Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1877-12-17
For the MONITOR.
ABOUT THE WEST.


native State. after sojourn of nearly
ten years IN Kansas, take this method
of answering many enquiries and giving
in brief my impressions and opinions in
regard to the West. Kansas in particular.
While | love home among the
green hills of Vermont better than any
spot | have seen elsewhere. would not
have it understood that am disgusted
with the West. Nature has been verv
generous in the bestowment of blessings
In the fertile valley of the Mississippi.
She has made in all that section ample
provisions for the wants of man, and re-
wards his labors with bountiful harvests.
So delightful is the appearance of
those immense cultivated tracts, in the
elaAr oAa4Aa of the West. and so beauti-
full are the rolling prairies, rich IN the
luxurious grass and flowers. that the
visitor or settler from the East is almost
infatuated with the sight. He beholds
the Eden of his imagination, and imag-
ines home on the prairles will be full
of happiness, and his labors rewarded
by plenty and profit. He buys largely
of land, builds his houses and barns,
fences his fields, and waits for the returns
from his crops. But his means have
been expended, perhaps, before his first
sale of products, and he finds himself
obliged to resort to a mortgage at high
rate of interest in order to obtain needed
funds. A partial failure of crops, or
other misfortunes ensue, and rapidly
increasing debts are the result; while
disappointment. encouragement and dis
aster often follow
Such men made mistakes in undertak-
ing too much, and especially in their
attempt to pay mortgages or lay up
money in raising grain in sections far
away from markets. The legitimate
business in such sections, is the raising
of stock, and the converting of grass and
grain into beef and pork. Cattle and
hogs assist in marketing themselves. by
being able to travel to the slaughter pen,
! the station or the wharf. The butchers
of the East have learned the value of
Kansas beef and it always sells at good
prices. And since Europe is looking to
the United States for beef and provisions,
the Kansas farmer will do we'll if he
feeds his grass. grain and other products
to his hogs and cattle.
There ought to be statute law pre-
venting the shipment of grain to the
East from beyond the Mississippi" !"
The farmer who has produced it pays so
much for sending it to the seaboard, that
there is little left to reward him for
raising 1t. But there is law-that of
financial economy-which should be
needed by western farmers. or financial
ruin will follow. They must increase
the value of their products per pound,
and send to distant markets only such
as are freighted cheaply.
To those who contemplate making a
home on the prairies, let me suggest that
you be not too greedy for land. After
getting a spot that you can call your
own. put the rest of your money into
young cattle. Manage your stock as
nearly as possible, as the successful
stock-raisers about you manage theirs,
Stick close to your business. The grass
will nourish your cattle. They will
Craze nearly the year through, and the
hay for the few cold days will only cost
its cutting aud stacking. 1t will not bt
long before your cattle will have growr
to be double their weight when you pur
chased them. and soon they will multi
, ply in numbers, and whether you wax,
or sleep, work or play-not that yol
should squander your time-they ar,
growing and increasing, and you are be
coming richer from day to day. Stool
raising pays in Kansas.
OF some of the disagreeable thing
upon the prairie lands, mention th
. wind. During spring and fall. it blow
almost incessantly. and much of tn
,, time with appalling force. While
modi6es the heat of summer, it great
increases the severity of winter. To tn
nervous or consumptive invalid. the col
and penetrating winds are great annoy
ance. Some of the small things of lif
have most to do with our happiness @
misery. and it takes very little to annoy
and as little to please. 1t was a mo-
quito that made the fabled lion roa
and so some of those things that migf
seem of no Importance make again'
:, ones happiness in some of the mo-
beautiful places in the world. Whe
the eye first rests on the prairie seem
j. is lovely beyond description, but whe
r it falls upon nothing else, day after da..
Y | it grows weary and longs to gaze upc
: the hills and mountains and upon tt
It various sights it was accustomed to b
: hold in other lands. The prairies a
e beautiful, but monotonous. and to hi
e who has been born among the green hill
is they are tiresome. Like all places di
e / tant from our native homes, Kansas S
t. ciety has many things that are not agre
q nhlo 70 Eartorn noonle and manu