The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-01-21
ARKANSAS DEPARTMENT.


 used we now have home made butter. This is the result of northern immi- grafton. Our people are beginning to learn that Arkansas is splendid dairy country.
 Arkansas can grow any farm crop produced in any part of the United States. Her timbers have no equal :; minerals in variety and quantity, and as for fruit, the premiums taken at every fair and exposition where an ex- hibit has been made are conclusive proof she has no superior in that line Where can better place for home be found?
 For lack of transportation many valuable metallic and non-m metallic minerals in this state are not worked. In the northern part of the state we have iron, zinc, copper and marbles in variety; ill the west bitrminous coal of the best cooking variety in veins from two to sixteen feet thick, but now of no use for the want of trans portation. In the southwest, manga nese, the largest deposit that has ever been discovered. Different kinds of iron ores are found in the same neigh borhood-gypsum, ochres and salt we have also. Btumen is deposited from springs, which is said to be good in- dication of oil and gas.
 Not one of the above is being worked, and all for want of transportation. I Ia iS ho z this vast amount of mineral wealth, and where it should be utilized.
 We have specimen ofpaper on our table made at Utica, Mich, from our gumwood. The gentleman who pre- pared the paper from the wood sent him, said: Ht makes stock that compares we'll with the aspen," a wood they use mostly in print paper. Aspen costs from six to eight dollars per cord, while our gum can be had here in unlimited quantities at cost of not over $1.50 or $2.00 per cord. There is not paper mill of any kind, either in this state or in Texas, that we have any knowledge of, and does it not seem strange that, with the abundance of raw material that can be had, almost without any cost, for various uses in the arts, people skilled in their manufacture do not come here and avail themselves of what must in a very few years become of great value? We not only have raw mate rial for an extensive variety of manu- factures, but we have desirable cli- mate to live and work in. with a market unequaled in any other part of the state.
 We are often asked which is the best time for northerners to come to our state to live. We might answer, when you are ready and have the means. It does not make so much difference with regard to health, but taking all things into consideration, we would advise the fall or winter. Our arrangements for farming are made about the com mencement of the year, and as the win ters are so mild, large amount of farm work can be done as well, if not better during that season than later on. The springs are so much earlier
 
 deferred till then they arrive too late to make crop the same season. Fencing, grubbing and blowing for early crops can be done in December, January and February. The first crop of Irish potatoes and oats is better if put in in the latter part of February, and corn planted in March was never known to fail to make crop. So the northern readers will see the import ance of coming early if they wish to farm the coming season.
 Cattle Raising in Arkansas.
 Much has been written and said, pro and con. upon the comparative profit of cotton growing as compared with corn, grain and stock. Without entering into the dispute at all, or urging that time and labor are thrown away in the cotton field, we propose to record few reflections on the matter of raising beef in Arkansas, for northern markets.
 In the first place. we remember that nearly every farm in Illinois, Indiana or Iowa has from two or three to fif- teen or twenty steers which are kept in pastures during the summer, and are fed during the winter on corn and corn fodder and finally sold at from sixty to ninety dollars apiece. Water for such stock is usually pumped from wells or caught in ponds made by putting dam across some hollow in the pasture. The work of feeding is usually done by the farmer and his boys and costs nothing. Now it is a fact which no we'll informed person will deny. that grass grows in Ar kansas. Crab grass certainly grows, and that would be good enough, if we had no better. But blue grass grows, timothy grows, clover grows, all grow we'll, in Arkansas and our