Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1878-03-01
Letter From kansas,


DOVER, Kansas, Feb. II, 1873.
To the Editor ofthe Free Press and Times.
Leaving Shelburn ten years ago to make
home in Kansas, your valuable paper has
come to US a welcome visitor each week 1t
has occurred to me that many Of your read
ers. among whom are numbered many
personal friends OF mine, would like to bear
something about Kansas from one they
know
The climate Of Kansas is delightful, not
too cold in Winter, with little snow, which
seldom remains on the ground for more than
three or four days at time. In Summer
there is delightful breeze all the day. with
cool nights. the air most OF the time dry and
bracing.
The business that pays best here is the
raising OF horses, cattle and hogs. 1t is not
safe to depend wholly on farming, for here,
as in other localities, failure of crops is
ruinous but it is seldom the case that We
do not make half crop. In raising wheat
there is so much expense attending the har-
vesting, threshing and marketing that very
little profit is left to the producer but with
corn, fed to cattle aud hogs, the case is diff
ferent. 1t costs about ten cents busbel to
raise corn. If fed to hogs, at the present
price OF pork (S3 so per 100 lbs) it will
bring from IS to 40 cents per bushel. A
man and team can tend forty acres, with an
average yield Of fifty bushels per acre. We
have beautiful country for sheep, but. as
yet, there has been very little attention paid
to that branch of husbandry. although to
those acquainted with the details of the
business. there is a field open, that would
pay, if properly managed, large profit on
the investment.
The common impression East that We have
such beautiful climate that stock need no
shelter, is not true We have fine climate,
but at times have cold and wet days, as bad
or worse than in Vermont, in which stock
standing unprotected suffer terribly, and in
no place does shelter for stock pay better
than here. The story that they can live all
winter on the prairie without other feed.
is also untrue. We have to feed about five
months in the year, the railroad circulars
and land agents to the contrary notwith
standing, The average price Of hay is about
two dollars per ton, and Of corn. twenty cents
per bushel. If there are any that would
like to come to Kansas, especially
those with small means, if you can rake
up a thousand dollars, my advice is, Come
West. Do not come thinking you know
it all and have nothing to learn in regard
to the country. Neither come prepared to
believe the absurd stories of land and rail
road agents that have unproductiye lands to
sell, which would never find purchaser if
the facts were known. Still, do not think
the people of Kansas are all fools or knayes,
but be governed by the advice of honest,
practical farmers that you will find every
are Scripture people, and when We meet
stranger We take him in; and
this is true in more instances where
the stranger thinks he knows it all. In nine
cases out of ten, man with that notion in |
his head. will find himself the owner of a
piece of land as unfit for cultivation as the |
summit of Mount Mansfield, for which he has |
paid as much or more than the best of land |
could have been bought for, if he had listen |
ed to advice. The man that expects to sue
coed here must work. My advice in most |
cases would be to buy team and rent
farm, the first year, thus giving time to look
out for bargains in land, and to become
with the country. 1t will take
two or three years to get start After that
| know of no business more certain, or less
liable to failure, if one can live without
getting in debt until his income begins.
Yours T.. n NJ.