y %*> 5,°-^ * +* «5°* *£>. ^ /\ V *► * ,0 V 0°"°* o ^ °^s • • » \ * A* ^5 V o °o *«. ^ 'A v " V f ' <0 -7- y...A A oV Si ' > w o -Z- ), o • » - «5°* o 'bv 1 V XT '\ /0 •I o ■A o >V ^ b % ^ ^ ^ <• . ^<5>. " ^ J?^ ^» ^^ TA<^ ,♦* 4ggK- %.,/ ;^ifr °- ^ • Ill': V** #|fe \/ "... •*• *o . » * ,0 O f> /O c ° " ° . "*b Q \ „ « , „ ^ ^ ' «2 ^ ,<£ /°- ^°^. v'---' ' : -.-' ^ -y ^ N « °t- 9 ^^ "^ "* ^ "^o* c k ,o v . V f • • < rt** "* "o, a. F* O V C\ ; •:•:• A, Bqqk By G? £. ©ewl^tupy TOPEKA, KANSAS A. S. JOHNSON iS.S- \ Enterril according to Vcl of I ongress, in the year 1883, I!v A. S. JOHNSON, in the office of the Librarian "f Congress, at Washington. Press of Knight & Leonard, Chicago. Cover by Globe Printing and Pi-bushing Co., Springfield, ■ pbio. f} ftJOF^D BEFOREHAND 7^V"S V DEAR CHILDREN — for are we not all children in this matter \* I ' / of pictures? — the pages that have been written about Kansas would fill many hundred volumes. Its advantages have been extolled, its drawbacks exaggerated ; but praise or abuse long since ceased to affect its prosperity. Its name is probably on the lips of more people to-day than that of any other western state. It has won its place and it will hold it. Its past was tilled with adventure, its present is crowded with great achievements, its future no man can foretell. Favored alike by climate, natural resources, and geographical position, it is the wonderland of the West. It has friends innu- merable, — it makes new friends of all who come within its hospitable borders. Its cornucopia is overflowing with health and blessings. It educates its children in six thousand school houses. Its sturdy people give grateful thanks in a thousand churches. Thirty-nine hundred miles of railway bring comfort to its door and distribute its abundance. Four hundred clattering presses print a record of its growth. But there is a wide world about it which only partiallv understands how the Kansas of to-day differs from the commonwealth of yesterday. Those who may never visit the Arkansas Valley will, we trust, take some pleasure in this book; those who have doubted peradventure may become interested ; those who are not too old or too indolent may be tempted tn turn their faces westward. Having accomplished any one of which results. our end will be achieved. STATE CAPITOL, ToPEKA. (©ON^ENTS. Riding the Buffalo Down - 7 An Intercepted Letter - - - 9 Then and Now ------ 11 At the Centennial - - - l.'S Dodge City 1 ; ( A I I i.k 19 Kansas City Stock Yards - - ".M SlIEEl 25 Butter and Cheese - - - - 21 The Story of a I >ug-< >ut - 29 School Bells .'il Forest and Fruit Trees - - •'!:> Pretty Well, Thank Yov - '■'>'> The Bounty of the Earth - .'>; The Jones Ranch ----- 41 Broom ('urn 4:> A Year's Work ----- 41 Another Resource - - - - 4'.t Development - 53 Rl I'll MIN., I he '• I >eser r" - ">."> Followers of Menno - - - 59 An Illinois Farmer - - - 63 Our Rivers 65 Sorghum - - 61 King Corn (lit A Natural Reservoir- - ',\ Hogs ^1 A .Model Ranch ----- 73 .\ln. en of Green Pasti re - - W> Cities of the Southwest - 77 "Tattle oe the Day" - - - si Englishmen in Kansas - - 83 Natural Roads ------ 83 A Message from the North 85 Sport on the Prairie - - - 81 A Special Pi.ea SO Markets 9] Nor So Far Off - - - - HI Drawbacks ------- 93 The Profits on Cattle - - 95 From the Missouri West - - 1 1 » ~» How to Get Land - - - - L01 Railroad Lands in Kansas - 109 Sources of Information - - 111 WDl'XIlED. Phd Kansas Picture- §ook. ^=( V-^A V . . . Riding ^hb Buffalo Down, OING, going, going'," sounds along these miles of prairie as the vanishing' buffalo takes his uncouth body to other and wilder solitudes. A lew linger, but they will soon join the mammoth and the mastodon. Their doom is declared. Already the railroad has penetrated to their uttermosl haunts. Less fortunate than the Indian, more timorous than the covote, they are hounded outcasts on tin- face of the western world. The white BUFFALO TRAIL* IN WESTERN KANSAS. hunter pursues them to slaughter, and the red man (who, if he had one fiber of sentiment, would feel a heart-throb for his old-time friend and the present divider of his alienage) cuts down the herd with remorseless savagery. The number of the buffalo's sympathizers is not many, yet he lias some friends who are defending him and protesting against the indiscriminate slaughter in the Northwest. Though occasionally seen in Western Kansas, the shaggy, hump- backed vagrant has left his old grounds oil the Arkansas River for remoter 7 8 THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. territory. The wild flowers bloom in the springtime on the margin <>t' his mud wallow, ami the grass grows green in the paths that he trampled, but there is none to sorrow at his going. His feeding ground has become the heritage of man's better friends, the sheep and steer. The rich gramma grass, once his sustenance, is their portion now. It was Fate that doomed the bison. For it hath been written in words of everlasting truth, that the earth and the fullness thereof were ffiven to the children of men. IJISTOKII GROUND: liREAT BKND, FROM PAWNEE ROCK. Till: KANSAS PICTURE HOOK. AlL ? pN INTERCEPTED LlE^ER. DEAR YOUNG FRIEND: You write that you have been fas- cinated by the stories of life on the plains, and want to turn cow-boy. nil arc restless, you say, under the conditions of restraint which surround existence in the older eastern cities. You despise social convention and the monstrous hypocrisy it engenders. You look more in sorrow than in anger mi the mad scramble for wealth — unpitying Moloch, as you call it — and the god- less struggle for power. Vim sigh for the per- fect freedom "i' the saddle, and the exhil- aration of a prairie breeze. The pictur- esque side of such a life also is not unat- tractive. You have a flannel shirt, a sombre- ro, a pair of corduroy trousers, and a similar complement of Wellington boots. Other necessaries could lie bought after arriving on the spot. Pistols and revolvers, you add, would be ii" extra expense, as you already have them. You are fond of sport, and an hour's chase after a buffalo would be diverting; while an occasional brush with the Indians, giving opportunity for personal combat, would suffuse a delicious aroma over the romantic career. This is what you write. We all labor under hallucinations of some sort, and you share an illusion common in cei lain quarters. Rut before I write- further, let me ask you to throw away the arsenal which \nii appeal- to possess, and advise von to get the pistol pocket ill your corduroy trousers se«n up, or utilize it for the less dangerous and more needful pocket book. After looking the ground over, you have chosen Kansas as the best lie M for a vou lie- man, and in I Ills \ on ha ve done wisely, the more so sin,-, you have capital to start with. Kansas is a better state now than it was when Greeley wrote his memorable advice, and you can make money faster, [do not want to discourage you, for your ambition to grow up with the country is a laudable one, but your impression of the border is altogether a mistake. In Kansas, at least, the day lias gone by when a lot of cow-boys could ride up the A KANSAS CATTLE ARTIST. 10 THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. main street ami "clean out the town," and the shoot-your-boot-heels-off quad- rille has likewise ''gone glimmering." Shoot a man in Kansas and you must pay the penalty of the law; assault or threaten him, you must do the same thing, although you may swagger offensively and get off with nothing worse than a good thrashing. There are sheriffs and jails and juries in the state, and it is well to remember that the first act when their services are needed, the second have thick walls, and the third convict. I exaggerate a little, but you exaggerated too, so we will cry quits and pass on. 1 do not deny the charms of a cattle herder's life; indeed I have shared them, and I wish that this instant Thursday I were rocking in the saddle on the plains of Southwestern Kansas, instead of hived up in the house writing to you. I do not deny the charms, I say, but our acquaintance being considerable, I should not be doing my duty if 1 failed to tell you that in this matter again you deceive yourself. The charms of the life are potent, but you forget the long and irksome solitude, and the care and exposure. If you have courage and perseverance, and a stout heart to make sacrifices, in return for which a compe- tence will be adequate exchange, why, come on, you will do well in Kansas. Write to A. S. Johnson, at Topeka, or somebody else, for advice about a locatii in, before starting out. But whatever else you do, throw aside those silly notions about buffaloes and Indians and bandits, and be the sensible young fellow 1 know you are. Then you may put your time ami money in the stock business, and they will yield you big increase, and alter you have lived a few months in Western Kansas you will thank me for my letter, and bless your own stars that you made no mistake in coming into the Arkansas Valley. I remain, my dear boy, ever yours, *■. 1'-. i. " 1 IKE'S PEAK OB l;i ST. THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. 11 (9HEN AND ROW. HE artist wno rudely 1 >u t effectively lettered this sign was among the very first of western geniuses. Since his day, Worrall and a numerous company of accomplished designers have sprung up. The work they are doing is more luminous and aesthetic, perhaps, than that performed on this guide board, but it is noi likely the must gifted of them ever painted a picture giving greater satisfaction to the beholder. Toilers over the old trail endured hardships little dreamt of in a generation which travels by steam and talks by lightning. What wind-vexed wastes they crossed ami what perils they encountered, let no man say save him who shared their privations. With what joy must the weary emigrant, in the heat of i n or the fatigue of nightfall, have read the tidings thai one mile to the right or left, or one mile ahead, beyond the bluffs, the trail struck the new railroad, and that food and water were there. Generally in those regions the fateful mirage pictured green fields, and houses, and broad sheets of cool water to the traveler, leading him on to disappointment. But here was a better omen, alike discernible in clear or cloudy weather, promising nothing it did not fulfill, and luring none to his undoing. In Kansas the sign is now gone forever, gone like the border, as Deane Monahan saw it. "with its strange people, its curious life, its ruffianly chivalry, its tragic deaths." The sign no longer exists, but the bottle and the sardine box and the tomato can remain. These will noi perish off the face of the earth while the express train speeds Over its granite bed, or the pioneer tells the story of his youthtime to the children at his knee. It may be observed, though this is not to the purpose, thai wanderers meeting with this sign did not ad as tie- Irishman is said to have done, who arriving at a cross-road and being in doubt as to the right direct ion. took down the guide-board and carried it along with him, to prevent a mistake. A FRIEND or THE PAST. THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. 13 prir rpHB (©ENTENNIAL. I T may seem late at this day to refer to whal Kansas 'liil at the Centen- nial — it may seem late, because in the years that have since passed into her history she has developed a growth and virile strength beside which former achievements appear only as a beginning. But if the Centennial K\N~.V-. r.l.l.l. ii' INDEPENDENCE. is an event of the past, the memory of ir is still a living thing, and we may fairly presume thai no impression of the Great Fair remains clearer in the THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. 15 mind of the American people than the noteworthy Kansas ami Colorado dis- play. Summon from out their lurking-places in your memory the recollections of those days. Bid the shadows stand. What do they discover ? A confus- ing sense of Bigness everywhere, a glitter of color, a mingling of strange people, and glimpses of ;i stranger life. A few less fleeting memories remain. Tin' great and silent Corliss engine whose throbbing heart pulsed all the rest, perhaps a memorable picture in the Art Gallery or a whimsical statue, some special feature in one of the foreign courts, and the Kansas display. Is it not so? And the impalpable procession vanishes — "come like shadows, so depart." A catalogue of the native products that appeared in the Kansas building would extend over a good many pages. Our illustrations will recall the rare combination of material and the blending of color which made its interior no less a marvel of decorative effect than an eloquent advocate of the Arkansas Valley, where so many great things have since been accomplished. Of tin rail- road exhibit the state made acknowledgment in these words: "It was the logic of nature — of facts — arrayed in tie- poetry of art. It made a summer's long and never-to-be-forgotten pica for Kansas. Converts and willing captives have been coming by every train since then, rilling the Southwest with a hardy and industrious population." The great bell hung, as many will recollect, from the cupola over the Capitol fruit clonic in the rotunda. This trophy was a fac similt of the old Independence Bell, exact even to the craek down the side. It was over eight feet and a half in height, nearly nine feet in diameter at the rim, and was composed solely of the state's own products, the material including broom-corn stalks, millet, wheat-straw, sorghum, and flaxseed. The tongue was a '"Hercules ( 'lub " gourd, seven feet long and four inches thick, the clapper a " Bucket " gourd, eighteen inches in diameter. The old bell, of which this rustic composition was a copy, proclaimed "Liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof." Its day and deed belong to the past. But tin 1 Kansas bell of Independence is ringing still to gladden the hearts of men everywhere — men who would be free but possibly cannot, who are badly paid and little employed in cities, who are working agains! odds in older states where land is scarce and the chances of a competence arc measurably less, who in other climes neither own the land fchey till and the flocks they tend, nor share in the profits of their toil, and for whose children tin-re is no past except of oppression, no future except of sorrow and bitterness — ringing, ringing, ringing. And the peal is wafted onward, inviting the strength and labor of the world to a New Home. Ilil — i THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. 17 Dodge (sijpy. DODGE — who needs to be t«>M about Dodge? It has ;i reputation for cattle and cussedness — polite ears will be shocked, but one does no! associate overmuch refinement with the home of the cow-boys, in spite of well established scl Is, churches, literary societies and other moans, of culture, — the wickedest pla< the border, whose sinfulness the "unco' guid" speak of with upturned eyes and palms rolled outward. But the law now reigns at Dodge, though the wild name of the olden camp survives. While the city grows apace, its reputation has remained stationary. Dodge has shared the common experience of frontier t< iwns — first a season i if \ ii lence and disorder, then a change to more orderly and conserva- tive things. A con- stant border inter- course has nevertheless left its impress on the place. Though traces <>i' the old life remain, and men do occasionally die with their boots on, the reputation of tin- station as a cattle shipping point has in no wise waned. Tin- drive last spring embraced 300,000 head. This year it will be quite as large as in 1882, ami will include more young cattle. Favorite ranches stretch out from the Arkansas at this point in all directions. The country being broken, the ground covered with gramma grass, and water abundant, no better cattle range is to be found on the conti- nent. Add to these advantages a practically boundless range, and a mild climate, giving freedom from mountain storms, and one can understand why so much capital is being attracted towards Western Kansas as a cattle Held. To see Dodge City in all its glory, however, the stranger should visit it in the fall, when t he cattle are being driven in for sale. Then shall In- find the cattle at their best, I the cow-boys at their worst, and encounter, it maj be, an interesting ad\ enture. Tin-: drive. THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. I'd (©AWLE. 'HE remarkable demand for cattle ranches in Southwest Kansas continues unabated. Nor is the demand so remarkable after all, when it is borne in mind that no other business has been tried in this country which can show proportionately large and certain profits, and the same immunity from disaster, and considering furthermore, that Kansas is almost the only state offering range to small holders. "Cattle kings" are few in tin- Arkansas Valley. The man coming into it to engag - e in the business does not find the privileges in the hands of two or three, or half a dozen great companies, mon- opolizing whole counties. He finds ample water and grass, and few or no quarrelsome neighbors. He is near the market, and can ship his stock when the best opportunity presents itself. In other words, he can carrj on the busi- ness with every possible advantage, and under as few of the disadvantages as may be. It is not a land "boom," nor a railroad "boom," no]- an immigration "boom," nor any sort of a speculative movement, that is turning the eyes of farmers, stockmen and investors towards the prairies of Kansas. The wonder- ful grasses were not planted by the band of man, nor did the springs and creeks start into rippling life at his bidding. The pure air, mild winters, and consequent freedom from epidemic diseases, were not of his creating. But there they are, and the buffalo which once enjoyed them has been driven afield. "As I have perambulated this state to some extent, and met many inquiring ones, and had to answer a multiplicity of questions concerning Western Kan- sas," writes a correspondent of the Kansas Farmer, "I wish to say through the medium of your paper that there is no question nor the least risk in going directly to Western Kansas with stock to coin money. It is the best adapted region on this continent for these simple facts : stock ranges the whole year as a general thing; secondly, the nutritious buffalo grass is all that is required to put them up to a beef standard; and last but not least, little attention is required to hold them. The ranee, next to be considered, is all you wish. Western Kansas is last filling up with cattle. Men with means of from *."illll to $10,000, and even more, are to be found doubling their investment and last replenishing their exchequer. Now, gentle reader, this is not gammon moon- shine, bu1 the truth without husk or chaff, ami the sooner you leave your pent- up location in the East the better it will be for your finances." The merits of cattle raising itself are so generally known ami widely recog nized that little need exists of further effort to induce capital. The business already has the popular eye and ear. The philosopher reminds us that the world 20 THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. is filled with uncertainty; but amid the general doubt this much is certain, that said eye and car have never had more honest audience. The production of corn, wheat, cotton and other staples may add more to the wealth of a nation in the aggregate, but as a rule the stock interests have in all times brought must wealth to the individual farmer. It was so in olden times, it is so now, and it will continue so to the end. The Hon. J. B. Grinnell, of Iowa, who has spent his life on a farm, has the following- to say of the opportunities of cattle raising: "After a quarter of a century of observation, conducted amid all the ups and downs of the market in that time, 1 know of no sober, painstaking breeder or raiser of cattle who lias failed by reason of the season, or its bring- ing of drought, food, or frost, or who has failed to find a fair return for his labor in his improved herds, not only attaining full compensation, but in many instances a competency for old age." Southwest Kansas, owing to the adaptability of its tame grasses, the luxuriant growth of its prairie grasses and their fattening properties, its immense crop of corn grown at a minimum cost, its unrivaled markets, together with its temperate winters and long grazing season, unites more of the essential elements of a successful cattle country than any other known to the stock raise]- to-day. It is the. custom among many of the Texas cattle men to drive their herds into Kansas to fatten for the market. The buffalo grass, which is the Favorite range, has remarkable stav- ing properties, and its wide spreading area makes the Kansas prairies generally sought after by stockmen of other states. It forms a splendid feed the year round, as it cures on the ground and affords winter grazing. The quantity is abundant — so abundant thai one acre in the Arkansas Valley pastures as much as three acres do in Texas, Colorado or New Mexico. An acre will therefore carry three times as many cattle. All estimates of the number of stock upon the western cattle ranges are more or less conjectural, but the subjoined table will give an idea of the increase in the organized counties of Kansas since 1876, the unorganized counties, which have always held and still contain large herds, remaining unrepresented : Y< ar. Number of Cattle. Value. lxTii 700,634 $15,830,672.00 is:; 780,988 17,650,328.80 1878 872,243 19,865,508.40 1879 976,643 24,401,172.00 1880 1,109,731 37,743,275.00 issi 1,246,457 31,161,425.00 1882 1,404,488 42,134,640.00 Write to A. S. Johnson, Topeka, Kansas, for a free pamphlet on the sub- ject. We will wager a silk hat against a last year's bird's nest that you will be ready to leave the workshop or farm immediately ami go into the business. 77/// KANSAS PICTURE lionK. 21 Kansas (©ijpy Stog^ I/a^ds. HE live stock trade of Kansas City, for the year 1882, is estimated a< 165,000,000. < >l' all the conspicuous gains the increase in the receipts of cattle stands out as the most remarkable, and in sectional growth as attested by the figures of the year's work, the most healthful and grati- fying was manifested by Kansas. The full table while interesting- would lie inappropriate in this place. An analysis of the figures shows from what territory the hulk of the live stock is shipped in. Twelve competing lines reporl total receipts of 439,671 head of cattle, of which number the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad brought in 207,574 head, and the Kansas City, Lawrence and KANSAS CIT! Mil: STOCK EXCHANGE. Southern, a part of the Santa Fe system, L09.988 — together, a total of i fourths of the cattle shipped. The tallies show also that these two roads carried one-half of all the sheep sent in. Of course a part of the stock represented came from New Mexico and other territory tributary to the • ).; THE KANSAS I'liTVUK BOOK. Till-: KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. S3 modern "Colossus of Roads," hut the figures indicate pretty truly the reg i.r the West where stock raising is mos< successful. Tin- Mock yards at Kansas City are commodious and well appointed, with unlimited capacity lor f ling, weighing and shipping. All the gnat rail- roads entering the city run through tin- yards, and the market is, therefore, of easy access to the great feeding grounds of Kansas, Nebraska and the South- west. The business of the yards is done systematically and without delay. In connection, there is a horse and nude market where that class of stock is dealt with in large numbers. The Stock Yards Company have erected a large modern brick exchange building, including thirty-four offices for commission men and two banks. VIEW IN llli i; I OUNTY. THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK Sheep. 'HE town of Lamed, in Pawnee county, Southwestern Kansas, is the center of the mosl i siderable wool-growing district in the state. Sheep-raising is extensively carried on in other counties, but for a distance of seventy-five miles in the Upper Arkansas Valley, — saj Great Bend to Kinsley, — it is the chief industry, and it is here the flock- master will come who expects to make the largest profit. Both country and climate wore made for sheep. The native grasses are rich in nourishing qualities, the famous gramma variety retaining its fattening elements during the winter. Water is pure and constant at a no greater depth than twenty-five foil. The soil has perfect natural drainage. Suitable land for ranges is chia]) and plentiful, and above all the climate is favorable to sheep life. The air is light and dry, anil the latitude insures freedom from extremes of heal and cold. An equally great advantage is the abundance of cheap winter feed at hand, removing even the possibility of climatic risk, and bringing the sheep through the winter in good shape. The best sheep men provide shelter and feed for winter, because it pays to do so, as extra care insures heavier fleeces and a larger percentage of increase. .Mr. W. G. Markham, president of the National Wool Growers' Association, in a letter to Judge Dusinberre, of Geneva, X. Y., on his visit to Lamed, says: "I was greatly surprised to find the sheep in so fine a condition, subsisting on the pasturage of the country, without fodder or grain. I doubt if any section can be found possessing more advantages, all things considered, for sheep and wool-growing." With the business vet in its infancy, there are now, at a fair estimate, 2,000,000 head of sheep in Kansas, and the number and quality of the flocks arr being increased yearly. The development of the agricultural resources of tin- state is without parallel. The wheat and corn crops have attained to re- markable proportions, but the growth of sheep-husbandry has eclipsed these, and the strides forward have been taken without detriment to the business. Each year finds the flocks of the state better graded and cared for than ever before. It is a hopeful sign Eor the future that thorough-bred bucks are being universally used to improve the quality of the herds. Grade Merinos are the hardiest and most profitable sheep for Kansas. The men who a few years ago drove in flocks of Mexicans, now hold graded sheep, and advise new-comers not to start as they did but to buy better animals. Without exception, the) say truly that had they commenced with a higher grade they could have made more money. For a man with limited capital, sheep are a better investment 26 THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. than cattle, but they require more care. Less range is necessary, and the profits come sooner. A man going into the southwestern counties need m>t buy largely of land at first. He can take a railroad tract for his corrals and enough to secure him some range, then have free range over adjoining unoccupied lands. The smaller the capital the slower will be the progress toward independence, but the wealth is sure to come in good time. "Whereon the foot of sheep touches," says the Spanish proverb, "is turned to gold," and it is certain the sheep has found no more congenial, healthful home than K.i nsas. The profits, as returned by the farmers themselves, are from 'l'i to •"><) per cent, per annum — oftentimes more. A THOROUGHBRED. THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. 27 Butter and (©heese. HERE are not i-ri'a uiL'i'ii-s imii >uii'li in Kansas. As the present tendency among western fanners is more towards stock and diversified agriculture, the production of butter and cheese is increasing. Yet it is far from adequate to the demand. Good butter and cheese find a ready market. The local consumption is large, while from the mining camps of Colorado and New Mexico there is a ne\ er-lessening demand. Ask the keeper of the lit- tle adobe grocery in the southern territories where he nets his butter, his eggs, his chickens, his farm produce of all kinds — oftentimes even his milk, for there are refrigerator cars on western roads — DAIEV FARM. and he will answer you without hesitation, Kansas. Of bad butter there is always enough and to spar. in the world, but even that does not go a-begging in the West ; while the maker of a prime article finds a dozen markets open to him. Twenty-five cents per pound is a fair average price the year through, and in estimating on such a basis it should be borne in mind how much less land ami feed cost in Kansas than In other states, where, although the market price is higher, the profits are really less. Already there are successful cheese factories and creameries in Southwest Kansas, but more can be worked to advantage. BY THE WAYSIDE. :- , titoa '■"i THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. 29 <9HE S^OI^Y OP A DUG-OUT. 'HOUGH the dug-out is still a common sight in Kansas, it disappears as settlement advances. Nothing could better illustrate this progress than the following story. Twelve vears ago, when an appraisement was being made of the land grant of the A. T. & S. F. R. R., one of the party wandered far from camp on a Sunday night. It was too late to, return, for darkness had overtaken him, and seeing a dug-out in tin- distance, lie sought its friendly shelter for the night. Rude as the house was, its occupants appeared to be peo- ple of gentle breed- ing. The scant fur- niture was well dis- posed. A small organ had its place, and around it were gath- ered a family of chil- dren singing- to their mi ither's accompani- ment. Greeting was given the stranger which he can never forget, for even at this distance of time he looks back upon that evening as one of the pleasantest in a life filled with stirring memories. The conversation drifted naturally on to home matters. ■•We have come from Michigan, where we lost everything, to get a new start in the world, if possible, far out on these plains," said the mother, her Voice trembling with suppressed emotion. "Are yon contented?" asked the guest. •■ Yes" -lie replied, "we try to be, and I think succeed. We have taken up a homestead here, and in time I hope we can regain what has been lost. The children had by this time bei le interested in the stranger and took notice of him. " What we miss most," the mother contil 1. "and what makes me dissatis- fied sometimes, is tie- absence of a school lor our little ones. Back home — for we still call it home — they had a teacher of whom they were very ( 1, and - •- •-*! ■-*■ RAWHIDE-FRONTED DUG-OUT- WESTERN KANSAS. 30 THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. gkj sS-ti ^MMWL^Jm^M THE NEW SETTLEMENT. who was very fond of them, and th<' sorrow was mutual at parting. But I sup- pose school advantages will come after some years, and until they do I must make a poor substitute for the old schoolmistress." " From my experience of frontier life," interrupted the listener, "] should sax- it would not he so many years as you think before you have your school, nor yet so many before you have repaired the losses that brought you to Kansas." " We had an excel- lent church at home, and our church rela- tions were of t he most kindly soil." No other words were spoken save g I night. < hie \ear later, his camp life ended, the appraiser revisited the scene of that night's hospitality, which it may interest some readers to know lay a little south of the now flourishing town of Peabody. He had not forgotten his former enter- tainers, and was interested to know of their success or failure. The dug-out was gone. On its site stood a trim white cottage. Eighty acres of the land adjoining was fenced and improved. The open prairie, which a year before the coyotes had peopled with their howlings, was now dotted with farm houses. A warm welcome awaited him. Again the talk turned on home affairs — the change in the aspect of things was too marked to be passed by. "We have thought often lately" — it was the father who spoke this time — "of what you said to us on that pleasant Sunday night twelve months ago. We are doing well in Kansas, as you predicted. The store which you see from tin- window is mine and not far off is a post-office." A school-house was near. " You see that," said the wife, pointing; toward it with pride, "and do you remember what I told you about the favorite teacher back in Michigan?" "Yes,'' came the assenting answer, "1 do, and I remember." " Well, the old schoolmistress is here, and she teaches our children. And do you recollect my words about our former church? Already we have a con- gregation organized, and services are held each Sunday in the school-housi . with the old pastor to lead in praise and prayer. And in these houses around us are many, if not most, of all the old friends we left in .Michigan." This is all the story. It is true to the letter, and proves for the thousand- and-first time what none of us who have lived long in the world would ask to have proved, that truth is stranger than fiction. Till-: KANSAS PICTURE Hooh: 31 Sghool Bells. 'HOSE great eivilizers, the school house and locomotive, have wrought their wonders in Kansas. In the whole stretch of the Upper Arkansas Valley there is no section, or quarter section, even, of land so much out of the world that a school house is not within practicable distance. Throughout the Valley the little white knowledge-boxes everywhere add beauty to the natural loveliness of the prairie scene, while in the larger cities the pub- lic school buildings are substantial, commodious and elegant. It is believed in KANSAS STATE ISM EOSITV. Kansas that children well taught in the needful branches of learning make better men and women. They certainly make happier ones. It is believed that an education is the best worldly inheritance a parent can give his children. Colleges and seminaries flourish. The State University is located at Lawrence, and for such as wish to pursue their studies beyond the common school and academic courses, here is a most excellent institution with competent teachers, 32 THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. £&L£ £Z5££El r ,ruc,io ", ,or ■ — ""-■ ti » THE MODERN KANSAS FORT. t^JZt!^T h 1 ''I tHe la " d hl the State h3S b6e " donated b v the gen- Sa- Fe R a iJ road Company contnlnit _ ^ £££»• tl^ol tS;:; S 7^ ^ » the support or the schools f^ s-ttits o/tb lr 1Cndld la,Kl ^^ » ^ d the -„ le as it would 'he were 1'U /■: KANSAS PICTCRK BOOK. 33 FOI^ESrF AND Fl^UlT <£>I^EES. HE timber in Kansas, except where trees have been planted, is found principally along the banks of streams, the timber belts growing nar- rower and lighter towards the west. The native trees include black walnut, hickory, cottonwool], oak, sycamore, haekberry, elm, maple, willow, ash, box elder, and locust, and the wood is used both in manufactures ami for fuel. Some varieties make timber large enough to burn in five years from planting. Many of the early settlers get abundant fuel from trees of their own growth. In a lew years more we may safely predict that the supply of fuel from cultivated timber in Southwestern and South Central Kan- sas will be sufficient for the wants of the population. A ton of coal and a cord of good wood bring about equal prices in the market. Osage orange is universally used for hedges. The cost to the farmer is nominal, and in four years from the time of planting, such a hedge will successfully turn stock. Timber culture in Kansas has been encouraged by state enactments, as well as by act of cong-ress. At first tree planting was attended with but little success, l>ui with experience better results have followed, and there are now many counties dotted with minia- ture forests of from one to thirty acres on' a farm. Since the settlement of tie' state, 14ii,iiiiii acres of forest u s havi bei n sel out, the majority of them under the timber culture act, although a number of thousand have been Started by fanners and otliers who had no timber claim. Tin- Atchison, Topeka & Santa 1- •'■ Railn >ad < !< impany employed a forester for several \ ears, who, to settle the question whether trees could grow to the extreme western limits of Kansas. planted many thousand cuttings, which have since grown well, and now beau- A YEAH S GROW I'll. :;4 THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. tify the towns along the line of its road. An extended reference to his work is found in the " Report on the Forestry of Mississippi Valley and Tree Plant- ing on the Plains." made by special commission to the Commissioner of Agri- culture at Washington. As prairie fires become less frequent, and the hygro- metric condition improves with the advance of civilization, the wooded areas extend by self-planting. There are no data to show how great this spontaneous PRODUCTS ()K THE "TREELESS PRAIRIE. growth has been, but the Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture, from whom other statistics have been obtained, makes a rough estimate of 20 per cent, of the number of acres. The number of fruit trees in tin- state' is as follows: Bearing. Non-bearing. Apple 3,028,110 3.59(1.:::;:; Pear 97,369 164,302 Peach 5,983, 1 W 4,089.803 Plum 293.47-1 339,516 Cherry 764, 198 756,5 76 Total .' 11,169,597 8,940,931 11, Kill 597 Grand total oi nr varieties 20,110,128 This is a tolerable showing Cora new and treeless state "that won't grow anything" — 10,000,000 peach trees and 0,500,000 apple trees, and more than half of them in bearing. 77//; KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. 35 I^ETWY &5ELIj, (§HAN^ y0U. HN Illinois editor came to Kansas last summer to look around. I il i everybody else who comes, he saw a ".Teat deal thai surprised him. Hi.s own confession is thai he came with a prejudice, expecting to find Kansas the ragged edge of civilization, with a low class of settlers ready to pull up and move at a moment's notice, provided they could stop shaking long- enough. What did he find? A people and civilizati :om- mensurate with the possibilities of what he calls the besl agricultural and stock raising country he had ever seen. "No ague, no shakes, no lawless- ness, good society, good schools and churches, the people happy, and no grave yards to speak of." This gentleman was the editor of the Bloomington Appeal, whose travels "have taken hint over at least Two-thirds of the United States." He was right, too, about it. On the beautiful upland plateau of western Kan- sas, sloping from the west towards the rising sun, malaria and its pestiferous train of ills are unknown. If this book wen- an advertisement of St. Some- body's oil or Dr. I onglock's compound elixir of concentrated catnip (name blown in every bottle, none others genuine), we might publish testimonials from many men who have been relieved or wholly cured of pulmonary disorders by vao\ tng to Kansas. Instead, we will quote from a private letter written by an old army surgeon who left a thirty-years' practice in New York state and came to Lamed two years ago. "I moved here," he says regretfully, "expecting lots of malarial and rheumatic patients, but I have found the region very healthy, and nothing to fill the pockets of the physician." If the doctor had turned Ins time and undoubted talents to sheep, cattle, or hog raising, or to diversified farming, he would, although an old man, have found something to fill his purse. \ es, we've gol the ozone. THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. 37 ©he Bounty op the €ai^th. W EX have sometimes murmured because they •have failed in Kansas, usually through their own waywardness, to accomplish all they pic- «) I (5 tared in hours spent a-dreaming, instead of at the plow or by the sheep-fold; on the other hand, men have told stories of their prosperitv here that do rival the recitals of the Vizier's Daughter. But what- ever may be said of the fertility or poverty of Kansas soil — and on this ques- tion there can be but on.- opinion — the abundance or lack of seasonable rains, the heat or cold of the climate, the gentleness or fierceness of the winds, it is certain, as the Hon. John A. Anderson observes in his sketch of Kansas Agri- culture, that the best evidence on these and all other points of practical interest to the farmer is that furnished by the crops actually raised or failed to be raised. There is abundant material to draw from in this matter, for the state has machinery for collecting the facts and making them plain. Vet in writing about the products of Kansas farms it is necessary to deal with figures of great WHEAT LANDS IN PAWNEE COUNTY. magnitude. It is difficult to realize the meaning of millions; it is easier to count by tens, or even by thousands, but Kansas has grown out of her thou- sands as a winsome girl grows out of her 'teens. The state raises every field crop that will grow in a temperate climate, and many, like cotton, that are indigenous to semi-tropical regions. Wheat, cor,,, oats, rye, sorghum, broom-corn and flax are staples. The value of the splen- did and abundant grasses, wild and tame, is incalculable, as no record can lie made of the uncounted tons gathered by the farm animals themselves in every season of the rolling vear. The grass crop, green and dry, is worth more than any other in this country, and Kansas is contributing her share. The THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. 39 increase in the breadth (if grass lands is one of the most striking features of her agricultural returns. The total value of farm products in 1882 exceeded *]5o,o0o,ooo. Tliis is the latest computati supplied by the State Board of Agriculture, as it appears in the new biennial report, now passing through the press. Of this aggregate $108,000,000 is put down to Held products, *l I, 000,000 to increase in the value (not the value itself, be it remarked) of farm animals. $27,500,000 to products of live stock, $500,000 to market produce, and over $1,500,000 to horticultural products. The wheat area of the year covered upwards of 1,500,000 acres, yielding a product of 35,000,000 bushels, an average yield of twenty-three bushels to the acre. 4,500,000 acres were under corn, and the product was 157, (.100,000 bush- els, which ranks Kansas fourth in t lie Union as a corn-growing state. 529,000 acres sown to oats produced 22,000,000 bushels, and the average yield may be easily worked out. Allusion is made elsewhere to the magnitude of the broom-corn ami sorghum crops, and the profits thereon. 56,700,000 pounds of the former were marketed. The product of rye amounted to 4,450,000 bushels. and of rlax to 1,650,000 bushels. ISoo.ooO bushels of sweet potatoes were ilug. Cotton and tobacco cut a figure among the lesser returns. It is interesting to note the different scopes of country contributing to this aggregate wealth. To make a general division, the southern half of the state may be set down as being most productive and best suited to g-eneral husband- ry. Through this prolific section runs the steel backbone of the great Atchi- son, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. And of the south central counties the Arkansas Valley belt makes a showing that eclipses all the rest. In such matters, figures and the testimony of living witnesses are the only guides on which to base a comparison, and the home seeker, after looking into the matter for himself, cannot come to any other decision than that flu r< is the best place for him to build his home. There lie may share in the general prosperity which is animating the old Santa Fc trail with a new life, healthier, stronger, and more enduring' than when its path through the long reaches of the silent \ alley was only a highway for wagon-trains and Indian warriors. There lie may grow him a fortune without going into a frigid and inhospitable wilder- ness. There he may send his children to day school and Sunday school. There he may live his life — and Heaven grant it be a long one — surrounded by the joys and comforts of his new fortune. One-sixth of the population of Kansas have found homes within the Land Grant of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fc Railroad. The state has an area of 52,1 .hod acres, of which only 1 1,043,379 are under cultivation. With four- fifths of her land untouched by the plow, Kansas has room lor several millions more people, and she will have them — probably in your time and mine, if not, then in our children's Tin: KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. 41 <9HE CLONES I^ANGH. EICH men have various ways of enjoying their wealth. Mr. S. F. Jones made his money in Colorado, whither he went from Texas in 1869 to engage in the cattle business. When the ranch and stock at Las Animas, owned by himself and brothers, were sold to the Prairie Cattle Company in lsso, his share of the purchase price amounted to an inde- pendent fortune. A vear before this, however, Mr. Jones had moved to Kansas, with the inten- tion of spending the rest of his life amid the comforts which such a state can afford, satisfied that he had found the best place in the West for gratifying a life-long- desire to establish a stock-farm for the breeding of blooded cattle. He bought a small farm on Fox Creek, about three miles from Strong City, in Chase county, and commenced buying land of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. His farm now covers 7000 acres, the whole of which is enclosed by a stone fence five feet high and two and a-half feet thick, costing about $20,000. The entire tract is well watered, and altogether we may say that this is the best improved ranch in the state. There are upon it at present about .500 high-grade and thoroughbred cattle, mostly Herefords, Shorthorns, and Polled Angus. One pasture containing 5000 acres last year grazed 1200 head, and the owner estimates that he now has $3000 worth of steers ready lor market. Thirty-eight Hereford bull calves have already been disposed of at $70 per head. The sales of hogs thus far this season (Spring, 1883), aggregate $2,500. In the Spring of 1881 Mr. Jones commenced the erection of the stone resi- dence, barn, and out-buildings, shown in the view of his farm on the opposite page. The material was taken from a quarry on the grounds, and in less than a year the improvements were completed. The residence, standing on a terraced slope facing the east, is a mansion in architecture and appointments. All the principal apartments an- supplied with soft and spring water. The floors are laid with Brussels and velvel carpets, while large and costly mirrors, and the selection of appropriate furniture for the various rooms, witness the good taste no less than wealth of the proprietor. Outside, one hundred feet to the west, is a reservoir with a capacity of 11,000 barrels, led by three springs several hundred feet distant. From the spring-house an arched underground passage conducts to the kitchen of the house. Tin' barn is a mammoth structure, L0Sx60 feet, three stories high, and so 42 THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. arranged that a four-horse train can drive on to any floor and turn 'round with- out difficulty. The first story is occupied by the owner's horses and a selection of his best cattle. Among the farm machinery in the building are a feed cutter, corn sheller, corn mill, and threshing machine, all of which can be run at one time if necessary by power furnished l>v a double wheel, thirty-foot wind engine. Residence, barn, and out-buildings cost $30,000. A cut stone fence, with iron railings, encloses the house and grounds. The owner of this vasl estate is a man of fifty-six years of age, noted for his integrity, u-ood nature, and unbounded hospitality: an enthusiast in all matters relating, no matter how, to the stock possibilities of Kansas. That he should have made the greater part of his purchase of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Kailroad — coming to the state as he did when land was more abundant than it is now, and with the additional advantage which monev and a knowl- edge of the West imply — is much in praise of the railroad lands, and to the credit of the company's way of doing business. LOOKING UP TUE WALNUT VALLEY FROM BISSIL'S POINT. THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. 43 Bl^OOM (i>01^N. (,/" I PARAGRAPH goes the rounds of the country papers each season, I— —I thai Kansas broom corn is bringing- the highest figures in the Chicago pj * 1 market. Nol only .Iocs the broom-corn plant grow to greatest beauty ami perfection here, but .Kansas is among the very few states, if not the only one, which can bring the corn to maturity, and at the same time secure the color. Let the brush turn red and half its commercial value is gone. In southwest Kansas no man who will attend to his business, harvesting his corn at the proper time, can possibly fail in securing a good green color, and READ'S To i I'T. consequently in producing a brush sought after in every market, commanding the highest price both at home and abroad. The secret lies in the climate. Like sorghum, broom corn requires a warm, dry atmosphere; even drought affects it but slightly. This granted, all that is required is a fair intelligence in the handling, and the profit is secure. We need not give figures to show the remunerative character of such a crop, a fact generally recognized by farmers everywhere, but it may be worth while to observe that there is a double profit to the grower, the seed being an excellent grain highly prized by stock- men. The new comer should inform himself of the possibilities of broom corn before deciding on any other crop. It is wise in him, after breaking the sod, to put in a seed that will yield a sure money return in a few months. Hi' may want also to sow an area of winter wheat. In May or June let him plant his broom corn, and it will be ready to harvest by September, with the ground THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. 45 in splendid condition for wheat. All through the months of early autumn 1 1 1 <_■ manufacturers and dealers are on the ground buying the crop, and there being brisk competition the producer never fails to gel a good round price for his corn. We ran conscientiously say thai Kansas outstrips all other states in this staple, since it grows one-third of the total product of the Union. The value of the crop for 1882, without taking account of the seed, which is worth from twenty-five to fifty cents a bushel, and yields from thirty to fifty bushels per acre, is estimated by the State Hoard of Agriculture at 12,552,259.78. McPherson county ranks first, and Pawnee, the center of the wool growing district, second in amount grown. Both these counties are within the A. T. & S. F. land errant limit. LOOKING SOL Til FROM MARIUX CENTRE. 46 THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. 47 fl yEAi^'s &5oi^. BREAKING prairie is an everyday sight in Kansas, bul our picture does poor justice to the scene. Could engraver reproduce on his block llie moist smell of the newly-turned earth, which the old eeclesiast declares "is wholesome to the body," or artist picture the dappled beauty of tlie growing crops alongside, thrusting their green blades up into the golden sunshine? Oh, the glories of a springtime cm these prairies! Neither paint nor pen can picture them — the clear air, the soft blue sky, the well defined horizon, the rolling billows of grass, the rare bloom of the early Sowers, and in the air the silent vet irrresistible murmur of growth, for the earth is glad that man has come to lift the burden of its idleness. There stands the white school- house in the sunlight, repeating over and over again the name of Kansas. It is alwavs a good time to come to Kansas, but the lust of all seasons are the spring and summer, fur it is then that nature clothes the land in her brightest robe, that all the world may see her. And here we will turn to more practical things. In the summer of L880, the Hon. .las. \V. Robinson, of Tremont, Illinois, broke the prairie sod on \~>'i acres of land in central Kansas. In the following September the sod was re- broken and sown to wheat, 1^ bushels to the acre. Soon after the wheat was sown Hon. John Fullinwider purchased the land, paying $1,600 lor ii, and 1456 (x'-'i per acre) lor the work of breaking-, re-plowing, seed and sowing, making a total of $2,056 for land and crop. Mr. Fullinwider, when harvest came, gave Mr. A. I,. Wood one-third of the crop for harvesting and threshing, and for delivering his two-thirds in El Dorado. The yield was 4, '.'ill bushels — twenty- seven bushels to tin' acre. Mr. Fullinwider sold his two-thirds of the wheat for $3,220 in Kl Dorado. In other words, Mr. Fullinwider paid lor his land and all expenses of farming it, and netted $1,164, in a single year's operations. Mr. Wood sold his third of the wheat to Mr. Fullinwider for $1,600, and cleared in his little deal about $800. We could multiply instances if it were necessary, but this one, as the dashing Mercutio said of his wounds, will serve. There are thousands of urns of land In Kansas just as good as that which produced this wheat, and much of it can be had for a tithe of the poor lands of eastern states. When a purchase is made of the railroad, credit is given with seven per cent, interest. THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. 49 pNOTHBI^ I^ESOUI^GE. 7~\^S ESSRS. Prairie Dog' and Rattle Snake were the first farm-site \* I */ speculators in Kansas. Dusty little dog- and demure speckled owl, £2^L\2_ ' iav ' n g bought out the original firm, now carry on business at the old stand, where customers are treated with the same suspicion as heretofore. The rattlers always objected to the Santa Fe Railroad coming into the Arkansas Valley, and when the stockmen took possession of the buffalo range, they left out of sheer disgust — that is, such of them as could escape. v in ELY NEIGHBORHOOD. The fmr-footed population of the state is large and abundantly profitable. The Kansan, however, is a man of new resources. Although he has a yearly income of from 35 to 50 per cent, on his cattle ami sheep investments— enough, it would seem, to satisfy a reasonable desire — you could hardly guess the latest device for adding to his profits. A company called the "Wichita Prairie Dog Company" has been organized, the object and aim of which, as set forth in 50 THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. ALOMi THE KANSAS RIVER. THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. 51 its corporation papers, is "for tike procurement and ship nt of prairie dogs, in pairs or by the dozen, to eastern parties who may desire this delightful, cun- ing, and cleanly animal as a household or yard and garden pet." The price of illli. IN U. TOWS SITE SPECULATOR! young dogs will be merely nominal, while fully grown trained animals, with plated collars and ear tinklers, the company expect to express at $5 per pair. Gentlemen, the world moves in Kansas. AN AMERICAN "PATIENCE. m - ■sea* Till-: KANSAS lHcTVUE BOOK. 5:5 Development. HE old order of things giveth place to the new with confusing rapidity in the West. A year is a long time in the history of a western state, and it is not safe to judge to-day by what was a year ago. We believe that the develop- ment of Kansas is un- matched anywhere. After the struggle for civil lib- erty the state leaped ahead, and with varying fortunes has ever since kept on the forward march; therefore it is dif- ficult to-day to write a record of its prosperity which will not be out of date twelve months hence, The census returns were taken in 1880. The full compilation has yet to nil YEARS FROM THE WILD BL i I kLO RANGE — SCHOOL-HOUSE AND FARMS. appear. So far as Kansas is concerned they can have but a relative and imperfect value. The new West grows while census enumerators slee] their task. Km- instance, instead of a corn product of 105, ,000 bushels, which was the yield in 1 880, the t rue figures, as supplied by the State Board oi Agriculture, at Topeka, should be 157,000,000. So in wheat there has I n a young but lusty. proportionate increase. 17,000,000. 54 Till: KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. bushels, notwithstanding it represented the aggregate crop of it recent year, must now be multiplied by two to indicate the latest returns. < >f oats. Kansas contributes 22, , bushels, instead of 8,000,000, to the harvest. The sheep interest of the state has grown with the rest. The poor lame census bulletins — the very newest of them — are like- wise worthless on this industry, except as curi- osities. Sheen multiply in the Arkansas \ alley evi n as did the flocks of old, and the farmers get the increase thereof to the profitable advantage of from -i 11 to 60 per cent. The advance by importation and birth for some years past has been at the rate of Kin per cent, per annum. While such a progression is going on, the census figures remain at 400,000 head. Including this year's lamb crop, the number of UN! I VEARS FROM THE TREELESS PRAIRIE. EIGHTEEN MONTHS FROM TITE BUFFALO RANGE — AND HAPPY. these profitable animals in the slate now reaches 2,000,000. And so we are running away from our good friends in Washington. The sun may not move, Brother Jasper, of Richmond, notwithstanding, but it is certain all the world exeept the Census Bureau does, and that Kansas is keeping well to the front. One of the accompanying engravings shows the Axtel place, near Sterling. The second year's wdieat crop on this farm netted $10,- 000. Another, entitled ''Three Years from the Treeless Prairie," shows the residence of the Rev. J. B. Schlichter, of the same place. "Eighteen Months from the Buffalo Range — and Happy," is a cut of the farm at (■. B the axtel lie i. Ketchum, near Kinsley, Edwards county. THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. 55 Redeeming jfhe "Desei^t." IRRIGATION is doing for Western Kansas precisely what it has done for every other region of the globe where it has been intelligently practiced. The world is too old, and the people know history too well, for an arg meiit to be granted on the subject of its benefits. Ancient and modern nations — Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Persia, China, India, Italv, Spain, and a score more which you may read about in the encyclopaedia — have alike recog- nized them. In the valleys of Mexico and along the Rio Grande the plan of irrigating crops was in vogue long before the Spanish occupancy, and is still the only reliance for a yield of grain, fruit and vegetables. The fame of the ditches in California, Utah, and Colorado, is known round the world. The Mor- mons have done valuable service for the country in this one industry at least, the results accomplished in Salt Lake Valley having certainly been of signal importance to the western half of the continent. In Kansas the work is of later date, but it has passed beyond the stagi ol an experiment — for all efforts of this kind must be more or less experimental at first, under differing conditions of soil and climate. For years the far western counties of the state were turned over to the ranchmen to have and hold forever. Occasionally there were men who thought. Horace Greeley was one of these, and he prophesied, now long ago, that the time would come when the rich valleys and broad uplands of the Upper Arkansas would be turned into fields of splendid promise by the spade of the irrigator. Already it is difficult to write dispassionately of what has been achieved. Here- is a spot which until lately was looked upon as an impracticable waste, remote from any hope of agricultural or communal development, beyond the possibility of usefulness save as a grazing ground for cattle, a spot apparently slighted by nature and forgotten of man. Look ! how the unforeseen comes to pass. See, now, this same tract transformed into a garden spot, yielding crops remarkable even in a state the value of whose farm products in a single year touches $150,000,000. The western half of Kansas is a beautiful upland plateau, 200 miles long, and along the Arkansas Valley perhaps fifty more in width, averaging •■2,."> an acre, and it only cost me $6. Your money will go ten times as far. and you can get land as good as the best.' "'But is there other land here as g 1 as yours?' •'•.lust exactly. Of course the land in this neighborhood is all taken up, hut there is plenty of it in the county just as good as mine, that can be bought of tin' Santa Fe Kail road Company upon the same terms that 1 got mine.' 64 THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. "'Did the railroad company treat you well*? Wen- they fair?' ••'I want to say right here that the company offered me inducements and good terms to locate here, and they did exactly as they Agreed to do. I know that it is tli'- general opinion that corporations have no souls, and that railroad men are organized to swindle the farmers. They had a splendid chance to swindle me if they wanted to, but they gave me a fair, square show. I bought my land on time, and they had plenty of chances to crush and gouge me if i bey had wanted to.' "Mr. MoLain showed us about his place, and pointed with pride to the im- provements he has made. He had a large herd of fat calves grazing upon a field of winter wheat that looked as fresh and green as the sward of a lawn, and 1 asked him if he was not afraid they would pull it up, or injure the crop? '"Oh no,' he said, 'I always pasture my calves on the wheat. It is good for the calves and good for the wheat. Last year was a poor year for wheat, but 1 wintered lot; calves on 100 acres of wheat, and then harvested 1,500 bushels from it. You see it didn't injure it much.' "I asked .Mr. McLain about profits. He said that the biggest profits were in cattle and sheep, but in mixed farming they were much larger than in the Eastern states. Of course it all depended upon good management, as in every other sort of business, but he knew of no place where the farmer realized so much upon his investment, whether in grain or corn, or hogs, or cattle, or sheep, or poultry, or fruit, as he did in Kansas. Hay costs nothing-, beef is cheap, the market is convenient, and the demand is always good. The greatest demand now was for vegetables and fruits for the mining camps. The .Santa Fe Rail- road gave them direct connection and low freights to the points of supply, and there was no end to the market for poultry, eggs, butter, fruit, vegetables, oats, pressed hay, and everything possible that could be raised in or off the ground. His fruit, trees commenced to bear two years ago, and he has already sold $1,200 worth of fruit from them. "As to the climate and healthfulness, Mr. McLain thought Kansas could not be surpassed. He couldn't remember when they had a doctor at his house, except once about three years ago when one of the boys dislocated his arm." It would be interesting to reproduce the correspondent's account of the dinner he afterward begged at a Tuscan-red farm house, where "an uncom- monly prettv young lady, in a blue gingham dress and pink cheeks, who was much given to blushing and drooping her eyelids in a distracting sort of way," ministered to his famished needs— a bride she proved to be, the more's the pity — but this story, together with a complete and entertaining record of Mr. Curtis's experience in Kansas, may be obtained free on application to A. S, Johnson, Topeka, Kansas. Designate the Inter <>i letters in writing. 77/ A' KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. 65 OUI^ FJlYBI^S. COMMENCING at the Missouri River on the east, and ribboning the luxuriant pastures and wheat-goldened acres of Kansas, a numerous and generally silent family of creeks and rivers. The -Missouri itseli is navigable almost the entire year by the largest steamboats, and the .small part of it forming a share of the eastern boundary of the stale is spanned by at least four substantial iron bridges. The Republican, rising in Colorado, crosses into Nebraska, and after draining the border counties reen- ters Kansas, which it lias already watered for a shorl distance in its course, unites with the Smoky Hill, and forms the broad, shallow, yellow, famous Kaw, or Kansas, which pursues an easterly course to the Missouri River. Though it is not now navigable, small steamboats plied on the river in former days as far west as Fort Riley. The broader, shallower, yellower and more famous Arkansas, \i BOSS Till. VRK W- is RIVER \ after gathering volume from thr melting snows of the Rockj Mountains, and tumbling through that mighty canon which no man ever looked upon except in awe, also enters the state from Colorado, flows gentlj southward for more than L20 miles, then to the northwest for nearly ;."> miles to Great Bend, and then to the southeast Cor 150 miles, through the best winter-wheat region of tin- state, and what we honestlj believe to he the best farming country in the West, to its crossing into the Indian Territory on its wa\ to the Mississippi. Along the happy valley of this stream stretch lor many miles, from horizon to horizon, tic thin, bright lines of steel over which passes and repasses the traffic of the A. T. & S. F. Railroad, the modern usurper of tie- i )ld Trail. And of all tie- splendid country through which the hissing 60 THE KANSAS PlvTl'ItE BOOK. engine rushes, one half, for a stipulated distance on either side, was granted by- Art of ('(ingress to the company which discovered this new garden spot to the world. The Cimarron, in the heart of the cattle country, and a multitude of minor feeders of the Arkansas River, drain all the southern counties west and east of this main stream, which receives at last, out of Southeastern Kansas, the fair Neosho, of which the Cottonwood is a tributary. Other important streams are the Blue, Solomon, Marais du Cygne, and Nemaha, while the creeks are too many to count. Nearly all the rivers have excellent water power. SUGAR MILL AT STERLING. THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. 67 Sorghum. 'HOUGH a new crop, sorghum is already a staple product of Kansas, where it is raised over a wider area than in any other state of the Union. The Arkansas River Valley is the chief field for the crop. Its sugar and syrup mills are valued at half a million dollars. The soil and the warm dry climate, adapted to the certain production of the highest grade of amber cane, have been found to surpass all others for the growth of sor- ghum. They assure a plant of better quality, that ripens sooner, and makes a surer crop, than experiment has produced in any other locality. The work- ing season is just double that of any northern state, and this, with tie that no fuel except waste bagasse is needed for manufacturing, is an advan- tage which only Kansas holds out to the industry. Sugar-making -is no longer an experiment in the Arkansas Valley, and the mills have been making syrup tor two years. The Kansas Sugar and Syrup Company, at Sterling, Rice county, whose works are shown in the engraving, has lately sold out to a syndi- cate of eastern capitalists, most of whom are also interested in the sugar works at Champaign, 111. The new company will adapt the work to the manufacture of sugar from sorghum syrup according to the Champaign method, in which they will invest $250,000 in the original plant and auxiliary work, making tie- Sterling works the main plant for their out-put in Kansas. The value of the sorghum plant for feeding, however, gives a new wealth to Kansas. An acre of it is everywhere worth an acre of corn. There is no dis- pute about that; the only question with the stockmen is, how much more it is worth. "1 agree with all that has been said in reference to the value of sor- ghum for a forage plant."' writes a Sterling farmer, "only I claim that one acre i^ equal to two of any other crop 1 can raise in Kansas. I raised ', \ acres in 1881 and llu acres in 1882, and saved feed both years, and nothing 1 ever fed will lay on fat so quick, and nothing is relished by stock so well. My horses and mules will not eat any corn when there is sorghum in the manger." To obtain the best results, the seed ami fodder should be fed together. The cane will keep green all winter in large shocks, or in stack or rick. If to be stacked, it should be planted late, so as not to be ready to cut before the weather is cool, whereby all danger of heating or souring is avoided. It should also be allowed to partially cure before stacking. A good plan is to shock in th<- field and then stack late. The Kansas sheep men prefer sorghum for fat- tening purposes to any other crop. THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. r.9 }{ING (©OI^N. GROWN l'.V AN" ENTHUSIAST. eORN grows tall in Kansas. \<-v\ tall indeed, and the homes sometimes grow short — a preliminary statement which will explain an apparent vagary in the lirst of our artist's sketches. Possibly you arc skeptical, and would like a few facts. A glance at the picture shows two men discussing the probable yield of the crop. One of them, who is the artist (you can tell that by his fashionable coat), has just measured tin' tallest stalks in the field and finds them to be be- tween fifteen and sixteen feet high. These he afterward had cut for exhi- bition, and they may be seen in the superb display of Kansas products collected 1>\ the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, in the Industrial Annex to the Agricultural Depart- ment, at Washington. How much corn like this do they grow in Kan- sas? A question hard to answer, but in 1882 the state had 4,441,836 acres under the crop, yielding a little less than 1 (in, (it mi, in it i bushels. This product ranks Kansas as one of the four great corn states in the Union. The average yield was thirty-live bushels per aire. We are told that corn is King, and it is. Lei us crown the Kansas farmer, then, until some other can show a better average. Nine counties in the state had 1.00,000 acres or there- abouts in corn. < >ur fig- ures are from the official repi ir1 bj I he State Board of Agriculture. A crop of this kind makes fat hogs and fat cattle, fat purses CORN BOTTOMS. ,,„,_ .,,,,) t ) K . s( . ;,,-,. things which gladden the; farmer's heart. The clean corn bottoms of the Arkansas River are sights worth traveling far to see. The fanners are industrious and intelligent, and clean out the weedy patches, but there is a natural cause working to the cultivator's advantage. In the lowlands of the fertile bottoms 70 THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. of the South, and of Missouri and Illinois, work in the cornfield, in a broiling The air is sultry and debilitating. summer sun, is irksome and exhaustin But on the high prairies of Kansas, 1,000 to 2,000 feet above sea level, labor is not a burden but a pleasure. The farmer could not lie lazily down during tin. best part of the day, as his brother in some states is apt to do, sap- posing even he had the inclination. The result of his industry is a foregone con- clusion. I in- flood of emigration surges west- ward. The possibility of obtaining laud as a gift lures multitudes to distant parts, but when the average is made up, the densest mass of population is found in the corn belt. No man who wants a snug farm of his own will venture out of it. Especially should those in moderate circumstances keep in the right latitude. Indian corn is the grain above all others for the per- manent growth and enrichment of a country, and when- it grows the great- est range of production exists. Cattle, horses, sheep and swine keep fat; the climate is best adapted for I. utter and cheese; the zone is the fruit-bearing zone; it is the golden mean between hot and cold; it presents more varied calls for employment; it combines the largesf proportion of desirable things. The flood surges westward along the favored parallel. In tin- trans-Missouri region the choicest lands will soon be taken, a,id then the filling-in process "ill begin. Happy is the man who delays not to secure a home while it can be had cheap Kansas says, « W. Wait yet a little while, and the echo will sound hack, Return, we are full. SO LARGE AS POME. THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. 71 fl UAnrni^Aii I^ESEI^YOII^. IT is not enough that a land flow with milk and honey if it lack water. A happy provision of nature has secured to the Arkansas Valley an inex- haustible supply. There appears to be a vast aqueous reservoir underlying the entile country, perhaps a bed of quicksand, conducting the waters of the river far inland in all directions. Strike this, and wells never fail; erect a wind-null and let it work incessantly, you cannot pump it dry. The Arkansas River was never known to overflow its banks — it underflows instead, and so dis- poses of the surplus in times of heavy rains. When the river rises there is a corresponding rise in the wells, and nice !>< rsa. The Arkansas starts amid the perpetual snows of the Rocky Mountains — an exhaustless fountain — and no man in Southwest Kansas need lack for pure water, either for himself or his stock, who has industry enough to sink a well. A never failing supply is reached at a depth varying from 20 to 40 feet. F)OGS. 1 HE rank of second among pork-packing points in the West is freclv con- ceded to Kansas City, which, though geographically in Missouri, is really the mercantile center of the state whose name it bears. The packing- last year, in face of a shortage in the crop, reached 750,001) head. In twelve years the number of hogs assessed in Kansas has risen from 206,000 t<> l.\ , '.'S,(M)0 head, with a proportionate advance in quality. Of this large number, valued at $12,286,830, all not consumed at home are marketed and largely packed in Kansas City. Statistics show that hogs parked there yield more lard in proportion to gross weight than any others packed in America. No people have been more energetic and liberal in procuring the best breeding stock than Kansans. Probably four-fifths of the animals now in the hands of the farmers are Poland-Chinas or Berkshires, or their crosses. We never hear of any disease among Kansas hogs, and with its other advantages the corn-producing capacity of the state renders it a pecu- liarly well adapted field for this branch of stock-raising. IVLANH-UIIXA. THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. 73 fl fflODEL I^ANGH. S f I M < » \ ( i the first things a man does after coming to Kansas to embark I— in slier]* raising, is to visit Pawnee county and call on Mr. (>. II. f ) *__ __ Wadsworth, who came to Lamed to engage in sheep husbandry before tin' long tract of country extending from Great Bend west to tin mountains was so thickly peopled with herdsmen as it is to-day. 'Tin- I'm.- grasses, pure water, well drained soil, and dry atmosphere, perfectly suited to wool grow- ing, uric there years before liis coming, but not so man) had been and seen as have come since. A g 1 deal of land was running to waste eight years ago that now supports fat herds. Mr. Wadsworth has been adding to his purse every year since he came to Kansas, ami his experience is only that of mint, nine out of a hundred of tin- men who have gone into sheep with anything like an adequate idea of the work t<> start with. What we all rare for in these things is hard experience. Elsewhere the reader will find fuller reference to the country about Lamed; we will touch here on what Mr. Wadsworth has accomplished. lie moved to Kansas in 1875, located his present homestead eleven miles south of Larned, built a soil house, Stable, etc., and put 2,000 sheep on the range. Next he built a house fur his family, put up needful slie.ls. ami bought 480 acres of land from the railroad. A well was sunk at the corral, which at thirty feet touched a water supply sufficient for 1.0,000 sheep, and a windmill was erected to do the pumping. That well and windmill are still at work. From such a beginning Mr. Wads- worth made his start; now he has more sheep, or at least he has had in the last few years, than any other wool grower in the county. In 1882 lie owned, wholly or in part. 28,000 head, ami this year he holds 8,000 of his own, and is interested in many thousand more. During the lirst three years of his experience Mr. Wadsworth kept an account bv strict business methods of his income and expenditures. lie found that the net profits on his original investment of S4,!t48 were $7,420, taking no account of a Hock of sheep graded from the original herd and worth $6,600 in addition. Having already engaged in the sheep business in Iowa and Missouri before coming further west, what he has to say about Southwestern Kansas is worth reading. "] think this country far preferable," he writes, "to any other I know of for the wool business. I am confident that any one can come here with sheep, managing them as he should do, ami realize fifty per cent, a year on the investment. There is no trouble whatever with foot-rot and the various diseases thai in most localities make the business hazardous." THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. 75 The only disease to which Kansas sheep are subject is "scab," they being ex- posed to that by the steady and heavy importation of herds from Colorado and Missouri into the state, but it is destructive only in cases of carelessness, as dipping twice in a mixture of sulphur and tobacco, or lime and sulphur, assures a cure. There are twenty other sheep farms in the neighborhood of Larned where as much could be seen and learned as at Mr. Wadsworth's. His has been singled out for illustration, because it is a place visited by everybody who has " si p in his eye." CQlLBS OP Gl^EBN E?ASTUI^E. 'HE growing importance of grass land in Kansas is unmistakable. There are many farmers in the western counties who would gladly exchange their broken ground for the original prairie sod, if they could. The abundance, luxuriance and sterling staying qualities of Kansas grasses have given them a genuine marketable value which no caprice of climate can alter. The buffalo variety is undoubtedly the finest winter grass in the world, and while it grows over a large area of western country, in no other place does the quantity per acre equal that of Kansas. The blue stem is a plentiful and nutritious summer grass. The farmers are paving more attention to the culti- vation of tame grasses than hitherto, but in the southwestern counties the abundance and quality of prairie meadow and pasture are such as to remove all desire on the part of the husbandman to supersede them. A great body of Kansas soil has been made by the disintegration of limestone rock, and when- ever such is the case Kentucky blue grass thrives even as under its native sky But the farmer, however anxious he may be before starting out in respect to the possibilities of Southwest Kansas as a blue-grass country, will find, on look- ing into the matter, that blue grass is inferior to orchard grass, meadow oat grass, clover and alfalfa, for the prairie. In the eastern counties the circum- stances are different, but in the West this much talked about pasturage is almost valueless in general fanning, giving but scant feed during a limited por- tion of the vear. A mixture of one and one-half bushels of orchard grass seed and two or three quarts of clover seed to the acre of ground will give a stand of grass that should satisfy the most exacting. These varieties find no more congenial climate anywhere, and with the others mentioned make big yields. THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. 77 (sITIES OP THE SOUTHWEST. HE numbei and general prosperity of the towns of South Central and Southwest Kansas are a strange sight to one who crossed the plains ten years or more ago, and remembers the eternal sameness of things during the weary months when the "train" moved through that desolate it' lovely wilderness. The Arkansas Valley in those years "as solitary beyond the powers of description. The river obeyed the tortuous windings of its treeless banks with a placidness that was awful in its silence, and wdio followed its meanderings with no companion save his own thoughts, says Colonel Inman, to whom we arc indebted for this description, realized in all its intensity the meaning of the word Alone. Illimitable as the ocean, the monotonous waste stretched away until lost in the blue of the sky. The mirage created fantastic landscapes and pictured distanci s thai only deceived and annoyed. The shriek of the bittern - Till: ARKANSAS VAUCEY AT GREAT BEND. rarely broke upon the air to disturb the quiet of those silent waters, or the sharp whir-r of the startled pheasant to grate harshly on the ear: the hare rushed trembling from man's presence, but had no voice to express her alarm; the antelope and buffalo moved quickly away at his coming, but uttered no sound i" change the brooding quiet. Vet, despite its loneliness, the picture af times was beautiful, for there were miles <>f prairie which seemed to have risen like islands out of the sea. These were * * * the gardens of the desert, these The unshorn fields, bonndless and beautiful, Ami fresh as the pouns earth ere man had - Lo! thi | -i In airy undulations fai i \- II thi an In hi well 81 1 still, with all his rounded billows fixed And motionless forever. 78 THE KANSAS PICTURE Booh'. And now that memorable silence is broken by the hum of the reaper and the sound of traffic. Sleek cattle roam over what was once a waste, sheep fatten thereon by thousands, and the whole region is instinct with life and human enersrv. The locomotive has cheated Solitude out of its valley. Leaving Kansas City and passing Lawrence, or starting from Atchison, the traveler arrives with good speed at Topeka, the capital of the state and one of the most active and prosperous cities in the West. Thence southward and to the west through the coal region of Osage county, he passes the important town of Emporia, and thirteen miles beyond enters the Land Grant of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa I'Y Railroad, as splendid a tract of land as the National Government ever granted a corporation. Strong City, the first prin- cipal station, quarries large quantities of superior limestone, which it ships to all parts of the state. The Capitol at Topeka is built of this stone. Cottonwood Falls, the countv seat, is a mile and a half distant. The surrounding country is well suited to agricultural and stock purposes. Then comes Florence in Marion county, with 1,000 or 1,200 people, the center of a famous farming district. Grain and live stock are the chief shipments. Two churches, several religious societies, and a good graded school are supported. Flor- ence has two hotels, one newspaper, a gristmill, an elevator, three quarries, a lime kiln, and other evi- dences of business life. Between Florence and Great Bend is a country of remarkable resources, unexcelled in Kansas. Nearly every acre is tillable. It is doubtful if another body of land equaling this in extent, with so small a percentage of waste, can be found in the West. Newton, the county seat of Harvey county, has a growing population now numbering 3,500. The railroad station cost $30,000, and the new county jail one third that sum. Besides four churches and two fine school houses, the city sustains five hotels, four banks, three newspapers, three elevators, and shows unmistakable signs of "push." THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. 79 Thirty-three miles further wesl the road strikes the Arkansas River at Hutchinson, which stream it follows for over 250 miles to the western line of the state. Hutchinson is in Reno county, and has a shipping prominence that is remarkable for a place of 2,500 people. It contains four churches, a fine graded school, three newspapers, two banks, a brick court house, an elaborately equipped sugar refinery, a creamery, grist mills, hotels, an opera house, etc. A large quantity of railroad land is for sale in Reno count \ at from $4 to 18 per acre. Nickerson and Sterling come next, and then Raymond and Ellin- wood, near all of which the stockmen can find good, low juiced land. Nickerson was laid out in October, 1879, but its growth has been accelerated by the location there of important railroad division headquarters. It is also the principal shipping point east of Dodge City for cattle from Indian Territory and the south. Sterling has '.'.i 100 inhabitants, two of the largest sug"ar and syrup mills in the Arkansas Valley, and plenty of churches, schools, and enterprise. Raymond is a newer station just start- ing into life, with the rural church, hotel, and good Kan- sas school ; ships hay, live stock, broom corn and prod- uce. Ellinwood stands at the junction of the main line and the McPherson branch of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, and reports a population of 700, largely German, who have a Catholic and Lutheran church, a public school, sev- eral hotels, one brewerv, and a flouring mill. This little town shipped 463 carloads of wheat in the last six months of last year, in addition to what was ground up at home, and one- third of the crop which the farmers held. Great Bend is a few miles further on. Between that city and Dodge lies a stretch of country one hundred miles long, perfectly healthful, subject to little cold weather and less snow, and better adapted to cattle and sheep than any other area over which the writer ever traveled. The surface is rolling, the soil well drained, the range from horizon to horizon. The grass, instead of the blue stem and other summer varieties of BUT! HINSON OPER l- HOUSE. 80 THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. the eastern counties, is that king of all pasture, the buffalo, rich in saccharine matter and succulent fiber, sought out by animals in summer and winter. The average elevation above the sea is at least '.'.<" M) feet, and to breathe the quickening air of these plains is to insure the body against the ills of ague, asthma, and consumption. And west of Dodge City there is equally good grazing-. The characteristic features of Dodge itself (as the great cattle town is familiarly called) are touched upon in other pages of this book, but mention may here be made of its §10,000 court house, imposing brick school house, said to be unexcelled in the state, its church, banks, mill, tannery, and two bright newspapers. Originally a point from which buffalo hunters drew their supplies, Dodge has grown to become a county seat boasting 1 ,'-2o(J people, with a cattle trade involving millions of dollars. Still onward, and Garden City, a new Metropolis is reached, and the irrigating ditches already seen at inter- vals from the car window have increased until there seems no limit to them. No greater success has been achieved in Kansas agriculture than farming by irrigation; there is hardly a record of individual failure, even, and the crops raised along the ditches would astonish the best market gardener in the world. Canals now built will water 300,000 acres. I.akin also has irrigating ditches. Coolidge is the last town before J^P g * S3 ^ _ [~^ 455S ^WiJl:^i^ ''"' r:,ilr '" i " 1 rr " sses i " t " Col ~ orado. There is no difference of opinion among intelligent men as to the fertility of Kansas soil, but while agriculture has been pursued with degrees of success varying as the farmer's grasp of the needs and re- sources of his particular section varied — albeit with an aggre- gate result unsurpassed in the annals of farming — the stock- men have always and every- where made money, and to the growing stock interests we look for the future wealth of the state. Farming will continue to advance, but great as its rewards are, it cannot hope to overtake the greater increase on the range The more corn raised, the better for cattle, sheep, and hogs, and the more of these animals the better for the farmers and the state. The amazing increase in the number of live stock is therefore the happiest omen for the future. As there is land enough to dispel all fear of overcrowding, we can utter no wiser counsel, if you have your mind se1 on :i ranch, than "Come on." THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. si "rts in that line have paled into insignificance. 1 am entirely outdone in this last hook. We have been shut out from the world so long that I am unable to tell whether to wear spring or winter clothes. Still interspersed between the moan- ing of th<> wind you will occasionally hear some old weather-broken cuss saj that he has been out in some trapping time "in wuss storms than this — when you could not see ten loot ahead." We have now on hand snow I >:i nks in our streets more than fifteen feet high. Navigation is entirely closed, with the 5 86 THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. exception of now and then a Laplander, who comes in on top of the crust on a pair of snow shoes. And still they think we ought to, or should be amiable enough to love this country. Should I not come out in the spring I want you to have my remains exhumed and shipped to Kansas and interred. You will find my bank account in the left-hand drawer in my desk. I think it will be large enough to defray all expenses. * * * I am, yours truly, Ted. Haxverson. " x>.^s35S^^*Mp AT ANCHOR. THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. s7 Spoilt on the ©i^aipje. 'HERE is royal sport to be had on the plains of Western Kansas. Prairie chicken are plentiful, and there is no finer bird in the world for the huntsman. Quail dodge out of every hedge-row. the open fields are alive with them, and they scamper along under your very horse's head, or whistle to their mates "in the standing corn," as you drive by. Great bevies of grouse feed in the grain and stubble fields. The snipe and curlew are easily shot, and so is the wild pigeon. During the spring and fall millions of plover visit the state, remaining with us long enough for sports- men to capture good bags. Wild ducks and geese fairly swarm about the Arkansas River and its tributaries, and in many instances the farmers resort to L(>! THE POOR BUFFALO. scare-crows — or shall we call the effigies scare-geese? — to prevent the destruction of their wheat and corn. The Mennonites, who do not believe in the use oi fire-arms, send their children into the wheat-fields to frighten away the birds. On a November evening in 1SSI the writer witnessed an incident near Burrton, in Harvey county, which will illustrate the abundanceof this game. The son of the hotel-keeper took his father's gun and started for a neighboring corn-field where the geese had been swarming all day. Being a youngster and anxious not to return empty-handed, he crept along on his hands and knees close up to the flock. Leveling his weapon he fired, but the cap did not explode, and the birds took to tlight upon hearing the click of the hammer. The gun was a double-barreled one, and as soon as he could the boy took aim and fired again, whereupon thirteen geese fell, which he brought in triumph to the 88 THE KANSAS P1CTVRE BOOK. hotel. The market price of the birds last year in towns west of Newton was ten nnts apiece, or about what the feathers were worth. But there is larger game to lie attended to. Though rapidly disappearing before the encroaching march of the homesteader, the buffalo still pastures in some parts of Western Kansas, and occasionally, says Mr. Porter in "The West," "a herd of wild horses dashes into the southwestern counties." Antelope and deer bound along the picturesque bluffs, and hide in the tall grass and woody selvedges of I lie bottom lands, and there certainly is no finer sport in all the chase than racing the fleet antelope. None, unless it be coursing - the bounding jack-rab- bit as he flies ahead of the hounds. These " varmints" exist in thousands on the prairies, and a dozen other diverting small fry of the four-legged order afford opportunities to the Nimrod. AFTER I lit INT] LOPE. THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. 89 p Special E?lea •" t ENTLEMEN of the jury: He is an outcast, it is true, but he is also the I -_—■•' oldest inhabitant." He is a thief, but he has been evicted from his V J stamping ground. He may have purloined your boots or your saddle- straps, but since "he is disowned by the dogs, and not recognized at all by respectable foxes," there is somewhat to be said for his obliquity. Let us reason together. He howls o'nights — so do my neighbor's dogs. He thrusts his "triangular and elongated visage" into other people's affairs when they, perchance, are not about — so do a numerous army of two-legged critters who ought to know better, while they would speak with contempt of this coward. Suppose he has chewed up your lariat, or made away with your harness, did he ever manipulate a " corner," or misap- propriate the savings of widows and orphans ? Suppose while pursued by hunger he has fallen foul of a covey of young birds, answer me echo of a hun- dred wanton shots, did he ever kill for the sake of killing ? Granted that he waylays the incautious jack-rabbit, which thereupon "takes its last lesson in gnawing subjectively " — with a less * A, *OT IK %--r< defensible end have you not found cours- "a thoroughly vagabond outcast ix gray." ing the jack fair sport ? When game is afoot this lop-eared and large-jointed creature gathers together the best of his clan, that they too may lick their chops in expectation — is such unselfishness universal '? He was suckled by penury and reared in want and adversity, school- mothers of thiefdom everywhere — how much better pupils do we rear under such tutelage? He is patient under great provocation — I wish we all were. You rail him craven and a poltroon, but my word for it, let your dog corner him and ye shall know the mettle of his pasture. The fox now is a royal fellow, nevertheless he has more cunning than the prisoner at the bar. Would you apply to quadrupeds the human law making it a disgrace only to be detected in wrong-doing? The fox is sly anil escapes — he is a good fellow: tin- coyote is sly, but he has the courage of his theft, ami so he and all his yelping progeny arc dastards. It is true he does yelp, and his discordant clangor fills the wilder- ness, but we are disinheriting the savages now — the coyote, the buffalo, and the red Indian — and who — who would not make his voice heard under such distressing circumstances? THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. Ill (Qai^ets. IT is not the farmer, or the stockman, or anybody else living in the state, who wants to know about t lie markets of Kansas. Their chief difficulty is to supply the demand, local, home, and foreign. There are competing markets in all directions. Unfold the map again, and look at the new country to the southwest whose development defies all known ratios of increase. Notice that the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, after running through Kansas, penetrates into Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and all the country where the shadow of Montezuma yet lingers in the sunset, and then think how the population is fed. Turn to the east, and see the same road making straight for the Missouri River. Kansas City is there, a distributing point for the whole of Kansas. Thence to Chicago and St. Louis the surface of the country is one net-work of competing railroad lines. In addition, the Kansan finds himself within the scope of immediate benefit to be derived from river transportation, the success of which will make his land as valuable as any in the Ohio Valley, for he will be brought as near to the market in price of trans- portation, which is the only measure of distance. Horn So Rai^ Opp. MOU live, pernaps, in an eastern state, and have the impression that Kansas is a great distance off. Such impressions are common enough respecting regions even less remote, for unless a man's interests are in some way related thereto, a state or country which is only a name to him has rarely an exact relative place in his mind. Without traveling by pneumatic tube, limited express, or any other means of rapid dispatch, you can reach the Valley of the Arkansas River in three days and a half from any part of New England, in three days from New York, in two days and a half from Buffalo and Pittsburgh, in thirty-six hours from Chicago, in twenty-four hours from St. Louis, in ten or twelve hours from Kansas City. Tickets at greatly reduced rates, either single or round trip, and freight rates, can be obtained at all prin- cipal railroad stations on through lines. If all the desired information cannol be obtained through your nearest station agent, write to the A. T. & S. I'. Land Commissioner, Topeka, and he will direct you how to get rates. THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. 93 Dl^AWBAG^S. "NXIOUS to get at rock-bottom facts, the candid reader asks what about cyclones, grasshoppers, mid droughts. These are possible ^ scourges, but it is nonsense to talk of Kansas being a more likely field for ravage than any other western state. There are forty afflictions of nature common elsewhere which are never known in Kansas; but who ever heard of Minnesota being condemned as worthless because the winters there are THE OLD WAV. destructive, or Illinois and Iowa, because chinch bugs sometimes eat up the crops? Who hears the Atlantic coast states condemned utterly if pleuro- pneumonia ravages the herds, or the Mississippi Valley states when floods devastate the fields? It is well to bear in mind that calamitous droughts in Kansas have been exceptional, never seriously crippling the farmer who had AND THE NEW. first acquainted himself with the capabilities of the section to which he moved. While as for the farmer who fails, the chances are ninety-nine out of a hundred that his lack of judgment would bring failure wherever he might be. Most of the stories on this subject are pure invention. Statistics show that dur- ing the growing months of the past ten years — mark that — the rainfall in 94 THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. Kansas was greater than in the states of Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut or New York. Yet these are considered moderately comfort- able states to live in. The cyclones, so called, are mostly aerial, and touch — when the}' touch at all — only small portions of the vast prairies. Call to mind where the latest have done their dismantling. Was it not in Illinois and Indiana? Yet Kansas has its drawbacks. What land has not? The fat valleys of the Nile, the Euphrates, the Jordan? Has not your state, and yours, a fly or two in its pot of ointment ? What say you to wayward climate, untimely frosts, long and cruel winters (here unknown), potato bugs, apple blights, stony fields, high-priced lands, high-priced fertilizers, weedy highways, high winds, floods, droughts (the whole of new England was blistered by dry weather in 1882), sunstrokes (who ever heard of one in Kansas?), boss rule, aggressive pauperism, heavy taxation — shall we go further? We think not. And do you ask if you shall come to Kansas? Every man must bear his own burden, each must look and decide for himself. Some cannot, and some should not remove hither. A good-for-nothing where he now is will be the worst kind of a good- for-nothing in Kansas, for like another animal of sluggish blood he will croak. Some again may and should come, and with all practical dispatch. But lei n<> rational soul be discouraged by flippant and sensational writers who offend all reason. No one state has all the advantages or all the drawbacks. Spy out the one combining most of the former, to fewest of the latter. After you have done so, we may safely ask, how stands Kansas? 'ilN-ls liril.IUXG STONE. THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. 95 ©HE E?I^OFITS ON (©AWLE. IT is an easy matter to make attractive estimates of the profits of cattle raising, but judging from those which have appeared in print it is not so easy to be accurate and enticing at the same time. The writer of the Pic- ture Book congratulates himself in having secured what he believes to I"- a trustworthy computation. For this contribution he is indebted to Mr. H. R. Hilton, superintendent of the Kansas ranch of the Western Land and Cattle Company, who prepared the estimate exclusively for these pages. The showing will not satisfy where dividends of 30 to ."ill per cent, are expected — it is no more than fair to say so much at the outset. Mr. Hilton is conservative in his figuring?, but the writer has faith to believe that such an estimate is the one capitalists will prefer. All that can be made anywhere in the business is within reach of the cat- tlemen of Southwest Kansas. Yet while cattle raising has few risks, the most sanguine will allow that animal life is sometimes subject to disaster, and he acts wisely who provides for a reason- able loss. On a six years' contract Mr. Hilton shows a profit of 147 per cent., or an average of '24.' per cent, a year. The chances are good j — many men would say certain — for larger earnings, on any well managed ranch. " If you want a better result — though the prudent in- ; vestor "ill not ask it — you will have to throw- in more range and reduce quantity of land purchased," writes Mr. Hilton. "You see," he adds, "I have put in taxes — quite a heavy item, but one that has to be mel on a part of the purchase now, and will have to lie on all as soon as the unorganized counties of the states are organized." '1 lie notes appended to the estimate give further explanations. ■HORN. 9<3 THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. ESTIMATE OF PROFITS Of a ranch of 10,400 acres (with free range of equal amount adjoining) in Southwest Kansas, based upon a Capital Stock of $65,000. investment in real estate, etc. 10,400 acres at $2 $20,S00 16 miles outside fence at $175 2,800 6 miles division fence at 1175 1,050 Buildings 1,350 Equipment 851 1 $26,850 INVESTMENT in stock. 500 cows with 300 calves at $40 $20,000 250 vearling steers at $20 5,000 250 2-year old steers at $30 7,500 15 bulls at $100 1,500 10 horses at $50 500 1 mule team, harness and wagon 400 34, HOC) Balance cash on hand Aug. 1, 1883 3,250 Capital stock paid up $65,000 Statement at End of First Year. Arc;. 1. 1884. Resources. Cash balance brought forward $3,250 500 cows, less 2 per cent, loss, 490 at 835 17,150 196 heifer calves at $10 1,960 196 bull calves at $10 1,960 150 yearling heifers, less 2 per cent, loss, 141 ai $20 2,940 150 yearling steers, less 2 per cent, loss, 147 at $20 2,940 L25 yearling steers purchased during the year at $20 2,500 250 2-year old steers, less 2 per cent, loss, 24.") at $30 7,350 250 3-year old steers, less 2 per cent, loss, 245 at $45 (sold) 15 bulls at $100 1,500 10 horses at $50 >< » » Mule team, wagon, etc 400 $42,450 Cash from sale of 245 steers at 845 $11,025 Real estate and equipments 26,850 37,875 Total . ... $80,325 THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. 97 Liabilitit s. Capital stock $85,000 [Expenses during the year as per expense account : 3 herders at $300 . ." 11,080 1 foreman Oi >i i 300 bushels of corn at GO cents 180 50 tons of hay at $3 150 Supplies for ranch 500 Incidentals "2i M • 2,710 Taxes on land and cattle 650 125 yearling steers at $20 2,500 Paid 7 per cent, dividend 4,550 Undivided surplus 4,915 Total $80,325 Statement at End of Second Year. Aug. 1. 1885. Resources. Cash on hand Aug. 1, 1884, as per cash book $3,80.5 490 cows, less 2 per cent, loss, 480 at $35 in. si hi 147 2-year old heifers, less 2 per cent, loss, 144 at $27.50 3,960 222 heifer calves at $10 2,220 222 bull calves at $10 2,220 196 yearling heifers, less 2 per cent, loss, 192 at $20 3,840 196 yearling steers, less 2 per cent, loss, 192 at $20 3,840 272 2-year old steers, less 2 per cent, loss, 267 at $30 8,010 245 3-year old steers, less 2 per cent, loss, 240 at $45 (sold) 25 bulls, less 2 per cent, loss, 24 at $100 2,400 12 horses, less 2 per cent, loss, 11 at $50 550 Mule team, wagon, etc 400 $48,Ht;, Cash from sale of 240 steers at $45 $10,800 Real estate and equipments 26,850 37,650 Total $85, ; 55 Liabilitu s. Capital stock $65,000 Expenses, as per expense account 2,81 N I Taxes 700 10 bulls at $100 1,000 2 horses at $50 LOO Paid 10 per cent, dividend 6,500 Balance undivided surplus 9,655 Total $85,755 98 THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. Statement at End of Third Yeah. Aug. 1, 1886. Resources. Cash on hand Aug. 1, 1885, as per cash book ' $3,565 624 cows, less 2 per cent, loss, 611 (61 sold), 550 at 835 20,250 192 2-year old heifers, less 2 per cent, loss, 188 at $27.50 5,170 25? heifer calves at $10 2,570 257 bull calves at $10. 2,570 222 yearling heifers, less 2 per cent, loss, 217 at $20 4,340 222 yearling steers, less 2 per cent, loss, 217 at $20 4,340 192 2-year old steers, less 2 per cent, loss, 188 at $30 5,640 267 3-year old steers, less 2 per cent, loss, 262 at $45 (sold) 32 bulls, less 2 per cent, loss, 31 at $100 3,100 15 horses, less 2 per cent, loss, 15 at $50 750 Mule team, wagon, etc , 400 $52,695 Cash from sales of 262 3-year old steers at $45 $11,790 Cash from sales of 61 cows at $35 2,135 Real estate and equipment 26, s 5< ' — 40,775 Total $93,470 Liabilities. Capital stock $65, Expenses, as per expense account 3,000 Taxes 800 Purchased 8 bulls at $100 800 Purchased 4 horses at $50 \>j n l Paid 12 per cent, dividend 7,800 Undivided surplus 15,870 Total $93,470 Statement at End of Fourth Year, Aug. 1, 1887. Resources. Cash on hand Aug. 1, 1886, as per cash book $4,890 738 cows, less 2 per cent, loss, 723 (144 sold), 579 at $35 21 1,265 217 2-vear old heifers, less 2 per cent, loss, 212 at $27.50 5,830 330 heifer calves at $10 3,330 330 bull calves at $10 3,330 257 yearling heifers, less 2 per cent, loss, 252 at $20 5,040 257 yearling steers, less 2 per cent, loss, 25'.' at $'„'0 5,040 .' 1 i 2-year old steers, less 2 per cent, loss, 212 at $30 6,360 184 3-year old steers, less 2 per cent, loss, 180 at $45 (sold) 41 bulls, less 2 per cent, loss, 40 at $100 4,000 18 horses, less 2 per cent, loss, 17 at $45 ? 25 Mule team, wagon, etc 400 $59,150 THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. 99 Cash from sale of 180 steers at $45 $8, Ion ( 'ash from sale of 144 cows at $35 5,040 Heal estate 26,851 1 39,990 Total $99,140 Liability s. Capital stock $65, Expenses, as per expense account 3,200 Taxes 800 Purchased 10 bulls at $100 1,000 Purchased 3 horses at $50 150 Paid 12 per cent, dividend 7,800 Undivided surplus 21,190 Total $99,1 tO Statement at End of Fifth Year, Aug. 1, 1888. Resources. Cash on hand Aug. 1, 1887, as per cash book $5,080 00 791 cows, less 2 per cent, loss, 775 (7G sold), 099 at $35] 24,465 00 252 2-year old heifers, less 2 per cent, loss, 247 at $27.50 6,175 00 359 heifer calves at $10 3,590 ( 10 359 bull calves at $10 3,590 00 330 yearling heifers, less 2 per cent, loss, 323 at $20 6,460 00 330 yearling steers, less 2 per cent, loss, 323 at $22.50 7,26' 50 252 '-year old steers, less 2 per cent, loss, 247 at $33 S,151 00 212 3-vear old steers, less 2 per cent, loss, 212 at $45 (sold) 50 bulls, less 2 per cent, loss, 49 at $100 4,900 00 17 horses, less 2 per cent, loss, 16 at $45 720 00 Mule team, wagon, etc 4< " » 00 $70,798 50 Cash from sale of 76 cows at $35 $2,660 Cash from sale of 212 steers at $45 9,540 Real estate 26,850 39,05(i 00 Total $109,848 50 Liabilities. I !apital stock $65, ) 00 Expenses, as per expense account 3, 51111 no Taxes 850 00 Purchased 10 bulls at $100 1,000 00 Paid 12 per cent, dividend 7. sun 00 Undivided surplus 31,698 50 T.tal $109,848 5ii 100 THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. Statement at End of Sixth Year. Aug. 1, 1889. Resources. Cash on hand Aug. 1, 1888, as per cash book $4,130 946 cows, less 2 per cent, loss, 927 (91 sold), 836 at 840 33,440 323 2-year old heifers, less 2 per cent, loss, 316 at $30 9,480 426 heifer calves at 812 5,112 426 bull calves at 812 5,112 359 yearling heifers, less 2 per cent, loss, 352 at 825 8,800 359 yearling steers, less 2 per cent, loss, 352 at $22.50 7,920 323 2-year old steers, less 2 per cent, loss, 316 at $35 11,060 247 3-year old steers, less 2 per cent, loss, 242 at $47.50 (sold) 54 bulls, less 2 per cent, loss, 53 at $75 3,975 20 horses, less 2 per cent, loss, 20 at $45 900 Mule team, wagon, etc 350 $90,279 Cash from sale of 91 cows at $35 83,185 Cash from sale of 242 steers at 847.50 11,495 Real estate 26,850 41,530 Total $131 ,809 Liabilities. Capital stock $65,000 Expenses, as per expense account 3,750 Taxes 900 Purchased 5 bulls at $100 500 Purchased 4 horses at 850 200 Paid 15 per cent, dividend 9,750 Undivided surplus 51,70'.) Total 8131,809 SUMMARY AND FINANCIAL STATEMENT SHOWING STATUS OF INVEST- MENT AT THE END OF SIX YEARS. STOCK ON HAND. 836 cows at $40 833,440 316 2-year old heifers at 830 9,480 426 heifer calves at $12 5,112 426 bull calves at $12 5,112 352 yearling heifers at 825 8,800 352 yearling steers at 822.50 7,920 316 2-year old steers at $35 1 1,060 53 bulls at $75 3,975 20 horses at $45 900 Mule team, wagon, etc 350 Cash value of live stock $86,149 THE KANSAS PICTUBE BOOK. 101 Casli on hand, as per cash book 3,710 Real estate at cost 26,850 Total value of all property 1116,709 Deduct capital stock 65,1 II II > Surplus $51,709 Add — Dividend first year, 7 per cent 84,550 I dividend second year, 10 per cent 0,500 Dividend third year, 12 per cent 7, SOU Dividend fourth year, 12 per cent 7y800 Dividend fifth year, 12 per cent 7,800 Dividend sixth year, 15 per cent 9,750 44,200 Surplus and cash dividends, in 6 years, being 147 per cent, profit on invested capital 195,909 Tank. .,'\i" -no- &r NOTES ON THE FOREGOING. The land is supposed to be located anywhere in Southwest Kansas, west of Great Bend, and where the same is not naturally watered, the appraisement given is intended to cover cost of wells, wind-mills, pumps, etc., bv means of which an abundant supply of water for such a herd can be cheaply supplied. The cost of fencing is calculated on 10,400 acres in a square body, to be divided into one large pasture and two small ones, as roughly shown in accom- panying diagram. The breeding cows are to be kept within the inclosed pastures with the bulls, during the breeding season. Steers and stock cattle to be herded on free range outside, during the summer and fall months, thus saving part of the fenced pastures for winter grazing. The class of cattle upon which esti- mate is based is native Kansans of good grade, the bulls thoroughbred short- horn. The increase from cows over two years old is estimated at 80 per cent., and from heifers bringing calves at two years old, 40 per cent., which is a vary moderate estimate where there is an average of three bulls to every hun- dred cows, all running in an inclosed pasture, giving fullest assurance of the highest possible crop of calves. THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. 103 Two per cent, per annum is allowed for losses on all classes of stock. Cattle raised on the land, and properly cared for, will suffer lightly from losses by storm, disease, etc. From year to year the cow herd is weeded of all the old and barren cattle, which are fattened and sold to realize original cost. The herd is being constantly improved by the addition of heifers of higher grade. A uniform price of §10 for bull calves has been maintained in the estimate, whereas the use of thoroughbred bulls would have justified the invoicing of these animals at from §25 to §50 as grade bulls, for which there is always a great demand, well-bred bull calves being readily taken at such prices after weaning time, for use with the southwestern herds. Liberal additions are made from year to year to the bull herd to insure a full crop of calves. Many of the bulls placed in the herd the first year would necessarily have to be exchanged with a neighboring herd in the third or fourth year, but this could be done without materially affecting the value. The estimate presupposes that the investor gives a partial oversight to the management of his property, such, for instance, as buying the original herd, marketing the steers, etc. By careful management in breeding and culling out inferior animals, the herd should far exceed in value the estimate placed upon it in the final summary. The real estate investment is appraised in the final statement at first cost. It would have been a very reasonable estimate to have placed its value at the end of six years at double the cost price; but the object of this statement is especially to show how such land can be profitably utilized while held for a rise in value. branded. The estimate does not show any extravagant profits in the cattle business. It is considerably below the average of what has been done in the past six years. As already said, it is intended to be conservative and practical, and show what can be safely depended upon, not what is possible — for it is a possible thing to exceed this estimate \!"> to ~>n per cent, under favorable circumstances. THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. ]05 Fl^OM THE (DlSSOUl^I &5EST. 'HE reader will not fail to have noticed that the name of a great railway company appears frequently in these pages. To write anything about the prosperity of Kansas and omit all reference to that company would be unjust, nay, impossible. The history of the settlement of Kansas is the history of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad. It has contributed, and will continue to contribute, more than any other single factor to the growth of the state. Without its energy and capital, many parts of a now rich domain would yet be for all purposes "as unsettled as the 'great lone land' on the shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria." Looking at what has been accomplished, and forgetting the vicissitudes through which the infant enterprise was guided, the undertaking does not seem to have been so great a work. Twent v vears ago, however, how many men — count them on your two hands — dared send their money to Kansas and "the desert ?" The few who did have reaped the harvest ; but theirs were the brains to plan and the hands to execute. We cannot afford to forget these things. To witness so soon a vindication of their judgment must be gratifying indeed to the sturdy New Englanders who risked fortunes on mere possibilities, at a time when Kansas was debatable territory, and the rich country beyond lay all unproductive as it had lain since the great upheaval. The scope of this book calling for close attention to the interests of the stock raiser and the home seeker, more has been said about the Land Depart- ment than about any other branch of the A. T. & S. F. management. But there is a system of administration in every branch of the company's service which challenges admiration. The writer speaks of these things as an outsider. To make it a personal matter, he has some knowledge of a small part of the work touching land interests, but officially none at all relating to anything out- side of that. He sees, as everyone must see whose work or pleasure brings him in contact with the company, efficiency everywhere. Like the men themselves, the names of those who contribute to this organization are to be found in their proper places — president, vice-president, managers, superintendents, passenger agent, and so on through the list; and he is a sorry misanthrope who would withhold recognition of their splendid talents. I ■I. THE A'.l.V.s.i.v PICTURE BOOK. 107 I7OW TO GET IiAND. HE homestead law gives to a settler, on condition of permanent improvement and continued residence for five years, 160 acres of land, either inside or outside of the railroad limits. The only costs to him are those of the land office, which, including final costs, do not exceed $20 for every 160 acres. Honorably discharged soldiers are allowed a deduction from the five years of the length of time of their military service, but they must actually reside on the land at least one year. The preemption law permits any citizen, or person who has declared his intention of becoming such, who does not already own 320 acres or more of land, to locate 160 acres within railroad limits at $2.50 per acre, or outside of railroad limits at 81.25 per acre. The only other conditions are that he shall make permanent improvements, and reside for six months on the property. The timber culture law gives to any citizen of the United States, or one who declares his intention of becoming such, 160 acres, either within or without the limits of the railroad, on condition that he plant one-sixteenth of the land with trees, and cultivate the same for eight years. Laws in some of the west- ern states and territories make additional inducements to settlers to plant trees, in the way of paying money direct to the settlers at so much per acre, or in reducing the amount of their taxes. But the great bulk of desirable government lands lying within the limits of railroad grants have been taken possession of under the homestead, pre- emption, and timber culture acts. It is better to buv land within a few miles of a railroad than to procure without cost, under government acts, lands located a considerable distance from railroads. The saving of horseflesh in drawing produce to market will generally, in a short time, make up more than the difference. So then, as a general rule, those who desire to locate in Kansas should purchase lands from the railroad in preference to homesteading or pre- empting them. The terms of the A. T. & S. F. railroad are moderate, and the company holds out special inducements to immigrants. What it desires is pop- ulation. It is the increased business for the road growing out of this increased population which it is working for. And it does not ask the settler to come into an ice-bound, undeveloped country, where he can expect nothing for years to come except the hardships of pioneer life, but rather into a land of sunshine and green fields, where lie will be surrounded by good neighbors and the gen- tler influences of human contact. THE KANSAS PICTURE BOOK. 109 I^AILI^OAD LlANDS IN I^ANSAS. 'HE Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Company has nearly one- half of its original grant of 3,000,000 acres, lying chiefly in the famous Arkansas Valley, still for sale, at from II to $10 per acre. The unsold lands embrace some of the best grazing tracts in the West. The tillable area is fast decreasing, but there are still good farming lands to be bought of the company. Besides having a wide area of land in a prosperous and well settled state for the settler or investor to select from, this railroad offers tin- further inducement of low prices, long credit, and interest on deferred pay- ments at the moderate rate of seven per cent. A purchase may be made on eleven years' credit; or if on six years' time, two years' time, or for cash, with various deductions from the appraised price, as shown in the following terms ELEVEN YEARS' CREDIT. Terms No. 1. — Eleven years' credit with seven per cent, interest. The first payment at date of purchase is one-tenth of the principal and seven per cent. interest on the remainder. At the end of the first and second years, only the interest at seven per cent, is paid; the third year and each year thereafter, one- tenth of the principal is paid, with seven per cent, annual interest on the bal- ance until the whole is paid. SIX YEARS' CREDIT— Tex Pee Cent. Discount. Terms No. 2. — Six years' credit with seven per cent, interest. The first payment at date of purchase is one-sixth of the principal and seven per cent, interest on the remainder. The second payment at the end of the first year is only interest. Afterwards, one-sixth of the principal is paid and seven per cent, annual interest on the remainder until the whole is paid. A discount of ten per cent, is made from the appraised price when land is bought on these terms, and the payments come as below. Example — 160 acres, at $5 per acre, bought August 1, 1883, would amount to $800. Ten per cent, off would reduce it to ^i'Ju, and the payments would be a.s follows: Date 4 Clark Street, Chicago, 111. X. T. Spoor, General Agent. 320 Chestnut Street, St. Louis, Mo. S. M. Osgood. Passenger \gent. cor. 1st Avenue and 3d Street. Cedar Rapids, Iowa. C. I>. Palmer, Texas Passenger Agent. 733 Elm Street. Dallas. Texas. ('has. II. Wood. General Agent, Kansas City, Mo. W. J. Jannev. Western Traveling Agent, Topeka. Kansas. W. R. PeaBODY, General Agent. Atchison, Kansas. A. P. Tanner. General Agent. Leavenworth, Kansas. Theo. F. Brown. General Agent, Denver, Col. ('has. T. Parsons, Colorado Passenger Agent, Denver. Col IT. Bradley, Agent. Pueblo, Col. P. .1. Elvnn. General Agent. Salt Lake City, Utah. R. E. Comfort, Agent, Deniing. X. M. V. C. Gay, Agent, El Paso, Texas. W. H. Holabird. Tourist Agent, Topeka. Kansas. A y o •' o -*&. v «y o -.^s^. bV i .V ^ *• -^ > V 4 ^" ,0 < W ^ W ** s 4 u ^ : sk- "*- .0 •> o. \2 ^0