The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1877-03-13
Sbe 8IoomdrlO Sin'ss-
HOUSE, FARM AND GARDEN.
A Letter from Kansas.

WATERvu.LE, Kansas, Feb. 2lst, 1871
Mr.. Editor AS u reader of your val
liable paper, ! Thought would drop you
a few lines from this part of Kansas rs
have as yet never seen any mention
made of Marshall county, Kansas i'm
your paper, but have seen letters from
other parts. also saw notice i'll the
last paper which / received that num-
Der of persons in your vicinity had went
TO hear from an agent of the a. Il. 4 ;.
Fe II. r., with regard to Kansas lands.
Without disputing any thing that said
agent may have said, / should like to
say few words with regard to lands
and also with regard to railroads. In
the first place, every railroad, as far as
can learn that has been built in Kansas
with the exception of some extensions
and some branch roads recently built,
has received land grant. The G. B.
u. p, from Atchison to Waterville,
distance of 100 miles, received every va
cant odd section for 20 miles on each
side. The *. p, and the st. Joseph &
Denver received like grants. Now as
Mr.. Agent is likely to get paid for his
discussion of Kansas lands, perhaps full
as we'll for his time and trouble,as many
q tiller of Kansas soil, L should like to
make few practical remarks with ref
erence to the value of Kansas lands
The railroads, besides their land grants,
have mortgages ON considerable Kansas
territory, in the shape of bonds which
are payable every year, a part by taxa
ton and therefore taxes in some locali-
ties are pretty high, according to the
value of property.
Then the cost of transportation of our
grain, &C.. is greater in new countries
than in places where there are more
roads. AT one time it cost as much to
send car from Waterville to Atchison
as from there to Chicago. But times are
getting better by degrees and business is
increasing The West is a large coun-
try, and the ideas that some have with
regard to it might suit some localities
and not others. \ great many who
came to this part of the country eight
years ago have gone to seek better
country, some have returned to the
"land of their nativity" others like
migratory birds, have gone and return
ed. But that is Western style. Some
came here with nothing or comparative
ly little eight years ago, and are COM
fortably situated. Others had little and
have but little yet, except mortgages on
their land.
There are farms through the country
that can be bought for less than the act
ual cost of the improvements. Now
with regard to persons, especially those
with families who design ,cmigrating TO
new country, | would suggest that if
several families should desire to emf
CRATE, that it would bc II good plan to
send some one ahead who had good
Judgment, and who knew the resources
of theproposed colony, to see the coun-
try and maturely weigh the advantages
and disadvantages of different sections
and let the others be guided by his ad-
vice. We cannot learn even by expert
ence of a year or two exactly what
new country is, but sometimes we find
our experience pretty hard master, but
it is the only way in which we can
learn a new country.
will give you short history of
Marshall county, Kansas, and statistics
showing the advantages of road and
towns, mills 6Sc., as farmers do not like
to spend more than week going to mill
or hauling off load Of grain, as some
of the far West pioneers have to do:
Marshall county was organized in 1865.
1t is 30XS0 miles in eXtent,a and contained
a population in 1860 of 2,2S0; in 1870,
$500; in 1875, 1892. OF the above pop
ulation, 249 are from Pennsylvania.
Two railroads cross the county and no
point within is more than II miles from
IA railroad. There We're in 1875, 20 school
districts and 20 school houses There
are ten Touring mills, and many
manufactures of other kinds The
rivers afford good water power and this
county bids fair to become manufac-
turing centre. The assessed value of
property is nearly 100000. The prin-
cipal business of the country should be
raising animals, in connection with
grain as grain raising on an average
brings back but little profit. The
country produces an abundance of nat
ural grass which can be turned into
money through the medium of cattle
aud sheep. Sometimes we have failures
of. the corn crop and then we have to
send all the pigs East. But we will
learn that it is cheaper to burn coal at
So per ton than corn at Is cents per
bushel. The average of wheat per acre