The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1878-02-08
KANsAs LANDS.
Price Of Improved and Un-
improved Farms.
From Bancroft1s EmporIa Register.


the beautiful acres of eastern Kan
sas, and the improvements on eve
ry hand, than If they did not exist.
And yet they are among the most
fertile and produtive in the West.
They have the advantage of hav-
ing q most adTnlrable net work of
railroads, which furnish conven-
lent markets for farm products /;
elegant school houses and church
edifices, dotting hills and Vallays;
modern bridges, spanning the nu-
merOus streams; court houses and
other public buildings erected ;
farms under a high state OF Guilt
walton; orchards and vineyards in
full bearing, with all kinds of fruit
grown in this latitude--apples,
pears, peaches, apricots,o necta-
rines, plums, grapes, together with
the whole army of small fruits.
To accomplish such results has
required the pluck and energy of
an enterprising people FOR the last
twenty or more years. The trans
formation of the homestead region
from a boundless prairie waste,
beautiful but wild, into a land
teeming with the foregoing eviden-
ces of wealth, prosperity and civil
ization, will require another TWEEN
ty or more years. The western
portion of the State is bewitching-
~ inviting to all of small means,
whose only hope for home of
their own, is Government land. 1t
is equally SO to those of larger
means Who Wtsh 10 prosecute farm
industries on . large scale with the
least possible outlay-especially is
this true of stock raising. But
there is another class throughout
the Eastern States who possess
from one TO fifteen thousand dol
lars each, which, owing to shrink
age in values, general business
prostration and want of confidence,
is either idle, or earning a very
low rate OF interest. These men
are among the best, and are sig
mailing the West for information
TO enable them to make safe invest
ments in land and to establish new
homes and business relations. In
the East, with land from one to
two hundred dollars per acre, the
outlook is gloomy. r[ IL &.
In Eastern Kansas we find an
anomalous state of things-wild
land about the same prices for
which they can be had from pri-
vate parties In the west, while i'm
proved farms can be purchased for
less than the cost Of the improve
ments-and this ina region unex-
celled in fertility, with no parallel
in the history of material develop
ment and substantial prosperity.
1t is no discredit to the country
producing these apparent contra
dictions, but greatly in her favor.
In the early settlement of the
State, when immigration was ex-
ceedingly large, and when, as now,
immigrants had to purchase largely
the first year, the soil yielded so
abundantly, and the market at
each farmers door for every bush
ell of grain, every pound of butter,
every dozen of eggs, and every.
thing else which we could produce,
was so good, with prices so extra
ordinarily high, that he consider
ed it would be only a question of
, few years when he would have all
the Surroundings that affluence
could bring. Following quickly
upon this glittering picture of fu-
ture wealth, while land speculation
beset and upset even the old stag
ers who had passed through in
the East the ordeal of 1886 to 18-
40, church spires sprang up like
maggie built with money largely
sent by the various denominations
in the older States; school dis
tricts We'd with each other in the
erection of elegant school sdifices;
court houses, bridges and other
pnblic improvements were carried
on; railroads were being pushed
ahead with unexampled and unex-
pected CELEBRITY; the money for all
these improvements was spent In
the State, of which the farmers
received q geodly share. This
additional source of prosperity be-
gat q new spirit of land specula-
ton, from which it was impossible
for any class possessed, of the or
binary frAilties Of human na ture to
escape. Farmers, being the most
prosperous, outdid all others in
the mania for land, which they
purchased at fabulous prices, max
ing small down payments, giving
notes for balance secured by mort
gage on all their real possessions.
While these ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
BILE sources of monetary supply con-
tinued, with real estate constantly
approaching, an UtopIan future
was presented to the mental Wis
ion. But in a day, as it were. al
these cherished hopes were dlssi.
pated. Values deprecated; the
vaIions improvements herein nam
ed stopped; bonds which had
been issued for railroads, .school
houses, bridges, court houses, ect.
called for q tax levy for annual in
terest, and for . sinking fund fol
final redemption, and interest had
to be paid or defauItsd- on mort
cages covering real estate largely
undevelopedss rShrinkages occur
red in everything -excePs mortgag
es; these soon became malignant
cancerous groWths, which not ONLY
consumed the profits of the farm
ers. but the farms themselves
Hence it is, that q train of circum
stances have conspired TO bring q
nancial disaster upon q class o
farmers; while the prosperity o.
those who are out of debt and the
rapid ADVANCEMENT of the country
in material greatness, clearly vim
dictate the statement that it is nj
fault of KaRsas--of her soil or eli
mate-that this state Of things
nearly, always incidental to tn,
rapid settlement and development
of q new country, exists. Thes,
farmers with pleasant surround
ings, the accumulated labor o
years, must give up their homes
save all they car, and commence
ANEW in the Vast- Whara- yovern