Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1904-05-04
Kansas VS.. Illinois.

few more lines. We are going to try
and answer some of the objections
commonly raised against Kansas, and
want to be fair with our friends back
there in every word we may say, for at
one time we were just like
think there was any place
in the world except Illinois. that man
could live in, and even after we had
left there it took us several years to be-
come convinced that we were wrong in
our judgment. One of the greatest OBJ
1ections they have to Kansas is that we
have lots of dust storms, and they get
the idea that it is an every day Oc.
cur-ence. This is entirely wrong idea.
We do occasionally have wind storms
and dust storms, but they seldom last
long. sometimes only few hours and
sometimes day or so, but we never
had one to last as long as five or six
weeks, while in Illinois they have their
impossible roads for weeks at a time.
Take the present spring for an illustra
ton: they haven't had but little good
weather aud we might say no good
roads since about the time we arrived
there the 25th of last February at least
up to the 18th Of this month, this
being the latest we have heard from
there. They are still having rain and
mud. Now just let them compare this
long spell of bad roads with day now
and then of wind and dust, and let
them also remember that if it is windy
a whole day, the rule is that the next
day will be as fine as could be asked,
and we can get out and work with com.
fort. We think this beats their long
muddy spell five hundred per cent.
Then they brag or did Drag when first
got there, that they had had fine win
ter. It had been cold all winter, no
mud, but the ground had been frozen
about two feet, and compare this con-
dition with Kansas at the same time.
We had but two days during the winter
That it got below zero. and they perhaps
had about the same number of days
that 1t didn't get below. Does 1T look
reasonable that with the weather at
or below zero for months, it could be
as good place for one to handle stock
as it would be if it seldom got to zero?
It may be that zero weather there
makes 1t good feeding weather, but our
experience has been that the less of
that kind of weather the less feed it
requires to keep up the animal heat,
and 1Qovoc no hot v,o,,oh moro RI v,,lt nv,
fat. Again, they have to feed their
stock long time, can't run them on
their wheat fields like we can, and If
they did they wouldn't have any wheat
to harvest, as their land will not stand
tramping like ours. We have heard
some Of them say you people can't
raise hogs on account of not having the
corn to feed them. All We have to say
on the hog question and never plant
grain of corn, for we can grow Alfalfa
and with that grow more hogs than
they can, and besides we don't have
any hog cholera here while they. with
all of their corn, have but little as.
surance of having the hog to feed when
the corn is cribbed, for they have lots
of hog cholera. But they are wrong on
the whole question, for In the first
place we can and do grow more corn
per acre In proportion to the amount of
work done than they can or ever do
grow. We can and do grow more per
man, and of just as good quality, as
they have, and, taking the past season
as an example, we are ahead of them
for they have but little corn now that
is Dit for seed, and we all have a good
quality of corn and don't have to send
off for our seed. There are more cattle
fed IN this locality than in any locality
visited there, and we don't have to
/: ship in corn to do it either. Our farm
ers grow corn; they have it to sell and
keep. So that part Of the objection
doesn't cut much ice. Another
matter that looks big to those people is
that we have drouths here, and am
proud to admit that this is true, for if
we didn't we might have to take some
of their kind of weather, and know
from experience in both states that it is
much more pleasant to be knocked out
by drouth than by flood, for while
we are losing little by drouth we can
still get around and see our friends and
neighbors, and our roads are always in
fine shape, while with them while the
elements are using up their crops all
they can do is to sit in the house. or wade
the mud, and. wish they were anywhere