The Mena weekly star., 1896-09-16

and NortherS. The mountain ranges Whic 1 enclrcle Menas s tributary territory keep oi the hot dry blasts so destructive to vege taflon in the summer and turns aside tn | blzzards of the winter so that the climat | IS very equable, not subject to sudden va riations of temperature, and the season are much longer than further north, s the agricultural products have a longe time to mature, and less to contend witt and consequently they reach their naturit, in much better condition than in som1 or the Northern and Western states. The country about Mena is very wei
 watered The digging of wells has showr
 thar there is an underfow of water
 thorughout this entire country, which car
 be- reached by penetrating the ground tc
 depth of from twelve to twenty feet 'N
 The soil of the valley region, generally
 speaking. is reddish sandy loam, quite
 similar to the reddish soil of Southern Mis-
 souri and in. the great fruit and apple bell
 of the Ozarks.
 + is quite safe to say that no new town
 mas ever been located in this country
 which has the extent of new tributarv
 territory that Mena has. Polk county lies
 m the center of an area of about 35 O0C
 square miles, which had not been pene-
 trated by railroad until the building of
 the Kansas City. Pittsburg & Gulf rail
 The nearest point to Mena is Hot Springs
 which is ninety miles away. Tnskabor7a'
 2; oo;ssTf-. T.. iS eighty-ive miles away to the
 and Texariana to the south is 15 a55ans' T1iln
 Mena has thus exclusive tributary fer
 ritory of about fifty miles in every direc-
 tion, and 1t will become the center of dis
 tributien for this entire territory. as well
 as shipping point for lumber and for all
 the various resources of that district 1t IS Ideally located to make a great town
 The population of the district that is trib-
 utary to Mena is 1,000 inhabitants bv the census S or 1890 What 1t is now it would
 pc hard to estimate. but immigration that
 has set in to that part of the country has
 been so great of recent months that there must be over 65, 600 people within fifty miles fYYn L. rests. '-0iA
 It is well known fact that division quite large population. There are very few few division points in the United States peopt hasf and as p0puaten n1s Gf less than
 little or no tributary territory to draw fromEthe population of the town being maintained from the pay roll of the railroad company. Most division points have population to exceed 5000 people, and that without much tributary territory. Now Mena Is not only division point for the railroad company. but alec for the express company, and in addition to that. it has of more than one state in the Tfnion "i ga sa that it will combine all the advantages of a division town, and that of a great tob- ping and distributing center, as from its present advantages, Mena has many in the future.
 The tide of immigration. which until tbe the North and Northwest and West has set in towards the South and a great many Northern farmers, disheartened and by the destruction of their crops from the cold winters and dry sum mers, have looked to the South as a means of relief.
 Since the war the South has largely been overlooked until the last few years but with the building of north and south rail- roads and the advertising of the re- sources of these regions, Northern farmers have wakened up to the fact that they can sell their farms, even at a sacrifice, and, on account of the low land values in the South, purchase farms even larger than those they left. which yield them more returns than they had en- loved before. 1t is the cheap lands and the ,f the North toward the South, and de- 'pite all the Northern railroads can do to l ,heck this movement, it is progressing and | Ill they can do cannot stay it. Mena will | cap great advantages from this Northern | immigration as splendid farms can be | ands are cleared the timber can be sold | It a profitable figure, and the productions | If the soil will yield to the farmers a | much larger return in money than can be | obtained anywhere else in the United | 'tates. A great many farmers in the | heir farms. They find that they can sell | heir farms, pay of the mortgage, go l 'outh invest the money in lands at one | fifth or even one-tenth of what they valued | heir old farms at, and prosper much bet CT than they did in the North.
 It is a source of surprise to those who ave not investigated the country tribu- ary to Mena that the sales of lots in hat town have reached so high a figure l nd the growth in population has been so | reat A month ago there were not more | han ten CT fifteen people in the townsite, |