Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1915-08-05
STORY TO Be IN SERIAL FORM
Miss Reid viii Furnish an Article
Each Week Telling of Her impress
sions of Her Western Trip.

traveller beholds the magnitude OF
the resources and the majesty OF
picturesque America!
"Breathes there man with soul
so dead
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
(Scott)
Leaving the beloved home city, re-
naming for a few hours only in cos
mopolitan Chicago with its Field
Museum erected at a cost of five mil
lion, Cook County Hospital, valued at
Z four million, its Art Institute and
Conservatives, our party began their
Journey westward via the Rock Is
land and Denver & Rio Grande.
From the first, community spirit,
mutually helpful, assured us that we
had made no mistake in travelling
tourists rates. Teachers, nurses and
business professionals compared notes
and views of the various states. In
fact we discussed public questions of
the day with the interest OF spirited
debate. Our associations, thus con-
genial, we arranged to review on the
Exposition grounds.
To a student of Ames College, Iowa
candidate for Phi. Degree and
specialist in agriculture, / owe the
following authentic descriptions:
The soil of Iowa is silt loan, there
being five formations. Two are gla
cial and three loessal. The oldei
leached out soil extending from cen
trail Iowa to the Missouri river Th'
farms comprise about one hundred
sixty acres each, valued between ont
hundred fifty and two hundred fit.
dollars per acre. IN the clear at
mosphere of the rolling hills one ob
serves the thrifty corn yielding, OF
an average, seventy or more bushel
to the acre and the grazing stock
the black Angus, (shipped in cattle
the Jerseys, the Short Horns and tn
Herfords.
Nebraska has a silt loan soil, alsC
deposits having been made by tn
Missouri river.
Wheat is the chief grain produC
while the Short Horn herds lead !
the live stock industry.
The Plat river has this interes-
ing feature; in the summer, near On
aha. the water runs underneath tn
surface. the channel thus encounte
ing less resistance Of coarse sam
This river is two miles wide at hig
tide and frequently floods its border
in the spring. Lincoln, the state ca
ital, boasts of five or six universitie
Kansas soil is prairie loan. Whei
as in Nebraska is the staple graf
Along the railroad one is startled
alert little brown creatures sitting
kangaroo positions, the prairie dog
also, the jack-rabbits gray in col
and measuring about a half foot
length.
In one section Of western Kansi
land agents made three settleme
attempts thrice abandoning the
because of dry weather and cons
ouent ruined crops The towns
this state are shipping centers.
The mountains Of Colorado, col
one ever forget theml Great \
lures pillars towering ever upwa
like the soul Of an ideal that mt
burst all bounds of materialism a
ascend unto its Creatorl Snow G.
cred. blue hued friends, in the d
lance they seemed to weave an
Gent Grecian legion of poetry
sculpturel Observing their stup
duous masses from the observat
car, they spoke of the greatness
time and eternity and of the mary
Gus chiseling of the Master Art
In the evening, when the perpendi
lar decent inclined the plain of oil
berth until slumber was chased fl
ones eyes, how wonderfully pict
esoue and fairy-enchanted Of
world became as the train, winding
and out, steadily, cautiously,
breaks grating, grating, as the !
twelve coached train obeyed the in
tus of that giant of power, the ia
full locomotive. In this vast exps
how pretty was the trinkle of
dazzling little lights in which 81
the brave welcome of the little vii
es that dared to hold their own
dering over words adequate to exp