The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-03-17
to the Illinois and Ohio standards.

and fruit yards of the country em- brace 10S,809 bearing apple, pear, peach, plum and cherry trees and 190,Sl0 younger trees not yet in bear ing. 1t has S52 acres in nursery stock thirty-four acres in raspberries, thir- ty-four acres in blackberries and thirty acres in strawberries and its vineyards cover 79l acres. It has superior fruit soils and & fine fruit climate, and grows superior quality of all the above named fruits without intermission excepting only the peach. Of
 TAME GRASSES
 it has SSS acres in timothy, 576 acres in clover, 412 acres in orchard grass and 5S6 acres in bluegrass and is prov ing an excellent tame grass country. Representative farmers from many oi the older states assure me that farm- ing is done with
 HALF THE LABOR AND COST required ill the older states on account of easier cultivation of the soils their availability in wet or dry seas ons, their freedom from roots, stumps, stones, foul growth and impervious clays, and the longer and more friendly seasons of growth and harvest. They have
 SUPERB NATURAL ROADS through all this region and are hap oily strangers to the disgusting inn passable and bottomless mud of many portions of the east in the fall and spring seasons. The air is pure, the roads are fine, the waters are clear and wholesome, the soils are warm, deep friable and fertile, the climate is like that of middle Kentucky and Virginia and
 LANDS ARE CHEAP,
 by comparison with any region l know east of the Mississippi Very choice and highly improved farms near the towns are held at higher fig ures, but good farms throughout tn. county are bringing and selling from $l2 to $50 per acre and wild lands from $10 to $l5 per acre, according to soil, location and improvements. There are
 ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILES OF
 RAILWAY
 and twenty shipping stations, repre-. senting five railway lines, owned and operated by three great trunk sys- tems. 1t will interest the reader to know that the county has
 
 NINETY FREE PUBLIC SCHOOLS and an admirable school system liber- ally fostered by an enlightened school sentiment, and that every child oi high or lowly birth has the advan- tages of a good common school ed ucation. There are thirty churches a dozen weekly and two daily newspapers, eight banks and a dozen railway towns, ranging from the new village of 200 souls to the prosperous and growing city of 4,000 can give but bare outline of this
 PROSPEROUS AND PROMISING county in A single newspaper letter To the writer, who passed up this beautiful Arkansas valley in 1876 when only two modest railway viii lages, some huge piles of buffalo bone, and an occasional farm cottage oi cabin broke the monotony of the great prairie, the beauty, thrift and busy life of the towns and the marvellous development of the country seem A wONDROUs TRANSPORTATION.
 Beautiful farm homes environed with orchards and gardens, thrift ' groves and hedgerows, interminablt grainfields and fine herds greet tho visitor at every turn. Towns and country grow like magic and the wis. itor from older and slower lands, look with amazement on the changes of { single decade, half doubling his sense, and dreaming the while, that some wonder working Monte Christo ha, passed up and down these valleys while the world was sleeping, and clothed them with the splendors of 6 fabulous creation. And yet, to one al all familiar with the stern realism ol the life they lead out here in Kansas there is little cause for marvel. Strong men of muscle and brain and splendid working gifts and sublime faith have wrought here in a decade, changes that only an age could have com passed in older and less favored lands In country like this, where nature is
 TROPICAL OF HER BEST GIFTS where earth and air and skies bring daily, to brave, self-helpful, conn., posite people, influences very like a benediction where the field is broad and rich enough for great ambition and the best working ability, men may build cities and turn the wilderness into gardens of bloom and beauty and fruition, with a facility that quite startles the plodders of the old stereotyped communities. It seems but yesterday .L ks L f.s