The Mena weekly star., 1913-06-05
an Oklaboman
 5ees arkansas
James R. BOnheur, After Ten Months in State. Writes mtelli- gently of What He Learned.


 May l6, 1913.
 spent ten months in the state, and can say the world at large has but the Naguest idea of Arkansas. Its topography combines with la!'- Jude to produce a genial, equable climate. The effect of the southern sun is to prolong rather than inten- sify the summer season. It is not subject to extreme cold.
 An acre of ground can produce it's crop in many commodities and then turn around and produce another before frost comes. Fresh second crop radishes, onions, snap beans and peas are common in November
 In every locality there is plenty of timber for building and fuel pur- poses, and because of these advan- tages the cost of home building is at a minimum and the item of fuel does not enter into the expense list of the Arkansas farmer. Before it's settlement. with the exception of oc- casional stretches of prairie, the whole area was a forest wilderness. both hill and valley being covered with luXuriant growth of highly valuable commercial timber, the dif- ferent varieties of which have been found to number l29. Hundreds of thousands of acres of these richest of lands, once shaded by the giants of the forest, are now cultivated in field crops and orchards. There is still enough timber in the forests of Arkansas to supply the saw mills and woodenware factories for many generations to come, and as the rail- roads extend and the forests are opened up the industries dependent upon this class of material are be- coming more numerous.
 It is one of the curious things con- nected with the development of any section that the richer the natural resources, as rule, the slower it is in emerging from the wilderness state and the more reluctant it ap- pears to be in taking on the polish of perfect civilization.
 Early settlers are too often con- tent with the prim. i've accommoda- tion, where an easy livelihood may be Wrung from such a section to think of spending energy and time in developing the resources so lav- ishly bestowed upon the land Little doubt this was the case with the Ar kansas settlers. Such wealth of tim Der for house building and fencing: such riches of game-deer, turkeys. pigeons, cartridges, ducks, geese, | squirrels. opOssums and racoOns. the skins of which considered in early years to be equivalent to a quarter | of a dollar as a current medium of trade; such opulence of grasses and i fruits; such unimagined resources of mineral treasures-the world has fused tumble of good things scram- bled together in a huge pie of the same dimensions The early settler could build his cabin from the logs felled on his own home site He could stock his larder with game shot from his own door and could grown corn and vegetables by merely punching hole in the soil to drop the seed in. He could clOthe him. self in the skins supplied by his traps or his trusty rifle, or in the dry goods for which he could trade them at the nearest trading station. He failed too often to see the sense in striving for superabundance when he had plenty already
 is awakening from her sleep. Shehas slept by the water of the great view and dreamed in the sun, while her less favored sisters have been up and achieving, and Arkansas became. not without reason, it must be ad- mitted, sheer upon the lips of the scotIer, But the wealth in volume and variety undreamed of by her detractors is destined in good time to lift her from the mire to which they have been relegating her and set Arkansas down among the proudest commonwealths of the union.
 It is a state of magnificent dis tances, but she lacks more than any thing else today, people and im- proved sanitary and compulsory free school laws. strictly enforced. There are sickly districts. and in many parts can be found grown up people who can neither read nor write The time is coming soon when her vast tracts will be broken up into small farms and intensive farming will replace the present improvident methods.
 Arkansas exhibits almost every climate to be found between the British possessions on the north and the Gulf of Mexico on the south. It is situated between the parellels of B and 3660 and between the me- ridians of 89 and 95 west. It shows an elevation of 2Si feet above the Gulf of Mexico along the southern boundary and 2,3i0 feet in the north ern part. Arkansas is larger than New York or Pennsylvania. It is only One-fifth smaller than all the New England states combined.
 In the northwest winter wheat and the apple grow as though indi- genious to the land. Tn the south are found the cotton and sugar cane in all their luxuriance and produc-