The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1859-07-21
AN OVERLAND JOURNEY.
Summing up on Kansas.
MANHATTAN, May 26, 1859.

MANHATTAN, Nlay 20, 1909.
[ like Kansas-that is natural Kansas
better than | had expected to. The
soil is richer and deeper; the timber is
more generally difused; the country
more rolling-than had supposed them.
There are Of course heavy drawbacks in
remotcness from the sealoard, heavy
charges for bulky goods, low prices for
produce, Indian reserves, aud the high
price of good lumber. For instance, pine
boards used in building at this place come
from Allegheny County, n. Y, and we're
RATED down soue mill stream to the Al
leghany, thence down the Aiieg hany to
Pittsburgh, and the Ohio to Cairo, taken
up the Missouri to Kansas City, and the
Kansas to this place, which has tut twice
or thrice been reached BY steamboat.
When here they were dog cheap at : 100
Ier thousand supe' fetal feet, or ten cents
for every square foot. lo the absence
Of steamboat navigation on the Kansas,
they must here be richly worth Sl25 per
thousand feet And, while there is pret
tY coed timber here for other purposes.
there is little-aBd that mainly black
walnut-that will II axe good boards
The ready Cottonwood along the banks
Of the streams cuts easily, hut warps SO
when seasoned that it will draw the nails
out of the side of house; Elm is Of
equally perverse; and have seen few To-
digenous boards that were not either
Black Walnut or Oak. But much Of the
Oak Is small, short aud gnarly; While the
Black Walnut is likely to be exhausted.
| see young oues coming up thickly IN
some of the river bottom-; but these bave
much to contend with, and will not at
best be large enough TO saw for many
years. No doubt the timber of Kansas
increases each year, and will increase
.till faster as roads aud Improvements
are multiplied. limiting the sweep Of the
prairie fires; but it viii always cost more
10 build deceut house of wood in ;be in
terror of Kansas than in part of New
York or New England-I think twice as
much This is heavy tax ou new
country, where not only houses but barns
are general, primary aud pressing need
| rejoice to see the Bcw tinker creeping
up tie bluffs Of the streams; note with
pleasure that much Of this is Hickory
aud some of it White ASH | doubt not
that there will always be would enough
here for fencing and fuel; but if Pixies
Peak region can send good lot Of pine
l9mber (even Yellow Pine) down the
Platte and the Arkansas, it will be worth
more to Kansas than all her gold.
consider Kansas well wstered-no
Prairie State better. / do not confpe
this remark to the present, when every
thing i, fooded, aud likely to be more so.
/ mean that springs, streams. creeks, riv
ers, are quite universal. For my Own
private drinking, | should like supply
not SO much impreguated with lime; but,
for limestone water this is generally quite
good.
Aud The limestone itself is among The
chief blessings of Kansas. | presume it
unlerlies every foot of her soil have
yet trarersed, with nearly every square
mile that will be comprised within the
State of Kansas. You see it cropping
out from almost every bluff it lies thick
ly strewn in toulders o7er the surface of
every headland or promontory that makes
out into the bottoms, low pralries, or ra-
vines; so that if you want to use it, it is
always to be drawn (or rolled) down hill.
Though pot here needed as a fertilizer, it
can everywhere be quarricd with little
labor into building stone, or burned for
use in putting up cbiuneys and plastering
walls Though somewhat decomposed
q presume, By the action of water upon
it through thousands of yeare) aud read
ily cleayiDg into blocks of suitable size
for house walls, it is said to harden By
exposure to the atmosphere. and make a
very durable wall. 1t is the constant
though unobserVed decomposition of this
stono that has contributed SO largely to
the fertility of this soil, and now cOuu-
teryails the enormous waste through the
rivers. | presume all the guiana import
ed into our country does not equal in fer
tilising value the annual outflow from the
Kansas River alone.
/ judge that Indian Corn can be grown
here as cheaply as anywhere on earth
Thousands of acres last. year produced
their hundred bushels of shelled grain
per acre, at a very moderate cost for la
Dor and none at all for manure. An ex-