The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1880-08-21
From Kansas.
tors are happy

ROUND MOUND, Osborne county, Kan, Aug.
l3, 1SSO.-In your issue of June Goth, | read
letter from 5. l.. Miller, of Sheridan county,
Kan, in which he conveys the idea that hard
times IN Northwestern Kansas are mostly i'm
aglnary and that many through homesickncss
and because they do not tihd themselves rich
AT once, leave the country and give it a hard
name | am acquainted with Mr. Miller;
knew him IN La Sale county, ana was first to
greet him when he came to Kansas. | know
he has written what he thought to be the
truth, but Mr.. Miller came INTO this country
with something in his pocketbook to keep off
hunger and homcsICkness, and no family
aud DO not think that he Is as capable Of
Judging as those that have a family and no
money. The reason ! attempt to answer his
much grit" as any pioneers, and those tina,
have gone should have the credit OF stay
ing as long as they did, for they saw no pros
pcct Of living through the winter. Take this
the southwestern part of Osborne county 9S
miles north of Russell and II miles south of
Bull City, on the Solomon. The land was all
taken up IN the spring OF 1878, no settlement
being made before that 1t has now 40 IN
habitants and five organized school districts
,G5 acres of wheat were sown last fall and 10
this spring; 1925 acres were planted with
corn Most OF the settlers did not move on 10
these claims until the fall of 1873, and did not
break any until the spring OF 1879. They
raised some sod corn, but not enough to do
them last winter. Eight out Of ten came in
with only team. They struggled through
last summer; some doing little breaking for
a few that could hire for almost nothing, some
going to the railroad to work, and managed,
by living on corn meal to get enough wheat
to SOW few acres, hoping that corn bread
would soon be one OF the lost arts. But they
were doomed to be disappointed. From the
18th of November there fell no rain and only
one inch of snow until the 2Sh of April.
From that time to the middle Of July there
fell a few light showers. The grass was so
dry in the middle of June that it would have
bliI III llht lIllufI tt OAi III VI SNttlNi9
had to haul their water from one to eight
miles THIS kind of weather made everyone
ask: "Oh, what will the harvest be-" You
can guess what it was. | have cut over 200
acres the yield Is two and a half bushels per
acre. That is tair sample for this county.
A good deal of winter wheat was uncut-lcft
to pillow under this fall, being just about
enough to seed the ground.
Since the middle of July we have had two
or three showers, and there was some prospect
of the late corn dong well, but it Is now two
weeks since we have had any rain and two
thirds of the corn is dead. SO the prospect for.
corn bread this winter is poor.
As to the comfortable sod houses the PEG
pie of La Sale county would not think one
of them fit to put their cattle in-with the dirt
floor, dirt sides and dirt overhead, it is har-
Dor for mice heas and rattlesnakcs There
have been dozens of instances IN this neigh
borhood of finding rattlesnakes in beds, era
dies, and of their doping on the table at meal
time. There have been five deaths IN this
vicinity from their bites There Is no work
to be had, and the bones were all picked up
in 1874 III this part of the country. | know
of a few men that have contracts 10 haul wood
for the government to Hayes City, distance
of 40 miles. They make two trips week ana
get for their weeks work $3.50,
The soil is good, and ii is one of the prettl-
est prairie countries that / ever saw. 1t Is
also healthy; but that it will ever be success
full farming country do not believe. judge
from what the old settlers say, and from the
rainfall for the last ten years reported by the
State Board of Agriculture. 1t is their opln
ion that anyone who wishes to make farming
a specially should not go west OF the middle
of the state.
Our county papers, to encourage the settle
ment of the country, misreprescnt it. They
often compare the Solomon Valley here to the
Garden of Eden. If the Garden Of Eden was
anything like the solomon Valley THIS year
don't think Adam lost much when he was
driven out.
The following copy from the lFcltly Cdpt.
tel, Topeka Kan, written by one who has
visited this part of the country. He says:
IF those writers who have invited the poor
homestead seekers to the PLAINS, with sich
attractive pictures of the opportunities there
for happy homes were conscious OF what they
were doing, no greater crime against humani.
~ was possible for them to do. We could
wish them no worse punishment than lew
wears of life as their victims have to endure 1t,
in the dugout, amid the drouths ana storms
and cold of the treeless plains"
For many that cannot leave, food and cloth
ing is urgently needed. All who can should
and this work and send their donations to the
State Central Committee at Topeka.
Hoping that Mr.. Miller will never expert
once the hard times that some of the hom,-