The Bloomfield times. [volume] (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1867-187?, 1873-08-19

nois prairie. 1t is dark, rich and somewhat
sandy, though not so much so as to be
perceptible to the casual observer Leav-
ing Wichita a town of $500 people, and
now the terminus of the overland Texas
cattle-trade, 2S miles to the south, on q
branch of the main road, we pass almost
directly westward, across the valley of the
Little Arkansas. After passing the stream
we cross stretch of country which lies
between the two rivers north of their iunc-
tion. 1t is mainly level, and begins to have
some characteristics very different from
anything yet seen. In short, it is the
beginning of the great western plains,
useless two years ago, now discovered to be
rich, and in demand. 1t is the eastern
verge of what, for these twenty-five years,
have been known as "the plains"--very
much in the world now, as this railroad
closes up the immense gap, and brings the
western mountains into view.
Passing over the space between the
Little and Great Arkansas, in an hour or
more you reach Hutchinson, where the
railroad strikes the great valley, situated
at the southeastern beginning of the much
talked of "great-bend of the Arkansas.
This is the Arkansas and "plains," with
out any doubt. Yet here is town two,
years old, containing about 800 inhabitants
peaceable, thrifty, and in the midst of
country marvellous in its growth, and al
ready famous for beauty and richness.
Here, as some slight evidence of enterprise,
the Arkansas is spanned by bridge 1,60O
feet long. But the prominent features
are a fine school-house and county-build-
ings. Leaving Hutchinson, you success
sively arrive at the villages of Peace, Great
Bend, Larned, Dodge City and lastly at
Sargent. There are other beginnings in
terspersed between, and these all lie on the
northern bank of the Arkansas. Finally,
the railway is turned slightly southwark to
the new town of Grenada, on the south
side of the Arkansas, and this Grenada is
the shipping and receiving point of all the
immense trade which goes and comes by
way of the thiclkly- clustered settlements of
the Rio Grande Valley, in New Mexico
We thus end with the towns only to say
finally what this great Arkansas region
really is. Imagine valley $50 miles long
and from four to twelve miles wide. This
is really "bottom" land. The soil is deep
and black There is peculiar underfoao
Of the stream, caused by percolation of
its waters through substrata of gravel
and coarse sand. The Arkansas is noun
tain-born and snow-fed, and nearly always
full. A hole made almost anywhere in the
first bottom will become full of water. In
midsummer it is far enough south to be
considered pretty hot, but in winter, stock
live easily through with small quantity of
hay, and thus far have gone through fat
upon the range alone. For corn, all the
cereals, tobacco and hemp, this valley is ad-
mirably adapted. In extent in valuable
land it has not its peer among newly-open-
ed regions. There are 100000 acres here,
owned by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa
Fe Railway, and these are only the alter
nate sections. The government owns the
rest, open only to homestead and pre-emp-
tion.
This is what aoas the plains,-the great
desert, now traversed in a railway car. It
is standing wonder. The iron track has
supplanted all that was characteristic of
the region, and changed all that pertained
to wildness. Far out toward Larned, 300
miles from the Missouri, the evidences of
this change are on every hand. The new
roofs of small houses can be counted in the
sunshine. There are black fields crossed
by rows of standing corn. In this first
year of it's settlement, the Arkansas region
is more than selfsupporting.
This is the new Kansas and as you re-
turn from the heart of the wilderness, you
wonder at the fact that wildness, solitude
and silence have vanished in a season like
the swallow, and reflect that in single
decade the great region of the plains will
hold population of wealth which will
almost equal and counter balance the great
Mississippi Valley.