The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1894-03-23
IN WESTERN KANSAS
Sketches OF the Great Open Air SAM
tarlum-Western Kansas.
UNEOUALED AS A HEALTH RESORT
The Following was Read by Presley Lam
caster at the Farmers Institute
Hold Hero In January.

Hold Here In January.
A prophetic vision is before me. A
magic wand has touched the fair land of
our adoption. behold arising in the near
future the bright sun of success, dispelling
froR our canons and prairies the dark,
overWOrking clouds of disappointed hopes,
droughts, failures and mortgaged homes;
and rejecting from farm to farm its brilli-
ant hues of enterprise, success and pros
perity.
In firm faith, foretelI to you that the
sum of our trials is about reached; that the
time ls near at hand when such energy as
ours shall force every 100 acres of our
smooth Sherman county land to support
home; when there will be no more giving
up and going back to wifo'S folks, but
rather an immigration of her relatives
hither; when neat farm buildings, thrifty
orchards and general surroundings will
denote an air of endeSyors crowned with
reward; when instead of our Hmitness
stretch of buffalo grassi;every sod will be
green with Iuxuriant crops.
This land of ours was surely intended by
the giver of all good for some worthier,
nobiler purpose than merely as coursing
ground for our friend Walkers pedigreed
hounds. It was intended, my friends. to
support, and support wellFa goodly popu-
lation. No land, no county, no climate did
ever give support to such class Of farmers
as were many of those who first settled on
our lands. No new country has ever forced
its advantages, its opportunities on its resi-
dents. Had the majority of our early set
tiers pre-empted the fertile Garden of Eden
on the rich loan of the valley of Jehosa-
plat, they would have declared their trees
productive of bad fruit, their summer
zephyrs hot winds, and their cooler breezes
death dealing billiards.
The most valuable. orange groves of
balmy Florida stand over the cabins of
many an unsuccessful cracker, who during
a long life Of penury, want and ignoronce,
relied on providence for locating them in
such a God-forsaken country Of mosqui-
toes and persimmons. The very choicest
valleys of California, the mecca of so many
of our deluded KansHns, were arid when
found by man. Why, in the model old state
OF Maryland, in which 1 was born, every
field has to be devided, and subdivided'
and then divided again by deep bitches in
order to carry of the excessive rains. We're
one to farm a field there as has been done
here, as God left it, there would be no
moro chances of raising crop than the
man who puts in his wheat year after year
with a disk that scratches in the dust
about an inch.
Where is the land that God has left all
ready for its 20 bushels yield of wheat?
Either trees had to be hewn down, stones
dragged of; ditchos to drain, cut, er irriga-
ton resorted to; and yet many of our gov
ernment beneficiaries came out here expect
ing to harvest wealth the first year; and
Notwithstanding all the glorious advanta-
ges Of our country, its healthiuIness, its
moderate winters, cool summers, the little
expense in keeping stock ON our plains, in
spite OF all this, after the first year or two
of misguided, half hearted effort, they
mortgaged their farms and betook them
selves back, discouraged, and crying
droughts, hot winds, billiards. Indeed
many Of our first settlers came out with
the avowd purpose of mourning mortgage
and then leaving. Many had never farmed
before, and were entirely ignorant as to the
simplest manner of coaxing mother earth
to yield up her treasures. Would such set
tiers, think you, have converted the sand
beaches of Delaware into the most produc-
tive peach orchards in the world, or the
rock ribbed hills of New England into pay
ing stock farms; or the forest of the pri-
neral west into moving fields of golden
grainP But for our country's good ,hese
settlers have left us. 1 am now confronted
with the backbone. the grit. the determine
ton Of pioneers capable of retaining and
making fertile the burning sands of Sahara.
And time will show how such heroes will
win in making this country the pride of
cur state. That with deeper cultivation,
amore intimate knowledge of our climates
wants, and the use of the inexhaustible
Cow of water under US. We shall easily sue
coed IN making name for ourselves equal
ed only by the reputation of the residents
of the valleys of California. You will be
ably entertained, my friends, on the vari-
Gus subjects of irrigation. better cultiva-
ton, stock raising and other kindred topics.
Fan requested 70 give you my experience
IS = the life-giving qualities Of our eli-
mate.
l can hardly consider myself 30 years
old, my friends; but rather 5, for I never
lived. in a heaIthful sense Of the word, I'M
til I reached western Kansas on the 10th
~ 81 October, 1855. I was IN such con-
ion at that time that I was unable to
* from the Commercial hotel, the only