Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1902-03-27
FROM ARKANSAS.
An Interesting Letter From a Special
Correspondent at Tex
arkand.
Sprino Blizzard Touched Up the
Fruit Orchards at that
Distant Point.
Missouri is Rapidly Coming to
the Front Since Farmers
Diversified.


Diversified.
Texarkana, Ark, March Is, Especial
cOrrespOndence).- The spring blizzard
that swooped down on North Dakota
last week extended it's force to this
distant southern point and there are
fears that the fruit is injured, although
most of it was only in bloom. Had it
been a little later the injury to bud
ding fruit would have been serious.
The warm days of last week here have
boen followed by sharp crisp air and
coats replaced shirt sleeves in all the
country south Of Kansas City. SO
much for the potency of the Manitoba
wave.
The effects Of the great drought OF
last year are plainly visible in Iowa,
Missouri and Kansas. The pastures,
woodland and upland, are eaten OIL as
clean as if thousands ofsheep had been
nibbling on them. The corn stalks
are stripped Of their every leaf and
there is not a sign of feed or grass to
be seen anywhere, except an occasional
stack Of hay, closely guarded by fenc-
ing and doled out to the stock in
mouthfuls. Many Of the cattle are
very weak, and stock of all kinds are
waiting on short rations for the COM
ing of new grass. Should spring be
much longer delayed it is feared that
many OF the cattle would perish. The
shipment of thousands of young stock
into North Dakota last fall, it is seen,
was necessity, not choice.
The whole aspect Of the country in
the states of Missouri, Iowa and east
ern Kansas is rapidly changing. The
timber is about cut off, the streams
are drying up and each acre of tillable
ground is being farmed for the utmost
1T will produce. A crop failure now
means much more than it would When
the population was less and land lay
in uncultivated tracts. Lands in Wes-
tern Missouri is worth from S20 to $50
an acre where the soil is adapted for
farming. The old reputation Of Mis-
souri, being state to keep clear OF for
the civilized being is not confirmed by
facts for the region south OF Kansas
City for 200 miles is as fine country
as one would wish to see. Good farm
houses, groves of trees, big barns, new
buildings and well titled land, that
raises about every farm product of the
west and northwest, abound on every
hand. The people are not the lazy,
easy going farmers of southern tradi-
ton, but active fruit raisers, grain and
stock growers. Missouri is one of the
greatest states in her natural re-
sources in the Unior, but, like the un-
happy blizzard reputation which has
attached to North Dakota, Missouri
has bad reputation to overcome,
which is not justified by facts any
more than the weather notoriety of
our own great state.
The country for 400 miles north of
KansasI City, ;.along the Kansas City
and Southern railway, is a surprise to
the northern man. New towns, new
enterprises and new development are
seen on every hand. There are great
resources still developing and greater
ones still to be developed. Kansas City
is the metropolis of the region and is
growing fast. Its numerous hills be-
ing covered with fine residences and
it's up-ahd-down streets covered with
business: movement. The city has
225,OOO people and 20 years ago was a
small town on the border of the great
west. Its packing house industries
promises to outstrip that of Chicago
in dozen years.
The secret:of the growth of this
country is diversified farming and ut
ilizing more than one or two main
resources The exclusive wheat farm
er of North Dakota can here see that
his one string to the bow would mean
ruin for him, as it has and will there.
Grain, stock, fruit, minerals, timber,
poultry, butter, eggs, tobacco, garden
vegetables and feed grasses are all the
objects of production by the people
who live! e!shere. Apples, peaches and
all fruits of commerce, grown in tenn
perate regions, are here in abundance
and the great apple orchards along the
line of the road, many Of them young
trees, show the effect of adapting the
products to the soil and climate.
At Pittsburg, in the eastern part of
Kansas, are extensive coal mines and