Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1886-04-09

lbc tcTfitOfial limits OF Kansas en-
brace 522ls.O0O acres country which
may be described as a rolling prairie.
one-third larger than England, in the
shape Of a parallelogram 400 miles long
and 200 miles wide lin 1865 the en-
tire population of Kansas had been
evenly distributed over the immense
area each human being would have had
nearly one square mile TO himself or
herself.
TO reach this region there was in
1865 but one line Of railroad touching
the state ut only two points on the ex-
irene northeastern border, and but
one waterway-the Missouri river.
The homestead law was, after the
war, made especially liberal as regards
ex-soldIers, allowing them to deduct
from the five years of settlement and
cultivation required by the terms Of
their military service. Kansas began
immediately TO fill up with a brave,
hardy and patriotic population. Tie
system of land grants TO railroads gave
Kansas railways which the state would
probably never have had otherwise, and
threw upon the market millions Of acres
Of land contiguous to the lines, sold5at
low prices and on long time. Most of
the railroad, rs well as the government
land, was sold in quarter sections of
100 acres each-the area which expert
ence has shown to be sufficient for a
settler and his family.
In Eve years, from 1855 to 1870, the
population increased from 14Ol70 TO
3GI 800, or at the rate of 1895 per cent.
Ii was during these years that the dis
banded volunteer" was seeking home
and the era of railroad building was
fairly inaugurated.
The next period Of FIVE years, from
1870 to 1875, would probably have shown
an equal ratio of increase but for the
financial crash of 1873. followed in 1874
by simultaneous visitation of drought
and grasshOppers, and these, in turn,
followed by an AFTERMATH of liars
who spread exaggerated accounts Of the
calamity. But in spite of hard times.
grasshoppers and laid seekers Kan
sas had acquired in 1875 a population
OF 52S $40 inhabitants.
From 1875 to 1850 Kansas made great
progress; the population swelled to
990,OG6. From 1850 to 1885 the popula-
ton increased to 1888 ,562, or fifteen
persons to the square mile. But in 1885
occurred the most remarkable immi-
grafton ever known, and the population
of the state is now fully 1,350,OOO.
This population in all its increase
from 40, 179 to $50, OOO-has shown a
striking uniformity of character, the
native born maintaining to the alien
born an unyarying ratio of eight to one,
aud there are 25 whites to one colored
person.
The wealth of the state has under
gone q parallel augmentation. Il
round numbers the true valuation of
property in Kansas in 1860 was sS1 900, :
600; in 1865, SO, 900; in 1870, $751;
100000; in 1875, S2l2,OcO, COO; i'm 1880,
1921 ,OO0, goo and in 1885, $3.50, GOO, 900.
The value of farm crops of Kansas
for the FIVE years ending with 1870 was
in round numbers, $4,000, 600; for the
next succeeding five years, $l35. 900 600;
for the next five years, $264 900 600,
and for the 1--WE years ending with 1855,
S503, 600, 900.
Growth in population and wealth is
not gratifying If there be not CORES
pOnding progress in intelligence. Kan
sas has made as great advance in the
matter Of popular education as in ma
terial wealth. In 1861 she expended for
the support of common schools only
81 200; in 1885 the expenditures for the
same purpose aggregated s2,259, 479
From 1880 10 1885 she expended in com.
mon schools ST., 630, 4S0. In the twenty.
five years of her existence as a state she
has expended in the cause of common
school education S30,2l9. 2O2. Thi:
money has been well spent. In 1854
there were IN Kansas only 25,CO0 per-
sons over ten years Of age who could
not read.
The greater part of this expense i:
met by taxation, but there is in reserve
the permanent school fund of the state
which now aggregates S3,5OO,OOO, will
a million acres of land yet unsold. The
interest of this fund is, by a constitn
tional provision, set apart for the sup.
port Of common schools.
Since 1850 to 1865 the churches have
grown IN number from 81 to 3,ll5, and
the newspapers increased from q Il
ISL.
Kansas is, as has been said, a great
tract of 80, 2SS, 900 acres containing 3
larger number of cultiyable acres thar
any other state in the union; in fact
Kansas is the largest agricultural are;
on the face of the globe, inhabited by
homogeneous population governed b,
the same laws. Time has develope,
the fact that, underlying these acres
there are, by the latest estimates, 2,
100000 tons of coa.; that there are valu
able deposits of lead, and yet NOR
valuable mines of zinc; that all over tn
state there are quarries Of buildinI
stone. Passing mention only is mad
of these, for the future of Kansas, say
Mr.. Martin, rests on the fertility of he
$1,000, 900 acres. Thirty years of cult
walton in the eastern section of tn
state has witnessed no dimunition il
the productiveness of the soil. Kansa
does not own an exhausted or worDou
field. OF the $1,000. 600 acres only abou
100000 have ever been broken by tn
plow.
But 1t is in the character of the popu
lation that Mr.. Martin finds the mos
assuring prophecy of the future o
Kansas. "No state in the Union, . h,
says, "can boast a Drawer or more in
telligent, enterprising, sober and law