The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1915-03-31
From Oklahoma.
indianapolis, Okla, March %, 1916
Editor Denison Review,
y)anjSnn Iowa

| Indianapolis, Okla. March %, 1915
Editor Denison Review,
| DeniSOn, Iowa.
r Dear Sir: Your weekly edition has
been coming to our door for some time
past, and as l have relatives and ac'
quaintanceS scattered over Crawford
county and they consider Oklahoma q
remote and barren part of the globe,
thought 1 might be able through your
paper to shed ray on light IN behalf
of this locality that might bring them
to realize that Misrepresentation are
ever flying through the air.
ain going to set forth a few facts
in regard to this western part of the
state and will refer you to any bank
in this (Custer) county as to the truth
fulness of the statements.
I We are located in west central Okla
hOma. The second tier of counties east
of the panhandle of Texas. And will
say that the two main objections that an
Illinois or Iowa person has to this sec
ton is the color of the soil and the abb
sence of corn.
shall explain what l know about
these objections. We have mostly red
soil. Some is black and a little of a
grayish color The red is the best Gf
dark or deep red, then the black and
last the gray. The red is very friable,
duce a good crop of anything that is
adapted to the semi-arid region. The
black land is tight, hard and compact,
but works up nice in the spring, but at
the approach of the summer dry spells
dries out very rapidly and plant life is
derful promise of crops early In the
summer. The gray soil is only in small
spots and is worthless except for the
native grass.
The leading crops are wheat. kafir'.
milo maize, alfalfa, millet and cotton.
Feterita, Sudan grass and a few other
Of the sorghums have sprung into prom
inence here in the last few years Corn
ranges from nothing to 20 bushels per
acre. "A fair average being tx to s
bushels per acre Oats is an uncertain
crop raised 1876 bushels on " acres
last year, but 1918 crop didn't pay for
seed and labor to harvest and thresh IT.
Kafir, maize and feterita run from II
to As btAshels of tfreshed grain per
acre and the average of this county last
year for the wheat was 14.7 bushels per
acre. The paying by-erops that can be
raised here are so numerous that l can
not mention all of them. Some of the
leading ones are sweet potatoes, goo
berss or peanuts, COW peas, cane and most
all kinds of garden truck except cab
bage and lettuce.
Grass is fit for pasture here about
seven months in the. year Some. loose
mouthed real estate dealers here adver-
tise grass pasture tile year aroundD 1t
is here all right, but from the last of
October to April 10tllrit lis dead and
stock won't eat it. However, when the
fall of the year is anyways seasona BILE
wheat. gets a good start and 1t can be
pastured all winter and stays green ex-
cept in the coolest snaps. There are al
ways intervals of warm growing wealth
err during the winter and lit soon re-
cuperates from the cold snap. l have
81 acres of rye. northeast of my house
that has been green every day since
Nov. ], 1914, but the fall was dry and
it has grown slowly this winter. Rye
makes better pasture, than wheat, but
there As very little grown and we have
no regular market for it.A My rye has
grown nicely the past month and to