Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1912-11-09
SATURDAY. NovEBER 9, 1912.
J.w. Bingham Writes About Arkansas

Spring Hill, Kansas. NOV .. 19lZ-
Mr. II. S. Givler,
Wa-Keeney, Kansas,
Dear Sir:
When / left Wa-Keeney it was my
intention to make a trip to Arkansas
and look at the country in Benton
county with the intention of locating
there if / found anything which suit
ed me- / made the trip and looked
at the country around Rogers, Spring
town, Sloan Springs and Gentry and
FUND many Kansas and northern
people around these places. i was
pleased, in way, with these cities
and the country, but j cannot grow
very enthusiastic over it although l
must admit that Benton county Ar
kansas produces the stuff in the
fruit, vegetable and poultry line and
especially in fruit. An immense a.
mount of wholesale and retail bust
ness is done at Rogers while at Sloan
Springs is located the largest cider
and vinegar plant in the world with
a capacity of handling $500 bushels of
apples daily and a storage capacity of
over 6O0,O00 gallons which is now all
full. Apple orchards are as thick in
that country as wheat fields are in
western Kansas, and most of the
orchards are on hill land which is
very stony and does not look like it
would raise anything, However, the
stones are loose and i saw farmers
using a sulky pillow as easily as they
can in Trego county.
/ liked the country around Sloan
Springs and the city, better than that
around any of the other cities visited
and am trying to close deal where
by will get possession of a nineteen
acre piece within two miles of the
postoffice. j think the reason j can
not grow enthusiastic over Arkansas
is because it is too much of a change
in appearance from the county in
which i have lived for the last four
teen years. 1t is timbered country
and most of it is very stony. / have
lived in a prairie country for so long
that when get where there's so many
trees 1 feel Gagged and cooped up and
to that add the stones, and add them
SO thick that on many small farms
you CdLIlOU see Iilc Sui lOI CIlch you
set a man from the prairie wondering
if he would ever feel satisfied in such
a country. The land around Sloan
Springs is not so stony and the small
place / have picked out is more in the
open and very few stones on it. How
ever, there are good orchards and
farms around it.
The desirable land, such as that
well improved and that close to the
cities, is quite high in price but one
has so many opportunities to buy
small particles of it such as five, ten,
twenty and forty acres, that it iS not
necessary TO make very great in
vestment in order to get home and
land enough on which to make liv-
ing and one can make a living on a
very few acres in that country. If
can get the land l have herein
referred to / will be pleased and
will try to make a home on it in
time but / am not going to turn real
estate agent and try to induce the
population to vacate western Kansas.
If conditions had been little differ
ent with me l never would have left
Wa-Keeney- This is a good country
and Arkansas is a good country but
to me there is fascination about the
prairie which nothing else can satisfy.
Respectfully yours,
], w. BINGHAM.
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