The Van Buren press., 1867-07-26
The Van Buren, Press.
VAN BUREN,. ARKANSAS.
Western Arkansas-What il Produces.
What Il Nav.

CRAWFORD County, July 10, 1867.
EDITOR PREss-Dear Sir: In rccen,
tramp through some considerable portion
of Observation-Disclosures, designing chiefly
to examine the face Of the country It's
products, minerals, water privileges, etc,
etc., have found the country abound
ing in every material requisite to wealth,
health and happiness. The lands arc di.
yersifed, it is true, both rs regards face
and fertility. The bottom lands of the
Arkansaw and smaller streams are i'm
mense in quantity and dextremely fertile.
Thousands of acres of such portions of
them as saw in corn and cotton, must
produce an immense crop the present
season of these important staples of our
country. The crops of the up or high
lands likewise, look as fine and luxuriant
almost as those on the bottoms. The
present years yield of the two standards
of the country, corn and cotton cannot
fail, think to be unusually large. Wheat,
oats, rye and barley, are in small quaint.
ties, especially the two latter But
wherever seen and in whatever quantity,
the growth was luxuriant and the Weld
full crop; and | am unable to see whyi
it Is that more of these important cereals
are not grown in Arkansas Potatoes,
both sweet and irish are in abundance
and the yield very promising. Garden
vegetables such as green peas, cabage,
beets, tomatoes, etc, never were seen
growing in greater luxuriancc any where.
But in speaking of the productions of
Observation-Disclosures with its vast alluvial
bottoms stretching the entire length of
all its both great and small streams, its
nndulating high lands, its vine clad hills,
and tall mountains with gushing streams,
dashing and splashing through their deep
gorges in their rapid course to the broad
rivers of the plains, ETC., etc,
nothing in tho course of my whole OBJ
seryations marks the country with moro
than its unusually appar
ent unprecedented adaptedness to the
growth of fruits of almost every kind not
tropical: Apples, pears, peaches, april
cots. nectarines, plums, cherries, Coos.
berries, strawberries, rasp and blackbcr-
ries and above all, grapes. All, yes
hil the fences tie 1fSGss fSofest ttalees ta fyeRy
bluffs and craggy precipices ofthe noun
tains are equally the home Of the vine
and its clustering fruit. tgo Gao se seli \
1t has been the writer's good fortune to
have visited and spent most Of the years
1854, 1885, and 1856, in the vinu-
growing countries of Europe; visited
and spent some time on that wine made
immortal river, the Rhine. There the
grape lis made to grow by dirt of the
and labor of man. The hardy
and hard toiling German aseends the rug
ged bluff by rule steps, or BY a flight of
ladders 500 and 1000 feet to plant the
vine in the crevices of the rock or the
eagles nest, or wherever enough dirt can
be found to support its roots. Ever
present he tolls and sleeps with his vines
and on wine and bread he litteraly lives.
But here, if you please, the vine grows
utterly needless and regardless Of the.
presence of man Here it fourishes in
its wild luxuriance, blossoms, bears and
wastes its fragrant arromas on the desert
air. The wild turkeys fatten upon it.
The creole and its kindred tribes, winged
Of the forest build their nests
in the clustering festoons Of the vine and
sip the nectar juices of its fruit True to
the letter as all this is, it is not truer than
strange, that so many of the inhabitants
of Arkansas are utterly needless of the
rich boon offered them in the growth
and culture of the vine in this delightful
climate and soil of the grape. L.