The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1876-02-11
AN OHIO VIEW OF TIE HERD LAW

AN OHIO VIEW OF THE HERD LAW
How it Looks to People at q Distancs
The way Immigrants see IT.
LEXINGTON, RIcHLAND Co., on
February I'd, 1876.
EDIFoRs NEWS: I have been ar
attentive reader of your paper for some
time, and have read with deep Interest
the discussion of the herd law in its
columns. viii you grant Buckeye
space to express his sentiments and al.
so the sentiments of nine-tenths Of
others from this State, who, like him
are looking toward your young State
as their future home?
Figures are said to tell the truth
hence, no doubt, they are considered
by some as dull, dry reading, but we
will bring few to bear in this case
By the census of 1870, Lyon county
Kansas, has an area of 500 square miles
1t produced 1913 bushels of wheat,
342, $50 bushels OF corn, 106,O06 BUSH
els of oats, 129, 40 pounds butter, TO-
740 tons of hay, and other agricultural
productions in like ratio. Richland
county, Ohio. having fifty square miles
less area, that year, produced 5SS, 575
bushels OF wheat, 621, 1891 bushels OF
corn, 700,S30 bushels of oats, $50, O05
pounds butter, q. 7A0 tons of hay, &C.,
in like ratio. Now we will venture the
assertion that Lyon county contains
Is per cent. more land susceptible OF
cultivation, and the fertility is at least
80 per cent. greater, while the farming
operations can be carried on with
about half the labor that is required in
Richland county, Ohio. Now why this
vast difference in the agricultural pro.
auctions of the two sections? Simply
because Lyon county permits itself tt
be overrun and controlled by few
men, who look upon long horned
Texas steer as being of greater impor.
lance than a citizen, and who do al
they can to discourage any improve.
ments that might encroach upon theiI
branches" While on the other hand
Ohio protects her citizens by law
which holds the owners of stock liable
for any damage that may be commit
ted by said stock upon the property o
others, and Furnishes by a fine, the let
ting of stock to run at large to graz'
upon the public highways or on the
uninclosed land of another. That il
the reason-''Only that and nothing
MORE" The value of manufactures in
Lyon county. Kansas, was $165,74 il
Richland county, Ohio, $3,002,727 anC
instead of exporting her productions
she has home market.
So much for figures-let us repor
facts Within the next thirty days
eight families will leave this immediat,
vicinity to seek homes in Kansas. Fiv,
own land near Emporia, Bought, no
for speculation, but for homes. Now
not one will stop in Lyon county
They find they can go ''little further
west - in some of those countie!
where, "when it comes to the choice
between. men and steers" they will
take the men, and can buy land ant
make home cheaper, than they car
fence their own land. Every family
would have stopped in Lyon county
had there been any law to protect then
from the degradation of those AFRO.
CANT "solid men,"
Your correspondent who signs him
self valley Farmer" gets scared, ant
texclaims: "The herd law would GER
tainly be the downfall OF Kansas" HI
has personally talked to thirty men
owning $4,000 cattle, valued at $780,.
600, and they are all ready to leave anG
take their steers along, just as soon al
this law is passed, and then comes the
"wreck of NATTER" &C., as far as Kan
sas is concerned. Poor Kansas! Hell
hold on life is brittle, indeed, if it de-
ponds on two and a-haIf dozen ''buIl
whackers." 1t Is your duty to pro
claim this fact to the world, and no
delude any other poor mortals to settl
within her borders, and be engulfed
like the cities of the Plain, in ire
trievable ruin. In Ohio here, we hat
a better opinion of the State than that
When the great locust calamity swep
over her, and the cry of distress aros,
from her valleys and plains, the people
of Ohio flew to her relief, but had the
known that she could be bought TO
the value of $4,000 cattle good, ba.
and indifferent) they would have LEI
her to her fate, as thing not wortl
saving.
The gist of the whole matter is abou
this: Ii the people of Kansas prefa
their score and a-half of ssbull-whack
ers;3' with their $4,000 steers, to on
hundred times 1900 honest, indus
trious men, who would build up man
ufactures, develope her mineral re-
sources, construct her railroads, ant
dot her whole landscape over witt
beautiful homesteads, let her refuse
them-a law tharwil give them AM
protection from the herds of these
grasping stock men. ssWork is no dis
grace" Valley Farmer, and most o.
those men who are looking to the ives
for homes, "got their start" just as 20,
say you did, and they prefer to inves
it in some locality where they may no
wake up some morning and find
whole seasons "work'' destroyed by
drove of cattle belonging to some row
ing nomad who, like yourself, has N
interest for anything but self-Ludy
and Nick Lockerman to the contrary
notwithstanding. Yours, &C.,
BUCKEYE.