The Van Buren press., 1897-11-06
ADVERTISING 4 STATE.
Citizens of Arkansas Should Adopt
Means to Secure More Factories.
A Way to Create a Home Market FOR the
Products of Tarmers-ENery county IN
the State Adapted to General
Or Special Crops.


Not until within few years has
there been any effort worthy of note
to advertise Arkansas, and yet the
per cent. of increase in population has
been larger than that of any other
southern state except Florida, and the
ratio is vet held. Moreover, the assessed
wealth of the state has kept pace with
the population increase. showing sound
and general prosperous conditions OF
the people. Trains of covered wagons
have arrived from all points of the
compass and at all seasons, year IN ana
year out. bringing in, as rule, farmers
of limited means who have settled on
small tracts of cheap lands and en-
| gagged in the work of building up 4
| home. Colonies, toe, have come by ran
and settled in communities here and
there, whose steady work of developing
soil resources has been rewarded with
success. But Arkansas has never eX-
perieneed an immigration hoom-that
is to say. such an influx of newcomers
as has marked certain aras in the his
| tory Of Kansas and Nebraska, and one
reason is there has never been gen
eral and systematic effort made by the
people of Arkansas TO induce the tide
of heme-Seekers 10 turn this way. The
land department Of the Iron Mountain
railroad has expended large sums of
money in advertising its lands and
local immigration societies have at
times sent ont descriptive matter, but
these efforts are nothing compared TO
the vigorous aud uneeasing endeavorS
which n few years ago characterized
/ the people II Kansas and other western
states. especially Kansas
How They Advertised Kansas.
4 few years ago the traveller would
see specimens Of Kansas products at all
{ the union stations Of the eastern cities.
I SheaveS Of wheat and cats, ears Of
corn. flax and samples of peaches, APP
pies and other fruits were ON display,
together with maps and descriptive
literature in unlimited quantity. In
fact, every eastern railroad depot had
a Kansas department, many of which
were supplied with special agent to
give information not contained in
printed circulars. Then, too, the news
papers Of Kansas, regardless of poll
tics. took special pains to advertise the
state. Every citizen placed the name
of some eastern friend ON the editors
mailing book Every new conner sub
scribed for the local newspaper and
had copy sent to his brother or
brother-in-law back east, and every
paper spoke of big corn and marvellous
yields of wheat, mammoth pumpkins,
watermelons and potatoes; of splendid
hotels, church edifiees and school
houses; of magnificent opera houses,
colleges and public buildings. All the
pleasing features of the new state were
made conspicuous by the editors and
each week the mail discharged tens of
thousands of these newspapers into the
eastern and middle states to be read
by the persons receiving them and then
handed to the next door neighbor. As
the continuous dropping of water wears
away the rock, so the continuous read
ing of the wonders of Kansas had its
effect. People sold their eastern homes
ana went to Kansas to invest the pro-
ceeds Numerous and various sur
prises were in store for them. Within
mile of a town having a big opera
house and mammoth hotels, they would
find people living in a sod house. But
they were there to stay and they made
the best of it. They in turn sent local
papers back to their sisters and their
cousins and their aunts. The effort was
magical. More neighbors followed, and
in spite of cyclones, drouths and locusts,
the prairie land of Kansas is now known
as the great grain field of the universe,
while the people who a few years ago
inhabited sod houses now live in the
finest farm houses the country affords.
Systematic and persistent advertising
accomplished the work.
What Has Been Demonstrated.
Every county in Arkansas is adapted
to either genera, or special crops, or
both. granting the farmer the privil-
ege of choosing between the one and
the other. Soil unfriendly to cotton
will yield a renumeratiye crop of some
. hAnNs AAA1AEA II what Sk'NAAhA N40ho
adapted to the different soils is a ques-
ton not generally understood, but
| knowledge in this line is being brought
to light by the experiment stations.
/ Not many years ago Grand Prairie was
thought 10 be designed for perpetual
grass plot on which 10 Craze the farm
ers herds. This splendid tract Of prai-
! ries lies between the Arkansas and
White rivers and IS 90 miles long by
about 20 wide. with light colOred soil
/ which is more fertile a foot or two
/ below than at the surface. consequently
/ inexhaustab bic Cotton does not thrive
on il as on valley or cleared lands
though fair crops have been raised in
/ favorable season, but for general farm
ing il Is admirable, Colonies Of Ger
mans occupy large tracts Of this prairie
I land and have demonstrated that il il
I adapted 10 cereals potatoes grapes
and fruits which ripeu early. while
hsv j. lis natural product, two crops o.
/ which are harvested every year. Th'
| town Of Stuttgart ! situated near h,
geographical center Of the prairie
me VISITOR who goes 10 Stuttgart ex
pectinE % meet . German speakin.
community VIII soon discover his mis-
take No pace n Arkansas has $
largely the air q q northern town q
I Stuttgart n spite of is Duieh name
] It's peop-ed almost wholly with CON
-nurft5ss t-zusplznled from Iowa
Net-zslza and Kansas with q larF
s----r,,li-r a ohioa1s Indianians an
Tl5rl5szs grins 20 abundance q
grass z-1 mid climate Grand Prairl