The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-10-22
On GADDO PRAIRIE.
|. M. AxIine Describes One of
the Garden Spots
OF THE CHOCTAW NATION
Fine Soil, With Fine Building
Stone Underlying,

Guthrie, o. T., Oct. N.-L NJ Axline,
one of the appraisers of the indian lands
now in the Choctaw nation, writes an en-
pertaining letter in regard to the country.
He says: THE appraisers of Choctaw
lands under the Dawes commission, have
been working for several days on the
Caddo prairie, said to be the largest body
of good land in the Choctaw nation. The
CaddO prfairie is not a vast expanse of
level prairie like western Kansas, but Is
cut up by streams, fringed with timber
and with bois dare bushes The low
spots and draws are filled with bois dare
trees and at this season they are covered
with apples; so that in driving across the
country the traveller sees on all sides
clumps of trees that look like old or
chards laden with fruit Most Of the soil
fthe Caddo prairie is black, limestone
loam-called black waxy rand. After a
rain the mud sticks 10 wheels of vehicles
and packs between the spokes and against
the wgon bed until it is almost impossible
for a team to draw an empty wagon. The
sought after. Limestone rock is scattered
all over and through the Caddo prairie
and Underlies all of it, Only now and
then is found a patch of any extent free
Of rock However. in many places the
land is easily cleared of rock, and when
you can get rid of the rock the soil is all
right.
I'VE are gradually getting down into
the country where the bois d'arc-pro-
nounced 'bodark' and commonly known in
Kansas as Orage orange-fourishes. Bois
dare means wood of the arc. so we pre-
sumo is claimed by some to have been
fused bH Noah. The wood is much sought
after and used for fence posts, piling and
wagon timber Whenonce seasoned it is
practically indestructible Fence posts
last for a lifetime: wagon wheels made
drom the timber stand rain, heat. could
and drouth without shrinking or swelling.
and consequently the tires rarely, if ever,
have to be set. and piling cut from the
timber IS much sought after by railroad
companies
"A few days since we saw the first rat
tan wood We have ever seen. It was n
vine and grows quite plentifully IN the
thickets on the lowlands in this section.
We 90 not know to what extent it is
scattered through the nation
There IS much fine stone of different
kinds in the ShOctaw nation. and no at
tention is paid to it in classifying and ap-
praising lands. Finez andstone. limestone.
granite and other kinds of rock abound.
We would not be surprised if some Of the
best building stone in the United States
Is not eventually unearthed here. The
weather is quite COOL but up to dete we
have escaped frost. The cold wave is
cutie welcome to the appraisers.
Almost every person is busy during the !
summer and fall here. Fleas, bedbugs
and mosquitoes abound. but not in much
greater quantities, probably. than in
southwest Kansas; but in addition to the
above are the ticks. In some sections here |
the ticks are thick-in places where cat
tie range and among small underground !
and grass not burned in fall of previous
season. Ticks are Of three classes: seed
ticks, yearlings and two-year-olds. Seed
ticks appear in the early summer and are
80 small as to be hardly distnguishable
by the naked eye. the yearling is about
the size Of a pin head and flourishes in
the fall; the two-year-olds come later and
are larger than yearings. a tick sticks
closer than a brother and hence fakes
business for the people If you meet a
man and engage him in conversation. and
notice after a bit that ne is losing inter-
est in the talk, and his hand is stealing
up unfer his arm, or in some other direc-
ton, YOU viii know that a tick is claim
ing his attention. The ticks are the most
aEEravating small pest we have run
across. Chiggers flourish down here and
are far more active and plentiful than
any other place have ever been.
Snakes are not so numerous in this
country as one would suppose Possibly
the fact that hogs run at large keeps
down the snake crop, as the surface in
dicatons are favorable to reptiles. Cen
tipedes and trantulas grow to a large size
here and are said TO be quite poisonous.
We have seen some fair specimens. Some
OF the members OF our camp captured a
Centipcde about eight inches long a few
DAYS ago. He was a Misunderstanding Gus
toner and appeared 10 be almost as dan
Eerous as a ratJlesnake, whether so or
not