Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1878-05-23

shall draw this to close this time
and will write soon again.
Interesting Letter From D. Oliver.
VICTORIA, Kansas. May 16, 1878.
EDITOR GRANT County HERALD
| now have few minutes time to
write. | never was SO busy in all my
born days as / have been since /
came to Kansas. | had to build q
house and barn, equip four teams to
break prairie, buy plows to suit the
country, dig well, train my boys
how to break prairie, plant corn and
potatoes, buy horse feed and grub for
ourselves, and all had to be hauled
fourteen miles, and | have all a. going
now. have my grand daughter
keeping house for me, and we feel
like we were at home. This thing
called patching is poor fun for me,
sure, and found a remedy by get
ting my grand daughter, A. j. We'd
der's daughter, who lives Z of mile
from me.
/ found Kansas about what | ex-
pected it to be as to farming 1t is
the best farming country l ever saw.
Some of the best fall wheat here /
over saw, will yield, I think, about
thirty to forty bushels per acre. The
weather has been and is yet very
cool, but now we have fine rains. The
corn crops are backward and we are
now planting corn for general crop.
Buffalo grass is short but thick. blue
joint grass is coming in and taking
the place of buffalo grass in many
places. Grazing is good for all kinds
of stock. The buffalo grass is very
nutricious to all kinds of animals, par
ticularly sheep. 1t resembles your
common blue grass in Wisconsin. The
blue-joint grass is the same kind of
prairie grass we used to have in Wis
consin years ago. We have very
cold, high winds the most of the time
which makes it somewhat unpleasant
in an open shanty like we have here.
| never saw such an immigration to
any country as there is here. You
pass along a road to day over the
wild prairie, and seemingly you are
on Lake Michigan, and pass in few
days afterwards and it puts me in
mind of the sailing vessels on the
Lakes, all coming in at one time.
Houses of temporary kind appear to
spring up like mushrooms in every
direction. Prairie breaking teams
going in every direction, mostly two
horse teams, with twelve or fourteen
inch plows. The prairie is very easy
to break. if you have the right kind OF
pillow and keep it as sharp as butch
err knife, and just as thin. There is
no stone or red root or any kind OF
wood roots to interfere with plows.
The land appears to be packed as
close and tramped down as hard as
any old pasture | ever saw. The
buffaloes have pastured so long over
the prairies they have packed the land
as close as it can be packed. / have
to day rented small! piece Of land
for potatoes, that was broken last
season. took one horse and one
horse Galena pillow and pIowed it my
self and / found it loose and mellow
as any land in Wisconsin. The land
will be very easy to cultivate after it
is cross-plowed the second year. The
roads are dry and hard, never get
muddy like those dug ways in Wis
consin. / never was so tired OF mud
in all my days as / was in Wisconsin
last fall, winter and spring. When l
reached Kansas / found the roads
hard and level, no dug ways or yellow
clay to drag through. But this coun.
try is not perfect by any means. 1t
has its faults like all other countries,
though think it IS far ahead of Wis
consin in many things, and somewhat
behind In many things, but must say
it is the best country for farmers
ever saw anywhere. Plenty of the
finest soft and hard rock, plenty oil
coal easy to get, but the most of the
coal we use here is shipped by r. r.
from Fort Scott, and the best coal
comes from Colorado at 50 90 per
ton.
This country has one great disad-
vantage, that is, everything new
conner has to buy he has to pay a
heavy r. r. tax on, and everything
he ships away he has also to pay a
heavy Il. Il. tax on, and to foot the
bill up the farmer has it all to pay.
Prices have advanced since was here
last winter, fifty per cent. on every,
thing. Common rough boards are
selling at the yards at go per NJ
dressed on one side; scantling, 500
to s2s per M; J inch siding, s22 pei
M; nails, 1925 per key; retail at s
cents per pound corn, 40 cents pei
bushel; rye, 40 cents; oats, 40 cents
bacon sides, 8 cents hams, 10 "a IL
beefsteak, s @ 10. Horses are high
and in great demand at present. Milk
COWS from $25 to $40 and hard to
get around here. They are all taken
away from the farming country, and
are herded off on the river bluff, on
the Smoky river hills and other wild
locations not yet settled by the whites.
l think in few years this part oil
the country l have located in will be
one of the finest farming countries in
the world, at least every old settler is
well satisfied with the country, and all
the new settlers appear to be, or at
least they say they are. l can say
for myself that am well pleased with
the country. / am clad / came here.
If | was we'll located in Wisconsin,
and had no boys to look out for /
would stay there, bnt if | was in debt
for farm at the Wisconsin prices,
and paying ten per cent. interest,
taxes, insurance, repairs, &c. l would
pull up stakes and move to Kansas.
/ shall be at home about the 1st of
July, next, and then can tell you
the rest Of my story.
Yours truly,
DOUGLAS OLIVER.