The Portland daily press., 1879-04-22
Kansas Letter:
The Crops-EmiRratisn-T Colered
lnvasien-Western Kansas-The Indian
Raid Last FalI-Gev. St. John.
TOPEKA, KANSAS, April 10, 1879.

TOPEKA, KANSAS, April 10, 1879.
To the Portland Press:
Rain and thunder storms in the last three OF
four days have broken the protracted drought,
and greatly improved the prospects OF the next
crops. The formers were getting discouraged,
and feared recurrence of one of the "bad
years." that in times past have SO grievously
marred the prosperity Of this agricultural COM
monwealth, but now, to judge by newspaper
reports all over the State their fears are set at
rest and another great wheat crop. far exceed.
that Of last year, may bs expected.
Emigration pours into Kansas without d.
minshment, and the westward bound trains
of the great trunk roads are packed and loaded
to their utmost capacity with people coming
to locate on the new lands Of Kansas The
settlement of the country now extends to the
extreme westerly limit of the State, aid lands
which q few years ago were called arid and
WORTHLESS for any except grazing purposes, are
do tied with farms and green with wheat fields;
along ths railroad lines are thriving towns,
depending for their existence on the agricul-
tursl community about them. All this inva-
sion of the "Great American Deser" has
sahGu PinCo Witulu sWV Jcoio3 ou0 kWO kuV4
crops have justified the confidence of those
who took their chances on land previously
deemed uncultivable. 1t should be said, that
the rainfall of the last two years has been un-
usually large, and it remains to be seen how
season of drought or even of ordinary damp
ness will affect the agriculture of much of the
territory lately taken up in Western Kansas.
An interesting circumstance to bs taken into
consideration in this connection, Is the IN.
doubted fact that since the settling up of the
open country In the Far West the annual rain.
fall has greatly increased, and there is good
reason to believe that this augmentation will
continue as the lands become more fully occu.
pied. The iron rails on the lines that have
been laid in this region have an evident effect
in the attraction and conductl0n of magnetic
storms. and the extensive tree planting thAt
everywhere accompanies the settlement Of
Kansas will in time produce marked effect in
the direction of greater steadiness and perma-
nerce Of water supply. If, under the con.
ditions of the next year OF two the praires Of
Western Kansas yield good crops, they may
safely be set down as among the most desirable
farming lands in the country. w..
The class Of emigrants coming into Kansas
is az q rule desirable acquisition to the State.
That which comes BY rail Is quite generally
from the Northern States and is thrifty,
we'll appearing people who come to take up
farms or to follow those manual occupations so
necessary in the building of new towns. One
sees among these settlers prepondsrance of
Germans, not fresh from the Fatherland, bat
coming from homes in the Eastern States. The
exodus Of negroes from the South has sent
several Thousand into Kansas and many more
are on their way. These poor people arrive very
destitute and greatly astray in their ideas Of
the country to which they have come. The
lying circulars of transportation agents, who
give the widest promises of the welcome await
ing the negroes in Kansas, have quickened
a movement that took its rise in the oppres-
sions prscticed on the black race in the South.
The negroes % they first arrive in large COM
panies are objects of charity and burden upon
the municipal authorities wherever they stop.
but they come in a favorable eeasop, as there
is Just now demand for farm hands; so they
gradually disperss through the country, and in
the end are comfortably provided for. The
large railroad corporations which there is no
reason to accuse Of com plicity in the scheme OF
bringing them here, offer to give employ ment
to several thousand negroes In building at the
snds Of the Santa Fe and the Southern PaoiHo
railroads, and through these means many will
90 southwest into New Mexico and Arisona,
and finally make their homes there. While
the coloIed people who come here from the
South are destined in the first place to disap-
pointment of their sanguine expectations, they
will suffer no severe deprivation and their per.
maneut condition will be an improvement over
their life 10 the South. Nr.u
In speaking of the settlement of Kansas as
far as its western boundary, it should be borne
in mind that the population locates along the
railroad lines and the valleys Of streams. Be-
tween there is wide country uninhabited e1'
cept by hunters and cattle-men. In time all
this inter ediate country will be occupied by q
settled population, but this will proceed more
slowly than the colonization of the valleys
The most marked development of the country
is in the Arkansas valley along the line of the
Atchinson, Topeka s. Santa Fe Railroad
Here town sfter town is springing up and It'll
question of no remote time when the entir'
Arkansas valley will be populated as far West
as Pueblo in Colorado. On the Santa Fe road
hundred miles west Of Topeka, one is beyont
the broken country aud wooded valleys of East
| ern Kansas and fairly on the open plains The
country is level and trseless except where arti
ficially planted, but so far as can bs seen from
The buildings are large, neat and we'll painted
many of the fields are surrounded with hedges
others by wire fence. Generally, howeve
the corn and wheat fields are open land, Il
most of the counties have q herd law and ever
man must keep his cattle from the crops Of b
neighbor. The stations are frequent, and th
villages about them are large and well bull
In all these towns the High School is the fl
est structure, and occupies the best buildiD
site in the place. Between the big station
fresh towns are rising, brilliant with the RAJ
tints of newly sawed and unpainted lumbel
the buildings small and hardly old enough
stand steady on their pins in the prairie brsez
bear aloft sign-boards of Gispr0portionate siz
which announce that the tradesman, the Law
yer, the real-estate man, and usually, the liz
our seller have already come to grow up wit
the place and share the profits of its increAs
One must come early TO western town not
find some other Of his profession or busine
there ahead of him.
Further west the plain is still marked vii
farms, and it is not until the train reach
Dodge City on the Arkansas river that Il
frontier is indicated. Everywhere the trai
stops there are to be seen nurseries of orchaI
and shade and timber trees, and the plantiI
of trees is one Of the first things done in q
settling up of the country Everywhere u
grass is sprngiDg green where the prairie b
been burned over and the tracts Of bright W
dure are refreshing to the eye.
Sixty miles west of Dodge City and 90
miles east Of the Colorado line, t,.,noa ,
week to lay out the town Of Ga,d.n n;
A year ago two brothers No ..s.a Fnlton toot
, half section of Cove. as,ept land On ,bs M !,
of the Santa Fe y.,sa in the Arkansas vail
and brought their families there. AS the 3
seemed favor'ole for the starting of TOW
two or thrse other families came in the wint
stors was started, and the railroad compa
made the spot flag station. When was
, Garden City last week, there were already
! h.: ~