Litchfield enquirer., 1859-06-16
GREELEY ON KANSAS.
MANHATTAN. MAY 26. 1859.

MANHATTAN, MAY 26, 1859.
 I like Kansas--that is natural Kansas better thal expected to- The soil is richer and deeper ]; the timber is more generally diff fused the country more rolling than I had supposed them There are of course heavy drawbacks in remoteness from the seaboard, heavy charges for bulky goods, low prices of produce, Indian reserves, and tLe high price of good lumber. For instance, pine boards used in building at this place come from AL legany County, N. Y and were rafted down some mill-stream to the Alleghany, thence down the Alleghany to Pittsburgh, and the Ohio to Cairo, taken mp the Mississippi to St.. Louis, the Missouri to Kansas City, and the Kansas to this place, which has but twice or thrice been reached by steamboat When here they were dog cheap at $l00 per thou sand superficial feet, or ten cents fir every square foot. In the absence of steamboat navigation on the Kansas, they must here be richly worth $l25 per thousand feet. And, while there is pretty goo timber here for oth- CT purposes, there is little--anG that mainly black wanut-that will make good boards The ready Cottonwood along the banks of the streams cuts easily, but warps 50 when sea- soned that it will draw the nails out of the side of house. Elm is of course equally perverse and I have seen few indigenous boards that were not either Black Walnut or Oak. But much of the Oak is small, short and gnarly while the Black Walnut is likely to be exhausted. I see young ones coming up thickly in some of the river bottoms but these have much to contend with, and will not at best be large enough to saw for many years. 1 No doubt the timber in Kansas increases each | col ,,;u ct; ctn flo aud improvements are multiplied, limiting the sweep of the prairie-Gres but it will always cost more to build decent house of wood in the interior of Kansas than in part of New York or New England-I think twice as much. This is heavy tax on a new country, where not only houses but barns are general, pri- mary and pressing need. l rejoice to see the new timber creeping up the bluffs of the streams I note with pleasure that much of this is Hickory, and some of it White Ash l doubt not that there will always be wood enough here for fencing and fuel i; but if the Pike's Peak region can send good lot of Pine lumber, (even Yellow Pine) down the Platte and the Arkansas it will be worth m,re to Kansas than all her gold.
 1 consider Kansas well watered--no Prairie State better do not confne this remark to the present, when everything is flooded, and likely to be more SO. I mean that springs, streams, creeks rivers, are quite universal For my own private drinking, I should like supply not so much impregnated with lime i; but, for limestone water this is generally quite good.
 And the Limestone itself is among the chief blessings of Kansas. I presume it underlies every foot of her soil have yet traversed, with nearly every square mile that will be comprised within the State of Kansas. You sec it cropping out from almost every bluff i; it lies thicky strewn in bouderS over the sur face of every headland or promontory that makes out into the bottoms, low prairies, or ravines so that if you want to use it, it is always to be drawn or rollcd) down hill. Though not here needed as fertilizer it can everywhere be quarried with little labor into building-stone, or burned for use in putting up chimneys and plastering walls. Though somc- what decomposcd q presume by the action of water upon it through thousands of years) and readily cleaving into blocks of suitable size for honse-wals, it is said to harden by ez- posture to the atmosphere, and make very durable wall It is the constant though un- observed decomposition of this stone that has contributed so largely to the fertility of this soil, and now countervails the enormous waste through the rivers. I presume all the guano imported into our country does not equal in fertilizing value the annual outflow from the Kansas River alone.
 I judge that Indian Corn can be grown here as cheaply as any where on earth. Thou sands of acres last year produced their hun- dred bushels of shel'ed grain per acre, at a moderate cost for labor and none at all for manure. An extensive farmer, who grew ma- ny thousands of bushels near Leavenworth, assured me that the cost of his corn cribbed in the ear, was just six cents per bnshel of ears, equal to nine cents per bushel of grain three half bushels of the great Ohio kind here cultivated making bushel of grain. Of course, this estimate excludes the cost of land, breaking and fencing but, making a fair allowance for these, the net cost ot that corn cannot have exceeded twenty cents per bushel presume it would now sell in his crib for forty cents while here in the interior it is worth from 25 to 35 cents per bushel.
 I met at Osawatamie an old Whig and now Republican friend who left New York City (where he had been an industrious mcchanic) l and settled between Lawrence and Topeka two years ago. He had last year eighty acres in corn, which yielded 4,OOo bushels, worth to him 35 or 40 cents per bushel. His clear q proft on this corn, above the immediate cost of growing it, can hardly have been less than $1, 900. He will grow more this year, with T Wheat, Potatoes, &c. 1; yet he is one of class who are popularly supposed incapable g.. o' making money by farming. l suspect few lie, long farmers of similar means will have good . buillinps over their heads and fruit-trees and other elements of material comfort around them sooner than my friend. f Wheat and Oats did badly last year, owing } to the heavy Summer rains which rusted ard blighted them. Too little of either have been sown for this years harvest, yet find botf Winter and Spring Wheat looking remarkably