The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1905-01-12
Billings, Oklahoma,
January 2nd, '05


January 2nd. '05
Geo. n. Breed,
Brookings, 5. ID.
Dear friend George: As to my prom
ise to write you my impressions OF the
country, climate, and people that l
saw and conversed with on my trip
throughout Kansas and Oklahoma
during the past several months, will
endeavor to give YOU the results OF my
observations.
To saw that | am delighted with the
climate, surprised at the development
. in the newer portions of the states, and
amazed at the Weld per acre of wheat,
corn, oats, hay, alfalfa, kaffir corn,
\ cane. and after witnessing the crop
Gathering as / did this fall, it does not
\ cause me to wonder why and how hum
dreds upon hundreds OF farmers In
4 this country who came here empty
4 handed but a few years ago, have pald
q for their land, built fine homes and
barns: have fine herds OF the sleekest
4.s took ever saw, in fact, many OF them
gconfess that it has come about SO
suuicklv that they hardly realize how
they did it: but all admit that the
real reason is simply this: Soil, clim-
Il ate, seed: Nature does the rest. 1t is
actually the farmers paradise and II
4 Won ever saw contented, satisfied
people. they are the ones, especially
so as the majority of them are north
q ern people who have lived in Wiscon-
Il sin, Illinois, Indiana, Nebraska, and
not a few from Minnesota and south
Dakota, and know by experience what
4 it means to spend good share OF
q their hard earned money feeding
< stock. building barns and stock sheds;
n clothes and coal for their own needs III
the battle with snow storms and bllZ-
yards, while here in this land OF sun
shine the stock Craze all winter on
u fields of winter wheat, which is from
four to six inches in growth at this
time of the year, producing line
\ Grade of butter at this season when
butter prices are the highest; and again
let me say, George, the poultry and
4 egg business in such land as this is
y like finding money. If you could see
the eggs come into market here now
q that prices are sky high you would
really understand how the eggs and
poultry pay the living expenses OF the
farmer. Climate is responsible for all
Il this, as certainly the hen scratches for
"a herself here. and gets no care. really
y am almost persuaded to quit the life
q insurance business and go into the
poultry and farm business here in
q Western Kansas. | can readily see
that with half the care necessary in the
north a big thing could be made OF it
\ here. | have seen acres and acres OF
corn here that matured thirty to forty
!. bushels per acre on ground that pro-
Y duced eighteen to twenty-siX bushels
Of plump dollar wheat this same seas
on, what do you thing of that George?
A How does that compare with country
where it is a scratch to secure one corn
n crop between frost or freeze? Dakota
n is all right George, but life is too short
TO take such chances when in two days
B travel the rail road will land you
where, even now, the air is balmy as
spring. The fields are as green as in
springtime. The land, which is
i 4slightly rolling prairie, can be seen
y from house top for twenty to thirty
q five miles in all directions from any
point, is the most beautiful panorama
il ever beheld, dotted here and there
with groves and hedges of peach and
plum trees. Tree growth is marvellous
here; have seen peach and apple trees
set out this season make a growth of
six or ten branches three or four feet
long in one summer. Fruit of all sorts
thrive here. | have seen Kansas Or
chards this fall of from 40Nto 100 acres
beaded with fruit. l tell you it is
sight, and the corn fields; thought
@had seen corn in Wisconsin, Illinois
IA nd Iowa and other states, but after
"a eeing the corn fields here / have con-
:Aluded that the awarding ofthe Worlds
HFair Prize was Justly due this country.
Northern people generally imagine this
land out in the wilderness. Rural
Free Delivery mail routes are being
%fun in every direction, telephone wires
eyerywhere; rail road market towns in
Hose proximity; coal is being found
here; oil wells are a reality, and when
(say that nature has done more good
hings for Kansas and Oklahoma than
br any other portion OF the United
States think i can safely prove it.
rom healthy standpoint must con-
SIS that never saw so little sickness
$ any sort, and forthose suffering from