The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-12-12
LAWRENCE, KANSAS,

Wsst-KaAsas Products for Colorado
The Dairy Business tn Kansas.
LAWRENCE, Kansas, Dec. 8, 1867.
geographically, Kansas may be described as
an elevated, gently yrolling plateau, intersected
by the wide, shallow valleys of almost innumer-
able streams. There is none of the fiat prairie
monotony about it which characterizes so
much of Illinois. The traveller in passing
through the State beholds ever-varying
landscape, often of great picturesqueness and
beauty. The view from Mount Dread, near this
city, ia one OF the finest in the world. The
Valley of the Kansas from bluff to bluff is here
at least five miles wide, while the Valley of the
Wakarusa, which joins it near the city, is of
almost equal extent. each dotted thickly with
farms and houses, and skirted here and there
with groves of timber.
The Kansas or Kaw river is che longest stream
in the state. It's chief fork, the Smoky Hill,
rises in Colorado towards the foot hills of the
Rocky Mountains, and runs in general east
erly course through the entire State. 1t is along
this great valley, more than four hundred miles
in extent, that the Union Pacific Railway
Eastern Division, is located, being already com,
pleted and running almost the entire distance
from the mouth of the Kansas to the western
boundary of the State A more splendid and
productive body of land can hardly be found in
the United States, nor more natural and feasi
| BILE route for q railroad.
The Kansas river has several large branches
flowing into 1t from the north such as the Big
! Blue the Republican, Solomon's fork, and the
Saline fork, each of which flows through a re-
markably beautiful and fertile valley. There
are also In Northern Kansas multitude of
| small streams such as the Big Stranger and the
Little Stranger, the Grasshopper and the Ne
maha, whose valleys afford the choicest loca-
tions for farms and settlements.
In Southern Kansas there are several large
valleys that almost rival the Kansas in extent,
as they certainly do in beauty of scenery and
fertility OF soil. The most noted OF them is the
! valley of the NeoshO river, an afiuent of the
! Arkansas The Neosho has two main head
streams, the one which bears the name
! OF the full length river, and the other called
the Cottonwood. They rise near the
centre of the State, and fall Off
rapidly towards the south southeast, uniting
near the town of Emperia, and crossing the
southern boundary of the State some forty
miles west of the Missouri border. The whole
extent of this beautiful valley is O perfect
garden. The slope back to the high prairie is
very gentle and gradual; the valley is wide and
well wooded; the soil is deep and exhaustless
while the climate, both from decreased eleVa-
tion and lower latitude, is considerably
milder than that of the northern portion of the
State This is the fRvorlte region for stock
growers-cattle rarely needing fodder during
the winter. IT is not less adapted to grain, as
the bountiful crops OF wheat and corn raised by
it's farmers Abundantly testify. 1 first visited
this valley in 1857, and shall never forget with
what delight, as we drove down into the river
to ford 1t, near Burlington, felt the crunch
and heard the rattle of the wagon wheels
against the stones and pebbles in the bed of the
stream. The majority of Kansas streams have
muddy bottoms, but here was clear water and
pebble. paved bottom. During that visit we
often drove through the tall prairie grass as
high as the seat OF the buggy.
The valley of the Usage river, or, as IL is
usually called In Kansas, the M0rtas des OygneS
a pronounced Mary-d de- zene), extends through
several of the eastern counties of the State and
is a very beautiful and fertile one.
The Arkansas river flows through quite 0
: large portion of the southwestern portion o
the State but it is as yet unreached by the set
Elements, and the character of its valley is less
fully known than that OF the others have
attempted to describe
IL must not be inferred that IL is only along
these valleys. and their tributaries, that thu
land is desirable Tor settlement. The higt
country between the river valleys is called
divides" is generally gently rolling, OTTER
) quite level and furnishes some of the very bes
I farming lands in the State. Indeed, IL Is thu
opinion OF some intelligent farmers with whom
, ] have eOnversed, that the high prairie farm
= with proper culture can be made more prohta
d bic than the bottom" farms, r
flu .aIuraTD "a aaafo3