Rensselaer Union, Volume 2, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 September 1870 — Letter from Mr. R. B. James. [ARTICLE]

Letter from Mr. R. B. James.

Mulbsrkt Grovk P. O , Crawford Co., Kansas, Aug. 20, ’7O. Editors Rensselaer Union:— Before I left Jasper county, IndiI ana, last spring, several friends desired me, if I caine to Kansas, to Write to them about the country.— ; This I promised to do as I became acquainted with it. Since I came : here -others have writtcii 'fbr the same purpose. In yours of last mouth yon inform me that numer- ; ous readers of the Union wish to hear about it. As the questions made by all are nearly the same and one series of letters will answer them, so far as I am able, I hope now to comply with their wishes, and as all have access to your paper I send you the articles for publication, hoping through this medium te reach them.

Kansas is a large State. It is about two hundred miles wide and nearly four hundred miles long.— Formerly its territory embraced a large portion of Colorado. It was organized as a territory by congress in May, 1854, during President Pierce’s administration, and was admitted into the Union, as a free State, in 1861, the first year of President Lincoln’s term. Connected with the annals of tliis State arc some of the most important events in American history.— On account of the repeal of the Missouri compromise the attention of the nation was directed towards the country and the interest taken in its settlement by the. emigrant aid societies of New England and the pro-slavery organizations' of the Southern States—the violence of the pro-slavery and anti slavery elements in its early settlement—the civil war that raged within its | bprders for more than two years j prior to the great rebellion, and’ , bich ended only with flic subjnga- 1

lion of life Sooth —the two constitution* and two govenunaaU organized by the contending parties during ihe struggle—the division and permanent disruption of.tlie democratic party wjioae benign rule and long enreer had done so much to settle the policy and promote the glory und interest of the United States, which grew out of the discussions in congress relating to Kansas, and which terminated in the final overthrow of that party — are all closely interwoven with the history of this State. However it is not my purpose in these letters to review this history, hut to speak ot the country as I find it, or as it is reliably reported by others.

The surface boil of Kansas is a dark brown or black alluvial mould resting on a clay or marl subsoil.— in the valleys and along the streams and rivers this mould or loam is from three to five or seven feet deep. On the uplands, in the eastern half of the State, it is from one to throe feet deep. Although rivers run the whole length of the State with numberless branches, springs and gulches running into them, iu the western half, away from the rivers, the country is sandy, and in some portions, barren, the soil being strongly impregnated with alkali. In other parts, lands planted in corn every year for sixteen years, without manures, retain their productiveness, and the crops are as good now as at the first. . The face of the country throughout the entire State is what is called rolling. Large swells of gently sloping lands, partitioned by streams, without descending to sloughs, swamps or marshes, succeed each other, and with the intervening level table lands, spread over the whole State. It should be remembered that this is a new country —that tlie majority of the people have been here not more than two to four years—and that the violence of the early settlement retarded agriculture and the development of every species of industry; but tho quiet condition of the country now is favorable to agriculture and ressilts show that onethird of the labor required in the rocky lands of New York or Pennsylvania, or the heavy timber of Virginia or Kentucky will insure double the amount of crops here that can be obtained there. I speak of those States as among the richest east of the Mississippi river, and. good samples of health, soil and climate. The first crop of sod corn frequently pays the expense of breaking and- cultivation. In favorable seasons thirty bushels to the acre is no (infrequent yield. The only labor required for this crop is to drop the seed in every third or fourth furrow, according to the width of plowing. The second year the crop will be doubled.— Twenty to forty bushels of wheat, fifty to seventy of oats and forty to seventy of corn are common. Tho prairies of Kansas are the finest wheat lands in the world.— The crop has never failed. Winter wheat is the kind raised. The cold is sufficient to hybernize the seed, hut it has never winter-killed. Of the climate I shall have occasion to speak hereafter. Potatoes, both Irish and sweet, yield well, and other crops—rye, barley, sorghum, timothy, beans, vines and garden vegetables—have generally done well. The soil here stands drought better than in any other part of the United States I have seen. The nature of the soil bn the hills is such that it produces crops as well | as the best bottom lands and nati ural vegetation Is nearly the same on the high as the low lands. For orchards, grapes, currants and berries, the soil is very superior.. I have seen orchards of apple trees, five years from the seed, fifteen to sixteen feet high and bearing fruit, the trunks of the trees being more than a toot in circumference. — Peacli trees in the southern section of the State bear in three years from the seed. It is true there are but few orchards in the State, because the settlements are new and it takes time to'begin, but they have been tried in nearly every settlement and succeed in all. In my next I will speak of the climate and some other matters. Respectfully,yours, <fcc.,

R. B. JAMES.