The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1873-08-02

. Of the north with the genial climate of TIL
south conjoined for mis- advantage. Thi
country i'll a sleeps paradise. short
sweet, nutritious heritage, dry SOIL absence
of cold rains and intolerable heats, a roll
ing upland. pure water, pure air, an entir,
absence of overlooked lands or bottoms
altogether make up precisely the condition.
needed for the welfare of the flock. At the
present time no more favorable opening
could be imagined than here exists for EN-
barking proftably in sheep or stock raising.
A homestead Of 640 acres, suitable for win.
ter keeping and feeding, and the owners
dwelling place, can be purchased within
five miles of towns, for S. per acre, subject
to discounts for Improvements. Unlimited
range may be had for some years to come
at distance Of ten to twenty miles from
the railroad, on which stock may be heraed
comfortably for ten months in the year.
Stock may be purchased in quantities at
tabulously low prices to eastern men. A
trustworthy person engaged in this business
assures me that he has purchased sheep at
go cents per head. But at $3.50 to $500
per head picked flocks of native ewes may
be procured. Two yoar old Texan heifers
can be picked out of herds at from Sc
to So per head, and cows at $40. With a
nucleus for a flock or herd at such prices,
improved by thoroughbred blood, and with
such unexampled facilities for inexpensive
care and feeding, most satisfactory result
is absolutely certain to be secured by the
exercise of the necessary knowledge, skill
and energy, and of course, capital. Beef
cattle have been sold at Wichita, in Kansas,
the present spring, for five cents per pound
on foot, while freights to Chicago amount
to but one cent per pound live weight.
All these facts, with the certainty that beef
will always retain it's price as an article of
increasing cost of production elsewhere,
and increasing demand everywhere, show
the extreme preftableness of this business
in this valley.
Timber is scarce in the west, although
abundant in the east; but the abundance
OF coal for fuel, tho cheapnesss of lumber
for building, the abundance of fine stone
and brick clays, and the hardness of the
Usage orange as hedge plant, together
with its rapid growth as we'll as that of all
kinds of forest and fruit trees, render the
comparative absence of timber rather an
advantage than otherwise; certainly its
absence is not want to be greatly deplored
while its wide prevalence would, to a GER
tainty, be an inseperablc objection to the
settlement of this section of the country.
But space fails to enlarge upon the
prominent advantages which this broad
valley forces upon the notice of the enter
prising farmer. To all such seeking
western home, or to those who seek to retire
from other pursuits to enjoy the pleasures
of healthful and romantic country life,
with all its incidental advantages, would
here say that in the course of many years,
and through extensive travel, l have not
seen more inviting country, nor one which
offers greater inducements, with fewer Oh
jections, than this valley of the Arkansas,
In conclusion, if | were asked at what
points the most favorable localities for set
Element offer themselves, | should reply
that that depends altogether upon individ-
ual preferences. East of Fort Dodge /
perceive 10 material difference in any re-
spect that would weigh greatly with me
in choosing a location unless it be the con-
venences afforded by the established towns
already of considerable size, and the closer
or sparser settlement of certain districts.
If desired to engage in grain growing,
and fancied rolling ground with abundant
timber, should choose the eastern parts
of the Valley; for instance near to the Cot
tonwood River, or the towns of Florence,
Peabody ahd Newton, where schools,
churches and social advantages are to be
enjoyed. If l desired broad level bottoms,
| should 60 further west. If l sought, as
many will, we'll settled country with
thrifty towns in which the purity of the
social and religious atmosphere is an object
of solicitudc, and in which whisky drink
ing and other vices are tabooed by the pub
lie sentiment as we'll as by tho coe1istent
law, l should find homo in or about
Hutchinson or Peace. Were l to engage
in stock raising should search out my
location all tho way from Hutchinson to
Petersburg, a stretch of magnificent bot
toms and rolling upland twenty miles wide
by one hundred miles in length, covered
with luxuriant carpet of richest grasses,
and of which the town of Great Bend, a
center of growing cattle trade, is the nat
ural focus, and must be for years to come.
But it should be remembered if one is
tempted to go still further west, that al
though there is ample room yet, settlement
progresses NEST conveniently for all con-
cerned, when it does SO with an unbroken
front, and no scattered skirmish line as it
were, is thrown out to meet and solve and
vanquish all the questions and problems
that arise in all newly settled districts, and
that the cheapest lands on the whole are
these which, while they bear a higher
price, yet have as a valuable compensation
the advantages OF neighbors, schools,
churches, towns, markets, communications
and other accessories of civilized life
There is ample scope and verge enough
east Of Forts Larned and Dodge for thous-
ands of homesteads, and hundreds of thrift
ty towns and villages.
HENRY STEWART,
Agricultural Editor of
american Agriculturist.
THE NEGRO AND THE MULE.-The
following anecdote, finely illustrative of the
, characteristics of two denizens of the
| South, We find in tho EDITORS drawer of