The Hartford herald., 1875-09-08
LETTER FROM KANSAS.
SEDGwICK CITY, HARVEY Co., !
KANSAS, Aug. 81.

readers of your valuable pa
per would feel an interest in reading a
further description Of the Arkansas
Valley, and because to me there is no
place in the country comparable with |
it, take pleasure in laying before your
readers a continued and supplemental
description of the Arkansas Valley,
the garden spot of the garden State of
Kansas. The growth Of Kansas has
been remarkable. 1t has been at
tended with great convulsiOns, great
calamlties, great prosperity, and Won
derful progress. Border wars, and
great civil wars, Indian wars, drOuths,
grasshoppers, raids-all these have in
terfered to retard the developement
of Kansas, and Notwithstanding them
all, the State has continued to grow
and prosper. In the decade from 1860
to 1870 it more than trebled its pOpu-
lation; and during the four years from
1870 to 1874 9early doubled it. The
census of 1860 showed population of
107, ,204, which increased to 364, ,399
in 1870, and to 100000 in 1874. In
1860 only 372,S25 of the ffty.two
million acres of land included within
the limits of Kansas were under cult
vatiOn, and in 1874 the area cultiva-
ted amounted to 3,659,777 acres. In
1865 there was not a mile of railroad
in the State, ard now Kansas has
2,0S2 miles Ofcompleted railway lines,
traversing every section of her terrific
ry. But the dry official figures do not
afford any adequate picture Of the
growth of the State. Suggestive as
they are, one must see Kansas to fully
real lze how rapid and substantial has
been her develOpement, and how rich
she is in all the elements that 90 to
make up prosperous commonwealth.
One year ago misfortune came upon
us, and grim -visaged want stared
us in the face. To-day our homes are
full, and we look ahead with joyous
hopes of prosperity and plenty. What
VIC received from our neighboring
States last year for our poor, we can
fully return now or at any time when
necessity comes upon them. And we
will do it as gratefully as we received
it. See what can be accomplished in
the short space of one year in this
great State of ours. Kansas has twice
the area of Ohio. 1t has capacities for
producing beyond all the conceptions
of a man who has never seen this
Great West. GrasshOppers may
cripple her new settlements for sea-
son, but the vast fertility and capaci-
ties of her soil will soon replace any
temporary disaster of this character
In every township in Kansas, two Sec
tions of land have been set apart for
school purposes; and in all criminal
suits, where the defendant is convicted
and has to pay fine, it is turned over
to the State Treasury and appropriated
to school purposes. Hence every
town, large or small, has its school
house, and the people of Kansas can
look with PRIDE as they do, upon their
advantages for education. Already
the influence Of their schools is felt
in bringing into the State rs settlers,
a better class of people, and the trav-
eler will hardly find a more intelligent
people than is found to-day in the most
parts Of Kansas. The last report
shows that "A per cent. Of the school
children attend school, while Massa-
chusetts herself can boast of but II
per cent. Good school houses and
churches, and the landscape, indicate
the intelligence, morality, thrift and
enterprise of the people. Let me
copy from papers the opinion of Eas'
tern Editors:
"From Wichita to Hutchinson, about
fifty miles, we were perfectly, delight
ed, never in our lives having seen any
thing that equals the Arkansas Valley
in grandeur and fertility. And
when asked to give our impressions
of the country when we returned
home, answered that if We did, moi
one of our readers would believe us.
I-Licoa UHS.) Times.
The climate of Kansas for health
fulness cannot be surpassed, and is
scarcely equalled anywhere. If We
were ola bucolic tendency, we would
cmigrate to Kansas at once, as no mis-
fortune can prevent it from becoming
the greatest Agricultural State of the
West. There are, too, in her soil vast
quantities cf coal and fine building
stone to rocompense the scarcity ol
.;n,Lo,. L[,rsoS IL also well-waterad