Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1855-07-28
LETTER FROM KANSAS.

OTTAWA CREEK, July q, 1893.
Mn EDIToR Most graiifcd was the family
circle of Mr. Nichols, and myself among the
rest, to receive your excellent paper from Apul
% to June I'd inclusive and most anxiously do
We look for those next forthcoming.
would have written to you again long since,
but II has been a busy time among the farmers
of Kansas, all being in a hurry 10 finish plant.
ing and fencing. Much corn has been planted
in this vicinity more, | think, Than in any
other part Of the Territory there being three
forty acre lots planted within a mile up and
down the creek, and smaller lots in every d.
reciion. Have you or your readers any idea
how farming operations are conducted in this
great prairie country Let me give you the
idea if you have it not.
First, blowing is done with FIVE yoke Of OK
en- and a leyiathan pillow, of which, (the plow,)
these arc the dimensions beam, length la
feet by G inches square, length of land bar 3
feet, length of mould board G feet, width from
land bar TO extremity Of shear % inches. The
beam is supported between two standards SCI,
into an axle which runs with the one wheel in
tho iurrow and the other on the land. A long
lever runs forward by which the beam is raised
or lowered, the pillow thus running shallow or
deep, as tho %plowman wishes. This pillow, be-
ing once guaged, is leh to run itself, the plow-
man only setting it in at the cad Of the furrow.
Second, planting corn is either done by plow-
ing it in, or by sodding it. by the former
method, il is dropped in every ID and Sd fur
row, and LEFT for the pillow to cover it or some
SOW it upon the unbroken ground, and then turn
it under. But the method Of sodding il in,
though much more laborious than the others, is
far better giving more corn 10 the acre, and taxi
ing less seed this is done in the following
manner One man with an axe strikes a mar
row slit through the sod, into which the corn
is dropped by a second, and then the hole is
struck with an axe by a third man, who, as be
steps along sets his heel upon it, which finishes
the operation.
During the month of July breaking is done
for fall wheat, the sod lying till September to
rot, when it is again plowed and sowed.
You can scarcely Imagine the rapid growth
of all kinds of vegetation, at the present time,
and indeed through the year. Corn, from Fri
day ut sunset I'LL Sunday at sunrise, &c hours,
grew 3 inches. But do not take this as a fair
sample for it was on prairie sod broken only
. l-2 inches deep, and therefore not a printing
to what might be said, did we only know it to
say it. have seen young radishes . inches
and upward in diameter. / have measured the
last years growth of a sycamore sproui, and
found it 10 be only 4 l-2 feet.
One more wonder, cream, when churned,
will yield no butlermilk unless water is put in
and the milk is much richer than any that |
ever saw in the New England States.
One thing we want is a tanner n good smart
enterprising man who would come here and put
up a lanncry in connection with a shoe manu-
factory, would do WELL. The shoemakers of
western Missouri bring their leather from ST.
Lonls, a distance of near 500 miles.
We have no news from the bogus Legislature,
which was to meet at Pawnee on the 9th inst.
There is a general determination to resist their
laws. Report says Gov. Reeder was knocked
down and maltrealed in Weslport by Stringfel-
low. Yours truly, A.. o. CARPENTER.