The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1895-09-06

IS all that Is required, the brains and
muscle and natural resources are even
now at work upon the great evolution
that viii change by irrigation with
pump, reservoir and underground ditch
a vast desert into as vast a garden.
SHERMAN COUNTY IRRIGATION.
P. I. Lancaster Writes to the Homestead
of Practical and Possible Features,
Enterprise, push and energy are in
digenous to Kansas soil, but in no part
Of the sunfower state do they reach
such perfect development as they do
in Sherman county; for the gritty SET
tiers of this county have witbstood the
droughts and the hegira, and now have
nature harnessed and at work over
well and tower bringing up from that
underground sea the only element.
lacking to make northwestern Kansas
a close second to the far-famed Garden
City.
And how proud the new enthusiast
is Of the first results of his labor-his
potatoes-"the finest ever raised" his
onions-"as mild as apples, his cab
bage-"as hard as rocks" or his
melons" aFunniHg all over creation
So proud, he hates to sell them until
he sees his neighbOr coming with truck
mot near so good
As We have ''Fain" crop this year. il
keeps them a hustling to be farmers
and irrigators at the same time.
What a country this will be in 10
years! To think the croakers have
been run out already; and the Oldest
settler has become the firmest believer
in the brilliant prospects Of our "neW
Kansas"
Sherman county is on the western
border, IN the second tier of northern
counties. The center of the county,
tTaveTsed by the Rock Island railroad,
is rolling prairie that can be ploughed
without break in the furFoW from its
eastern to its western lines and from
the Beaver on the north to the Smoky
on the south. The valleys of these two
streams are very valuable as alfalfa
field, but the windmilIs are so success
full in bringing up incredible quantities
of water to our high divides, about 120
feet, that alfalfa will soon be as thick
over our prairies as
''Autumnal leaves. that strew the brooks of
FallombTosa."
Goodland, our county seat, is a rail
road town, with division headquarters,
machine shops, etc, and for its size il
is the biggest pusher on earth. wish
eastern farmers would write to some of
its successful men, and afford them a
chance to give away some Of their
knowledge and experience, for they are
surely bursting with their SUGGEST
M. B. Tomblin, pTesidentof the largest
bank in this part of the state, made his
first effort as an irrigatOr last spring.
Tombiin is such an enthusiast that all
of his friends predicted failure in this
new field where all depends on details
and back-aches. Yet his success is so
marvellous that he has already earned
the position as leader and in difference
we speak of him as the colonel.
Hon. A. B. Montgomery is manager
of an extensive plant owned by the
Rock Island railroad and is a successful
carp grower. John Bray, George Hess.
William Walker, Jr., Barney McCluskey
and dozens of others, who sliding up
hill like the average farmer is going
down, are all anxious to tell others Of
our wonderful advantages.
With alfalfa success comes hog rails
ing-the greatest mortgage litter and
debt payer that ever gladdened the
heart of a western settler. No cholera
has ever reached this altitude, and no
risk from any disease is incurred.
Cattle keep fat on our range during
the entire year and only need proteo-
ton from the heavy winds Of mid
winter. Horses do we'll on the range
even in the severest winters. Indeed
all kinds of stock can be raised in
western Kansas as prOftably as in the
valleys of the northwest.
Sherman county is particularly
adapted to the raising of wheat and
barley. Failures of these crops being
unknown whenever we have snow dur
the preceding winter which generally
occurs.
Hot winds, the scourge of the plains,
do not get up this high, and our
uniformly cold nights make our sum
mers as temperate as those of the
mountains; while the foothills on our
west check the force of the ubiquitous
blizzard.
Farms are still cheap-from 81 to $40
per acre; but every pumping plant
that is erected and operated makes the
speculatOr mark up his holdings
another notch,
Irrigation viii keep US from these
aid needing winters SO associated in
the past with western Kansas rather.
indeed, viii the near future witness
our grateful farmers repaying drouthy
Illinois and Missouri for their late
assistance.-PFesley l. Lancaster in
Western Homestead.