The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1867-03-01
EMPORIA, KANSAS, FRIDAY MARCH WHOLE
KANSAS.

4hs loHo"Ing aElicle was published ID
the New York Tribune in September last.
It was written by A. D. Richardson. 1t
gives much very valuable information in
regard to Kansas. and we commend its
statements to our readers: -.s.
Agriculture always has hard strug-
gle insthe new States. Like 50 600, eco
Of people fighting on their own SOIL"
Nature is haId to subjugate. Like them
also, she knows Ihensshe is fairly whip.
ped. t
After the Mormon pioneers moved
their harems to Ulab, Bridg9r, the only
white man living within hundreds of
miles, offered s 900 for the first ear of
corn they could raise. For years they
fought drouLh, worms, and grasshoppers.
Now, with irrigation, the Great Salt lake
Basin snsisins a large home population
of lOo, 600, aud exports corn, wheat,
barley, vegetables and fruit, as well as
dissfected Mormon wives and babies, to
Montana, Nevada and Idaho.si ga d. se
first saw Colorado in 1859. It's dreary
sands revealed no green thing; and even
the narrow stripof valley along the
streams looked hopelessly sterile. For
two or three years grasshoppers destroyed
the crops; but now Colorado produces
enormous vegetables, promises well in
fruits, and this year yields enough small
grain and eVencorn for her own consump-
ton. Minnesota aud Iowa also suffered
from, drouths and insects, and this year
remote, little known Dakotah is devasted
by grasshoppers.r rev
Every neWly-Opened region requires a
new agriculture. Farmers cannot learn
the whole of it the first year. But all
the vast region between the Mississippi
and the Pacific will one day TEEN with
cereals, fruits, and root-Vegetables. Even
the dreary, all akali aud sand wastes of
our mining States produce abundantly
with water turned upon them, that will be
universal when the land is needed.
On the old maps, Kansas as a part
of the Great American Desert. Even
now, there is a wide impression that
farming here is failure, or at least an
experiment.. Therefore, after journeying
all over the State, give some dry details
about agriculture in the inhabited por
tion-the eastern half of Kansas Two
hundred aud fifty miles west of the Mis-
souri,, the soil grows very thin, and soon
after turns into sand. eTF
Missionaries and Indians,
after farming in Kansas for 80 years, ates-
tify that before its settlement by the
whites, there was only one general and
destructive drouth. In 1889 the crops
were again destroyed causing considerable
suffering. Two or three times since
then small sections have been hurt By
dry weather, but, in general, the rains
have been ample. With only two drouths
in 80 years, the old specter is fairly laid.
Really there is as much danger from
freshets. The only dry weather is to-
ward the close of the season. But, with
early planting and sowing, and deep
blowing, KaDsas suffers no more from
drouth than Illinois or Massachusetts,.
Soil On the whole, Kansas is richer
tbyn Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa or Nilsson
ri. There is not q swamp in the State.
It is difficult to find ten acres of untillsble
ground. Anywhere in New York the
same land would be worth from 800 to
$500 per acre. Even high prairie, where
the soil seems to be the dryest and thin
est, produces luxuriantly almost every
vegetable and fruit. The jet black loan
is Of fathomlsss depth.
BREAKING PRAIRIEs. - IN breaking
wild prairie, pillow turning IA inch
furrow requires two yoke of cattle, and
one turning a "a inch furrow requires
FIVE yoke team. The latter will break
three acres per day. The grand need Of
the western farmer is steam plOW. Ii
will surely come. hear of one in New
York which promises to be practicable,
and which, every time it crosses the field,
plows strip "a feet wide. Any one
who can bring such machine to these
farms Twill hear something to his advan-
tsge." .e
FUEL, FENCING AND BUILDING MATE
BIAL Coal underies almost the whole
State, cropping out plentifully in the
southeast, near Fort Scott. and west on
the Smoky Hill river. There is heavy
body of timber along the Missouri; else
where, only slight fringes beside the
streams. But almost every $50 acres
contain enough excellent limestone or
| sandstone to fence It. The Usage Or
ange, too. grows luxGriantly; is coming
into universal use, aud makes an admir-
able fence. It turns cattle in three years
from the seed. In this rich soil it is
difficult to keep it from spreading every
where. For the FIRST year OF two, the
gophers sometimes destroy il by eating
the roots. Settlers trap or D olson them
aud replant the tree. After the shoot is a
foot high cattle are very shy Of it.
The scarcity of timber is an advantage
1t enables the pioneer to open his farm
in one year, while in New England, two
generations were required for clearing
away the forests. It insures good frame
and stone buildings instead of log shan
ties. Besides, wood grows with marvel
Gus qulckness, aud is already far more
plentiful than ten years ago. The State
offers premium for raising trees. PloW
a field, and--though the nearest fores: is
miles away-Ihe next spring will see
young cotton woods rising from the soil
Their seed supplied with little feathered
wings sails through The air 10 every di-
Feelion. The trees grow with wonderful
rapidly. Last week, in Marshall couu
ty, saw one only three years from the
seed, already Eve inches in diameter anC
twenty-five feet high. At Eve years old
they are fit for saving. Cottonwood
lumbar Il larOelv Ysasd for build5ng Whef