The Vinita daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1902-1913, 1911-03-21
BY William E. Curtis in the Chicago
Record Herald.

By William E. Curtis in the Chicago
Record-Herald.
We will call Oklahoma the Mira
Gle State" because of the wonderful
things that have occurred in its his
tory and because its growth and de-
velopment have been more rapid than
that of any other community in hui
man history. Oklahoma will be twen-
ty-two years old on the 22d of April,
for one that day, in 1889, the gun was
fired which was signal for the rush
of home hunters who had gathered
on the four borders of the territory
to join in race for the choice Of
farms and lots in the towns that had
already been laid out by government
engineers. Until that date, the land
being within Indian reservations, no
white settlers were allowed to occupy
the military lines to get ahead of the
game were removed by force.
During that twenty-five years a
population of more than 100000 has
come into the state, and that total is
increasing at the rate of 20 per cent
a year. The census of 1890 showed
252,657 people. that of 1900 showed
790,991, and on June /, 1910, there
were 1,657,155. Last year (191O) the
value of the crops harvested was
1921, ,996, 900, and the value of the live
stock as reported by the census is
$13S, ,172,cO0.
Oklahoma has more mules than any
other state in the union except Mis-
souri,, and more than the state of Illi-
nois, Ohio, New York and Pennsyl-
vania combined. Oklahoma has more
horses than Kentucky has horses and
cattle combined. She has S04 900
horses, valued at $65, ,124,0OO; she has
$4,000 mules, valued at $2O,O55, 600;
she has $4,000 mich COWS, valued at
$11, $4,000; she has 1,637,000 beef
cattle, valued at $31 100000; she has
100000 swine, valued at $1O.025, 900.
The farmers wives received $4,000, 900
last year for their eggs and poultry,
most of which were passed over the
counters of the country stores in ex-
change for merchandise. The climate
and other conditions are remarkably
favorable for poultry culture, and the
rich pasturage and abundant forage
crops make it an ideal dairy country.
The soil, the rainfall, the climate
and freedom from the evils that far
mers have to fight in other states
make Oklahoma the ideal farming
country of the world, all conditions
being more favorable here than any
other place in the universe, where
mankind has tried to earn living by
the sweat of his brow. The homes
that stand upon these beautiful prai-
ries cost less labor and the pioneers
who occupy them have suffered less
hardships tha nthose of any new land
that was ever settled.
Every staple that is known to the
temperate zone can be produced in
Oklahoma, and upon many a farm
may be found growing side by side
all of the agricultural products that
thrive between the two oceans and be-
tween the great lakes and the gulf.
Oklahoma can produce not only an
unlimited quantity of corn and wheat,
but an unlimited quantity of cotton
and the fruits of the south and the
fruits of the north will grow in the
same orchard.
The area of the state is 44,324,16O
acres, of which, after only twenty-five
years, q, ,353,395 acres are fenced, and
more than ten million acres are un-
der the plow. Only 2,875,704 acres
Of farm lands were returned for tax.
alton in 1900, the taxable area having
been multiplied four times in ten
years.
Indian corn has the largest acreage,
produces the largest yield and brings
the farmer the largest income of all
the crops that he plants. A total oil
5,617914 acres was planted TO corn
last year, which yielded an average
of sixty bushels to the acre, and in
some cases as high as eighty bushels
The yield was 9O,639, 1896 bushels. Near
ly all of the crop was turned into pork
on the farms where it was grown.
The second crop is cotton, which
yields an average of three-quarters
of bale to the acre. The acreage in
1910 was 1,9O6,741 and the yield 776,
600 bales. Practically all of the land
along the southern tier of counties cn
the Texas border is planted to cotton
There are counties in Oklahoma
where the wheat acreage is greater
than that of any other crop. although
that grain ranks third in volume and
value of the agricultural products. The