The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1895-08-10
Lovely Arkansas.
EDITOR OF THE GRAPHIC

"A lew Weeks ago StiW letteI III lIc
GRAPHIC written by lady who now re-
sides near Little Rock, Arkansas. Hav-
ing lived five years in the city of Little
Rock and vicinity, Think, perhaps, can
add to her description of the country;
and which, while it may not coincide
exactly with the letter to which l refer,
yet will have the merit Of absolute
truthfulness at least. Not that | wish
to in anyway reflect upon the statements
made by your lady correspondent, but 1t
is exceedingly difficult to pass correct
judgment upon any country with only
a short time residence from which to
judge.
There are rich farms il Arkansas on
what are called bottom lands. Cotton
can be grown and in some places fine
corn. But cotton brings the best price
in the market and very little corn is
raised. While growing the cotton a
good crop OF chilis is also grown. and
along in August and September are
ready to harvest. The crop is generally
shipped north in oblong wooden boxes
and well picked in quinine. Doctors
there (as long as they live) charge 50 a
visit.
Should farmer choose to keep hogs
he simply turns them out to shift for
themselves. They live on ground nuts
and acorns. When pork is needed for
the table the farmer takes his gun and
goes out in the woods and hunts razor
back hogs.
Nearly all farmers keep cow. But
such looking critters. Poor and stunted
and about the size of a good northern
yearling. The calf is always allowed to
run with the COW and as a consequence
the farmers get about Il pint of milk to
a milking. Cotton seed is fed to COWS
and butter made from cotton seed-fed
COWS looks like mutton tallow and tastes
worse.
| Very poor grass grows early in the
spring. Along in August, September
and October the COW browses around
cane-brakes. do not mean sugar cane.
We bought COW while there that had to
be taught to be millled without the calf
taking half the milk, and she also had
to be taught that northern corn meal
and bran-mash was good to eat. Feed
of this kind is always shipped from the
north. The fodder put up there consists
of corn leaves, pulled from the stalk.
| All hay that is good for anything is
shipped from the north. Sweet potatoes
are grown to perfection, but Irish pota-
toes, except in very limited localities,
are failure.
| Duriug the winter all vegetables are
shipped from the north, as everything in
that line that grows there decays, The
real estate agents do not mention this
fact, and when confronted with northern
grown potatoes, cabbage, turnips, ETC.,
on the market, will tell you that the
sOuthGrners are too shiftless to raise
them. Butter and egg are always high.
| never bought good butter in Little
Rock less than 45 cents and eggs are
usually %.
/ Cattle, horses. fowls and even cats
taken to Arkansas from the north soon
die. Houses are always built on high
foundations, often high enough for a
person to walk around under. In the
country the dogs. hogs, geese and chick
ems roost under the house-that is to say
the fowls do. The houses are so con
structed in order to keep them dry
Everything gets damp and musty. ]
often had to rub the mould off my "Sun-
day shoes" after they had been put away
in closet for week. Beds must be
taken out in the open air and aired and
dried three days in the week or they
will become too damp to sleep in.
Blackberries grow in abundance, but
pity anyone brave enough 20 face the
chiggers, woodticks and heas. Talk
about fleas. During the summer one
must often, like Bill Nye, retire to tho
privacy Of their chamber. dlsrobe ant
20 on a grand and fearful flea hunt
, Bags OF ten or a dozen are common al
one siesta. Centipedes, scorpians, ant
taraltulas are often found about thu
, houses and even in the city. | frequent
. ly found them myself. Snakes of almos
!. every variety are common to the state
,, In one single drive Of about six miles il
the country one day saw one diamond
rattlcr six feet in length, one larg,
black snake and at least dozen mOcca
sins lying in stagnant water.
But it is during the dog days tina
snakes abound. know lady, who, af
ter retiring for the night, heard what
she thaught was mouse. In getting
,. up to investigate she found big snake
The same lady fought music in the coun
try in a little church. One day a pupi
while taking her lesson was very muc
disturbed by large snake crawling ou
Of the music rack. On going home t
n dinner the lady found the pet dog deat
J. having been bitten by snake.
In the summer all the small stream
either go dry or are covered with dirt
green scum which constantly gives OF
g the death dealing malaria.
Nearly all of the native women di
snuff. They get a cherry sprout, chez
one end of it into "brash," dip that il
Q to the snuff and then chew it, A col
q Grmed snuff dipper always looks old an
> yellow and is always splitting, splitting
$ And to see one spit! They sit at Oil
e side of the room, give IA squirt and hi
/ a fire place ten feet away.
Peaches and pears are good abOr
10 every three years. Plums and grape
q are fine. Roses and all kinds of bul
il plants are beautiful during the co..
parts of the year. | have seen ros
: bushes twenty feet high in full bloom
IS December. The winters Of course al
e, delightful, as they are in any souther
i,{o}n on1 iF ann hoe ,nnuou ,ourb