Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1889-01-17

which are three other towns claiming
to be as good or better than Colby.
the WAY 70 WORK IN WESTERN
KANSAS.
EDITOR Kansas FARMER:-As
there are good many farmers con-
templating leaving Western Kansas ON
account of hard times and failure in
crops, have concluded to give my
experience on the farm here in Com
anche for the last three years for the
dear farmers to look over and then
ask themselves if they have done their
part First, l will say was IS years
old the 9Th day of last November.
The 9th day of April, 1886, bought
100 acres of raw prairie land here; on
the first day of May l bought two
good common horses and harness,
wagon and sod plow, and went onto
the land and started to blowing sod
and keeping bach. There being no
house for me to put my family in, /
had to leave them in town. / plowed
and planted sod corn until the first of
June; by that time the ground had
become so hard and dry that l was
unable to break any more with
walking pillow, SO l made a trip over
in Pratt county, 60 miles, and bought
me a load of corn for feed, and then
came back and bought claim shanty
10x12 feet, and m oved it ON my place
and moved my family, wife and two
children, into this mansion to keep
house for me. Then l bought the
third horse and sulky pillow, one that
with the weight of plow and that of
myself, l could force itinto the ground
and I went ahead until / had ninety
five acres of prairie broke; then I
took my team and went to Medicine
Lodge, fifteen miles, and hauled lum-
Der to build and complete q house
14x28 feet, making two trips to the
Lodge for lumber; then / went to
work and built me good comfortable
house, my wife painted the roof and
all, and we moved in and gave the for
mer house to the chickens, of which
my wife had about 300. then went
TO work with the pillow and rebroke
forty acres of my sod; then went a
trip of severity miles and back and
bought fifty bushels of seed wheat,
sowed it the last week in August;
then went and bought posts and wire,
and fenced 12O acres of my land, be-
sides some corral lots and ten acres
for an orchard. / then made three
trips to Medicine Lodge and hauled
lumber and built me q good comfort
able barn; then rebroke the land, ten
acres, for my orchard, bought my
trees and set them out in good shape,
and l am glad to say that they are in
good shape to-day; have lived, grown
and show well through all the drouths.
This all done before the first day of
November, and all done by me except
two days work of a carpenter that l
had to hire to help untangle my house
for after l had the frame up and both
ends sided there came one of our Kan
sas zephyrs and moved it about two
rods and set it down on one end and
twisted it around a couple of times.
My wheat wintered my horses and
one COW in good shape, but l had sown
it broadcast and the spring of 1887
was quite windy and blowed SO much
of it out of the ground that l only
125 bushels. The summer
of 81 l put out ten acres IN oats and
forty acres in corn, and tended my
orchard in small truck, and broke 35
acres of prairie, did my harvesting and
threshing, put in forty-five acres of
wheat on my own land, and rented and
put in forty-five more, making ninety
acres; raised plenty of everything tol
do me, including ali kinds of vegeta-
bles grown in this latitude. The spring
ok 100 I -: - l. Al