Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1896-11-12
A Letter From Arkansas.
PoNp. ARK

lions for removal 10 hEkdueaNj hA"Hy
frinds requested me to write them
about the country. The amount OF
writing it would take to write each
one would take up a great deal OF
time 80 gave each promise that l
would write to the HERALD where ell
could read it ano US all people are FOR
free silver Of course they all patronlze
and read a free silver paper SO all
will get my impression OF the country
as we'll as the description / give OF it
which will be as true a one as l am
able to give OF it on 80 short resi-
dence. OF course / can only tell OF
what l see but a little experience will
be required to tell all, which have
not yet had.
This portion Of the country is all q
wooded country with an occasional
small spot Of prairie, perhaps as large
as Solomon township sometimes larg-
er and again smaller. There are but
few of such prairie openings so far as
| can learn. The timber is black oak,
port oak, white oak, some burr oak,
gum sycamore, walnut, hickory, chest
nut oak, persimmon, pau pau, ssssa'
fras, etc. The timber is inclined to
be scrubby but frequently are found
trees from three to four feet through.
I have often wished that the dead
and down timber, here on my place
was near Marvin or Phillipsburg, l
could donate fuel to you all for the
entire winter and be a gain by hav-
ing the ground cleared. The timber
seems to be quite bad to sprout and
cleared land has to be continually
gone over and sprouted, but / think
one reason for this is that no grubbing
is scarcely ever done. The land is
brushed or chopped off, then the
pillow put in and little attention paid
to taking out grubbs except as the
pillow will pull out small ones.
The greater portion Of the land is
stony, q kind of flint The stones as
q rule are not large yet in some
places they will be about the size OF q
peck measure, all loose and can be
plowed ont. The stone runs from
the size I have given down to gravel,
the most OF it being about the size of
base ball or less, not round and
water worn, but all corners and
angles like stone broken for mRcada-
mizlng;in fact the stony spots remind
one Of a newly lot of stone broken for
the purpose Of road meking. Still
there are what is called port oak fats
where there are but little stone. The
port oak land that is free from stone
is light sshy soil from six to twelve
inches deep unlaid with a red clay.
This land is not counted as good as
the stony land from the fact that
when il is wet it runs together and
becomes very compact; is cold and
sad and when dry it bakes very hard
and wears out sooner than stony
ground. Tt was a great surprise to
me to see corn growing on the stoniest
ground where one could not see dirt
enough to cover il with, yet there it
was IN fact as good as any place else.
The land by no means has the
strength that good Kansas land has,
because of the amount of stone. The
average corn crop is said to be by the
old settlers about twenty bushels per
acre; wheat ten bushels, oats eighteen
to twenty, potatoes they claim make
q large yield and all kinds Of garden
vegetable do we'll likewise. Glover,
orchard grass, timothy, and other
grasses do well. 1 have seen some
very nice pieces of clover and orchard
grass, but l think the excessive
drouth here this year has badly dam
aged the timothy where it was sown
alone. The drouth this year has been
the worst known for twenty-five years
so Mr.. Fields (son-in.law to james
Perry from Big Bend, Kansae), told
me who is native, and several others
have told me the same thing. Apples,
peaches, and in fact all kinds of fruit
seem to do well, though the crop was
very light this year. Near Granett
there are several large strawberry
fields from ten to twelve acres each.
But few people take good care of these
orchards hence they look scraggy.
Cattle and horses run in the orchard
and browse the trees which are sell
dom pruned, but where they are
cared for they look fine. A Mr.. Fair