The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1872-05-30
tcorrespondenee of the News.
KANSAS.
General kPpearance-SIreamls
Timber Coal = Soil Cul-
tUre, Crops. Stock Raising.

"a A1AAUCE- ODSsA sui Sttl
d ture, Crops. Stock Raising
VI &c. 8EE
+ PIsGAH, Ohio, May, 1872.
N DEAR EDIToR:-As many ar
making inquiries about land am
i Improvements in Kansas, I though
} some little description, after travel
ing over most of the State by rail
IL road, and four weeks by private con
e veyance, in various parts of th
d State last fall, might be interesting
u to some of your many readers.
In my opinion no State in thu
= Union has a brighter future than
$ Kansas. She is young in years, bu
Slgreat in capacity for production.
e A State more than 500 miles in
{ length and over 200 in width, and
i in square miles nearly ta0ice ana
one-half as large as the great State
of Ohio! You see along her numer-
Gus streams, the banks skirted with
timber, the rich valleys of bottom
land, and broad prairies stretching
in the far distance. Occasionally you
see some bluffs with projecting rocks,
but mostly vast plains, undulating
like the waves of the ocean, all COW
cred with rich, luxuriant crop of
prairie grass, interspersed with a
variety of flowers. 3d.
| You may travel hundreds of miles
and you will see the same general
appearance; in some parts more hills
and bluffs, in others more plain.
Such is the extent and surface of
Kansas. 4-
STREAMS, TIMBER AND COAL.
Whoever looks over the map of
Kansas, or travels to any great ex-
tent within her borders, will see at
once that few States have more nu-
merous streams. Along some of
them are fine water powers. Most
of her rivers and creeks run in deep
channels, and seldom overflow their
banks so as to injure the crops, un-
less in very high floods.
This great multiplication of
streams gives to Kansas vast pro-
portion of rich valley land. Along
all the streams of any size is a fine
growth of timber, of greater or less
extent. Oak, black walnut, cotton
wood and various other kinds, grow
very large and thrifty on all large
streams. In addition to natural |
timber, many farmers have COM
menced the cultivation of timber,
which grows with great rapidity.
In great part of Kansas they need
no wood, as coal is found in abund-
ance.
In many counties it is so univer-
sal and plenty, that all the farmers
can have their fuel directly under
their farms, and yet the land over
most of these vast coal banks is as
fine as any in the State.
SOIL, CULTURE AND CROPS.
Kansas has undoubtedly a vastly
greater proportion of rich soil to the
poor or waste land than any State
in the Union. Even the vast plains
of Western Kansas, will no doubt
at no distant day exchange the wild
herds of buffaIoes that roam over
them now, for immense focks of
sheep or cattle, which will add great
ly to the wealth of the State.
The immense growth of prairie
grass in all parts OF the State not
only proves rich soil, but its won
derful power of production. No
one need wonder that the Indian
dislikes to surrender the broad
prairies of Kansas to the dominion
of civilization. The bottom lands
along all the streams will compare
favorably with those of any other
State [ have seen, and the prairie
lands, though so vast in extent, are
superior to those Of Iowa, Illinois,
and Mo. AS far as the soil of Kan
sas has been cultivated it stands TO-
day unrivaled. ka
That there have been drawbacks
incident to all new countries we
have no doubt. 1t was so with the
early settlements of Virginia, Ken
lucky, Illinois, Ohio, and Indiana.
There were complaints of droushts ,
and floods, of frosts and winds, of ,
grasshoppers, bugs, squirrels, grubs,
&c. and there is yet to this day. So
it has been with Kansas, and in
nearly 5000 miles back
and forth in different parts of the
State, visiting most of the cultivat-
ed portions except in the northwest,
I have not witnessed better crops on ,
Paint or Scioto. Everything indi-
Gates to the traveller not only rich ,
soil, but capable under proper culti-
walton of producing crops equal to
those of Ohio Or Illinois.
STOCK. ,
The means of feeding stock are so
in all parts of Kansas that
it costs little to raise cattle, horses
or sheep, in comparison with what
it does in some of the older States.
The consequence is, it will become
one of the finest stock countries in
the world. They have all the nat
ural resources to make it so. AL