Union and American. [volume] (Greeneville, Tenn.) 1875-1877, 1876-05-25
The Arkansas FdUey.

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The Arkansas Fdttey.
Rssources- - dpantagsS- Disadvantage
Peuliarities Of soil Cheap LIND &c
a.. KlNsLEy, KANSAS,
ia5 1s.i ~ May IL, 1876.
Ed. Union and American:-
During the last three months,
have been examining the Arkansas
Valley from the Mississippi Riv.
er to the Rocky Mountains, and
End it very much greater in length,
breadth and fetility than expect"
ed and that portion above Little
/ Rock remarkably h~ealthful.
From the Mississippi river up,
to Fort Smith in Arkansas about
four hundred miles, the valley is
from twenty to fourty miles wide,
and extends through vast forests Of
OAK, ash, hickory, walnut, pine,
etc., which reach to the Gulf Of
Mexico, and on the north to the
prairies Of northern Missouri.
This vast region has also ;nex4
haustible coal fields, and very
extensive beds Of iron and other
value minerals. About Fort
Smith the timber begins to de-
crease, ar d continues until at
Wichita, Kanasus, it has ALMOST
disappeared; along the river itself
for more than four hundred miles
to West LIS Animas Colorado,
when it begins to increase and
continues to the mountains though
it IS principa ly cotton wood, aud
box elder until within a few miles
Of the mountains the pine and
cedar begins. All the valley be.
low tho Grand Canon in Colorado
and in Kansas, down to klnsley,
a distance of three hundred aud
fifty miles in an excellent stock
raising regions, ana already huns
dred of thousands cattle, horses
sLbsist here both winter aud sun =
mer without feed. The whole of
the Valley East of Klnsley is
good for both stock raising and
agriculture in Kansas the Valley
proper is from ten to thirty miles
wide. The higher lands upon
either side are q kind of second
bottom, or low rolling prairie with
just enough undulation or swell to
carry off the extra raiufalls. the
soil Of the valley is a sandy loan
mad up of such mineral as have
been washed from the Rocky
Mountains, by the attretion Of
age. 1t is 3 marked feature Of
soil that it contains q much lgrg-
er proportion Of mineral than the
prairie soil Of Illippis and Iowa,
which are chiefly vegetable mould,
The great quantity Of mineral
matter especially iron and lime in
the soil of the Arkansas Valley
constitutes the best wheat growing
region on the continent. The
mineral substance enters so large-
ly into composition Of the soil
here, that the wheat and oats
straw has SUCH repurkablestrength.
that it does not fall or lodge,
through it grows from twenty five
TO forty bushels of winter wheat
per acre for which he can always
get from ST. to $3.50 per bush
ell he can also raise large crops Of
corn, oats barley, rye, all kinds Of
vegetable, vines and flu is.
The fact that MIR. Loveland,
a~capitaliat Of Golden seventeen
miles, west Of Denver, recently
hrqpght tgslye thousand tons of
hay, along the Arkansas Valley
in Southern Kansas, NAV serve
to indicate the extent Of the mars
ket for the farm produce Of thia
region. Though the government
land is mostly claimed within
fifteen to twenty miles of the town
ye. there is sumo Ian within a
lev miles that may oe bought OF
the Atchison, Topeka and Ssnta
Fe Railway, at from three to
eight dollars per aere,for cash, or
on long credit. Through the