The Columbus journal., 1884-07-30
Arkansas.
Rising City, Butler County, Neb.(
June 18th. 1884.

EDlTOR JOUkNAL. Ill 6pcokluS Vi
the poor improvements, and cultiva-
ton of farms in my last to your
paper, your readers must not con-
clude, that there are no nice looking
farms in Arkansas, or that there, as
we'll as here. there ia but one degree
as regards cultivation, and that the
poorest, for most assuredly that
would be untrue. But it did seem to
us so strange, so unlike proper farm
ing, to see one small mule do all the
ploughing in the preparing of the
ground for the crop, as we'll as the
cultivation afterwards; that to us it
seemed, 80 like the way to make the
farmer poor, as we'll as the farm, that
we could but use the expressions we
did, in our last letter. But your
correspondent has not farmed it
down South, and possibly, three good
horses on a sixteen inch plough turn
ing a furrow six to eight inches deep,
might hurt the land, and cultivating
eight to ten acres of corn and cotton
per day with one team nigh. scare
"that mule" if it did not our genial
southern friend, with the MANILA
rope lines behind him.
The crops, in yield, are certainly
good for such shallow preparation of
the soil, oats yielding from twenty to
sixty bushels per acre, corn from
twenty five to seventy per acre, cotton
from one-haif to one bale Of five hun
dred pounds per acre. OF wheat,
but little is raised where l was, but
that little looked quite well. 1t is
the home of the sweet potato, at
tanning as they do here, a ripeness
and flavor unknown in our higher
latitudes. Two crops of the Irish
potatoes can be raised with advantage
to the grower, as the first planting
ripens too early to keep over winter.
The cow-pea, in it's many varieties,
can be raised with advantage to the
ground, after the crop of wheat or
oats is harvested; also in the corn at
its last ploughing, the vines making
good hay, and the peas the best OF
feed for all animals on the farm. Red
clover, timothy and red-tOp, the
little we saw looked we'll, also the
Kentucky bluegrass, while the
"so-called" Japoh clover has taken
possession of forest and roadside,
and uncultivated fields, making the
outside range almost a paradise for
the stock-grower; the mildness OF
the winter, and the length of the
growing season reducing ''as it
must" the cost to the raiser, nearly
to minimum, and yet with all these
facilities "while we were there" for
the lack of receiving proper feed and
shelter for short time in the winter,
the beef was erecraJle, and your
readers who wore "the blue" from
sixty-one to sixty-five, will fully
appreciate that word, as they remem.
Der the grinding process it had to
undergo in days gone by, but not
forgotten.
But suppose we cease our adverse
criticisms and take a glance at Beebe,
one of the prettiest villages, between
Little Rock and St. Louis. Its
nicely painted residences almost
hidden by luxuriant growth OF
fruit and shade trees, its gardens
redolent with the bloom of roses
not hardy here. Shrubs and vines
and plants tender with us in Nc.
braska Cor petted in pots) give to the
visitor, as he looks on these varied
charms in flors's kingdom here
below almost an insi ght into that
more beauteous, and better kingdom
beyond the river. 1t has popu!a-
ton of about eight hundred inhabi-
tants, four large church edifices, a
free school building with a corps OF
competent teachers, giving the
necessary mental culture to over
three hundred scholars who nearly
fill its four large rooms. Music is
one of the branches taught to the
young mind, and properly too; here
it is instrumental, as we'll as vocal.
The colored population have their
free schools, also two churches in the
suburbs of Beebe. The "lOcal
option" liquor law is also in force
here, as it is also in many other coun-
ties in Arkansas; the lowest fine for
druggists selling any Of the ardent
contrary to the law, is two hundred
dollars, the highest five hundred, and
we believe there is less drunkenness
in Arkansas to-day than any state in
the Nation.
The society in town and country is
exceptionally good, kind, courteous,
and fully as intelligent as where we
reside in central Nebraska; and dur
ing nearly one month visit among
the citizens of state where disorder
has been said to abound, we saw no
person "white or colored," intoxica-
ted, not one quarrel, or disturbance,
and eve must say it," that in our
varied conversations and interchange
of opinions, with many men, or in
passing along in village street, or
country road our ears were not
shocked by the utterance of single
oath.
In our next to the JOURNAL, we
shall describe what we saw of the
varied fruit industry of this locality,