of the Missouri all the way from White Gloud to Wyandotte, and up the Kansas to Lawrence. It also appears southeast to Mound City. Other beds which appear equally valuable crop out on the Big Blue, the Neosho, the Cottonwood and the Yerdigris.' At Fort Scott, twenty-five miles south of Mound City, a vein or bed of paint was discovered after the 92 Hutchinson's Kansas. above was written. This is a few feet below the surface, and is extensively used in that locality. It is also coming to be an article of export to other places, and gives good satisfaction. There is no room for doubt that in Kansas, awaiting develop- ment, there is material for making a fire proof and water proof paint for roofs, as well as for walls and fences. Learning of a deposit of paint at Osage City on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Eailroad, I ad- dressed a letter of inquiry to one of the principal citizens of the place, Mr. John F. Dodds, and received the following reply, dated March 1st, 1871 : "The mineral paint at our place is ochre. The vein or bed is about three fourths of a mile in width, one mile or more in length, and twelve feet six inches thick. It lies from five to eight feet below the sur- face, and upon a strata of solid limestone rock, vary- ing in thickness from two to three feet. The pig- ment has been analyzed by Dr. W. H. Saunders, of Lawrence, and by Dr. Murray, of Dayton, Ohio, with the following results, viz : Ochre 98 Alum 1 Lime •. 1 100 " I send you the following figures, taken from accurate measurement of the strata underneath our town : Section of 34 feet 8 inches below the surface. Soil and earth 5 feet Ochre 12 " 6 inches Limestone 2 " 6 Clay and 8hal« 3 " Limestone 3 " Slateand ShalB 3 " 0»al 1 " 8 Fire Clay , 4 " Tdltal 34 ■' 8. «' LIMB BURNING. 93 CLAY FOR BRICK. Notwithstanding the abundant supply of excel- lent stone for building purposes, many people prefer to build of brick. There is a plentiful supply of clay for brick making, and it is often so intermixed with sand as to be ready for tempering and mold- ing. With clay and timber convenient to the house site, a farmer may, with the aid of an experienced brick maker, and two or three cheap hands, burn a kiln of brick at a small cost for the construction of his buildings. When sold at kilns, the prices range from eight dollars to ten dollars per thousand, in the season for the business, but the supply is always exhausted before the demand ceases in the fall, and prices become somewhat higher. • LIME BURNING. From what has been said of the configuration of the country, and of the location of stone quarries, it will readily be seen that it is little trouble to make quick lime. Any of the limestone rock makes lime, but the strongest quality obtained from com- mon limestone, is made from the darker layers. All the varieties of magnesian limestone, make strong and white lime. Having selected a good quarry, and one need not go far to find it, an excavation of the desired size is made in the side of the hill, all quarries being upon the edge of a declivity. This opening is walled up from the bottom, aad an open arch five or six feet high is left on the lower side, where the fuel is put in and the lime taken out when burned. The top of the kiln is drawn partly together to cause a draft. Eock are then laid up roughly on the bot- tom in the form of an arch, to contain fuel, and upon this rough arch the stones for lime are thrown 94 HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS. from the top, until the kiln is full. Either wood or coal is used for fuel, and a brisk fire is kept up three or four days, after which the lime is ready for use. When coal is used it is mixed with the stone, instead of being placed under it, as is the case with wood. The lime thus burned is somewhat injured chemi- cally, owing to the presence of more or less sulphur in the coal. To obviate this, a patent coal kiln is used, wherein water can be applied in such manner as to counteract the effects of the sulphur. If left in the kiln the top and entrance should be covered to keep out water. Lime long exposed to the air re-absorbs carbonic acid, which was thrown off by burning, and becomes limestone again. In a finely pulverized state. In slacking lime, add to it at once enough water to cover it, and stir it constantly until it is slacked, when it should be of the consistency of cream. If only a little water is added at a time it injures the quality of the lime. Fresh lime is largely used by many eastern farmers, and especially in the famous and fertile Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, as a top dressing for the soil, five to fifteen bushels per acre being applied about every ten years. That valley is in a limestone formation. There is little doubt that much of our Kansas soil would be benefited by the appli- cation of lime. For whatever purposes needed, whether mechanical or agricultural, it is abundant in Kansas. It sells at the kiln for about twenty cents per bushel and with a good profit to the burner. WESTERN KANSAS AND THE BUFFALO GRASS. The western third of Kansas now demands our particular attention — the portion so lately included in that mythical region, " The Great American Des- ert." I am firmly x^ersuaded that no portion of the WESTERN KANSAS AND THE BUFFALO GRASS. 95 United States east of the Eocky Mountains deserved this title, for the simple reason that there is no des- ert. Wherever buffalo, antelope, and deer graze and fatten, there domestic cattle may also graze and fatten, and it is known that these animals have from BAPTIST CHURCH, LEAVENWORTH. time immemorial, ranged in countless numbers in all the region called the plains. Certainly it is a mis- nomer to speak of any country as a desert, that will, by a few months grazing, so fattea cattle that they actually compete in Eastern markets with stall-fed 96 HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS. cattle. This may be done in all that country alluded to. It is true that there is a great difference in the amount of feed produced per acre in different locali- ties, but even the poorest of all this vast area pro- duces scattering tufts of buffalo c^rass. The treeless expanse called " The Plains," sweeps along the base of the Rocky MouDtaius, two or three hundred miles in width at its southern extremity, and gradually widening as it extends fifteen hundred miles northward into British America. On most of this vast area, the grass is not simply scattering, but is a continuous mat of fine herbage, three to six inches high. The best grass growing in Texas is called mesquit, and produces two or three times as much feed per acre as the buffalo grass. Near and among the Rocky Mountains, is gramma grass, and also a va- riety called bunch grass. On a portion of the plains is a grass called small, or bastard mesquit. All these grasses have a curled leaf The name, buffalo grass, is given to all grasses of this kind in Kansas. Some think the true buffalo gra-s to be a distinct variety from the small mesquit, and others claim that they are identical. The buffalo grass spreads on the ground somewhat in the manner of a strawberry vine, and its leaf curls close to the ground, so that it looks more like a bed of bleached moss than it does like common grass. Its seed grows on one side of a delicate stem. This grass is extremely sweet, and the more so the nearer its roots. It is true that there are considerable alkali tracts on the plains, (but not in Kansas, according to the best information which I can obtain,) where grazing is not practicable, by reason ol bad water, but not for lack of a fertile soil, because, by irrigation, alkali lands, as in Utah, become extremely productive. Most varieties of these grasses are in a growing con- dition from early spring until autumn, wheto, during WESTERN KANSAS AND THE BUFFALO GRASS. 97 the beautiful weather of that season, the}' cure upon the stalk. Thus they retain their nutritious quali- ties through the dry winters, which invariably bless the herdsman and his herd in these regions. Other varieties are green in Western Kansas during the winter months, as the attentive reader can learn from the letter of Eev. L. Sternberg, of Fort Ilai ker. Add to this sufficient evidence, the indisputable fact that cattle in vast herds, not of hundreds simply, but of thousands in number, are to-da}^ grazing upon buffalo grass, and that not alone in Kansas, but also in Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming. Travelers who pass through Kansas upon the Kansas Pacific Eailway, enter upon the Buffalo grass region after riding about two hundred miles through the fat meadows, the luxuriant corn fields, and the vigorous wild grasses of Eastern Kansas, and as they come in sight of the brown and shriveled buffalo grass, it seems indeed contemptible. It is very true that vast herds of buffalo are seen, extending for miles in either direction, sometimes huddled in dis- tant masses which resemble low islands in the sea, or, at other times, are ^o numerous and so persistent in keeping to their course, that the engineer is obliged to stop his train and give them the track, until they cross it in their line of march. The trav- eler also sees the dressed carcasses of buffalo and antelope at every station, which are as fat as stall- fed beef ; and yet many people return from the trip and talk about the "Buffalo Grass Desert."' Who would suppose that buffalo would return to a " des- ert " for feed year after year? nay, that they would stay there the year around, as thousands annually do stay in the valleys of the Eepublican, Solomon, Smoky Hill and Arkansas rivers, and their tributa- ries? Many an eastern farmer would gladly turn the flocks and herds on to this desert, which crop the 5 98 low grass Id his high priced pastures, or during six months of winter, eat the hay he has so laboriously garnered. I think the higher and drier portions of Western Kansas is in some respects superior as a winter stock range. The less rain falls upon the grass, the richer it will be. This is not a theoretical opinion. Stock that ranged on grass during the hard winter of 1860-'61, which succeeded the famous "dry season," came out in the spring in better order than usual. The grass was short, but very nutritious — having cured on the ground. The time is not distant when the western portion of the State, one hundred by two hundred miles in extent, will be selected as the choice pasture land of the continent. Its altitude of twenty-five hundred to thirty-five hundred feet above the ocean level, makes the climate all that could be be desired. It is plentifully watered for stock pur- poses, by springs and running streams, whose water is palatable to the herds and flocks, and upon the banks are small timber growths, and high bluffs for shelter. There are also stone quarries, from which houses maybe cheaply constructed for the herdsmen. I think it true that everywhere in Kansas, a little hay ought to be put up as a safeguard against light snows, accompanied by wind, which may render grazing diflScult for a few days at a time. Such snows occur every two or three years, in all the region we have been considering ; but are much le,j3 severe in Kansas than farther north. Whenever they occur, great herders expect to lose more or less stock. It is one of the chances they take, and the aggregate results for a series of years prove that with all the risks, the business is still very profita- ble. But in every part of Kansas there is grass in abundance to make hay. The wide bottoms afford from one to three tons per acre, even at the western limits of the State, and on ground as smooth as a WESTERN KANSAS AND THE BUFFALO GRASS. 9y floor, it is little trouble to piit up hay with machin- ery. Perhaps half the year it would stand untouched, while stock fattened on the buffalo grass. But it is better to provide against contingencies, and if not used, it will keep over in good condition, if well stacked. The estimated amount that ought to be put up per head in the buffalo grass region, is from four hundred to six hundred pounds. Among scores of experienced stock men, with whom I compared notes upon this subject, none set it higher than the latter figures. John S. Chisum, one of the most noted stock deal- ers and breeders of Texas, a man who handles cat- tle by the ten thousand head, said : " For Kansas, from four to five hundred pounds." Major H. Shank- lin, of Lawrence, who has wintered cattle in the Arkansas Yalley several seasons, said : ^' Five hun- dred pounds, and it may rot down unfed every other year." Eev. L. Sternberg, who lives at Fort Harker, on the Kansas Pacific Eailway, said : " Five or six hundred pounds, and probably not half that amount will be fed out." Nor is this precaution desirable for Kansas alone. In Colorado, prudent persons provide a little hay for their stock, and think that it pays them a profit to do so, and with the rearing of im- proved breeds this will be an acknowledged neces- sity. Large herders with thousands of cattle, do not consider the loss of a few score head of cheap Texas stock as a matter of importance. But when «ach bullock comes to be worth fifty or seventy-five dollars, the case will be different. The foregoing was written in December, 1870. It is now April, 1871, and we have passed through a very severe winter, snow having lain on the ground longer than ever before known. During this winter many thousand head of cattle have fed on buffalo grass and winter grasses, without any hay or grain whatever. The result has been surprising to all. 100 HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS. Among Texas cattle, or stock bred from them, (and there is little other stock in the buifalo grass region,) there has been less loss than in the more eastern or southern portion of the State, where they were fed on hay or hay and corn. The cattle thus wintered will soon fatten upon the fresh grass. It is natural for this stock to get its own living on the range, and they do not do well on corn the first year they are brought from Texas. Next to their native range WIRE SUSPENSION BRIDGE, OTTAWA. a field of standing corn stalks, after the ears have been plucked, seems the best suited to their wants. Sheep have also done well in AYestern Kansas this winter, on grass alone. I am convinced that herders, with several hundred or thousands of cattle^ will do better to seek some of the many canyons^ or sheltering bluffs, or timber patches, to be found in the buffalo grass region, with plenty of water, and graze stock all the season, than to cut hay for them. WESTERN KANSAS AND THE BUFFALO GRASS. 101 The loss in the former case will not equal the addi- tional expense in the latter case. Small stock raisers and farmers will undoubtedly do well to put up a little hay. In short, Western Kansas and its buffalo grass offers the best advantages in this State, or in any State for stock raising. I do not advise people to rush into that region — that is, to the remote high prairies where nothing grows but buffalo grass — who are destitute of means, but with a little capital to invest in stock, a living is certain and easy. There is cer- tainly no need for any to suffer for meat in that region, for buffalo meat is toothsome and nutritious, and to be had for the killing, while the peculiar waxy fat furnishes to the hardy frontiersman a sweet and healthful substitute for bread. The amount of feed on a given space of buffalo grass, is also much greater than most people suppose. Even Horace Gi-eelay^ who was the first man of prominence in the Cf-st, to recognize the value of the trans-Missouri com try, speaks of grazing one bul- lock to each quarter section, (160 acres.) But the most intelligent of experienced observers, reckon from three to fi 70 acres of buffalo grass as furnishing as much feed as one acre of our best prairie grasses, such as are found in eastern Kansas and in Illinois. In confirmation of what has been said, I take pleasure in presenting the following letters, relating respectively to the northern, central and southern portions of Western Kansas. All are written by gentlemen well known in their respective localities. The first is from a farmer, Mr. A. B. Warner, in northwestern Kansas : " Eepublic County, Kansas, ") November 28, 1870. j Mr. G. 0. Hutchinson : Dear Sir: I send you a few facta concerning tha northern part of the State, or at least that portion 102 HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS. of it which has come under my personal observation. The portion I shall refer to, is chiefly watered by the Eepublican Eiver and its tributaries. These streams have many beautiful mill sites, and we think here it would be hard to find a portion of prairie country more highly favored in respect to water, notwith- standing it is in ' drouthy Kans^. ' " About eighty miles west of this county, a tribu- tary takes in to the Eepublican, called Prairie Dog, and a beautiful stream it is, having quite a belt of timber along its banks. Its bottoms are wide and fertile, and all who see it are in no wise sparing of their praise. There is yet little or ' no settlement along the stream, and none on the adjacent prairies, but there is strong talk of a settlement there in the spring. White Eock is another tributary of the Eepublican and enters it about ten miles from where the last named stream crosses the western line of Kansas from Nebraska and in range five west. On its lovely bank, on lands the most beautiful eyes ever rested upon, we have taken up our abodes. Its line towards the head is a trifle south of west, and it is about sixty miles long. It has quite an abun- dance of timber, though not quite so much as Prairie Dog, and besides the stream is not so large. The waters of the latter run the year round, while those of White Eock, in very dry weather, will sometimes cease to run, though at all times it contains a suffi- ciency of pure water for stock. Its bottoms are very fertile, as well as the adjoining prairies. The former are all taken for thirty miles from its mouth, but of the latter there are thousands and tens of thousands of acres of as rich and beautiful prairie lands as ever graced a western State. The old inhab- itants say they can get a living here easier than in any other place they ever saw. Your* respectfully, A. B. WAENEE." WESTERN KANSAS AND THE BUFFALO GRASS. 103 The next letter is from Eev. Dr. L. Sternberg, a Lutheran clergyman of high standing, who went to Western Kansas for his health, and to open farms with his sons. He formerly resided in New York, and afterward in Ohio and Northern Illinois, and is consequently familiar with the best dairy regions in the United States. I call especial attention to the testimony he adduces as to the character of this region for Dairying. " Fort Harker, December 10, 1870. Mr, C, G. Hutchinson : Dear Sir : You desire to know if the Plains are well adapted to butter and cheese making, and also my method. In replying to the first inquiry, it may be proper to say that I am not prepared to speak of the Plains generally. Portions of them may be bar- ren and destitute of water and of natural shelter for- stock. My remarks are intended to apply more especially to Ellsworth county, the eastern limit in this part of the State of the buffalo grass region. Whether a countrj^ is well adapted for stock and dairy purposes, depends upon its grasses; vrater and climate,- " We have both winter and summer grasses. Our winter grasses are such as keep green, and grow somewhat during the winter, especially in sheltered places in ravines and near the banks of streams. They come forward ver}- early in the spring so as to afford good pasturage, in this region generally about the middle of March. The principal variety ripens about the first of June, and resembles what we used to call the early June grass in New York. When green, it is sweet and tender, and cattle eat it with avidity. " Our summer grasses may be divided into two classes, consisting of such as are only fit for grazing, 104 Hutchinson's kansas: and such as are also suitable to be cut for hay. The term buffalo grass, includes the gramma grass, or the curled mesquit, both of them remarkably nutritious, even when ripened and dry, and affording almost as good pasturage in winter as in summer, but too short to be cut for hay. The blue joint is our principal grass for hay. It is the latest of our grasses in com- ing forward in the spring, only appearing about the time when our winter grasses are beginning to ripen. We have at present little more of this grass than is required for hay ; but I am sorry to say that it is slowly but surely supplanting the buffalo grass. The milk produced from these grasses is remarkably rich, and our cows have access to no plants giving their milk an unpleasant flavor, except that late in the fall they sometimes eat a species of wild sage, giving it a bitter taste. " Good water is a prime necessity for a stock and dairy country. It should be running water. Stagnant water affects the quality of the milk injuriously. Water drawn by hand involves too much labor, and is too uncertain a reliance. Our river water, and that flowing from our numerous springs, is most excellent for stock. " Our climate is of a medium character. We are subject to occasional storms, when cattle need some natural or artificial sheltf^r, and it may be some hay. Usually, however, they graze upon the open prairie, in winter as in summer. Thus far I have not been required to feed my cattle more than about a dozen times during the winter, and they reach the spring in fine order, unless they should be pulled down somewhat by some special cause, such as coming in too early. In summer our climate -is not warmer than in more northern latitudas. 'However warm it may be during the day, our nights are invariably cool and refreshing. The heats of summer, there- fore, interfere but little with butter and cheese mak- WESTERN KANSAS AND THE BUFFALO GRASS. 105 ing, to those who have a suitable place for the pur- pose, and I know of no reason why we may not com- pete succesfully both as to quality and quantity with the dairymen of any part of our country. " In the manufacture of butter, I am careful as to the condition of my cream, not leaving it to stand too long. I use the dash churn. I am careful to work out all the buttermilk, and yet not destroy the grain of the butter. This requires both experience and skill. The salt which should be of the purest kind, and about an ounce to the pound of butter, should be thoroughly incorporated with the butter, and dissolve in it. If the cream be too warm in churning, the butter will be of an inferior quality, and will readily soften in warm weather. The proper temperature is from fifty-six to sixty degrees. The cooler the cream, the longer the butter is in coming, but the better the butter. Tours truly, L. STEENBEEG." At the last annual February meeting of the Farmers' Institute, held at the State Agricultural College, in Manhattan, Eev. Dr. Sternberg was pres- ent with his friend and neighbor of Ellsworth county, Mr. Long, who is engaged in the cheese business. Mr. Long said : " Kansas is looked upon as a great beef-producing State, and we can certainly make as good cheese here as in Ohio, and can do it with less expense. Our cows cost less, and they net more. In Ohio it costs twenty-five dollars a year to keep a cow, in Kansas less than one-half that. Cheese in Ohio brings twelve and a half cents per pound ; mine brings eighteen and a half. Good cheese can be made in Kansas. Dairy farming is destined to become one of the most interesting and profitable branches of industry in Kansas." 106 Some one then asked, " How much cheese can you make from one gallon of milk?" Mr. Long an- swered, " In Ohio, one pound from one gallon, or ten pounds of milk ; here, one pound from eight and two-tJdrds pounds of milk. This is the quantity from the common cow ; from the Alderney^ we can make more." Dr. Eeynolds asked, " Do cows give as much milk here as there ? " Mr. Long thought they did, full as much. " The buffalo grass produced as much, and richer milk, than the tame grass.'' OTTAWA UNIVERSITY. W Dr. Sternberg said, "our season being longer we can have tivo months more for butter and cheese making.'' Mr. Long was asked about exporting his cheese, but he has no need ; he finds a ready market for all his in the State. Also about rennets. He sends to Utica, New York, and gets them at thirty cents, when they will cost fifty cents if bought here. The next letter is from Mr. Ernst Hohneck, a sur- veyor who has resided in Western Kansas about fourteen years, and is entirely familiar with the WESTERN KANSAS AND THE BUFFALO GRASS. 107 country he talks about. This letter throws light upon the "desert" question. There has been great inquiry for that desert for several years, and of late it has come to be believed that the whole account of " a desert '' was a stupendous humbug of ancient geographers, but there has long been talk in scien- tific quarters about the " sand hills of western Kan- sas," which certainly must have had some foundation in fact. I have occasionally met a man who had seen them, but could get no precise information as to their location until the following letter came to hand. After describing various counties in that region, and showing that all are possessed of good water and good soil, with considerable quantities of timber, and coal opened of fair quality for fuel, he proceeds : " Eice county, south of Ellsworth, through which runs the Arkansas Eiver and several tributaries, is, with the exception of timber, which is rather scarce, a most beautiful county, and contains, I believe, a greater per centage of tillable land, than any other county in the State I know of. The southeast part is already somewhat settled, and a colony from Ohio is expected to settle on Plum Creek next spring. Cow Creek is also in this county. Around Fort Zarab, in Barton county, near the mouth of that fine stream where the Big Walnut empties into the Arkansas, the nucleus of quite a settlement is now forming, and about two hundred families are to settle along the River and Walnut next spring. The ad- vanc^e of a German colony, about ten families, set- tled eight miles above Zarah last spring, and raised quite a crop of corn, with pumpkins, melons, etc., without end. I have not a doubt but that the bot- toms of the Arkansas River, will turn out to be pro- digious corn land. " Walnut Creek Yalley runs in a westerly direction for over a hundred miles, with abundance of timber 108 HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS. and water, and as fine bottoms as a man wants to see. The only drawback to the settlement of that part of our beautiful State, may be Indian difficulties. " In conclusion, let me give you the result of my observations during a residence of fifteen years in the State, the greater part of which I spent in the western part. " The story of the American Desert, as far as it relates to that portion of Kansas that lays north of the Arkansas Eiver, is a myth, and never had any foundation. That "belt of land," beyond which, according to early histories of Kansas, the Desert commenced, exists only in imagination. True, there is a range of sandhills, from one to two miles wide, on the west side of the Little Arkansas, as far north as the mouth of Jarvis Creek, emptying into Cow Creek, and also another narrow range of sandhills on the west side of Cow Creek, from the Plum Butes, on the old Santa Fe Eoad, extending, with intermissions, about ten miles north. But the land west of these hills is just as good as east of it. " I suppose the idea of this desert originated in this way: During that season when the buffalo roam north in immense numbers, they eat the whole country so closely that it looks to the casual observer entirely bare, and devoid of vegetation, Buffalo and even horses, will find sustenance on this very ground, it being the nature of the buffalo grass to be continually growing, and the part next to the ground, almost in it, being the most nutritous part, and very sweet ; horses, which are used to the plains, will graze on this very ground, when loose, in pref- erence to places, where the grass has not been pastured. Another peculiarity of the buffalo grass is, that it only grows in packed ground, and dies out as soon as the buffalo quits the country, and the action of the rains and frosts loosens the soil. After the buffalo have left a portion of the country for WESTERN KANSAS AND THE BUFFALO GRASS. 109 good, in a few years single stools of blue stem grass will appear, which increase in size from year to year, until the whole country, which grew once the short buffalo grass, is covered with blue stem, and then has all the appearance of an agricultural country. I have watched this transformation ever since 1855, and it is a fact and no theory. Thousands of tons of prairie hay can be cut now, where ten years ago nothing but buffalo grass grew. Whoever opens a farm in a buffalo grass region, needs to plow his land deep^ from six to eight inches at leasts so as to prepare it at once for crops. And all this great region in the western part of the State, will be thus transformed shortly, and will be found to be the granary of the west." Upon receipt of this valuable letter I wrote to the author requesting him to explain why he confined his remarks to the region north of the Arkansas Eiver, in showing that the country was generally good, and that a few square miles of sand hills had been magnified into a boundless "desert." In reply the following letter came to hand : "When I spoke rather negatively of the country south of Arkansas river, I had in my mind a pear shaped tract of land, with its stem end near Fort Dodge, and the opposite about south of the mouth of Cow creek, which empties into the Arkansas in Eice county, with a width at its broadest part (south of Pawnee Eock, seventeen miles west of Zarah) of about sixty miles, which consists of a series of sand- hills, naked sandy flats, and bunch grass prairie. This part is entirely destitue of timber, but in most parts well watered, and having considerable salt water branches running through it. "The Arkansas river is also, with the exception of a strip of about fourteen miles running east from Fort Zarah, destitute of timber from below the mouth of Cow creek to the west line of the State, . jiiiiiiijiiii^ iiiP 'iiipi:iiiiii WESTERN KANSAS AND THE BUFFALO GRASS. Ill and beyond to near Fort Lyon. The Atchison, To- peka & Santa Fe Eailroad has been surveyed and located to Fort Dodge, which will open these wide and fertile bottoms to settlement. The sandy dis- trict, however,, spoken of above, will be a great graz- ing country, as the grass on it is very nutritious, and the configuration of the country affording a great deal of shelter to stock in the winter. South of this district lays a beautiful country, along the tributaries of the little Eed river, or Eed Fork of the Arkansas. Mulberry, Turkey, Medicine Lodge, Bluff creek, etc., are among these creeks. The soil is here red in all its shades, and every little thaw or rain, will color the streams red. " Two years ago this winter, I found the bottoms covered with the tallest blue stem grass. A great deal of winter grass, which we generally call June grass, grows also here. The country is also timbered with .Cottonwood, Cedar in great quantity on the bluffs, Mulberry, Elm, Walnut, Oak, Hackberry, and on the South Fork, with China tree. I found bodies of timber containing from forty to eighty acres. Kock is very scarce here ; the deepest canyon^ as well as the highest bluffs, are devoid of it. In my opinion, it will not be very long before this country will be the great winter quarters of the stock men of Western Kansas. As for shelter, there is nothing that will surpass it in these parts. " Since my last, I learned that about fifty claims are taken on Walnut creek, and the Arkansas, in the vicinity of Fort Zarah. So the Star of Empire is moving westward at a lively rate. It is some satis- faction to contemplate, that in fifteen years civiliza- tion has conquered two hundred and fifty miles of wilderness. Yours truly, ERNST HOHNECK." 112 Here is the new geography at last. Here is the " G. A. D." reduced in its extent to a small area, and then, still worse for the fictions of the past, even this sand hill district ^^luill be a great grazing country, as the grass on it is very nutritious, and the configuration of the coun- try affords a great deal of shelter to stock in the ivinter." At last we have " corralled " the " Great Amer- ican Desert," and we find it to be a well watered, pear shaped pasture field, good for summer and especially excellent for winter grazing. Others whom I have lately seen, who have been through this region, assure me that it greatly abounds in wild fruits — berries of different kinds, and several varieties of large and luscious plums and grapes. The sand hills north of the Arkansas, de- scribed by 3Ir. Hohneck, also produce an abundance of wild fruit and small scrub oaks. And yet it is easy to see how this fiction went abroad. All the sand hills spoken of by Mr. Hoh- neck, lie in the path of the old Santa Fe wagon road over which ten years ago two or three million dollars worth of goods were annually carried in wagons, and over which a stage coach ran. This road has been traveled for many years. Thirty years ago, teams from Chihuahua, in Mexico, hauled goods to that place, by this route, from St. Louis. Of course there was truth enough in the sandy part of the story, to account for the errors of the miser- able geographers. It is also true that as we near the base of the Eocky Mountains we enter upon a country covered with what seems to be a bed of sand and coarse gravel. At what point one leaves the soil of AVestern Kansas and enters the sandy regions of Colorado, I am unable to say, having only passed over the country in the night, by railroad. It is probable, however, that the transition is a gradual one, the finer portions of the sand and soil from the mountain bases having been washed WESTERN KANSAS AND THE BUFFALO GRASS. 113 down toward the Missouri River. Even this sand of Colorado, however, is covered with our never-failing buffalo grass, and in the poorest localities, where this is partially crowded out by the Cactus, heavy crops are always grown by irrigation. Mr. Hohneck further ex2:)lains the barren appearance of the plains by showing how the buffalo eats the grass down close to the ground. The sweetness of the lower stalk of this grass is apparent to the taste of one who chews it. The little wild prairie dogs live chiefly on the lower stalks and roots of the buffalo grass, and "when they have pulled it all in one locality, they move their village to fresher fields. It is believed by frontiersmen that wherever prairie dogs establish their habitations, water may be found at a moderate depth by digging. The theory is reasonable, and is probably not less true than the' infallible test on more eastern prairies, by which a crawfish hole may always be followed to never failing water. In the first letter of Mr. Hohneck, an important suggestion is made about plowing these lands deep, the deeper the better. It is not simply that the rains may be caught and retained in a deep bed of Boil, and that rootlets may find nutriment deep in the moist earth, when they would dry out in a shal- low soil, but the action of the atmosphere, and of frost, is desirable to bring this hard earth into a l-)roper condition for producing crops. Kot that the earth is difficult to plow, or stiff and heavy like a clay soil, but it has been beaten by the storms of centuries, and trodden under foot by millions of buffalo, until it is so compact that air cannot enter it; and rain can hardly penetrate its surface. Among the most important objects accomplished by the plowing of any soil, is the exposure of its particles to the air, in order that certain chemical changes may take place, which induce the growth 5* 114 HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS. of vegetation. Especially do these soils of Western Kansas need to be plowed deep, that they may have the benefit of this ameliorating process. Here the STEAM PLOW is evcntuall}" to win its triumphs. On those broad fields, free from sloughs and miry places, there are possibilities open to inventors and large farmers in this direction, which are forbidden by the small lots, or stony land, or heavy clay soil, or deep mud, of eastern farms, or of other prairie States. THE CATTLE BUSINESS. The New York Tribune, of January 6, 1871, says: "The belt of beef supply is receding year by year. In 1866 only 44 head of Texas cattle reached this market. * "^ The chief supplies of beef already come from regions west of the Wabash, and south of the Ohio. If this is true of 1870, what may be expected in 1875, or even 1873 ? * * Evidently it is of no avail for the farmer east of the Wabash to contend with those vast plains, covered with the most nutritious grasses. The herdsman there can produce a three-year-old steer that will dress 550 pounds, as cheaply as the former can fat- ten a spring pig." It is easy to see why the cattle business cannot so readily be overdone as most other kinds of business. By the employment of sufficient capital and labor, manufacturers may in a few months, flood the mar- ket with goods and ruin the business. The necessi- ties or fashions of the day may also change, and fail the manufacturer. The farmers of the country are only limited in the amount of grain they raise, by the labor they choose to employ in seed time and harvest, and for this reason, in connection with the uncertainties of the weather, grain raisers in all parts of the world are liable to extreme fluctuations in the price of their products. THE CATTLE BUSINESS. 115 But it is evident that the supply of beef cattle is limited by the natural increase, and it is also evi- dent that it will not soon become unfashionable to eat beef. Therefore it is that everywhere the cattle business is among the most secure and certain of all occupations. But it needs no argument to show that a region abounding in such grasses, as we have described, with a plentiful supply of stock water, in a healthy climate, and in a region traversed by BLOCK IN HUMBOLDT. railroads, furnishing competition in freights, must distance all competitors in its attractions for stock jais- ers or- dealers. The business in Kansas is already immense. There were during the year 1870, about 200,000 head of cattle shipped out of Kansas, of which number about 150,000 consisted of Texas cattle, part of which were direct from Texas, while the remainder had been herded a few months in this State. Esti- mating 150,000 Texas cattle all around, at $30 per head, including those wintered here, and we have 116 HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS. a sum of $4,500,000. The native stock averaged $50 per head, making for 50,000 head $2,500,000, or a gross total of $7,000,000, which is probably as close an approximation as can be made of the business. Texas cattle are descended from the Spanish cattle brought to America by the conquerors of Mexico, and the characteristics of the original stock have been liightened by their treatment and the climate in which they have been raised. No attempt is ever made to improve the stock by selecting breeders, and about the only attention a herd receives, is to brand the calves when young. They range at pleasure, summer and winter, in immense herds, and ar3 only driven together by the swiftest horsomen or caught with the lasso. None, or very few, of the cows are reserved for milk, and no calves killed, aiid the increase of the herds is therefore much more rapid than in those countries where a large share of calves go to the butcher, or are killed before they are old enough for veal. People sometimes talk of "Cherokee" cattle, and ''Wichita mountain" cattle, and either confound them with Texas cattle, or class them as a distinct breed. They are cattle descended from the Texas stock, but bave been crossed with northern stock, which before the war was driven extensively into the Indian Territory — called from its principal tribe, the " Cherokee country." These crosses show all grades of stock, and at once show how easy it is to improve the original long horned, long legged, gaunt, race- horse breed of Texas cattle. It is becoming a very popular practice in Kansas, particularly on the west- ern and southern frontier, to purchase a herd of one or two year old Texas heifers, paying therefor from five to eight dollars per head, and cross them with the best bull the breeder can purchase. With a thorough bred or full blood short horn sire, the first cross is decidedly better than the common American THE CATTLE BUSINESS. 117 stock. I will not stop to figure out the profits result- ing from this business, with the advantages here presented. The original Texas stock improves in this country — they broaden out and take on more flesh. This is undoubtedly owing to the climate, which is mucli more vigorous and bracing than their native plains. Yet, notwithstanding all that I have said, and much more of the same favorable sort, is true, there is a strong prejudice against Texas cattle, but uniformly, so far as I have observed, men who have dealt in this stock to any extent, and all who have bred from it, are favorably inclined toward it. At the same time nearly all are agreed that if a man have the means to buy all the cows he wishes to commence the business with, it is better to buy the best stock he can get, and then improve it as rapidly as pos- sible. Last fall, I met in Colorado John IS. Chisum, of Fort Concho, Texas. Mr. Chisum is one of those companionable frontiersmen who has the best in- stincts of a gentleman, and yet prefers to broil his slice of beef on a stick bef )re a camp fire, and wrap himself in a blanket on the open prairie with hi3 saddle for a pillow, and all out doors for a bed room, rather than board at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Now Chisum told me all about the " Texas cattle fever/' and this is the story : In their native condition the cattle range to please themselves. They get up and lie down ; graze early and late ; go to a salt lick for salt, or drink fresh water at pleasure, or if their appetite inclines, can browse on buds and bushes. By this life, they keep health}' and hearty and under such circumstances never have Texas fever, Spanish fever or any other fever or contageous disease. But in an evil hour for them, the owner decides to drive them north. A corrall or rail pen is built of great strength, but only 118 HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS. large enough to hold the herd that is to be driven. Boys and men, mounted on swift horses, and armed with terrible whips, which in their hands crack like pistols, collect the trembling beasts, and holding them on a close range by day, pen them in the yard every night. From one to three months is occupied by this process, according to the size of the drove, or the means at the command of the drover. The owner of the drove is probably with it very little, or if with it he is probably indiflferent as to its necessities. The result is, that during the time of preparing to move the drove north, it is confined on a limited range, watered at irregular times, entirely deprived of salt, at night confined in the close pen, which often is deep with mud, and generally the poor creatures are kept in a constant state of excitement and privation, totally unlike their former free and easy life. By the time they are started on their journey they are falling off in flesh, and the drover hurries them forward with rapid marches, to get into market before they become too poor to sell. They go in droves of from 1,000 to 10,000 head, and upon the average one man in the saddle is required to each hundred head of cattle. On the "cattle trail," as the lines of travel are called, they have short feeding times, and close herding, and get no salt unless they cross a salt lick, (spots of earth where salt water oozes out and is evaporated, leaving salt upon the surface, to which all herbivorous animals resort, whether wild or tame, and with their tongues lick up the salt.) They often pass over considerable distances without water, and traveling in hot weather, and amid the dust raised by themselves, they become extremel}^ thirsty, and upon approach- ing the narrow ford at which a stream is crossed, they rush in headlong haste to reach the water. At narrow streams the crowding of those in the rear THE CATTLE BUSINESS. 119 sends the foremost out without a full drink, and the reckless, hasty drivers add to the general hurry and excitement. The consequence of all this is, that the drove becomes feverish and diseased. Mr. Chisum says he can tell whether a drove is healthy or not, the mo- ment he goes among them, not only by their general appearance, but especially by a peculiar smell emitted by those which have the Texas fever. He says he never had this disease in any drove he handled, because he took proper care of them, and the disease was never communicated by one of his droves to an}^ other cattle, and he has taken many Texas cattle among northern cattle during the worst sea- son of the year. It is a peculiarity of this disease, that the cattle among which.it originates do not die, but only those northern cattle with which they come in contact. It is also true that Texas cattle, after being wintered in this or any other northern region, are as liable to die with the Texas fever, if afterward exposed to it, as our finest northern stock. Cattle die with this disease, which have not been among the diseased Texas cattle, but only ranged upon ground and drank from water lately frequented by a diseased Texas drove. Cold weather, destroys the influence of the disease and it is not communicated after heavy frosts come, and therefore the laws of Kansas do not permit Texas cattle to be driven into this State during the period between the first day of March and the first day of December of each year, and at no time are they permitted to be driven east of the 6th principal meridian, but they may be shipped through the State on railroads at any time. Texas cattle are largely bought in the fall and kept through the winter, and until they fatten on the grasses of the succeeding summer, when they are in fine condition for beef. Those who have only 120 HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS. seen this stock immediately after its arrival from Texas, by the mode of driving that our friend Chisum describes, really know nothing about its quality. The remark of a blind man to whom a friend was boasting of a fine horse, is also applica- ble to these cattle: ''Is your horse fat?" "Yes." " Then of course he looks well." I quote from volume seven, Transactions of Illinois State Agricultural Society : " Butchers tell us that Texas cattle are better for packing than ordinary western cattle, the meat being finer grained, richei', and more tender than the rough, coarse stock hitherto shipped from the west. As a matter of profit they are considerably ahead of native cattle. The hides are worth from fifteen to twenty per cent more, and the yield of tallow is far larger." Some of the fattest cattle ever killed in this State were corn fed Texas steers, but they were brought here when young, and had wintered here two or three seasons, and become accustomed to our climate and grasses, and to eating corn. Mr. Andrew Wilson, of Topeka, is one of our most successful dealers in Texas cattle, and he has kindly furnished me with many items about the business. He buys four and five year old steers in the fall, at about $22.50 per head, averaging 900 pounds. In winter he has kept about 300 head together, and in summer, 1000 to 2000 head. Sum- mer and winter he provides one man and horse for every hundred head. It is verj^ important to salt freely and let the stock have constant access to water. Heretofore he has wintered in Eastern Kan- sas, on prairie hay and corn stalks in the field, (the latter being the best) and a few bushels of corn per head. Hereafter he intends to graze his Texas cattle the year round in Western Kansas. Last winter he kept 3000 head and sold in SejDtember for THE CATTLE BUSINESS. 121 $4.25 per hundred, gross weight, the average being 1312 pounds (excepting 350 cows). Another party kept 1000 head, bought from the same Texas herd, and sold at the time Mr. Wilson did, and only received $40 per head, a difference on 1000 head of $15,760. This loss was caused solely by short feed- ing and lack of care. Last summer, Mr. Wilson's Texas cattle gained about 406 pounds per head on grass. He usually sells to buyers who come into the country. For fattening exclusively on grass, he prefers Texas cattle, but to feed on corn, he prefers native stock. Here are his figures : 1000 head good Texas steers at $20...; $20,000 Interest upon same one year, at 10 per cent 2,000 Winter care in Eastern Kansas, with salt, feeding, etc,, at $10 10,000 Summer care salt, etc., at $3 3,(t00 Interest for six months on amount paid for care and feed, $13,000, at 10 par cent, per annum 650 Add 3 per cent for losses of cattle 600 $36,250 Average weight 1300 pounds, at 4 cents gross, equal $52 per head. Sales of 970 head, at $52 60,440 Deduct total cost and interest 36,250 $14,190 The above estimate puts all expenses at the high- est figures. If the selling price falls below the above, of course the buying price for the fresh stock will decrease proportionally. In grazing through the season on buffalo grass, he estimates the entire cost for the year not to exceed six dollars per head, and while the losses will sometimes be greater, the profit will be much more than by keeping the cattle on hay and corn. If a stock raiser have the capital he advises to buy good native heifers, but from his own observa tion he is satisfied that the first cross of Texas stock with Short Horn, makes a stock fully equal to our common cattle, and Texas heifers, which have their first calves in this country, and are subject to ordi- nary herding, become gentle and easily handled. 6 122 HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS. Mr. Wilson is a native of Ohio, and has lived in Sangamon county, Illinois. He considers, as do all who are familiar with it, that Kansas is the best stock State 3^et opened. Its unsurpassed wild grasses, and abundant streams, with gravelly or rocky bottoms, place it far ahead of the best por- tions of Illinois for grazing purposes. He has some of the finest stock in the State, among which is the PUBLIC SCHOOL, POMONA. Short Horn bull of which a life-like cut is given else- where. Western farmers talk of stall-feeding cattle, when corn in the ear is thrown to them. They are also fed hay or permitted to run in standing cornstalks, from which the corn has been picked. Frequently the cornstalks are cut and put before them, ears and all. In either case it is desirable that there be two fields or yards, and fattening hogs are each day put in the yard occupied by the cattle, the day pre- I THE CATTLE BUSINESS. 123 Yiously. Upon the farm of Lieut.-Groyernor Elder in Franklin county, I found the husked corn placed in troughs, conveniently elevated on legs, and th hogs running with the cattle. He thinks, after sev- eral years careful experiment, that he saves twenty- five bushels to each steer by husking his corn, instead of feeding in the shock. He fattens annually about 200 head, feeding them all they will eat for six months, which is about eighty bushels of corn each. Hay or corn fodder is also given. Corn is placed in the troughs twice a day, and all feeding is done with the strictest regularity. Feeding twenty to forty bushels to a steer, he deems, as do all experienced feeders, almost a waste, as they are not made good beef, and will not do any better on grass the next summer than cattle which have had but two or three bushels given them the last month of feeding time. Four-year-old native steers in the fall are worth 3i to 4 cents gross, weighing 1,300 to 1,400 pounds. They gain by six months feeding about 250 pounds, and sell for 6 J to 7 cents gross, in the spring when ^rass-fed cattle are not in the market. An equal number of hogs are put with the cattle, to take their ^aste and leavings, and the net profit on each hog is ten dollars. By this method his corn nets him above interest on capital invested, from 80 cents to $1.00 per bushel. The only shelter his fat cattle have from the wind, is a gentle bluff, upon the south side of which is his feeding ground. I give below the annual average prices of beef cattle for six years, at the cattle market, Chicago, Illinois, taken from the report of the United States Commissioner of Agriculture, Hon. Horace Capron. The prices are per hundred pounds gross weight. It should be noted that the great range of prices for each year, results chiefly from the difference in qual- ity of cattle. It is always bad management to send poor cattle to market ; 124 HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS. Prices of heef cattle in Chicago^ Illinois^ per hundred, gross iceight. 18&4 $2.56 to $5.72 1867 $3.52 to 8.02 1865 2.94 to 8.i6 1868 3.41 to 8.10 1866 3.53 to 7.72 1869 3.79 to 7.66 Average price for six years, $3.24 to $7.61. The average expense of shipment jDer head, from the Mi.s- souri JRiver to Chicago, is about five dollars. Arrangements have been perfected by which it is expected to send fresh beef and buffalo to New York and other eastern cities from Kansas, during this summer, in Eankin's Patent Eefrigerator cars, an invention of one of our citizens, Mr. T. L. Eankin, of Lyndon, Osage county. Experimental trips were made last year with eminent success. The car is nearly air tight, and contains ice, and beef in quarters can be sent in perfect order, at less rates than when shipped alive, as thirty head can be carried, while but eighteen live bullocks usually go in a car. Meat was carried 100 hours in one of these cars, from July 25 to August 1st, 1870, at a temperature of 50 to 55 degrees. The walls are composed of fifteen separate and tight partitions, made of wood and paper, with spaces between. The Hearth and Home, of New York City, for February 4, 1871, contains an illustrated article upon this subject, showing that our exhaustless meat supply is to be carried to the door of our eastern friends. A new class of stock cars are also put on to rail- roads this year for the first time, called Steel's palace stock cars. In these cars, cattle are watered and fed while in transit, and the time to New York or any other distant point is less than half that required under the old system of transporting live stock. The foundations are being laid for giving Kansas THE SHEEP BUSINESS. 125 a reputation, as to the quality of its stock, equaled only by the profit with which it is reared. Many very fine breeding animals have been brought to this State at great expense to their owners. Among those who have considerable herds of thor- ough-bred and full blood Short Horn cattle, are Judge N. L. Chaffe & Sons, Manhattan ; Andrew Wilson, Topeka ; John Inlow, Olathe ; I. K Insley, Oska- loosa; Wm. S. Pickrell, Ottawa; Mr. Moler, of Anderson county. Among those with thorough- bred or full blood Jersey cattle, are, I. S. Kalloch, Lawrence; E. A. Smith, Lawrence; Eev. Winfield Scott, Leavenworth, and others. Hon. S. 0. Pome- roy. United States Senator, also has upon his farm at Muscotah, some thorough-bred Holstein cattle, which are famous for combining the qualities of good milkers, docility, size, and a readiness to take on fat. Ail those gentlemen mentioned above, and many others, have fine herds of swine, including fine stock of all the best breeds ; Berkshire, Essex, Poland China, Suflfolks, Chester White, etc. Alfred Gray, Secretary of Kansas State Agricultural Society, has upon his farm at Wyandotte, probably the finest lot of Berkshires in the west. He has visited all the breeders of note in the L^nited States and the Cana- das, and has purchased the best animals he could find. He has made this business a speciality for several years, with eminent success. THE SHEEP BUSINESS. Perhaps there is no branch of ordinary husbandry at which one should serve a longer apprenticeship before enter! Lg upon it for himself, than the raising of sheep. Sheep must have care and attention to thrive anywhere, and it is not advisable for men, or for boys as has often been the case in Kansas, THE SHEEP BUSINESS. 127 who are utterly ignorant of the business to com- mence it with a large fiock. The cattle business is so easily learned, gives so little trouble, and is so safe and profitable, that nearly all who have any inclination to the stock business, seek herds of cattle rather than flocks of sheep, but there are many million head of sheep in Ohio and States west of it, that must in some way be handled by their owners, who are greatly dispiri- ted by the low price of wool. Such flocks should be driven to Kansas. There are also multitudes who own poor or profitless farms in those States, who understand the sheep business, and could easily and profitably convert their farms into sheep and bring their sheep here to be converted into cash, not by selling, but by keeping. For the benefit of these, and other interested people, let us glance at the sheep business in Kansas. The pasturage is boundless and it is good. If left to themselves sheep will keep the grass down in certain places by close feeding. The short fresh herbage is more sweet and nutritious, and the ground is also drier under their feet than would be tall grass, from which the dews and rains do not so quickly dry out: This is also an advantage in cases of foot rot. From this disease many flocks of sheep have been cured by bringing them to Kansas. The climate is more congenial to sheep as well as man, than the damp atmosphere of regions east of the Mississippi, and our comparative freedom from mud is another great advantage over the older western States. By herding sheep on a moderatel}'' close, rather than a wide range, never driving or hurrying them, and giving them a plenty of water and salt, they are kept during the summer at a trifling cost, and in good condition. It is the almost universal opinion among men of experience, that sheep do not do as well if fed ex- 128 Hutchinson's Kansas. clusively on prairie hay. It is said that it has a constipating effect upon them, which it does not upon other stock, and that to correct this, a small feed of corn should be given every day through the winter, giving them hay and corn as soon as the frost strikes the grass. By commencing to feed corn early, a very little with prairie hay will keep them in excellent order. An amount equal to about a half bushel per head for the winter, is considered sufficient with good hay. If sheep are fed upon corn fodder, as is frequently and profitably the case, this is deemed sufficient. Many feed sheaf oats instead of corn, and think them even better. Bdt for large profits in wintering sheep'^in Eastern Kansas, one should have blue grass pastures or winter rye for grazing. With access to either, there are not upon the average, two weeks in the entire winter, but that sheep will keep fat without other feed. All sheep do better to be protected from the occasional winter rains, and I think it wrong to ask people to bring their flocks here without informing them that they will be well repaid in money as well as in com- fort of mind, b}^ providing rough shelter for their ewes. But the best place in Kansas for keeping large flocks of sheep, yes the best place in the United States, all things considered, is the buffalo grass region of Western Kansas. The altitude and dry- ness of the atmosphere and consequent freedom from disease in these regions, the comparative exemption from winter rains, the boundless range upon the short, sweet and nutritious grasses which afford feed of about equal value the year round, the abun- dant supply of pure and palatable water, the over- hanging bluff's and ledges, and skirts of timber a id various conveniences for making a shelter for the weak and helpless, the excellent grass for hay, of which a few pounds per head should be put up as a THE SHEEP BUSINESS. 129 contingent provision against storms, the convenience by railroads for marketing mutton or wool, and finally the fact that all these advantages are offered absolutely without cost, these inducements ought to bring millions of sheep to Kansas this year. Sheep do not need grain when they have access to buffalo grass. Many flocks are herded in New Mexico and Colorado without feed, excepting grass, and without shelter except timber or bluffs, and the business is extremely profitable if taken in hand by those who understand and like it. In that region two or three shepherds often start off with their flock of 2,000 head, taking a team, perhaps of oxen, and a wagon laden with provisions, a tent, and conveniences for camping. They permit the flock to range pretty much at pleasure, follow- ing with the team at the rate of one l^p five miles per day, and camping when night overtakes them. Having several trained shepherd dogs, who keep on the outskirts of the flock, it is not much trouble, by taking turns on guard, to keep the little prairie wolves, or coyotes, at a distance. At times finding good pasturage, water and shade, they may remain a week at one encampment. They keep goats or a cow or two for milk, while the flock supplies them with fat and juicy meat. This romantic, easy-going and vagabond sort of life, is followed from shearing time until cold weather, by which time they will have returned to the vicinity of their homes. Here they find the grass which has been growing all summer, ready cured for winter use, and their flocks can stay on the "home range" for several months. There are many puny boys and men, dragging out a pampered and miserable existance in the east, to whom a sum- mer's campaign of this sort on the high, rolling, healthy pasture fields of Western Kansas, would give a new lease of life. Health for the feeble and good 130 HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS. pay for all, awaits those who enter the sheep busi- ness in those regions. I speak with the utmost confidence, when saying that Western Kansas offers extraordinary advan- ^-^^ iiil i ..v^ iiAkV// TJNIVERSALIST CHURCH, LAWRENCE. tages for raising wool or mutton. I speak with feeling when I call to mind the fact that there are thousands of wool-growers in "the east who are upon the verge of ruin from the low price of wool, coupled with the high price of land. They are almost ready to give away their flocks, but by bringing them here THE SHEEP BUSINESS. 131 they can, even at present prices, not only save them- selves, but enrich themselves at the business. Mr. Jesse Connell, a wealthy farmer near Leavenworth City, who has lived upon the border for thirty years^ informed me some years ago, that with wool at twenty-five cents per pound at Leavenworth, he could double his money every year on sheep, by taking them where there was free pasturage, and by giving them personal supervision. This subject is so important and is fraught with so much of good to those wool-growers who will heed what is proven, that I solicited a letter upon the subject from Dr. Bocking, of Alma, Wabaunsee county, who has had extensive experience in many parts of the world, including South America and Australia. His reply is given as follows : "Kansas by its climate, soil, water, ' and short winters, is eminently a wool growing country, and was selected for a home by me four jears ago. My experience on sheep in Europe and in the Branda Oriental del Uruguay of South America, during four years, (from 1857 to 1861,) gave me a taste for wool- raising, having had under my superintendency on Mrs. Wendelstadt's farm, on the Eio Negro, as many as 72,000 head. ^' To commence with the trade, one has to decide himself beforehand, if he wants to raise for the butcher or for the improvement of wool, both being a business altogether apart, and much depending on the circumstances given. To go sure, and I intend to walk that path, raising for the carcass is for the present state of our communications the most advisable, and may afterwards, when a good founda- tion is laid, easily be turned to the other. If a man with large means intends to raise for wool merely, or principally, I leave it open to him to select Ne- • grettes or Combwools, as both will pay with neces- 132 HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS. sary care ; and although I belong to the old merino school. I am last to deny the qualities of a Cotswold. " The stock to commence with, is our native stock anyhow, and this sheep can be had amply in Michi- gan, some parts of Iowa, northern Illinois, and the very best in Ohio. Keep out of Missouri flocks, or elsewhere, where there is principally a timber pas- ture. Not more than a thousand head should be herded in one flock, except where there are wethers enough already to be herded separately with the rams to' the middle of November, when the latter may be put among the ewes for a fortnight. "For a shepherd not everybody is tit, the more the man loves his kind of stock, and the more easy tempered he is, the better it will be for the owner. An old man will generally do better than young ones, and rather abstain from the aid of dogs if you are not convinced of the phlegm of your herdsman and the thorough training of your collies. Fat flocks can not be attained with a lad exhausting his pony and his sheep with seedless disturbance. About the summer care, much need not be told. Turn the flock out after dew, that they have ample time yet to fill before eleven, then let them lay down to ruminate, and past the midday heat herd them slowly homeward, not forgetting the water, because contrary to the general opinion, your sheep are great drinkers. But starting from the siesta, (range,) let the herdsman look after sleepy lambs that they get the necessary awakening. When the flies be- come very troublesome, I find it better to stay all night on some lofty spot, rather than to shut them up in the corrall. In winter, as sheds are mostly nothing but ^'pia desideria," let your flock enjoy the most protected spot of timber accessible to you. Do not grow impatient when you see the ewes' wool hanging loose around their sides early in spring, it is not yet clipping time. The lambs should not THE SHEEP BUSINESS. 133 come before the middle of April, and they should all be there at the first of May. That the owner morning and evening be always at the spot to inspect the tail of his flock is a matter of course ; of foot-rot and divers complaints, he will not find much, and a little pine tar in an eggshell will gen- erally perform the cure, but itch in rainy seasons he will find to beware of Of herbs poisonous to sheep, there is not a single one known to me in Kansas. " Now about the dollars and cents. To keep less than five hundred will not pay, and many a good farmer of my acquaintance has become sheep-sick by a little flock that annoyed him by its intrusions and daily damages in summer in the fields, and in winter on the haystacks and in the orchard. The sheep are to be herded and kept under a careful eye all the time. You cannot turn them out at large like horses and cattle. But with eight hundred ewes (as a minimum) and thirty-two rams, the business will pay. With eight hundred, the wool, (four pound a piece, and at an average price of twenty-two cents per pound, at the nearest railroad depot) will pay the expenses, (herdsman, hay, shelter, salt, loss, etc.,) and the lambs will be your profit, but with a thousand your books will show other results, and the more if you ship your fleece directly east. My experimental flock gave me 75 per cent twin lambs, of good constitution, and as we need not, in Kansas, kill the buck lambs for want of milk in the mothers* udders, which is the case on the Rio de la Platte and in Australia, by the first of September your young ones will hardly be discernible from the old ones. Your expended capital of $3.00 will bring you 80 cents interest in wool, which is equal to the running expenses and customary losses, and you have besides a sure ofl'spring that will double your principal cap»- ital every two years, as sure as death and taxes, if 134 HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS. ^^, you apply the necessary 'care, and if extraordinary losses do not occur. Is there any other honest busi- ness that can beat that? Our ^-rater is clear, sum- mer care costs nothing, and hay you can make on Uncle Sam's realms as much as you please for a dozen years to come. "Now good bye. For the different breeds and the general management, lots of books are open, and Orange, Judd & Co., in New York, will be happy to sell them to you. All I want to add are my first words: Kansas is a wool-growing country, if there is any, and open to enterprise and energy for every- body, who takes naturally an interest in animals and raises them as nature teaches." From T. C. Hill, Esq., of Americus, Lyon county, I received the following figures, which show one of his transactions in the sheep business, in buying a lot of poor run down sheep : Dr. Cr. 600 sheep at $1.25 $750 200 to butcher at $3.00 $600 Attendance 6 months at $40 240 Fleeces of 350,5 lbs, at 28 cts 490 Herding 4 months 125 200 lambs at $1.50 300 Feedofpon anddog 25 350 old sheep at $2.50 875 600 bushels corn SOO 50 pelts ,. .. 30 Rough fodder 100 Saltabbl., per month 25 Total $2,295 Interest 60 Deduct expenses $1,625 Total $1,625 Net profit $670 If one attended his own flock, add care as above $365 $1,035 The remainder of this flock after above sales, Mr, Hill let out for three years, he to receive two pounds of wool per head each year, and the original num- ber to be returned in good order, or failing in the latter particular, he received $2.50 per head for each missing sheep. He says, after an experience of twelve years in Kansas, that one good man — he em- ploys no other — will care for 2,000 head in the sum- mer, (being mounted,) and 1,000 head in winter. MULE BREEDING. 135 He feeds no prairie hay after the middle of January. If sheej) cannot have corn stalks, sheaf oats^ winter rye or blue grass, give them corn and allow them to range the prairies in the middle of the day for rough feed. MULE BREEDING. From Mr, J. Eeynolds, of Longton, Howard county, member of the House of Eepresentatives from that county, I obtained the following: It will require two men to care for 100 mares and one jack. Colts should come in April. The average loss of mares by death, until they are fourteen years old, will not exceed two per cent. Loss among mules next to nothing. In the fall the mules are separated from the mares, and an old white mare put among them with a bell on, who at once becomes their leader. It is believed that the older and more worthless she may be the more attached do the mules become. The mules of all ages are kept together and it costs no more to handle them than so many cattle, while they will thrive on coarser food and under greater exposure. The mares need a little grain in the winter. It is a very low estimate to say that 80 mules can be sold from 100 mares each year. Good mares for this purpose can be bought for $100 each. A first rate jack should be bought, and he will cost from $500 to $1000. The mules are quick sale at the breeder's farm, and are worth from $75 to $100 each at two years of age, and $300 per span, unbro- ken, when three years old. I shall give my readers an opportunity to figure out the profits of the busi- ness, which they can do from data already furnished. I believe that if a man understands this business and likes it, there is more money in it for a term of ten years than in any other branch of stock business. Mr. Eeynolds brought from Wisconsin about 25 136 HUTCHISON'S KANSAS. fine horses, among which are two thorough bred brood mares, by Lexington, one by imported West Australian, one by Cheatham, also brood mares, colts and filleys, by Creighton, Escape, Patchen, Daniel Boon, Leopold, Bald Chief, Swygart, Green's Bashaw, etc. He also brought Escape, by imported King of Simirie, dam thorough bred. Also a trotting stallion, Leopold, since purchased by I. S. Kalloch, of Lawrence. TAME GRASSES. The question, "can you raise tame grasses?" has been asked in every new settlement from the Atlan- tic seaboard to Kansas. Thirty or forty years ago it is said to have been a matter of doubt in Ohio, and when I first came to Illinois from Yermont, seventeen years ago, it was discussed pro and con, and half the settlers were convinced, without expe- riment, that timothy and clover would not succeed on the prairies. The same question is now discussed in some por- tions of Kansas and among some people, but any man who will travel through the older settled coun- ties of Eastern Kansas, will be convinced that the question no longer admits of discussion. About Fort Leavenworth timothy and clover has produced a good crop of hay for mtvuy years. In Wyandotte county are blue grass pastures, which have been fed twenty-five years and are constantly improving. The northeastern portion of Johnson county is nearly all thick set with blue grass. Eev. Mr. John- son, the old missionary among the Shawnee Indians, used to carry blue grass seed in his pocket, and scattered it whenever he saw a spot of broken prairie sod, where fresh earth was exposed by a gopher, or the rooting of hogs, or the deep track of a horse, etc. From this it has spread all through TAME GRASSES. 137 that vicinity. Wherever in Kansas the old Indian traders, or other travelers from the blue grass regions east of Kansas, were in the habit of camp- ing, there bltie grass is now abundant, and is rapidly- spreading. I am speaking of Kentucky blue grass, Toa Fretensis. It grows during the entire season excepting in mid-summer, and it is therefore a feed for all seasons of the year excepting summer, when it is better not to put stock upon it. Mr. Tipton, of Anderson county, successfully seeded a quarter sec- tion to this grass ten years ago, by sowing the seed in the fall upon the prairie sod, and then harrowing it thoroughly. It catches easily upon plowed ground, by sowing in the fall or winter. 14 lbs. of common threshed seed, 6 lbs. of clean, or 2 lbs. of extra clean — which can hardly be obtained — will seed an acre. Clean seed is evidently better than seed in the chaff for sowing on raw (unplowed) prairie, as it will more readily sink into the soil and take root. Once established in any locality, the seed is carried by stock, or blown by the wind, as well as spreading by its roots, and it will take possession of all Eastern Kansas in a few years. This soil and climate is peculiarly congenial to it, and nowhere else does it appear as promising, except in the famous blue grass regions of Kentucky. It is the most profitable grass in the world, and unless a lawn mower is to be used frequently, it is our best lawn grass. Orchard grass, Dactylis Glornerata, has been sown by several farmers, and furnishes better feed during midsummer than blue grass. It can also be cut for hay, as it grows tall, much like timothy, excepting that its head resembles herds grass or red toj). Blue grass does not make hay, it being strictly a grazing grass. Timothy and clover also do well here. Tim- othy furnishes very good winter pasturage. I know 6* 138 HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS. of a field of thirty acres in Franklin county, which has been fed all winter, keeping green and fresh, excepting a few of the most severe days. There can be no doubt that Eastern Kansas is unsurpassed as a tame grass region. About the most profitable use to which land can be put, is to seed it to blue grass. Allow it to grow four to six months and turn upon it during the winter stock that has been grazing on the open prairie. There is yet abundant summer range in Eastern Kansas, and the capacity of this region for producing tayne grass and corn, has made it famous as a beef producing country. Stock may be raised with great profit in Eastern Kansas, and it is the only part of the State where feeding to corn has yet been practiced. The time is not very distant, however, when Eastern Kansas will all be fenced with Osage Orange hedges, grown at a cost of less than fifty cents per rod, and stock will be raised in Western Kansas and taken to the blue grass meadows and rich corn fields of the eastern part of the State to be finished off for the best mar- ket prices. FRUIT GROWING. Our limited space forbids any lengthy dissertation upon the general subject of fruit growing. Here, as elsewhere, the nurseryman -and orchardist must exer- cise patience and care, if he would be successful, but the soil and climate certainly are very favorable to the growth of plants, trees and vines, and to the production of fruit. The best evidence I can furnish upon this point is to present cuts showing the exact size of the Great Gold Medal awarded to Kansas, over all other States, at the national exhibition at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1869, for which I am indebted to Geo. T. Anthony, Editor Kansas Farmer. Kansas is not entirely exempt from the vicissitudes of climate which make fruit growing so precarious FURIT GROWING. 139 in nearly all parts of the United States, and the peach crop is probably no more certain than in Southern Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. The apple and pear orchards are very promising, and small fruits are grown successfully. The capacity of Western Kansas as a fruit region has not been tried, but from the character of the soil, from its altitude of 2,000 feet or more, and from the extraordinary growth of wild fruit there found, I am of the opinion that the sandy hills and slopes described by Mr. Hohneck, in the vicinity of the Arkansas River, will prove very favorable to the production of fine fruits. At my KANSAS FRUIT MEDAL'. request, Messsrs. Topping, nurserymen and fruit growers at Ottawa, prepared the following brief description of their method and its results in small fruit culture. ' It is folly for a new settler to wait years without fruit, for his apple trees to bear, when he can have abundance of delicious fruit the first and second years by a judicious planting of small fruits. Ear- 140 HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS. liest in the season is the rhubarb, or pie plant, yield- ing considerable for the family the first year. Next the strawberry, most delicious of all fruits, lasting four weeks. Then follows the raspberry. Next in close succession follows the blackberry and then the grape, all of which are in full bearing before the first specimen apple is produced from trees planted at the same time. The experience of fruitgrowers in Kan- sas for several years has placed the success and profit of small fruit culture beyond a doubt. '' Strawberries. — Our first crop of strawberries illus- trates what can be realized in one year without extra care and without manure. We took great care to procure the ]pure Wilson's Albany, as we had known of failures resulting from inqmriiy of stock planted. " Soil — Authorities usually recommend sandy loam. Yet we used such as we had, a heavy prairie loam, dark and deep, nearly level. It had been under cul- tivation three years, and cropped w^ith corn. '^ Cultivation. — We plowed about 12 inches deep and pulverized well — planted in rows four feet apart and twelve inches apart in rows — used the Moline fine-tooth cultivator, drawing it together as the young plants spread out each side of the row, which finally altogether prevented cultivation about August. Mulching in winter was done with clean straw about 2 inches deep. '^ Results. — The next spring over 4000 quarts of strawberries wel-e gathered from this bed of seven- eighth of an acre, the sales netting $865, or at the rate of fully $1000 per acre. We made sales at Ottawa and other towns in this State. The entire expense of planting, cultivating and picking was not more than $250. "Raspberries — Are almost as successfully raised. Planted four by six feet they yield a partial crop in one year and almost a full crop the second year. We plant chiefly a variety of black cap which we brought FRUIT GROWING. 141 from southern Illinois, which appears to be identical with the so called Mammoth Cluster, and yields large crops annually. " Blackberries — Are completely successful here — no larger crops anywhere. The true Kittatinny, the favorite, both in quality, fruitfulness and hardiness. '* The Grape — The grape for the million here as elsewhere is the Concord — but other varieties appear almost equally successful. Planted 8 by 8 feet they commence bearing the second year, and thus far no failures of crop have occurred and no diseases have appeared to damage the fruit. '' All kinds of fruit here are remarkably free from any stings of insects. Apples and peaches as well as grapes and small fruits are perfect in development. " We have chiefly used the Robinson trench plow, manufactured in Ottawa by the Robinson plow com- pany, in preparing prairie sod for fruit planting. We plowed in late fall and early winter, and by spring the soil was in best condition. The forward share of this plow cuts the sod about 3 inches deep, which is laid at the bottom of the furrow and the next share 'Cuts the subsoil about 4 inches below, and this is thrown over the sod, burying it so deeply that it is smothered. Four heavy horses will break about IJ acres per day with this plow. '' The best season for breaking raw prairie is in May, when a crop of corn can be raised at once; but one great advantage of this plow is that it can be done with good' results in the fall, when ordinary breaking would be worse than useless." Mr. Wm. L. G. Soule, a nurseryman near Lawrence, writes me as follows : " The largest and most thrifty orchard I have seen in Kansas is near Yinland, on a light sandy ridge, the land having received no manure, and cultivated with some kind of crops between the trees every year since they were planted. 142 HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS. " The following varieties of apples have done well in Douglas county, and I think in all other parts of the State : ''Early Harvest, Eed June, Eed Astrachan, and Early Strawberry for summer; Maiden Blush, Fa- meuse, (or Snow,) Fall Wine, Eambo, Duchess of Oldenburg and Lowell for autumn ; and for winter the Wine Sap, Janet, Large Striped Pearmain, Eome Beauty, Missouri Pippin, Kansas Keeper, Baldwin, Ehode Island Greening, Jonathan, Milan, Mother, Willow Twig, Golden Eussett, Fallawater, Swaar, White Winter Pearmain, Tallman Sweet, and Sweet Eomanite. " As an ornamemtal tree the improved varieties of crab apple have no equal among fruit trees, while the beauty and large size of the fruit, added to its superiority for domestic use, and its early fruiting, render it cme of the most desirable trees the farmer or fruit grower can plant. 1 have seen a specimen of the Soulard grown in Kansas nearl}^ three inches in its largest diameters. The Hyslop and Trans- cendent are both beautiful, fine flavored fruit, while the Pyramid cannot be excelled as an ornamental tree. The Queen's Choice, Blushing Maid, Sweet Crab, and several others have very attractive quali- ties. '' The peach has been planted very extensively, and some fine crops have been raised, though mostly on seedling trees. It requires elevated land with a northern exposure for the protection of its buds in the spring, otherwise the fruit buds expand before the frosts are over and the crop is destroj^ed. In some parts of the State the pear has been success- fully cultivated for a number of years, but in some sections the blight has done considerable damage to the trees, but so far there has been but little injury done trees south of the Kansas Eiver. FRUIT GROWING. 143 " In 1869, having but just commenced raising small fruits, I marketed about 1900 quarts of strawberries, about 900 quarts of blackberries, and between 300 and 400 of raspberries from an acre, while in 1870, an unusually dry and unprofitable season, I picked about 500 quarts of strawberries, 200 of blackberries, and not more than fifty of raspberries. In 1869 the price of strawberries was 23 cents ; cost of picking, $57 ; cultivating, 85.00 ; boxes, $19.00 ; man and team to market 12^ days, $37.50 ; profits, $318.50 ; sold enough plants from small fruit to pay for culti- vating. But grapes gave more than two-thirds as KANSAS FRUIT MEDAL. large a yield in 1870 as in 1869. The apple and peach crops were cut short in 1870, bj^ severe frosts after the trees were in bloom, making the yield scarcely one-tenth of what it was the previous year. But this need be no discouragement, for in no State do they succeed in getting full crops every year. And judging from present prospects, 1871 will be 144 HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS. even more fruitful than 1869. So taking all things into consideration the prospect for fruit growing becomes more flattering every year, and as railroads open up new markets both south and west, the diffi- culty will be in furnishing fruit enough to meet the increased demand." Profits of a Vineyard. Mr. "W. E. Barnes settled in 1856 upon unimproved prairie 10 miles south of Lawrence, at Yineland sta- tion. He was a young man, not worth enough to pay for his land and unacquainted with the nursery business. In 1857 he set a few grape vines brought in a carpet bag from Massachusetts by W. L. G-. Soule. He now has a large amount of bearing fruit of all kinds, from which he reaps such profits that he refused $20,000 for his farm and nursery of 160 acres in 1869. His buildings are not costly and the offer '«vas made because of the actual value in his fruit orchards and vineyards. Probably twice that amount would not buy his place. The following estimates from Mr. Barnes are therefore not theoretical but are based upon actual experience. "In accordance with your request I send the follow- ing estimates for 10 acres of vineyard for five years, the land to be located convenient to a railroad sta- tion : FIRST TE\E. Ten acres nnimproved prairie at $20 $200 00 Br'^aking sod in May at 3 50 35 00 Planting corn at 1 00 10 00 ■ Fencing with wire at 75c per rod 120 00 Total $365 00 Dedact value of corn crop $50 00 to $100 say 50 00 $315 00 ^dd interest at 10 per cent.,,,.,,,, 31 50 $346 50 FRUIT GROwma. 145 SECOND TEAR. DR, Amount bi ought forward $346 50 Subso'ling (treuch plowing) 12 inches at $6 00 per acre 60 00 Harrowing once 1 00 pe- acre 10 00 9003 vines at 3 cents 270 00 Planting, 5 00 per acre 50 GO Cultivating 50 00 Tall pruning, cutting vines back to two eyes 10 00 450 00 796 50 Interest 79 65 Total $876 15 THIRD YEAR. Amount brought forward $876 15 3500 oak posts at 15 cents b?."-) 00 2500 pounds No. 9 wire at 7>^ cents 1875 00 150pouDds staples 16 00 Putting; up trellis 100 00 Cultivating and tying vines 80 00 Fall pruning 50 00 $2,646 00 $3,522 15 Interest 352 21 Total : $3,874 36 FOURTH TEAR. Amount brought forward 3,874 36 Cultivation 70 00 Training vines a-^d gathering fruit 300 00 370 00 $4,244 36 Deduct 3,600 pounds grapes at 7 cents 2,520 00 1,724 36 Add interest 172 43 Total 1,896 79 FIFTH TEAR. Amount brought forward $1,896 79 Cultivation $100 00 Training and gat'ierirg fruit 600 00 700 00 $2,596 79 Add interest 259 67 $2,856 46 Value of 72,000 pounds grapes at 7c $5,040 00 Deduct total cost to date 2,856 46 Net profit in five years $2,183 54 7 146 HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS. '' To this must be added the value of ten acres of vineyard in first rate order, and requiring but a trifling outlay for trellis during the ensuing five years. " The above calculation is made with reference to the Concord and would not apply to the Delaware, lona and some others, but with the former variety, where the requirements indicated above are complied with, it may be relied upon, except so far as price is concerned. Yery few grapes have been sold for less than nine cents per pound heretofore — instead of seven cents, as above estimated — but it is evident that the price must soon be much lower. While the product of many Kansas vineyards has fallen below the above estimates, it will be found that there has not been expended upon the same vineyards more than one-third to one-half the amount above indi- cated, in the way of cultivation, erection of trellis, etc. "By using the trench plow, or following a breaker with a stirring plow, to throw the soil on top of the inverted sod, in the winter of the first year, as much might be accomplished in one year as is indicated above in the first two years. Respectfully yours, W. E. BAHNES." FARMING. The table of farm products given on page nine- teen, is the most reliable and thorough exposition of the results of Kansas farming that can be made. She stands, by that table, ahead of nearly every other State, excepting for one year, and then she fell but little behind, excepting as to corn. (For the benefit of an}^ English reader into whose hands this book may fall, I will state that the word " corn " is used in this book, as it is universally used in this country, to represent " maize.") In Eastern Kansas, spring wheat is little sown, as it does not do well, while winter wheat yields bounti- FARMINa. 147 fully. West of Emporia, Council Grove and Marysville, spring wheat is a profitable crop. Some in Western Kansas are unsuccessful with winter wheat, because they put it in too shallow, only covering it with a harrow, and the light soil is blown away from the stem and roots during winter, and it " winter kills." Wheat, and indeed all seeds, should be put in quite deep in that soil, and a frequent use of the roller would be highly beneficial. I think the rule applies generally in Kansas that seeds should be planted deeper than in Illinois. It has for many years been the universal practice in Western Missouri, to plow oats under in March, about three or four inches deep, and those Kansas farmers who follow that practice always raise good crops of oats. In 1857 having occassion to write a series of newspaper articles on Kansas Farming for the Law- rence Eepublican, edited by T. Dwight Thacher, I kept three standing rules or mottos, as follows : Ploio deep. Plant early. Use the roller. Of course the matters of fine tilth, subduing the weeds, stir- ring the ground, etc., are not to be neglected, but I then believed and now am fully persuaded that the three cardinal principles above laid down are especi- ally applicable to Kansas. All farmers who have practiced those principles have raised good crops continually. Colonel A. S. Johnson, of Shawneetown, Johnson county, Kansas, a native of the State, and whose father sowed the good blue grass seed already men- tioned, broke, in 1862, 105 acres with a double Michi- gan plow, upper plow cutting two to three inches deep, lower plow cutting five inches; commenced with the first grass in the spring, and plowed until too dry ; put it all in wheat, sown broad cast, from 1st to 10th of September, and harrowed in thoroughly, two bushels per acre; harvested in June, the next year, by measurement, 35 bushels per acre, and FARMING. 149 measured the ground. It made a trifle over 60 pounds per bushel. Next year he broke 107 acres, 22 acres in corn, harrowed and cultivated as old ground, made an average of 45 bushels of corn per acre ; in September, 1st- to 10th, sowed in wheat, corn land and all, and harvested 35 bushels per acre. He could not tell the difference between corn land and the other. Col. Johnson has a large farno, much of which haS been in constant cultivatiion for 30 years and still produces good crops. It is his practice once in three years to double his teams and plow about a foot deep with a trench plow, or to use a subsoil plow. For this purpose another Kansas Johnson has invented a subsoiler, which can be attach'ed to any plow in a few minutes. It is called Johnson's Patent Kansas Subsoiler. Mr. C. A. Wright, of Lawrence has the control of the patent for the United States. The implement is made of iron, curved like a hook. A steel shovel, like a cultivator tooth, and with sharp edges to cut roots, occupies about six inches of the end or point of the subsoiler. The implement curves behind and below the plow, and stirs the soil with- out throwing it out, to the depth of four to ten inches below the bottom of the furrow. It hangs centrally in the line of draft, and adds but the draft of one horse to the team. Its cost is but six dollars and it is unquestionably destined to work a revolu- tion in methods of cultivation. Whenever used it has added largely to the yield of all crops. Breaking Frairie costs about four dollars per acre to hire it done. By this process the grass sod of the prairie is turned over to the depth of two and a half to four inches, with a plow which is kept sharp to cut the tough roots of grass and flowering plants. A pair of heavy horses will break an acre a day for an average of two months with a light plow kept sharp. Three horses or mules, worked abreast, makes 160 . an excellent breaking team. But the cheapest break- ing team is about four yoke of young oxen, attached to a large plow which is so arranged with wheels as to steady itself. One good man can manage this outfit after the first week, and the cattle, if properly handled, will gain in flesh by feeding upon prairie grass. The share or cutting part of a breaking plow is heated and hammered out thin by a blacksmith once or twice a week, and it is kept sharp in the field by the frequent use of a large flat file. Ordinary ]breaking as above described, may be commenced as goon as the grass is high enough to furnish good feed, and may be continued into or through the month of June. If- done at any other season of the year the sod does not rot well. If a lower furrow is turned on top of the inverted sod, as already de- scribed, prairie may be broken any time of the year, and the ground planted and treated like old plowed ground. This saves one years time, except for winter wheat, and land thus broken produces better crops. Corn may be planted early in the season upon freshly broken sod by cutting through the sod with an axe or spade, dropping into the opening the seed corn, and then stepping upon it: Winter wheat is sown in September of the same year the ground is broken. Winter wheat should be sown before, rather than after the middle of September, usually the first week. HEDGES AND FOREST TREES. By the law of this State any person planting one acre or more of any forest tree, exce^Dting black locust, or one half mile or more of forest trees set in row on a public highway not more than a rod apart, shall receive two dollars per acre, or two dollars per half mile, each year for a term of twenty-five years; provided, that the trees shall be cultivated and grow- ing three years before the bounty begins. \_General JStatutesp. 1094.] HEDGES AND FOREST TREES. 151 The following essay was prepared for this book by Mr. S. T. Kelsey, of Pomona, Franklin county, it being the substance of an essay read by him before the Kansas State Horticultural Society at its Annual Meeting, December 15, 1868. Its clear and concise directions are founded upon the experience of twenty years in the business, six years of which period have been spent in Kansas : Set a row of stakes six to eight feet to one side of the line intended for the hedge, to guide the plowman. As each stake is passed, set it over the same distance to the other side of the hedge line, which will guide you in striking, the back furrow. Finish out the land by leaving a dead furrow on the hedge line. It is generally cheaper and better for the farmer to buy his plants of the grower who makes that a specialty, than to attempt to grow them himself. Plant any time during the month of April or first of May, after the soil ia rotted and when the ground is in good order. Don't plant when it is too we^ Prepare the ground by plowing deep, throwing the furrows to the center, after which harrow down smooth. Now stretch a cord the size of a clothes line, track it by walking along on the cord, throw it to one side and it leaves a mark to plant by. Plant with steel spade, with blade thirteen inches long and three wide. Use none but good, strong plants. Cut them so that the roots shall be eight inches long and the tops six. Press the spade in on the mark of the line the full length of the blade, push it a little forward, and a boy with a handful of plants slips one down in the opening, two inches deeper than it stood in the nursery. Pull up the spade, and thrusting it into the soil two inches from the opening, press the earth firmly about the root, and the work ia done. A good man and boy will in this way plant a half mile of hedge per day. Set the plants one foot apart in the row. Cultivate well the full width of the plowing. In the fall throw a furrow to the hedge on each side, and level down in the spring. As soon as the plants are started the second spring, replace all the dead ones with extra strong plants. I would do no cutting till the third, fourth or fifth year, then plash by cutting each plant half off at the ground, and bending it down into the row, so that it shall rest on the one last cut. The young shoots will then grow up from the roots and along the stem, making, with the old plants, an impassable barrier to all farm stock. After the hedge is plashed, it should be cut back annually to about four and a half feet high, in a pyramidal form, so that a cross section would appear like a capital " A," with base equal to highf . If a wind break is required, the plants may be set six to eight inches apart, CTiltivated well, and allowed to grow up as they will. It makes a good fence to turn all large stock, but to my eye is an unsightly object. The Osage Orange seems to be at home in our soil and climate. It grows rapidly, and endures our dryest summers and our coldest ■winters. The gophers are easily destroyed by trapping or poisoning, and I 152 HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS. know of uo other enemy or disease that injures it seriously. With a little forethought and effort, I am confident that in less than fifteen years, with the Osage Orange hedges, we can and will have the best fenced State in the Union, at one-third the cost of fencing with wood, in countries where timber is most abundant. Having the fence question disposed of, the lines located and the hedge rows broken, the next move I would make on a prairie farm, would be to prepare for platting a forest and orchard, and the first ground broken on the place after the hedge rows, should be for that purpose. On a quarter section I would plant at least twenty acres of forest, and I think forty acres would be still better. It maj' be planted in a body, or in belts to form wind breaks. It should be so as to protect the orchard, farm buildings, stock, crops, etc., from storms, so far as can well be. Having decid make a taller straighter growth than if grown by itself, and be of more value. The third and last tree that I would place on this list — and I put this on with some hesitation— is the Silver Maple, commonly known as Soft Maple. It la grown from seed, gathered as it ripens from the first to the fifteenth of May, sowed immediately in drills, and covered with one inch of good, mellow soil. The plants come above ground in six to ten days, and by fall they will be one to two and a half feet high. Next spring they should be planted in forest. Plaat two inches deeper than they stood before, and press the earth firmly about the roots. Nearly every one will live and make an annual growth, on average soil, with good cultivation, of about three feet. At ten years from planting, they will make twenty-five to thirty feet in hight, and ten to twelve inches in diameter. It is a very beautiful tree while young, and the wood la more valuable for fuel than Cottonwood, or any other available fast growing tree with which I am acquainted. It is also valuable for the manufacture of some kinds of furniture, and the sap makes sugar which is almost, if not quite, equal in quality to that made from the sugar maple. It has the fault of often forking, so as to make two or more stems, and except in favorable situa- tions, I think it is not likely to make large, straight trees. It also has the fault of being too easily split down by wind and sleet. The forest should be planted as early in spring as the ground can be put in good order. Lay off and stake the rows twelve feet apart. The whole ground may now be plowed, or a strip four feet wide may be plowed for each row, leaving the rest to be plowed afterwards. Plow deep in the line of each row and harrow it down. Now stretch a line, track it, and plant to the mark, putting the plants about eighteen inches apart in the row. Plant the Walnuta with a hoe, like potatoes, ihe cuttings with a narrow spade, as before directed, and the young plants with a common spade, by throwing out a spit of earth where the plant is to stand; then one person, with plants in hanfl, puts one in place, anothf r ■with spade fills in the earth, and the first presses it at out the roots with his feet. I have often planted alone pulling some earih to the plant with my foot, and when through the row go back and level with the spade. Now plant two rows of corn or other hoed crop, in each space between the rows of trees, and keep the ground mellcw and free from weeds by cultivation. Plant thus between the rows (ach year, and cultivate well until the trees shade the ground too much for profitable cultivation and seed with red clover If a hedge was plantel around the forest a^ it should tave been when the forest was planted, it w 11 now be a fence, and hogs or young cattle may be turned in to pasture on the clover. As soon as the trees are large eroi^gh to be out of 154 HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS. the way of large cattle, they also may be turned in sparingly ; but it is not advisable to attempt too much pasturing in the fcrcet, as it will injure and finally ruin, even a well grown natural forest. Besides, the growth of the timber, and the value of the wood that may be taken annually theretrom, will be ample to satisfy any reasonable man. There are many other forest trees that are valuable for various purposes, and to those who want a greater variety than I have recommended, who have means that they are willing to lay out in extra expense, or who want to grow the trees for a special object, I would suggest the following: Honey Locust, White Ash, Box Elder, Kentucky Coffee, White, Red, and Water Elm, Butternut, Chestnut, Hickory, Cypress, European and American Larch, Linden, Silver Leaf Poplar, Mulberry, Catalpa, Ailanthus, White and Yellow Willow, and Hackherry, and lastly the Evergreens — the beauty and glory of the landscape, unfading, unchanging "types of the immortal," relieving more than anything else, the monotony of winter, and with their dense foliage checking and modify- ing the searching prairie winds. These should receive the attention of every prairie farmer, and should be planted liberally about every prairie home as soon as possible after the more pressing wants are supplied. Evergreens grow slowly for the first few years. Most varieties requira two or three years to become thoroughly acclimated and are too expensive for general forest planting; but from the experience that I have had with them, and the evidence of success that I have seen with others, I am satisfied that when once established and growing on our prair'e soil, they suceeed as well in Kansas as farther north and east, and that good, small sized, well rooted trees may be transplanted with very little danger of failure. Too many have bought Evergreens from parties east, who advertise that they have immense quantities which they will sell for one- half (or less) the usual price charged by nurserymen. They are little, spind- ling things, with scarcely any roots at all, and unused to the sun, even in their northern homes. It will be found much cheaper and more satisfactory in nearly every case to go to the nearest reliable nursery for Evergreens, paying a reasonable price therefor, or if such trees cannot be obtained at the home nursery, send to some other reliable nurseryman and order them, remembering always that it is much safer, cheaper and better to get small trees, not over two feet high, and if possible, get sueh as have been often transplanted. The best time to transplant Evergreens is in the spring, usually from the first to the middle of April, tl: ough I should plant earlier if ground was in good order. In handling the roots should not he exposed to the sun or air one minute longer than is absolutely necessary. The surface moisture even, should not be dried ofif. For general cultivation for ornament and wind breaks, I would recommend the Norway Spruce, White Austrian and Scotch Pines, Balsam Fir, Red Cedar, and An;erican Arbor Vitae, For amateur cultivators I would add the American White and Black Spruce, English, Irish and Swedish Juniper, Golden and Siberian Arbor Vitje, Lowsen's Cypress, American Holly and Hemlock. I would also suggest that experiments should be made with native Evergreens from south and west, and w« may find something more valuable for our Kansas HEDGES AND FOREST TREES. 155 prairies than anything we now have in cultiTation. A few dollars judiciously expended, and a little care in planting and tending, will in a few years give the surroundings of any prairie farm house or any Kansas home a goodly supply of well grown specimens of these most beautiful of nature's gifts. S. T. KELSEY. Concerning this practical and Highly valuable essay, it is proper to say that most of tree cultiva- tors in other States, think it much better to plant the trees closer together, say in rows three or four feet apartj giving as a reason the fact that by closa planting, forest trees make taller and smoother trunks, as the branches tend upward for light and air, instead of expanding laterally. Mr. Kelsey does not lose sight of this fact, but his theory is that a half a loaf is better than no bread at all. Most settlers in a new country are not able to devote land solely to the growth of forest trees, and experience in all the Western States demonstrates that of those "who are able, very few can be persuaded to do it. Mr. Kelsey concedes that a better and more valuable forest can be grown by thick planting, and for those who can afford it, he advises it. But it is a question of dollars and cents and his method has the striking advantage that it is cheap. One of the best evergreens for Kansas is the Eed Cedar, which is a native of all the region west of the Missouri Eiver, from Texas to the British Posses- sions. It is quite easily transplanted, and is, when young, a rapid grower. It is natural to dry, rocky and barren spots, and it is therefore not difficult to make it grow upon the open prairie. Box Elder is another native of Western Kansas, which may be grown from the seeds that can be col- lected in the fall. It grows rapidly and in beautiful form until about ten or fifteen years old, after which it is inclined to be scraggy. Mr. E. S. Elliott, Indus- trial Agent of the K. P. Eailway, says it can be 156 HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS. grown from cuttings, and it is well known that its sap makes a fair quality of sugar. Osage Orange is almost a native of Kansas, as it grows wild in the Indian Territory not far from our southern border. It matures its seeds here, which PLAN HIGHLAND CEMETERY, JUNCTION CITY. are held in a ball much like a small orange, whence its name. In its wild state it attains the height of forty to sixty feet. This is a very valuable tree for general cultivation. It grows rapidly, its wood is hard and durable, and it makes an excellent wind break. In this regard it stands next to evergreens HEDGES AND FOREST TREES. 157 from its multitude of small limbs. A belt a rod or two in width, almost entirely breaks the force of the wind. Mr. Kelsey has said enough about hedge rows, but I urge the planting of this tree for wind breaks. Plants a year old can be had .for $1.50 to $2.25 per thousand, according to quality and quantity. Or it may be plantd for forests where it is to grow. A pound of the seed will make from 3000 to 4000 plants or trees. This tree would soon furnish excal- lent railroad ties. Concerning wind breaks, a good shelter is afforded on the prairies even by a clump of hazle bushes, with a few scrub oaks intermixed, and not a tree over ten feet high. The low but impene- trable thicket afforded by Osage Orange, is a perfect wind break for a stock yard or for tender fruits, etc. Efforts have been made, and I regret to add, by my friend Mr. Elliott,, before mentioned, to induce the planting of Black Locust in Kansas, in the vain hope that the borers will not kill it. (This tree must not be confounded with the Honey or Thorny Locust, a short, stout tree, with long thorns, and with a sweet substance in its seed pods, whence its name. The Honey Locust is a native of Kansas, and is per- fectly hardy but a slow grower.) This tree is so easily grown from cheap seed and looks so handsome and promising for a few years, that there is a great temptation to plant it. But it has been tried over and over again in Kansas and it universally fails, first or last, just as it fails in all prairie countries, after it is about a dozen years old, by its limbs being cut at the trunk by a borer ; no bounty is paid for it it under our State law. Prof Chas. Y. Riley, State Entomologist of Missouri, being quoted as saying that it was not injured by borers when planted in groves, I wrote him, saying that I believed the tree should be utterly discarded, and received the follow- ing letter: "Never give a man's opinion from the curtailed 158 reports of what he says. I am often reported as saying the most outrageous things. " If I were to give my opinion in three words, I should state that with regard to the Black Locust, you are correct. There are, however, qualifying condi- tions and circumstances. The borer is not so bad on high limestone lands — may be in a measure prevented by the proper use of soap and the killing of the beetles during September. The central trees in large groves are less subject to attack than those on the outside, and where fuel or posts are needed the young trees will generally take the place of the old ones as fast as they are killed or cut down. I have my reasons for believing that the tree should not under certain conditions be discarded from your Kansas list; but why urge the Black Locust, when there are other and better trees ? Whatever reporters make me say, I have never done so." Hastily, yours trulv, C. y.EILBY. The Chestnut is a valuable and beautiful tree and a grove will well pay for the trouble of cultivation simply by fattening swine on the nuts, to say nothing of the timber. This tree, wherever I have noticed it in a natural forest, grows upon a light or sandy soil, or at least upon well drained land. It is yet uncertain how it will do on the deep, rich soil of the prairies, or on the drier western plains. It is believed by many of those whose experi- ence gives weight to their opinions, that the Euro- pean Larch is the best tree for general planting. As it is propagated only from seeds, and requires very skillful treatment when young, it is an expen- sive tree to plants in quantities. Robert Douglas, of Illinois, who has done very much to bring this tree before the public, says : " It is undoubtedly the most valuable timber tree for extensive planting; HEDGES AND FOREST TREES. 159 combining the durability of the Eed Cedar with rapidity of growth, extreme hardiness, freedom from disease and adaptability to almost every soil." He writes me however that it ought to be planted on dry soil, and so say all the cultivators. A. J". Down- ing says: " It is remarkably heavy, strong, and dura- ble, excelling in those qualities the best English oaks." Posts of Larch and Oak were placed in the river Thames, where by the rise and fall of the tide they were alternatly wet and dry. " The oak posts decayed and were twice removed while the Larch remained altogether unchanged." Loudon says vine props of Larch are used in Switzerland and are trans- mitted from generation to generation an unknown term of years, without showing any signs of decay. Douglas says : " In Great Britain the Larch has be- come so popular for railroad ties that the forests of Scotland are taxed to their utmost to su23ply the demand." He has trees fifteen years planted which are 45 inches in circumference, nine years from seed 27 inches, and five years from seed 9 inches in circum- ference at the collar. Yarious plantations of this tree twelve year old show it 30 feet and upwards in bight and 10 to 12 inches in diameter. Eobert Douglas & Son of Waukegan, Illinois, offer these trees two years old, 6 to 18 inches high at $2 per hundred, $10 per thousand, $90 per 10,000, and $800 per 100,000. He offers the seed at 25 cents per ounce or $2 50 per pound. There grows in AVisconsin, Minnesota, and the ad- joining portions of Illinois and Iowa, a tree called Poplar, which resembles Aspen, or Quaking Asp. Groves of it sprout up in the same manner as Cotton- wood, standing thick on the ground and rising 20 or or 30 feet with no considerable limbs and almost uniform in size, from the ground up. I have seen this tree cut when three to five years old, and peeled 160 or riven throngh the heart frcm end to end, and nailed to posts for fence. I saw such poles in Glen- coe, Minnesota, used for fencing the village lots, which were twelve years old and perfectly sound. The tree is grown from cuttings like Cottonwood and is equally rapid in growth, while it is better for fuel and very valuable for timber as the above indicates. Strange to say, there are few localities even where it grows naturally, where the people know that it is durable when the bark is off. AVhen riven and fast- ened to posts the bark soon drops off. I wrote to several gentlement of practical experience in tree business, but could get no satisfactory information until the following letter came to hand from Mr. George Pinney, of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. " I think there is no doubt but that the tree you describe is what we call White Poplar. The name White Poplar is one of our conventionalities. The botanical name is Populus Grandidentata. We have named it White Poplar because of the white down with which the young leaves are covered in spring, giving it the appeai-ance ©f being laden with white blossoms. It sometimes grows quite large. I have seen them here two feet in diameter, 60 to 70 feet high. It'differs widely from Aspen. The leaves are fully twice as large and much more scanty, it makes a growth of two or three times that of the Aspen, and its branches and buds are coarser. I have known of well rooted trees in favorable localities, making a growth of six to ten feet in hight, increasing the diameter of the stem from one to two in vhes in a single season. When growing thick in good, strong soil, it mounts Tipward with beautifnl straight trunks, with amazing rapidity, and uniform in size 12 to 25 feet. As the trees grow old and large the bark beco-Jies fluted and serriated, similar to the White Wood or Poplar of the east, really the Liriodendron Tulipifera. The bark is very thick and stiff, and the laticiferous tissue very abundant, which makes the bark separate with great facility in the spring during the development of the latex. The boys use it in preference to anything else for making whistles. The timber when dried thoroughly with the bark off, is very peculiar in many particulars. It is very light, very stiff and springy, extremely difficult to chop with an axe, more so than seasoned maple or oak, but very easy to saw or shave, and seems to be almost impermeable to water, hence very durable against decay or wear, when not permitted to come in contact with the ground, but when cut and left with the bark on it will become dozy in fifty or sixty days, during the grow- ing season, and worthless in three months. It is very easy to transplant." I have not Mr. Pinney's prices, but this tree must HEDGES AND FOREST TREES. 161 be sold cheap as it is so easily propagated. It is not certain that it will thrive in this climate, but it is reasonable to believe that it will, and I recommend it, not to take the place of more valuable but costly trees, but to supplant the Cottonwood, of which wo can only say that it costs next to nothing, and is very much better than no tree. Mr. D. C. Scofield, a noted tree grower of Illinois, says: "The White Pine is next in value as a timber tree to the Larch, nearly equaling it in growth, and will thrive well in nearly all soils; especially as a forest tree on dry, open prairies. " The result of my experiments will be seen in the comparative growth of the different varieties of wood, as exhibited in the table below, from average measurement. The age of the trees is twelve years, from seedling plants one and two years old, and six to twelve inches in heighth. Size of trees in Illinois, fourteen years old. Diameter. Hight. European Larch 8 to 12 inches 30 feet White Ash 3 to 5 " 16 " Silver (or Soft) Maple 4 to 6 " 25 " fiugar (or Hard) Maple 2 to 4 " 12 " Black Walnut 2 to 4 " 14 " Chestnut (common) 3 to 4 " 16 *• American Larch (Tamarack) 4 to 6 " 25 " American Elm 3 to 4 " 16 " Scotch Elm 3 to 4 " 16 " Birch (European) 4 to 6 " 14 ** White Pine •. 6 to 10 " 35 ** Norway Spruce 5 to 8 " 20 " Scotch Pine .■ 4 to 8 " 20 " Black Austrian Pine 5 to 7 " 16 " Eixropean Silver Fir 2 to 4 " 7 *« AmericaH Fir 4 to 6 " 10 " The growth of Black Walnut as above indicated was very slow. Undoubtedly this may be accounted for by the fact which Mr. Scofield notes above, that they were grown from seedling plants. The Black Walnut should always be planted where it is to be 7* 1^2 HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS. grown. If transplanted its long tap root is necessa- rily cut in the process, and this stops its growth for a long time. In Kansas, when grown where the nuts are planted, its growth is at least double that indicated in the above table. In 1866 I contracted with Mr. S. T. Kelsey for the planting of a forest on the grounds of Ottawa University, Franklin county. In 1867 fifteen acres ^ere planted to Black Walnut, and five acres to a variety of deciduous and evergreen trees. In Decem- ber, 1870, 1 measured the trees, and they averaged as ioUows : Size of trees in Kansas, with the age from seed. Diameter. Higlit. Black WaltT:it,3 years old 1 to 2 inches 5 to 8 feet. Soft M«ple, 3 years old 13^ to 3 " S to 12 " Cottonwood, 3 years old 2 to 33^ " 12 to 16 '* European Larch, 5 years old 1 to 3 " 6 to 10 " Red Cedar, 5 years old 1 to 3 " 4 to 7 " American Arbor Vitte, 5 years old 3 " Peach Buds, 1 year old 1 to 1]^ " 4 to 7 " Apricots and Nectarines 5 to 8 " Apples and other fruit proportional size. The European Larch plants were not healthy^ having been saved from a large lot that perished. These, as well as the Cedar and Arbor Yitoe, were planted on ground a little too wet for their natural requirements. The Eed Cedar grows slowly after a few years, and never becomes q, stately tree. Nearly all other forest trees grow more rapidly after the £rst three or five years, until they attain full size. AN englishman's IMPRESSIONS. It affords me pleasure to present a letter from the Bev. James Chew of Ottawa, recently pastor of the Congregational Church, Mile End Eoad, London, England, as it bears with peculiar force upon many of the topics treated in this book. The subjoined correspondence explains itself. AN englishman's IMPRESSIONS. 163 Jfcr. J. Chew, Dear Sir: You have resided in this State a few mont hs and have seen a good deal of the country and of the people who inhabit it. Permit me to ask you this question. From the etand point of an Englishman in America, what do you think of Kansas as a place for a home? I also beg leave to use your letter in the little book I am preparing about Kansas. Wishing you abundant success in the labors which are so highly esteemed by all Who enjoy ycur ministrations, I remain, very respectfully yours, C. C. HUTCHINSON. Ottawa, Franklin Co., Kansas, December 29, 1870. Mr. C. C. HidcJnnson, Dear Sir : It affords me pleasure to give you the impressions of an English- man on Kansas in compliance with your request. There may be those from the old ceuntry who, having been longer in the State, would be more compe- tent judges than I; but during the seven months of my residence in it I have travelh d hundreds of miles north, south and west, with my eyes open, and can speak what I do know and testify what I have seen. My friends in England are probably of opinion that my chief impression is ore of general disappoint- ment, seeing that I have been diverted from the cherished object for which I crossed the Atlantic and came so far west. Instead of supporting my family by farming and preaching gratis,! am again engaged in the Ministry solely, but this change in my plans has been caused, not by the condition of things I have found here, but by thep ersuasions of Ministers and the entreaties of others. I confess to having been omewhat disappointed in some things. Land is higher in price near towns. Hired 1 elp is not so good, and more diflScult to get ; clothes, fuel and furniture are more expensive than had been represented. These are evils however which (except in the matter of land) will gradually cure themselves, or be remedied by the growth of towns, the cultivation of land, the influx of immigrants, the multiplication of railways, the development of commerce, etc. The climate is slightly different from what I expected. Tho heat was a degree or two intenser in the summer than I was prepared for, although singularly tenfipered by the cooling breeze that came daily|and nightly from the south : a peculiarity to Kansas, which the intense heat was not, for while exceptional here as every one assured me, it prevailed according to the telegrams in all the States and in Europe as well. The recent "snap " of cold weather, said to be the severest for years, pressed the mercury considerably lower than I ever experienced it before, though the clearness and dryness of the atmosphere prevented me being more inconvenienced by it than on many an ordinary chilly day in my native country. Ih truth I felt it less. Th©^ occasional sudden changes of temperature are decidedly objectionable. The 164 fruit also (to mention all my disapointments together) was not so abundant in its season as I had hoped — books having described Kansas as a great fruit pro- ducing State, meaning, as now appears, not that it actually bears an enormoiia yield of fruit, but is capable of doing so eventually. Give it time and the extraordinary soil will produce any quality and quantity of the best fruits, but I had stupidly overlooked the fact that there had hardly been time for numerous fiuit groves to be planted, still less for them to attain to a mellow and prolific maturity. These are all the things I think, which are not quite as good as I anticipated With these exceptions I have been agreeably and exceedingly surprised. The climate, taken the year round, is healthful and most enjoyable — sometimes so delightful that, as a Swede remarked to me the other day, "it could not be better if we had the making of it ourselves." The clear skies, the pure, exhila- rating air, the glorious sunsets, the lovely Indian summer, and even the bright, bracing early part of winter, which is not wintry, can be described only in language which strangers would deem exaggerated. The country is not so flat nor the scenery so monotonous, nor the water so scarce, nor the trees so small and few, as I feared. The Marais des Cygnes, which curves one of its windings near my house, is a truly beautiful river, fringed on each bank by a forest which would do credit to countries celebrated for their timber. Wild flowers in all but endless variety, I have gathered in the forest as well as on the prairie ; notwithsianding that I arrived too late to behold Flora in all the glory with which she decks herself in the spring, when likewise the climate I am informed wears one of its fairest aspects. The inhabitants are more intelligent and respectable than their distance from the centres of civilization would have led one to suppose. All have an independ- ent bearing, shown at times by some almost disagreeably, arising partly, perhaps, from all of them — eten the negroes— being apparently in easy circum- stances. I have not met with a rude person, nor a beggar, nor a solitary case of beastly drunkenness. Only seven or eight poor creatures have crossed my path whose unsteady steering showed they were " half-seas over." It is amusing now to recall the concern and apppehension which many, not only on the other side of the ocean, but also in American cities out east betrayed, when ihey he ird that my family and fellow-travellers were going to Kansas! They regarded the outlandish region as a pandemonium of savage Indians and border ruffians. The ruffianism I ha^e not discovered, but good society I have, as educated and refined as in any place I know. The institutions, the roads, railways, laws, periodicals, schools, universities, and alike in size, number and style, the churches are for so young a State a marvel ; while the people, so far as I have seen, are temperate, enterprising. Sabbath-observing, law-abiding, freedom- loving and religious. Folks at a distance think of Kansas in connection with her early troubles in the cause of freedom and mistake them. They picture her as " Bloody Kansas," rather than as " Bleeding Kansas," as if she had been a persecutor and not a msvrtyr. Naj-, she has a noble, albeit a painful history, of which all haters of slavery may be proud, giving thanks that she bleeds no AN englishman's IMPRESSIONS. 165 longer, but like the fabled 1 ero haa gathered strength from her reverses, and now grows fast, fair and formidable. Thei-e is a good sprinkling of Englishmen throughout the State. Several colonies of them, notably at Wakefield, near Junction City. Where, indeed, will you not find Britishers ? And where can the average Briton not make himself at home? Yet would I not advise my countrymen indiscriminately to come here. There are those who would not do as well as at home. Persons, fc* example, who have been delicately reared, and have not means to build a house and make themselves a comfortable home at once, would be sorely tried here. Sanguine souls who would look for cent pieces lying like stones on the ground and dollar notes hanging like leaves on the trees, would curse the place. Any who have not the power of adaptation, with some patience and perseverence — who have not learned to "labor and to wait," had better stay where they are. There is no " roughing it " in the sense in which that word is commonly understood in reference to new countries ; no scorching winds to bear as in Australia; no dense forests to clear as in Canada; no long winters to endure as in Minnesota; yet are there inconveniences, not to say difiBculties, at starting, and whoever cannot put up with them will be wise to seek a para- dise where mansions are already prepared for them. Speaking generally, capi- talists would do well, either by loaning money, for which they would easily obtain enormous interest on the best security, or by introducing manufac- tures, for which there is an urgent demand, or by raising grain and stock. The hard-handed sons of toil, used to work and ready to turn their hand to anything, inured to privation and not missing luxuries, cannot fail to gain much more than a bare subsistence. Wages are high and most provisions cheap. Farmers and farm labourers, in particular, should come. How often have I thought of the small farmers and their hinds, whom I formerly knew in Cornwall, Devonshire, Dorsetshire, in the north and other parts of England, who had been slaving for years (and their fathers before them for generations) on lands of which they did not own a single rod, and any of whom, by working not near so hard for, say, seven years, would have a competence, owning their houses, farms and cattle, and having their children educated in the bargain. Artisans, uniting as in cooperative societies, would prosper, provided tbey did not purchase land without seeing it, or if they sent trustworthy pioneers in advance, who understood their business. Ministers of the Gospel are much needed. If there be any willing to labor with their own hands, that they be chargeable to none ; if any have some private resources and would be content with such remuneration as small churches can afford ; if any have ample means and would consider it a sufficient reward to aid in laying the foundations of ■society — to assist in forming the commercial, political, educational and moral ■character of a people surely destined to be great and influential — there are spheres and calls for them. Marked respect is paid to ministers, as I have experienced and gratefully tes ify. I would add, sir, that intending emigrants in Europe require more informa- tion respecting Kansas, in which the sunny and shady sides of our young and PRESBYTERIAN CHUROH, JUNCTION CITY. INHABITANTS. 167 flourishing State will be exhibited together. I am pleased to believe that your book will go far towards supplying this want. I remain, dear sir, yours truly, JAMES CHEW. INHABITANTS. It appears almost ludicrous thus to head a section concerning the people who occupy the central State- of the United States of America. It seems to beto- ken the discovery of an unknown country, and with a feeling of curiosity akin to fear we draw near tb study the costume and customs of its strange inhabi- tants. Yet a book about Kansas would be incomplete unless it contained something concerning the people who live in Kansas, especially as our friends " within the bounds of civilization " have decidedly erroneous opinions concerning us. Those who take the trouble to examine what is shown in these pages about the institutions of Kansas — its Churches, Schools, News- papers, Eailroads, Cities and Public Buildings must conclude that although distant from the homes of our fathers we have not lapsed into barbarism. In fact we all had fathers and mothers who lived in " the East," or some other place, and it is but a few years since we left those dear old homesteads to make homes for ourselves on these lovely prairies. The light has gone out from many of the places where we once lived and loved, but all the way from the Mississippi to the Atlantic, and even beyond its billows, there are fires burning on hearth stones at which we find a welcome and a chair. Those people at the East who suppose that Kansans are necessa- rily uncouth and ignorant, will do well to reflect for a moment as to the character of those who have left their own vicinity for distant Western States. They know too well that the best blood and brain of the Eastern^ Middle, and Southern States is seeking for 168 Hutchinson's Kansas. itself a new domain in the boundless West. Do all these people forget their cunning because they " come to Kansas ?" Let their institutions and their works answer for them. No other State ever had among its early settlers so many well educated men and women as Kansas. There were seventy college graduates among the four hundred voters at the first election held in Lawrence. It was formerly one of the staple objections against coming West, that there were so many foreigners here, but now there are nearly as many in the East as in the West in proportion to population, especially in New England, which is fast becoming old Ireland. There are comparatively few foreigners in Kansas, but we heartily wish there were more of the same sort. Here there is "room and verge enough for all," whether they pronounce our "Shibboleth" or not. Wm. H. Seward once said in a public speech : " The people of Kansas are the most intelligent, the most virtuous and the bravest people in the world." NEWSPAPERS. Among the foremost and most important agencies which have contributed to the growth of Kansas, is its newspaper press. Atchison, Leavenworth, Law- rence, Topeka, Fort Scott and Emporia, all have daily newspapers, and in size and general appearance they compare favorably with average eastern papers. It is a surprise to all strangers that such papers can be sustained in towns of no greater size. Our daily and weekly papers are so numerous and so merito- rious that it would be at once tiresome and invidious to mention any in particular, but I may allude to the Kansas Farmer, published monthly at Leaven- worth, which has acquired an enviable position among its cotemporaries throughout the United StateSj both as to matter and appearance. One de- NEWSPAPERS. 169 servedly successful monthly, the Educational Journal, of Empo.ia, is devoted exclusively to the cause of education, and monthly or quarterlj^ issues are made of religious publications. Another class of papers extensively published in Kansas is devoted exclu- sively to the real estate business. The}^ are issued by private firms for gratuitous distribution, and con- tain valuable information. The first settlers of Kansas were men of brains and men of business, and thej^ were moved to Kan- sas by an idea. Under whichever banner they ranged, whether of freedom or of slavery, it is un- questionable that they were terribly in earnest. In such a community a weak and inconstant press could find no support. From this, among other causes, it has come about that no other State in the Union has proportionally so many newspapers as Kansas, and nowhere else do country papers present so good an appearance and give such evidence of editorial ability. Manj^ names f\imous in the eastern news- paper world are familiar to Kansas. Horace White, of the Chicago Tribune; James Eedpath, of Boston; the lamented Albert D. Eichardson, of the New York Tribune; John Swinton, of the New York Times; Col .Samuel F. Tappan, Richard J. Hinton and Wm Hutchinson, Washington correspondents of eastern papers; J. M. Winchell, formerly of the New York Times; Col. Wm. A. Phillips, of the New York Tribune and The Nation, but still a resident of Kansas — these and many other names of prominence, were once connected with the Kansas press. Not alone in aiding the struggle for freedom during our early history, nor 3'et entirely in disseminating informa- tion as to the soil, climate and productions of Kansas, have the newspapers of Kansas helped the State to achieve its triumphant success. The press of this State has been first and foremost in promoting every 8 170 HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS. effort for developing the best interests of the State. Men of character locating in our border have been welcomed by name, and gratuitous advertisement has been given of the merits of improved machinery or valuable stock. Whenever new and attractive fields of immigration have been opened in remote counties, the press of the older settlements have been first to herald the facts. The best methods of tilling the soil, of harvesting the crops and of caring for the stock are obtained from experienced farmers and published by our sagacious newspapers, and a generous rivalry is maintained between farmers, neighborhoods, towns, and counties by the printed reports of progress among all. Eailroads, those necessary avenues of travel and transit, have been built in Kansas with greater rapid- ity than in any other state ia the Union, but the influence of newspapers in preparing the way for their construction is appreciated by very few. Rail- road projects must always take shape by the action of the people living upon the proposed line. They alone can afford to contribute the time and money necessary to perfect an organization, to obtain a sur- vey and engineer's estimates, and to secure franchises of lands and bonds, and local subscriptions, and it is only when these things arj done that capitalists can be induced to look at the enterprise. Towards the accomplishment of this tedious, tiresome, thankless task the press of the state has always freely contrib- uted its invaluable aid. Notices of meetings, descrip- tion of routes, labored editorials, columns of statis- tics and a startling array of figures, all have been issued gratuitously and in profusion. Manufactures, schools, churches, villages towns, cities, have all received the support of the Kansas press. In short our newspapers have never failed to hold up to the public, the mirror of today and have 1 NEWSPA.PERS. 171 painted without stint of color, the possibilities of to-morrow. fExtract from an addrea^ delivered before the Editors' and Publishers' Associ ation of Kansas, January 17, 1871, by Ward Burlingame, Esq.] "Why is it that Kansas has a greater number of newspapers than any other equal population in the world? It is not because our people are peculiarly a reading people, because in that respect other locali- ties rival us. Nor is it because the newspaper busi- ness is productive of large and prompt pecuniary results; for I much doubt whether there is any other branch of business, employing the same labor and capital, the gains of which are so small and precari- ous. The true explanation of the circumstance is found in the fact that Kansas is in its formative state; eveiything is growing, nothing completed; the map of a year ago is out of date to day; towns, cities, villages, are springing up on every hand ; large bodies of land just vacated hy worthless and semi- barbarous tribes, are yielding to the impress of set- tlement and civilization ; agriculture encroaches upon the desert; immigrants from every State and of everj^ nationality are flocking to our borders; rail- ways penetrate unpeopled regions, and from nothing thriving communities are evolved by their mysterious influence. ''In securing these results the press is an active and powerful agent. Hence, new towns, new interests invoke their co-operation. Among the earliest of the pioneers is found the country editor — among the earliest of local institutions the country press. Ex- panding beyond the necessities of the present, it builds upon the prospects of the future, and thus, blending an individual with a patriotic purpose, it strives with admirable and ever-restless zeal for the realization of those prospects through the develop- ment of its section. It is surprising to note that newspapers, and good ones, too, are maintained in 1T2 localities where we would not deem it possible -Wefe the fact not apparent. This state of affairs is itself an eloquent tribute not alone to the energy, persever- .ance and pluck of newspaper men, but also to the practical good sense and wise forethought of th0 people who sustain them." If an}^ persons outside of Kansas do not decide to start for Kansas immediately after reading this book, they are advised to select a paper from the following lists, and send to its address the price of a year's subscription. If they do not find in its columns all the information they desire, they have only to inform the editor who will gladly print such state- ments as will meet the case. Citizens of Kansas should give to their local paper© a liberal support. The man who does not take one- or more pajjers published in his county, commits a crime against his own neighborhood. Help j^our papers — subscribe for them and urge others to sub- scribe — furnish them advertising and give items to the editors concerning all matters which interest 3'ou. Anything which interests you will be quite certain to intei'est the editor and his readers. In short, help jour editor and he will help you, I/ist of Newspapers Published in Kansas. The following list embraces all the names of papers that I can obtain at the time of going to press. New ones are coming out every week, and it is safe to say that there are one hundred papers issued regularly in Kansas, aside from the real estate papers. I have also collected as full a list of the latter papers as pos- sible, which is quite incomplete however. The real estate papers are issued once a quarter or once a month, and are sent free to all. The newspapers are sent for $2 per annum, except- ing the Kansas Farmer, $1, and the Educational NEWSPAPERS. 173 JourDal, $1 50, r.nd the Medical Herald, $3 per annum. Only the last or principal names are given. The list is arrano;cd alphabetically in reference to towns, and this will scivo to show at a glance in what county the principal towns are situated, and also the county seats. 1 am indebted to Mills & Smith, of lola, and Emmert & McCulloch, of Humboldt, for assistance in preparing t'lis list. Coanty seats in caps, d stands for d.ii'y, w for weekly, and m for monthly. Town. f:'ounty. Name of Paper. ATCHISON Atchison Champion, d and w " " Patriot, d and w Altoona Wilson U"ioD, w Arkansas City Cowlej' TravH er. w Augusta Biuler Cresrpnt, w , ALMl Wabaunsee '. Union, w ^ Baxter Springs Ci erokee Sentinel w PUKIJ^'GTOX OofTey Patri t, w BURLINuAME O-age Chronic'e, vf BELOIT Mitchell Mirror w BELLEVILLE Republic Te escjpe. w Chetopa Labette dvance. w Columbus Cherokee Journal, w " " Independent, w ,. COUNCIL GROVE Morris Democrat, w C NCORDIA Cioud Empire w Clvde " Watchman w COTTONWOOD FALLS.. ..Chase Lea.er, w CLAYCENTRJ3 Clav ELDORADO But er Tim*s, w EMPORIA Lyon Ne e, d and w " " Tri' une. w , " " Educational Journal, m..., Brie Nor-gho I a"life, w , EURRKA Greenwood Ilera -', w Elk Falls H-.ward Exa^inie-, w Elk Citv Montgomery Star, w ,. FORT SCOTT Bourbo Mmit r d and w " " Democrat, w Frankfort Mushall New Flnme, w ' Fontani '^•inmi •-azeft'', w Florence Marion Pioneer, w , FRED<'NIA Wilson Journal, w GARNETT Anderon PI .in Pealer. w GTRATtD Crawford Pre s, w HIAWATHA Brown Sent" e', w *' •' Disvafch w Humboldt Allen Uni ri, w " " State.vman. w lior TOV Jnn ..;on News w TOLA A len Regi-t r, w Irving Marshall t-ecordo-, w , 174 Town. County. Name of Paper. INDEPENDENCE Montgomery Tribune, w " MontgoiLery Republican, w " " Democrat, w JUNCTION CITY Davis Union, w LAWKENCE Douglas J urnal, d and w " " Tribune, d and w , " " Democratic Standard, w., " " l^anner, (German) w , LEAVENWORTH Leavenworth Time?, d and w " " Bulletin, d and w , " " Commercial, d and w , " " Call, d " " Farm< r, m " " Gardener, m , " " Presse, (German) w " " Medical lerald, m LA CYGNE Linn Journal w LYNDON Osage S'gnal, w Labe'te Labette Sentinel, w LOUIS VIL' E Pottawatomie Reporter, w Longton Howard Ledger, w Lindsay Ottawa Pioueer, w MINNEAPOLIS " Independent, w " " Settler, w MARIOV CENTRE Marion Western Giant, w MANHATTAN Riley NHtionalist, w Medina Jefiferson Ntw Era, w Mound City Linn Sentinel, w MARYfcVILLE Marshall Locomotive, w NEOSHO FALLS Woodson Advert ser, w Netawaka Jackson Herald, w New Chicago Neoaho Transcript, w Kecdosha Wilson Citizen, w. " " Enterprise, w North Topeka Shawnee Times, w OLATHE Johnson Mirror, w " " News Letter, w Osage Mission Neosho Journal, w OSKALOOSA Jefiferson Ii.dependent, w " , " Statesman, w OSWEGO Lai ette Regi;ster,w OTTAWA Franklin Journal, w " " Herald, w PAOLA Miami Republic an, w Pleasanton Linn Press, w Parker Montgomery Record, w Parsons Labette Sun, w SALINA Saline Herald, w " " Journal, w SENACA Nemaha Courrier, w Spring Hill Johnson Enterprise, w TOPEKA Shawnee Commonwealth, d and w. " " Record, d and w TROY Doniphan Republican, w Thayer Neo'iho Criterion, w Wathena Doniphan Reporter, w Wamego Potdwattomie Valley, w WASHINGTON Washington Republican, w Wateryille .....Marshall , Telegraph, w, , REAL ESTATE PAPERS. 175 Town. White Cloud WYANDOTTE . WICHITA WINFIELD County. Name of Paper. .Doniphan Chief, w...* .Wyandotte Gazette, w .Sedgwick Videite, w " Tribune, w .Cowley Censor, w REAL ESTATE PAPERS. Atchison Burlington .Atchison Northern Kansan •' Index .Coffte Frte West " Register Burlinpame Council Grove Cottonwood Falls , Emporia .Osage Journal .... .Morris Advertiser. ...Cha>e Register , ...Lyon Reg ster ,.. " Bulletin " " Reporer Eskridge Waubonsee Land Mark Fort Scott Bourbon Immigrant " " Record Garnett Anderson Index Humboldt Allen Reporter Holton Jackson Bulletin Junction City Davis Register " Guide Lawience Douglas Adv cate Manhattan Rilf^y Home tcad O'athe JohRf^on Register Ottawa Franklin Guide " " Pioneer " " Register Pomona " Pomona for a Home. Pleasanton Linn Fanner St. Marys Pottawatomie Advertiser Topeka Shawnee Advertiser " " Star of Empire " ' Publisher Wakefield Clay He' aid Winfield Cowley Settlers Guide 176 HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS. COMMON SCHOOLS. The common school system of Kansas is modeled after the most approved systems of other states with such amendments as experience elsewhere has shown to be desirable. Sections 16 and 36 in each township in the state are forever set apart for the creation of a fund the interest of which is to be used for the payment of teachers. School lands may be sold upon petition of the residents of the county where the3^ are situated. The proceeds are invested in Kansas State, or United States Bonds and the interest only is applied to the paj-ment of teachers wages, in proportion to the number of persons in each district between five and twenty-one years of age. The above sections are secured for school purposes out of the Osage Trust Lands, but a few smaller Indian reservations were exempt, as well as small military reservations. Were it not for these reser- vations there would be devoted to this purpose one- eighteenth part of the whole state (there being 36 sections in each township) which would make about 5000 square miles of 640 acres each, or 3,200,000 acres. The amount cannot be less than 3,000,000 acres. About 200.000 acres of school land were sold during the year 1870 at an average of about $Q 20 per acre. The school lands are not put upon the market in any county until they are in demand and by law cannot be sold for less than $3 per acre, and it is fair to estimate their value throughout the state at $4c per acre. This will give a fund of $12,- 000.000, sacredly devoted to the cause of education. The following tables are compiled from the Tenth Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public In- struction. COMMON SCHOOLS. 177 TABLE sTwwing the Statistics of the. Public Schools of 18'.0 in r^ery county then organized. COUNTIES. Alien Anderson Atchison Bourbun , Brown Butler , Chase Clay Craw'"ord Cherokee Cloud Cofifey Davis , Dickinson Doniphan Do'-glas E Isworth Frankliu Greenwooi Jacks n JtfiFerson Johnson Lahetre , Leavenworth .. Linn Lyon Marion Mar hall McPberson Miami M>irris Montgomery .. Nemaha ^ eosho Osage Otawa Potawattomie Riley Rei uhlic Silino Shawnee Sf-djjwick Waliannsee Washirgton ., WilBon , W'O'^son , Wyandotte Total. S id 3 ■ ~u 41 57 74 56 26 21 36 92 72 23 So a'"' o — o 0(a St 11 46 63 92 78 81 15 28 27 77 60 13 52 27 18 101 117 3 97 23 6<1 98 108 43 129 90 77 4 54 2 92 20 B2 1" 1,392 1,496 2,351 3.487 1,7-3 561 564 401 1,960 2 200 2'.*7 1 439 696 347 3,310 4,622 64 2,543 612 1,670 3 180 2,932 1,634 6.212 3.303 2,088 85 1.333 25 2,470 1.6«6 1,009 2,067 869 1.3iV2 1,027 183 414 3,000 62 550 64S 933 751 1,833 ESTIMATiD VALUATION. uild'gs and grouuds $27,777 00 28,000 00 102 546 (0 41,288 U 37 927 00 8.500 CO 12 750 00 5,867 00 5 168 00 9,480 00 a5rt 00 28,850 00 14,340 00 9,190 00 45,841 00 119,095 00 2,200 00 32.995 00 6.125 00 35,500 00 68 734 00 44,610 00 22 OIK) 00 177,757 75 35.230 00 47,900 O') 2,110 00 33,116 00 400 OU (0.854 00 17,745 00 53,415 CO 11.410 0(1 64,020 60 28,735 00 29,136 00 6:^5 GO 10,2(0 00 126.000 00 8,165 00 11,455 00 6.930 90 6,4a5 10 61150 < Furniture. $1,804 00 2,320 00 5 620 oO 2,370 00 3,695 00 7«M) 00 1,000 60 156 75 995 00 740 00 50 00 2,785 00 915 00 515 00 5,400 00 7,196 GO 2,120 00 118 00 1,500 00 V,076 00 3.64S 00 3.00 > 00 17,200 15 2 922 00 2 043 00 1,590 00 2,860 00 1,232 60 3 663 00 7(0 00 2,790 60 2,0S2 GO 2 100 IM) 818 00 4,500 00 498 00 1.044 00 323 60 415 00 5,510 00 1,501 369 2,240163,218 $1,620,011 4U$100,916 60 178 HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS. TABLE showing the comparative advance of the Public Schools of Kansas for ten years, from 1861 to 1870 inclusive. ^bJD ^ ti Average NO. TEACHERS empl'd .^ver'ge s.\l'y a t me PER MONTH. o t o^ YBAB. 00 Is taught. U o i i =" M ° S O Mon'hs. "3 33 i "3 "3 3 si ^ ^ ^< ^ H S fe > 1861... 12 144 1862... 1863... 32 90 229 $ 10.432 50 32,970 60 33 506 3.8 161 400 564 1864... 33 640 3.5 205 527 732 $27 00 $16 10 76 500 71 1865... 3ft 721 3.4 247 6.52 899 46 74 34 41 1-^2,822 61 1866... 37 871 4. 405 681 1,086 41 27 28 90 318,897 31 1867... 42 1,056 4.3 541 664 1,205 39 44 26 51 573,690 08 1868... 43 1,2.32 5. 746 855 1,601 39 56 29 OS 813,062 75 1869... 43 1,G21 5. 896 1.118 2 014 37 07 28 98 1,031,S92 00 1870... 47 1,950 52 1,079 l,16i 2,200 39 60 31 10 1,520,041 40 The reports show that out of 359 school houses built during 1870, 45 were built of logs. The aver- age per cent, levied in 1870 fcr the erection ofbuild- ings and all other purposes, was $0.0347. The total amount received by the school district treasurers from- all sources for 1870, was $799,318.51, and the total amount paid out was $712,601.73. In all towns of any considerable size there are graded schools, and one or more central school build- ings, costing fiom $5,000 to $75,000 and other smaller buildings, as the public needs require. AH these schools are open and free, being supported by the State school money, and by direct taxation. There are salaried county superintendents in each county whose duty it is to give direct personal supervision to matters connected with public schools, besides which each city has its superintendent. There are two Normal schools, one at I^eavenworth and the other at Emporia. That at the former city was but recently opened. That at Emporia has been in suc- cessful operation for six years. The attendance for 1870 was 111 males, 132 females. It is devoted to COMMON SCHOOLS. 179 the work of fitting its pupils to become teachers in our common schools, and is supported by the State. The State Agricultural college at Manhattan is endowed by a land grant of 70,000 acres of land. It also receives State aid and is in a prosperous condi- tion. The State University at Lawrence is open to all of both sexes without tuition fee. Its endowment is LINCOLN SCHOOL, TOPEKA. 46,000 acres of well located land, and about $150,000 contributed to it for buildings, etc., chiefly by the city of Lawrence. It has a permanent fund of $10,- 000 contributed by Amos Lawrence of Boston, and aparatus costing $15,000. It has nine salaried pro- fessors, and fitly crowns the splendid school system of this state, by oifering an education of high char- acter free to all. Its students for 1870 were 97 males and 116 females. Its buildings are illustrated and described elsewhere. 180 Hutchinson's Kansas. BeBides the State Institutions of learning already mentioned, there are several well established schools of high grade, under denominational control Among them is Baker University, at Baldwin City and Collegiate Institute at Hartford, under the M. B Church ; Washburn College, Topeka, Congregational Episcopal Female Seminary, Topeka; Lane Univer sity, Lecompton, United Brethren ; Ottawa Univer sity, Baptist ; Wetmore Institute, Irving, Presbyte rian ; Eoman Catholic Colleges at Leavenworth Atchison, St. Mary's, Topeka, Fort Scott, and else^ where ; and various other lesser academies and pri vate schools. BENEVOLENT AND REFORMATORY INSTITUTIONS. A large and well ordered State's Prison is located near by Leavenworth. The State Asylum for the Blind is located at Wyandotte ; that for the Deaf and Dumb at Olathe; and the Insane As3'lum at Osa- watomie. These institutions are all under the guar- dianship of the State authorities and are supplied with convenient buildings and necessary attenJ.ants. THE CHURCHES AND THE CLERGY. The following article upon the above u>y,\Q was prepared at my request by licv. R. Cordley, the well known pastor of the Congregational Church at Law- rence, which position he has filled with great accep- tance for fourteen years : " The early settlers of Kansas included a large pro- portion of religious men. This might have been expected, as a largo share of these settlers came as a matter of conscience, to establish iroodom and equal rights en these plains of the west. One of the first things they did after setting up a tent or 1 THE CHURCHES AND THE CLERGY. 181 building a hut to shelter their families, was to pro- vide churches and schools, where these families might worship and be instructed. Keligion and learning were among their first thoughts. In Law- rence, for example, in one month after the first company of immigrants arrived, regular religious services were established with a settled minister. Steps were at once taken for building at least two churches. In other places, church organizations, with their pastors, went with the colonies in the style of the Mayflower pilgrims. One of the first things now in a new town, is to build a church, and these churches are generally well sustained, and are doing a good worR. There is great liberalit}^ in maintaining christian institutions, and no people, in proportion to their means, pay more freely for religious objects than the people of Kansas. Within the last three or four years, some very handsome churches have been built. In Leavenworth the Cath- olics have a cathedral that cost some $250,000. The Baptists have about completed a very fine church in the same city that has cost some $60,000. At i\tch- ison the Methodists are building a YGvy handsome structure. In Law^rence theCongregationalists have a church that has attracted general attention for its completeness and beauty. Its cost was about $45,000. ^'All denominations are represented in Kansas. The Methodists take the lead in membership, the Baptists coming next. The PresbjHerians are quite strong. Especially in the south part of the State. The Congregationalists have some strong societies and are quite numerous, especially in the northern part of the State. The Episcopalians are very active, and exhibit a missionary zeal that is commendable. There is generally the kindest feeling between differ- ent denominations. All joining in the common work, rather than trying to supplant each other. The 182 Hutchinson's Kansas. churches have generally come to the wise conclusion that they can prosper better in the general pros- perity of all, than in mere denominational expansion, which builds one up by pulling another down. "The Kansas churches general l}^ have an able min- istry, more than usually so for a new country. While there are no 'stars' that attract special attention, the ministry generally are cultivated, earnest men, and up to the times. They are ' workmen that need not to be ashamed.' " The churches are having a healthy growth. They are growing both by immigration and conversion. Special interest is reported in many places, and every season witnesses more or less of the fruits of such special interest. The religious future of Kan- sas is as bright as that of any new State. There are dangers, but there are also promising signs. The churches are sound, outspoken and aggressive. They work as if they meant to ' occupy the land.' " TAXES. By the constitution, the state debt of Kansas can- not exceed one million dollars. JSTo town, county, or state debts were incurred during the war, as Kansas volunteers always kept up the state quota. Taxes are less than most states. The state tax levied by the Legislature for 1871 is six mills on the dollar, which includes one mill for general school fund. The levy for 1870 was seven and three-fourths mills. The assessment of taxes on real estate is made between the first daj^ of March and the first day of July, and the taxes so assessed are due and payable on the first day of November following. If not paid by the tenth day of January next thereafter, a pen- alty of ten per cent, is added. If not paid by March 1st following, a fee of twentj^-five cents for adver- tising each tract, except town lots, is added, and ten cents for each town lot. If not paid before the first 1 TAXES. 183 Tuesday in May following, the land is sold for the taxes and the foregoing expenses. The whole amount draws interest at the rate of fifty per cent, per an- num. If not before redeemed by the owner, the purchaser of the tax title receives a tax deed at the end of three years. The purchase money, with all the subsequent taxes up to the date of deed, interest being computed upon the whole at fifty per cent, per annum, and the cost of making and recording the deed, is the consideration of said deed. In two years after recording the deed, the same becomes absolute, and suit is barred, excepting where there are minor heirs, and they have until they become of age and one year thereafter in which to redeem, by paying for improvements, which may have been made upon the land by the tax purchaser, together with the taxes and interest as allowed by law. The Topeka Record says, January, 1871: "In a recent decision — Bowman et al vs. Cockrill — our Su- preme Court has affirmed the validit}^ of tax deeds given on sale of land for non-payment of taxes, and sustains the statute of limitations, which bars an action for the recovery of property so sold and deeded after the expiration of two 3'ears from the time the deed shall have been recorded. " The court also decided in the same case, that the statute does not require that the tax deed shall be in the exact form therein prescribed, but only substan- tially in that form." I also quote from the Statutes as follows: "As between the grantor and grantee of any land, where there is no express agreement as to which shall pay the taxes that ma}^ be assessed thereon, if such land is conveyed between the first day of March and the first da}^ of November, then the grantee shall pay the same ; but if convej^ed between the first da^^ of No- vember and the first day of March, the grantor shall pay them." General Statutes, 2-). 1062, sec. 140. . 184 Hutchinson's kansas: 1^ .•* CO ^-' so GO ^j n th P a> •doiyo sjjOar) jjAing (S8J0B 0f9) 89IIUI ojtfnbt eo^ — , •*, '^. '-o. i—^ o -i-^ OS 1-- o OC ur. (D !M irt (M -O I- -* 1— lC500u^Ot-,05 — ^ rJ>O(N>-'00l~0CCi-l03'* O^O t-_^:C CM -- CC^OJ ??_« ■-<_ cc" rC' CO' O -N ■>Tc^ o' 'm' -*' •*" C -*< C 'M "» "M 1 - CD 1— I t^ Tj< ■<*i3;iO.f:C00Xr-|-. •'tOl I-! 1-4 Tl? ^' (m" r-T 00 « lO^rf 0>0\ ■*,« < •.f M* r-T 00 Os'tN «"l-4"( O»^C0t^0COOi-t» — - ■— ; '"', "^^ '". ■*, ^, '^, "^ cj" ^' t-' ^f ic o' o' — ' ■»*r i-HTiT'irt'oi'o" 1-4" oT'*" R. ^. ^^ 't. '^^ "^l ■*, ^, °i. O' t4 im' -t «-<' CO oo' k' ■*" OC-lOOiOCiOOO r-T i-T CO 'O" CO" r-T lO C3> ' cTao' r-T r-T to -M - CO : »*> I- O u- ■ * fO'r-T, CO -^ C CO ■* Ci rc O O ■M C»_0O ©"aTt-Too" CO -I" fN C-l O I^ ^'i CO l^ Ci - C^C4_Tp rH T*<_^O_a3_C0__O CO_'N_> t-4'ir;'"iO o'co'co*" r-T n' 1—1 !rf o'l 00 05 'M C3 O CO O O CO I- r- ® Tf 00 Co'iM't-'siS of CO O C~» IC ■* O >0 ■* CO iC lO I ICOCO-lOOOCOUOr-l lOOTjioit-oc^t^ior- iCOOOCOi^lOt-iOr-C^ : .2 J3 ■ 1111 IsllllllisSI III g£c * -^ * * GROWTH OF KANSAS. 186 (M -ri (M I -- >(5 (N '_ ^ O" oo't-^ od 50~t-^ r-i' (5 (N O i-H C t- lO '*< •* ( oo to t— iro»-'— i'Ot^-o^ ?;sg§sssKS? t^ •rf *iOi— IfNlOt^OCOOt- -^COrHt-t-COOO-O ^03 O5C0 r-JOO tH O O SOtO-^'+CC'CtNOJ 03 CO iC_ ■>*' iM O' =' '^' co" CD lO <>) I— CO 1^- 05 CO OJ CO CD l-^ eo' of r-T r-T r-T Co' ■r-iC0O5C501CO'M-)< i-T co" CO 1-1 O C<) CO r-'MiOCO* CO z; M CI CO oo ^^ -+' o CD in 00 -» -f >« -* iC 00 CO lO O (M lO "» ■ >0 1:~ 00 -+ C r -► CO t^ CD — CO 0\0i cc_ 05 1-^ co'o >e" CD ~ 00 -tl r-M r CO t- 0C> 1— I .GCCooccD—^ajjc Ol^H— Oi— 'COCDOOi ; -tl CD (M_^ C-J^ C<1 CD^CD ao__ I I t~ of t-^ o t-*^!— r t-' I ^ ^ '£> crcOO'+t~CO lOCOi-^l-l^OMCO I rH 01_C: ro .■<: O CO OC^O^ r lO ^' r-T 01 CO CO' CO'c" CO CO OC 01 05 10 -*■»*< CO •* "'-'■' ; •i'-''^' § CO CO CO t- 00 o r- • • at 0» oc = lO O eo •<* ■* CO '^ CO ( ■^ o oc t~ 01 ' I o o> o Jt t- < >^-«O^->rt^rt0CO>>O>ftr-l - s ?1 " '^ c .^ - 3 >J 13 r^'S S S S ^ • JE c TAXES. 187 TABLE showing square miles of counties not included in foregoing table. Barbour 780 Phillips 900 Barton .....' 900 Pawuee 900 Comanche 780 Pratt 900 Clarke 780 Reno 1512 Ford 900 Bu-li 900 Graham 900 Rooks 900 Hodgeman 900 Russell 900 Harper 1152 Rice 900 Kiowa 900 Smith 900 Lincoln 720 Sumner „„„ 1162 Norton 900 Stafford 900 Ness 900 Trego 900 Osborne 900 It should be borne in mind that there are few counties in which there is not more or less land exempt from taxation owing to the title still vesting in the United States. The Osage Trust land was none of it subject to taxation, although largel}^ settled upon. Montgomery county for instance, showing by the last census 7,613 inhabitants. It is to be noted especially that Kansas has grown to its present position almost entirely diirivg the last five years. A comparison of the census for 1860 with that for 1865, will show that the growth was confined almost exclusivel}^ to counties containing consider- able towns. Kansas did not gain in population during the war like other western states, nor in wealth like all other northern states. B:;t if we exhibit the growth for ten years from 1860 lo 1870, it still shows that Kansas distances all com; etitora in the march of empire. 188 HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS. TABLE showing the increase of population in all the states and the percentage of in-crease. STATE. _« o a ^o" SCO C-r- O £ 11 Alabami 964,201 435.450 379,994 460 147 112,216 75,080 140,424 1.057,286 1.3 428 1 711.951 647 699 07,306 1,15J,584 7(>8.U(i2 628.279 687.049 749,113 1,231,063 172,023 7fll,.J05 1,182,012 28.8J1 672 035 3,880.735 6,857 992.622 o26,073 2,339.51 1 52,465 2,906,lli 174,620 703.708 1,1 ('9 801 604,215 31.. .,098 1,596,318 775 8«0 150.229 1,002,000 486,103 556,2< 8 537.886 126.050 13i;889 1X9 995 1,185,000 1,676046 2,527 032 1.190.845 362,307 l,32;i,264 728,n0i) 630,243 781.0.-6 1,181.296 1,449042 3^.5 000 834.190 1,690.716 116,888 9(,65U 4,370,846 41 8':6 1,085.500 318,300 2,652,3(12 90,92-2 3,517,272 217.319 735.001.1 1,258.3-^6 797,500 330.585 l,657,5r& 1,055 296 319.(t.->3 4 Arkansas. 12 47 17 Delaware 12 76 Florida 35 Georgia 12 ludiana 24 48 Iowa 77 K.iN8AS Kentucky a38 15 3 Maine 0.3 Maryland .... ... 14 58 18 Minnesota 95 Mississiiipi 6 Mi^H.^nri 43 Nebraska 201 New J»-reej' 34 New York .... 13 Nevada 501 9 *N6w Hampshire -2.4 Ohio . 14 73 21 Rhode I-land 26 South Carolina . 6 14 82 Vermont 5 •j-Virginia .... 1.5 Wiso.nnfin 36 Territories 112 *New Hampshire shows a decrease of two and four tenths, (2 4-10) per cent in the ten years. f Virginia includfs Wist Virginia in this calculation, there having been no division in 1860. KANSAS SECURITIES. 189 The following table exhibits the increased valua- tion of the taxable property of Kansas from year to year from 1865 to 1870 inclusive and the per cent, of increase: TABLE showing increased valuation for six years. Year. Assessed valuation Per ceat. in- crease. 1865 $36,140,827 00 50,439 634 96 56,276.036 00 66,949,549 88 76,-393,685 00 92,528,099 00 46 1866 . 104 1867 127.5 1868 ,».. 179.0 1869 217.0 1870 275.0 KANSAS SECURITIES. There is no donbt that this State offers great attractions to capitalists or any who have money to loan. The legal rate of interest by contract is twelve per cent, per annum, and an almost unlimited amount of money can be loaned at this rate, payable annu- ally, on long time, with security upon improved farms, or good city property, at one-third their pres- ent value. On shorter time and similar security, or good names, money readily commands 18 to 20 per cent, per annum, the surplus over 12 per cent, being added to the note. Decisions have been made which leave no doubt as to the legality of this proceeding. Mortijages are so drawn as to waive the right of redemption, and to include all expense of foreclosure and collection. It is surprising that people will eon- sent to loan money in the eastern states at five, six or seven per cent, per annum, when such rates are to be obtained here. Besides, our securities are constantly increasing in value, and by the time irmg notes would full due the property will be worth two or three times its present ratf. Our county, city, township and school district bond>< urc also f-xccllent investments, as they are a lien upon the entire prop- 190 HUTCHINSON'S KANSAS. erty of communities whose rapid growth is shown by indisputable statistics elsewher^^ given. If any inquire how people can afford to pay such rates of interest, I think they have only carefully to look this book through, and they will discover several suffi- cient answers to the question. Among the most desirable of the many attractive investments which offer in this State are railroad bonds. The cost of constructing these roads across our comparatively level country is light, while their long reaches of easy grade and of air line road, greatly lessen the cost of keeping them in repair. Eunning through fertile regions which are rapidly settling with an enterprising people, these roads must become im- menselj" valuable, while the enormous land grants with which they are endowed give additional secu- rity to the bonds. These bonds are offered at such rates that they afford an investment which yields an income at least double that to be obtained in the eastern states on loans. The}' also offer the further advantage that they can be converted into cash at any time, or may remain as a permanent investment for any desired period. LIST OF BANKS. List of B^kks and Bankbps in tbe State of Kanjias on May 1,1871. Prepared by the Adams National Bauk of lopeka. Augusta. Chetopa. Brown Brothers. W. B. Ketchum & Co. Atddson. First National Bank. Emporia. \Vm. HetheriDgton & Co, Riggs, Dunl.ip & Co. Atchison Saving-* Bank. Neo.-iho Valley Bank. Americus. Empjri.t Bunk. T. C. Hill. Eldorado. Burlingam^. Wal jUt Valiey Bank. P. C. Schuyler & Son. Eureka. Burlington. Edwin Tucker. Jarboe, G irretson & Co. Fort Scott. Baxter Springs. First Natioual Bank. Ymh Winkle A Slater. Farmers and Mechanics Bank. Cherokee County Bank. B. P. McDonald. Ccu'icil Grove. Tan Kossen & Button. Ck>uncil Grove 'avin^s Bank. Phillips & Scovell. BANKS AND BANKERS. 191 Gamett. John R. Foster & Co. Humboldt. Pratt & Ten Kjcke. Allen County Bank. lola. lola Bank. L. L. Northrup. Junction City, James Streeter & Co. Robert S. Miller. Lawrtnct. The National Bank. Second National Bank. Simpson Bruthers. Leavenworth. First National Bank. Second National Bank. Newman k Havens. Scott & Co. Hines & Jtaves. Clark & Co. German Savings Bank. Leavenworth ^aving.s Bank. Manhattan. E. B. Purcell & Co. Wm. P. Iliginbotham. Okithe. First National Bank. C. E. TValdron & Co. Ottawa. First National Bank, ghepherd & McQuesten. I'aola. Miami Savings Bank. V. C. Jarboe. Salina. D. W. Powers & Co. Seneca. Lappin ost commfm to four towtiships, is to be Kiarked the number of the particular township, and its range, which it fares. Thus, if the post be a common bound ry of four townships, say one and two, south of the base line of range one west of tha meridian ; also to townships one and two soutii of the ba e line, of range two west of tiie meridian, it is to be marked thus : From north to east V T. 1 S. From eaat to south R 1 W 'J-. IS. S. 31 2 W. 1 s. 36 From north to west y 1 S. From west to south ■) 1 W. ^ 2S. i 6 ^ 2 W. } V- The letters preceding the figures indicate range, township and section. The letters following the figures refer to the points of compass Township cornpr posts, common to four townships, are also notched with six notches on each corner. Stones common to four townships are only marked with six notches, cut with a pick or chisel on each edge or s:de towards the cardinal points. Instructions are given ihat when stones are used (fl it atones are prescribed) the edges mu>t be s two townships on the north side thereof, will have six notches on each of the west, north and east sides or edg s ; and whee such stones or posts are se' for corners to two towuehin-! south of the base or standard, six notches will be cut on each of the weot, south and east sides or edges. Sect'onal posis or stones on range and township lines must have as maiy notches on them on two opposite angles or si Jes thereof as they are miles dis. tant from the township c aners respective'y. If on range Imes (which run north and s uth) they will be mar ed on the north and south sides. Township lines run east and we t, and the sectional posts or stones thereon are marked on the. ea^ and west sides. Posts or Stoxes set previously to 1864 at the corners of s^ctio-is in the inte rior of townships niu-it iLdica'e, by a number of n tches on eacli of their four corners or sides, direjted to the cardi al points, the corresponding number of miles that they stand from the outlines of the township. The four sides of a post at the corner of sections will also indicate the number of the sect on which each side respectively faces, and on one side it should bo marked the number of the township and range in which it is situated. Posts or Stones s-t subsequently to 1S64 at the corners of sections in the interior of townships, will have as many notches on the south and east e Iges, or sides, a^ they a e miles from thn south aad ea-it -boundaries of the township. A quArter section or half mile j)o.«; will have no other marks upon it than "J^ S" to indicate what it stands for. SURVEY OF GOVERNMENT LANDS. 195 Stones, when used for quarter section corners, will have "^ " cut on them, on the west side of north and south lines, and on the sauth side of east and west lines. A TREE may be use 1 instead of a corner post if it stand in the proper place «nd it is to be marked in the same manner as a post; but if Hi bark be smooth the marks may be on the bark and the tree notched. Meander Corner posts or stones are planted at all points wh*re ction corners, besides exhibiting the top^ography of the country on line a-' aforesaid. 3. Field notes of the exterior lines of townships, showing the establishment of corne s on Ine^, and the topography as aforesaid. 4. Field notes of The sectional lines subdividing the townships into sections and quarter sections, with the topography as afor said. The VHriah'on of the needle is alwiys given. The exhibition of every mile of surveying is complete in it-elf. The description of the surface, soil, min- erals, tim er, undergrowth, etc.. on each mile of line, follows the notes of survey of each line. In Oregon Washington and New Mexico, it is required that the field notes show tt e claims of thnse sett'e's who located prior to the survey. The original field notes are retained in the Surveyor General's oflBce, and transcripts are i^ent to the Gpu' ral Land Office j.t Wwshington, D. C Township plats ar" f-ir.iished to the district land offices, and accompanying them are descriptive notes as to the char;icter and quality of the soil and tim- ber found o" and in th vicinity of each surveyed 1 ne, and a descrifttion of each .corner boundary. 198 As the field notes are confined to the lines mntioned, they cannot giye s tTiorough r'escription of the couuiry, and the mention made of soil gives only an idea of the relative value of the land along each line. Locating missing or misplaced quarter section stones. From a letter addressed to ihe editoi- of The Land Owner, Chic;ago, Illinois, dated N vember '20, 1870, and signed Jose h S. Wilson, Commissioner of the Gtneral Land Office, Washington, D. C, I collate the following : First identify the sectional coruer fctones nor'h and touth, or east and west, then run asd measure a stra'ght line between the two stones thus identified. Next examine the original fi-^ld notes, (or a copy) and if the present mea-ure corresponds with that recorded in the original field note^, then estab'ish the quarter sec in corner at forty chains, (160 rods,) otherwise e-tablish it half way between the said sectional coiners. To locate toe quarter section corner in the centre of the section, (which is left unlocated by government suivey) run a line north and south, and a line ea'^t and west through the centre of the section, between the quarter sec, ion corners on the ection lines, and the p^int of intersection or crossing of these lines is the ,'ej.ai centre corner. How to obtain surveys in advance of regular surveys. By an act of Congress approved May 30, 1862, it is p orided thit when the settlers in any township or towuships not mii eral or reserved by government, afaall desire a survey to be made of the same under the authority of a -urve;, or General of the United Sta'es, it may be doi.e uudei certain co.'idition . (Sec, 10, p. 410, Vol. 12 U. S. Law^.) It is prescribed by the Commissioner of the Genera' Land Office tha' apprca- tions for surveys under this law must be made to the ?urve3'or General in wriiing, upon receipt of whi.h he will furnish the applicant with an estinsate of how much the desired suivey will cost. Upon rtceipt of this estimate the applicant must d posit ihe required s m with any United Sta'es Depository, (certain National Banks in each stnte and territory^ receiving a certificate of deposit ther-for, made layable to the Surve.^or Gene;al, an! showing for wha^ purpofe the money was depo ited. This certifii ate is to be sent to the Surveyor General, and upon its receipt he will contract with a competent U. S. Deputy Sarreyor, and have the survey made and retu ned in the same manner as other poblic surveys. Tlie payment of the amount required for the survey will not give the deposi- tor any priority of claim or rij;ht to pu chase the land, or in any mann' r affect the claim or claims of any p:irty or parties thereto, and when suiveyed it will be sn''ject to the same general laws and regulations in relation to ihe disp si- tion there 'f, as v ould have contiolieJ its disposal had the survey been n.ade ia the regular and ordinary manner. ACQUIRING TITLE TO GOVERNMENT LANDS. Title to public lands can only 1 e obtained through the Register and Receiver of the U. S. District Laud Ort ce<, of which there aie several in each State and ACQUIRING TITLE TO GOVERNMENT LANDS. 199 Territory. They act un'ler direction of the Commissioner of the General Land Office at Washington, D. C. Surveyed Lands — Public lands are considered to be survey d when official notice to that effect pa-'ses from the survtyors through the Lan 1 Office ut Wash- ington to the land officers in tlie district wl er such land is situated. Prior to this these lands are unsurveyed lands, and no title can be obtained to them in any ma' ner, excepting only the inceptive right of a pre-empion selt'er, Unoffered Lands are lands which have been surv yed but have not been offered. Offered Lands are lands which have been surveyed and also 'offereil" at public auction, pursuant to pr. vipus public notice by advertisement. Minimum Lands are those which are not sold for less than one dollar and tweLty-five cents per acre. Double Minimum Lands are those which are not sold for less than two dol- lars and fifty cents per ac e. The odd numbered sections only are granted to railroads, and the even numbered se'tions are doubled in price, becoming Double Minimum Lands. In Kan as the Missouri, Kan^^as and Texas and the Missouri River, Fort Scott and Gulf railroads have a right to even as well as odd numbered t-ections within the indemnity limits, that is, outside of the ten mile limit and within the twenty mile limit. Government does not double the price on the even numbered se^tiojis in the indemnity limits. Land Warrants are assignabl ■ certificates ''ssued by the government 'o dis- charged 8 , Idlers and sailors entitliug tl'e legal holder to either forty, sixty, eighty, one Lundied and twenty, or one hundred and sixty acres ot minimum offered public land, or as half pay f r double minimum offered land, the ether half being paid in cash. Wariants may be used in payment for pre-emptiw^s with the sime limitations as abjve, concerning Double M ninanm Lands. Agricidtural College Scrip is as-ignable Laud Scrip, issued to the several states to aid in the e>t.iblishnierft of Agricultural Colleges. First — Thti legal holder is entitled t > a .«pe ified amoimt of offered minimuni land, but he is rettricted to quarter ^ections which have two sides hounded, by a section lii e, or rt may be Located on any parf of a qn r!er section vlie e such, part is taken in f 11 for a quarter section, but nc t more than three sectic7is can be taken with ih.s scrip in any one township. The amount that may be located in any one state is also lim ted to 1,000 000 ..ores. Second — This scrip is taken in paynrent of j^re-emption claims without regard to the quaniity located in any one townsh'p or state, but ui.der the same con- ditions as land wa- rants, if u ed to p e empt double minnimum lands. Private Entry— Offered lands 07ily are subject to private entry. At private entry any person may purchase land to any extent by making written api lica- tion to the register, describing the land he wishes to buy and giving its area. He pays therefor $1 . 5 or $2 50 per acre in cabh, or with duly at signed warrants or scrip under above nameil limitations. There are no lands in Kan-as subject to private ei.try at $2 50 per acre and very little at $1 2.5 per acre. Pre-emption — By this proce s and no other, excep ingby homesteading, &tit]& can be acquired to public land which is unoffered, but offered may also be jfwe-- 200 Hutchinson's kansas. empted. Every head of a family, or widow, or single man or woman, over twenty-one years of age, being a citzen or having filed a declaration of inten- tion to become a citizen, can pre-empt one hundred and s'xty acres of either minimum or double minimum laud by paying therefor and complying with certain i egulations. The (qualified) party who makes the first settlement upon aay public laud by improving the same is entitled to the right of pre-emption, if the pre emption laws are subsequently c. mplied with, iuelndiug filing upon the same. His right dates from the time he performed the first work on the land. Those who settle upon unsurveyed land must in order to pre-empt, within three months after date of receipt at the district land ofiice of the app oved plat of the township embracing their claims, file their declaratory state went of setfement with 'he register, and thereafter make proof and payment of the tract within eighteen months from the exp'ration of said three moi ths. This gives twenty one mor ths after the survey-* are received by district landoflBcers, within which pre-emptors must pay for land. Upon unoffered surveyed land a pre-emptor must filed with the register his declarafo y stati-ment within three months from the date of such settlement, and must pay for the land within twenty-wie months from date of S'-ttlement. Upon offered land the statement must be filed '^ithixi thirty days of settlement, and within oae ye r from the date of such filing the land must be paid for. By an act of Congress approved July 14, 1870, nil settlers who had filed for pre-emption previous to that date, w ere required to pay f r their Imd before July 14, 1871, but during the spring of 1871 Congre-? extended th's titae cne year, ihat it^, until July 14, 1872, but this extension applies only to those who filed previously to July 14, 1870. , Tiie act o* making any improvement of whatever character upon the land claimed, is recognized as a settlement. A pr -emptor cannot pay for laud uutil he has actually resided upon the same fo- a period of at least six months and before paymeut must swear or affirm : "That I have never had the benefit of any right of pre-emption uii'ler thia ■act; that I am not the OM'ner of three hundred and twenty acres of laud in any State or Territory of the Uniied States, nor have I settled upon ad improved said land to sell the same on speculation, but iu good faith to appropriate it to my own exclusive use or benefit ; and that I have not, directly or indirectly, made any agieemeut or contract, in any waj' or ma-uer, with any person or persons whomsoever, by whic the title which I may acquire from the Govern- ment of the Un ted States shou d inure, in whole or in i art, to the benefit of any persou except myself." This affi avt must be su ported by at least one witness, who must appear with the pre-emptor before th district laud officers in person. Ihe t^etler can then se ure .he lau i by payiug iu cash, ai by filing a warrant, or Agricultural Scrip duly assigned. If a pre-eiiip;or dies before pirfoctin r the title, his or her rights descend to the "heirs." The cxei-utor or admiuistiator may make proof of occupation. ACQUmiNa TITLE TO GOVERNMENT LANDS. 201 and pay for the land, and the patent will issue to "the heirs of the deceased settler." Pre-emptors are entitled to lands at one dollar anfl a quarter per acre within the limits of railroad grants, provided they locate before the lands were "with- drawn" (that is withdrawn from settlpment and sale to enable the railroad company to locate its li e after which the land is a ain open to se'tlementi excepting that tLe odd numbered sections within a certain distance are donated to the railroad.) Kansas grants are all for ten miles on each side, but the limits are extended to|so much land within twenty miles on each side as is necessary to replace the od num ered sections that may have been disposed of by the gov- ernment before the grant was made to the railroad. The double minimum lands are confined to the limits of the original grant; and the even numbered section-- outside of the original grant, but within the indemnitij limits, aro fl 25 per acre. HoMESTEAPiNG— The Homestead Laws permit a'^y person to acquire by occu- pation and the payment of commissions and fees hereafter noted, one hundred and sity acres of S!(rve2/e'^ niinin^"™ ^^^^ or eig'ity acres of doubl° niinimum land. Undpr this law the spttler may file on the land he desires to obtain, and that filing holds good for six months, during which time the settler must take possession of the land by occupation and improvement. Affirlavit must be made that he or she is the head of a family, or is fwenty-one years of ase, and that such application is made for his «r her exclusive use and ben fit, and that said entry is made for the purpose of actual sftt'euient and cultivation, and not either directly or indirectly for the U'^e or benefit of any o'her person or persons whomsoever, and that the applicant has not heretofore lad the benefit of the Homestead Act. If the applicant is actually upon the land and cmnot by reason of dis ance, bodily infirmi y, or other pood caufe, personally go to the district land oflBce, the affidavit iiiay be made before the clerk of the court for the county within wh'ch the land is situated. Officers, soldiers and sailors who have served ninety days, and remained loyal, may taae under homestead laws, < n" hundred and sixty acres instead of eighty acreis of double miuiumm hind, but no other di.i iuctions whatever are made between these and any other persons. The applicant must make oath as to the company anl regiment in wbich he served. Within seven years from the date of the duplicate of entry given to the settler by the receiver at the district land office, the settler mu«t personally appear at said office and make affidavit that he or he has resided upon or cultivated the same for the term of Jive years imm -diately succeeding the time of filing the affi avit of entry, and th -t no pa't of the land is alienated. Th*- five years of occupation date, not from the date of ent^y tut from the date ef settlement. The affidavit of -eltlement mu«t be corroboratf d by two crrdible witnesses. If by reason of physical disability, distance or other gof'd cau«e, they cannot accompany the s ttler to the di.strict land office, their testimony may be takm before any officer autliorized to • dminisf er oaths and who uies a seal. lie muat certify ^o the credibility and tespon-iliil ty of the witiie>6es, ^nd state the rea- sons of ti eir inability to attend ai tiie land office. The registt-r and receiver 202 endorse their opinion upon the testimony and aGBdavit, and tranem't them to the General Land ■ ffice at Washington. If the proce dings are satisfactory to them they also give a certificate to the settler. If a homestead settler dies, the wirlow, or if she die, the heirs, may continiie the settlement and cu tivation and ob'ain title. If both rarents die, leaving a child or children under twei ty-one years of age, the homestead may legally be sold by the administrator. Homesteads are not liable for any debt or debts contracted prior to the issuing of the patent or deed therefor from the goverm ent. CoMMUTiXG A Homestead— Homestead settlers may pay for their land in ca^ h or wai rants at the government price, $1 25 or $2 50, upon making proof of actual rtsidence and cultivation for a periud not less than «use of his pre ecessor, in-t'ad of building anoher, but his right dat s from filing, if on homestead, or settlement, if on pre-en ption claim. ACQUIRING TITLE TO GOVERNMENT LANDS. 203 The right to a homestead dates from entry — that is, from filing, m hich holds the land six months, but improvements must be made within that time. The right to pre-emption dates frtmi settlement. Adjoining Farm Homesteads. — Any person oivning and residing on less than one hundred and six y acres of land, may hon.es'ead so much adjoining land as s' all, taken with his original farm, make a ya'ue of nof more than two hun- dred ddllars, computing in tkis estimate, the original farm at $1.25 per acre and the adjoining homestead at government price, whether $1.25 or $2.50 per acre, but if the orij,iHal farm be within a railroad grant, then the original fwn musL be computed at $2.50 per acre. Residence upon adjoining homesteads is not required, but in all ether respect the law makes the same requirt merits as it dO' s concerning other homesteads and cultivation is necessary. Claimants upon unsurveycd land orght to designate in some manner the boundaries of the land which they propo e t« enter, else others might make improvements which would, upon survey, fall upon the swme quarter section. If settlers locate*at least a half mile north or south, an east or west from each other, they will each get a quarter section by the surveys. If two happen to fall upon the same quatfer section it 's u-ually divided betveen them, unless the first settler established the lines of his claim w thin which the resi- der.ce of the other was afterwards locited. In this case the second settler gets nothing. Persons buying a c'aim on unsurveyed land should contract with adjoining settlers also, or the latter might claim the land tluis pur based, from the fact that their settlement dates prior to that of the purchaser. Entering Town Sites. — S\ henever any number of persons not less than 100, withe ut regard to age, sex or nuivity, locate upon any public land, to which n« prior claim exists, they may, any t me before it becomes subject to "private entry," enter said land a-* a t