The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-10-11
KANSAS news.
Leavenworth Man Writes of HIS
Rosebud Claim.
He Thinks His Farm Is Good
Enough for Anybody.
WONDERFUL COUNTRY.
Has a Sod House Twelve by
Eighteen Feet Inside.
Is a Great Place for Fruit With
Apples Cheap.

Leavenworth, Kan, Oct. 1.-THE
Times says:
News comes from DR.. Waldron, the
Leavenworth veterinarian who drew a,
good claim in the Bonesteel land allot-
ments, in the shape of letter to the
Times in which he tells an interesting
descriptive story of his coming to Bone
steel, the conditions which exist there,
the life being led by the settlers and
other matters of interest.
DR.. Waldron arrived in Bonesteel
August IL and filed his claim taking
possession of the land which he at once
began to improve and fence. He pick
ed out a quarter section, eighteen miles
west and one. mile south of Bonesteel,
three miles west and six miles south of
Harrig and four miles north and one
half mile west of Jameson, Neb. He
describes his farm as being an amphi-
theater surrounded on three sides by
highlands, and sloping gently from the
center of the farm to the foothills in
each direction. The doctor, in his epis-
tie, says that he can stand at his house
in the center of the farm and easily
discern a dog OF pig standing in any
part of the quarter section.
This farm is supplied with plenty of
good water to be found at a depth of
from two to twenty feet and in addition
is divided by what is known as Hay
creek, one of the waterways of the
reservation. The matter of water sup
ply for the farm seems to be removed
a factor. In addition the doctor says
the hills protect the farm from the
scorching winds of the south as well as
from the northwestern billiards., max
ing the farm, all in all, a desirable piece
of ground and one which a novice might
have overlooked.
An interesting part of the doctors let
ter refers to the building of his home, a
sod house, twelve by eighteen feet in
- 1Ar,% xrvffL Hob not
ceiling. The one room house is never
theless comfortab BILE with three windows,
a door, furnished with stove, bed, tables
and other furniture and tight and warm
in winter.
In regard to the soil of the reserva-
ton DR.. Waldron says that it is rich
and beyond doubt capable of producing
splendid crops. but he says that it will
take from three to five years to get it
all under real cultivation. The land las
to be subdued and Ed of roots which are
in the ground everywhere in aggravat-
ing profuSion. 1t will take some time
to kill and rot these.
DR.. Waldron expresses the opinion
that corn will never be a profitable
crop, owing to the brief summers, but
oats, spelt, wheat, potatoes and ai1sveg-
etab1es grow luxuriantly and yield large
profits ! Fruits also grow in great
variety and profusion and the veteri
marian expresses some surprise at the
way apples grow there. Fine native
cents per bushel and home grown win
ter apples can be secured at this season
at 81 to $1.25 per bushel-
DR.. Walden managed to put up if
teen tons of hay for use before a dis
astrous prairie fire swept over the
reservation and burned the grass and
hay from many of the farms. Cattle
will have to be fed in the stables or
sold by those whose farms have been
ravaged by the prairie fire, according to
the doctor.
For four days previous to writing the
letter he had been busy fighting the
prairie fire which came up in the north
and swept across the great plateau of
rich table-land at the rate of fifteen
miles an hour, jumping a hundred feet
across barred places and consuming ev-
erything in it's path. Men turned out
with plows to turn the grass under,
with harrows to bare the clay and with
wet cloths and brooms to fight the mon
ster fire and in the end the efforts of
man won, but not until what would
have made 5000 tons of hay, was con-
Sumed.
In closing DR.. Waldron expresses
great confidence in the great northwest
and it's future, saying that he constant
ly falls more and more in love with the
country and that he expects to see it
like another Kansas in time.