The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1868-02-14
LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE (!
SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS F!
AS a Farming, Stock Rails
ing, and Fruit Grow
ing Country!
III Z
What Old Settlers Say
About 1T.
TOWNS, STREAMS, TIMBER,
STONE AND COAL.
INDUCEMENTS TO IMMIGRANTS
Letter from oliver Phillips.

| Il
| FRIEND STOTLER: have now been living
| in Kansas almost thirteen years. having come
herc&n March, 1855. All of this time have
been trying to make living by farming and
stock-rasing, though rather a small scale
must confess. having to begin without dollar
to help myself with; but on reviewing the past
| I have come to the conclusion that, on the
whole, have been successful rather than 9TH
erwise, having made living and something
more. 1 have raised on soil broke in June, 25
| to 81 bushels of corn to the acre, have known
others to raise much larger crops) while pump
| kins and squaShcs, and all kinds of vines grow
| prCfusely. From one single handful of seeds
l planted amongst the corn, on the sod, have
raised two large wagon loads Of winter squash
| cS, some Of them weighing 30 pounds apiece.
On four acres of sod ground have raised
43 wagon loads Of pumpkins and two wagon
| loads Of SquaShCS. have raised great many
pumpkins that would weigh 30 pounds apiece
The largest 1 ever raised weighed 20
pounds. lin 1853 L raised 1000 bushels of good
sound corn, on ground that had been worked
| two years, and all the labor done on it after
| planting was seven days work with man and
horse, with a single shovel pillow. The reason
! was that had no horse of my own, and could
not hire one any longer. White beans do well on
| the sod. have known 10 bushels raised on Il
| LITTLE less than half an acre, or 1T the rate eff
80 bushels to the acre. and they were planted
on the 18th or 18th of June and got ripe before
| frost. i have. raised some very good whc:t,
both fall and spring, but never sowed largely
OF wheat. \ friend Of mine in Chase county,
told Inc last fall that he had raised fall wheat
on the same piece of ground (abOut 8 acres
think for eight years in succession, and that
he had never failed to raise % bushels more
| to the acre but once, and that wac in 1860, the
dry year; Lyon, Chase and adjoining counties
are noted for their production of good wheat as
well as corn and other grains. l have raised
| a good crop of buckwheat sown on the third
day of August; also Hungarian soWn the same
day that yielded two tons to the acre, both get
ting ripe before frost. l have raised three
tons OF Hungarian to the acre when S0wn earli-
t er n anI dreanentig nad large Yields Of pc
potatoes from one bushels planting. At anoth-
er time my son raised 81 bushels from COM
mon patent pailful of seed. lie mulchcd the
ground with old hay. have raised bcets that
would measure from six TO eight inches in di-
ameter, and one in particular that measured
twenty-siN inches i'll length and ten inches in di-
ameter. They We're planted the 18th of June.
Carrots, parsnips and onions have also proved
successful. We sometimes raise very fine cab
bages. We often have the early variety of peas
ut for use the fore part Of 1lay and pic-plant III
April.
/ nave lately turned my attention to the Gull
ture Of grapes. One Concord vine, last year,
being its third year, bore me twenty pounds OF
very nice fruit, and some of the two year old
| vines had q few lunches on. " lille all of my
two year old vines made very large growth.
The Isabella grew the longest and largest
vines, some OF them making seventeen feet in
length last season; Clintons, Concords and
hors put cut good many grapes last year, and
they did extremely well.
Last spring put out one mile OF Usage hedge.
The plants We're all cut off close to the ground.
Now they will acreage three feet high, while
some Of them are five and six feet high. Two
OF my neighbors put out about the same
amount, each Of which made an excellent
growth. In my opinion this is destined to be
the fence for Kansas. 1t is cheap. Mine has
cost, thus far, ID cents to the rod; much
more expended on it will have it lit to turn
stock-less than $40 for fencing around a
quarter section of lar :.
Timber also grows very fast. If the annual
fires kept out of it, all the little bushy patch
es along the streams and on the outskirts OF
the large bodies Of timber would, in few
years, be fine groves of young timber if they
were only protected from the fires. / have on
my place twelve acres of that kind of timber
that has grown up within ten years. and it is
now from three to six inches i'll diameter and
from twenty to thirty-fiye feet high, and 50
thick that man can barely walk through it.
E Sprouts that have grown up around the stumps
that were cut ten years ago, have borne wal
nuts for two years past.
In regard to cattle and horses have never
kept any statistics to enable me to judge Of the
actual cost of producing steer horse III
for market, but have no doubt but over hall
of the price received for cattle and horses is q
| clear profit to the man who produces them.
In 1862 expended $50 for twenty-siX head
Of sheep. Some of them were old that they
had no front teeth. OF the proceeds of these
sheep kept an accurate account. and little
less than three years from the time made the
purchase sold my increase and found that
the cash value of the wool and sheep sold
amounted to $467 90, and l still had the origi-
nal number of better sheep left.
In the thirteen Years that L have been here
: there has only been frost in September three
, times. 1t is usually from the 18th to the 18th
of October before we get any frost to kill veget-
alton. The ground is seldom covered with
snow i'll the winter for week in succession,
and there has seldom been more than three OF
| four days in the year that the mercury goes
, below zero. In conclusion / will say that
have no land to sell, but am satisfied to keep
} what have and try still to make my living on
it, never having offered to sell since / settled
on it. OLIVER PHILLIPS
Waterloo p o., Lyon County, Kansas.