Rensselaer Union, Volume 3, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 September 1870 — Letter from Mr. R. B. James. [ARTICLE]

Letter from Mr. R. B. James.

Mulberry Grove, Crawford County, Kansas, September 11, 1870. Editors Rensselaer Union: I I noposed to have written this letter icfore this lint«, but have been delayed. The first great river of Kansas is the Missouri. This river is the father of the Mississippi and the grand father of rivers. It bounds the State on the northwest tor 120 miles. This mighty river, rising in the Rocky Mountains, is always navigable for steamers. It furnishes several available harbors for the citizens of this State. Kansas City, the entrepot to St. Louis for southeastern Kansas, is at the confluence of the Kansas fiver with the Missouri, on the Missouri State jside. But Wyandotte, Leavenjworth, and Atchison, at the crossing of the central branch of the Pacific Railroad arc Kansas towns on the Missouri higher up the river. The next in size and present importance is the Kansas river. Its two great branches, the Republican, and Smoky rivers, rise in the Rocky Mountains, and flowing the entire length of the State from West to east, with their hundreds of affluents drain a vast section along the entire north bofder. A large scope of country is furnished from the dense forests that stretch out on either side of all of 1 them and their numerous branches. The

Central Kansas Pacific railroad, running parallel with the Central Branch Pacific, but far south of it, is built along tho north side of Smoky river, and more than thirty respectable towns and cities are located along its route. Next in importance is the Neosho, draining the southeastern pari of the Slate. The Missouri River, Kt. Sbott <fc Gulf railroad is built along the valley of this river, furnishing, when completed through Texas, direct communication with Galveston on tho Gulf of Mexico and the cities of St. Lohis and Chicago, in Missouri and Illinois.— v These roads and rivers give us direct access tQ the markets of the Gulf, the West Indies, the Northern States, the Atlantic Ocean aud Europe, and to the Western States and the Pacific ocean. The city of Ft. Scott is located on a branch of the Osage river, which drains tho eastern part of tho State. Fall layer and Vcriligris take their rise in the central part of Kansas and flow southwardly into the Arkansas. The Arkansas is a great river, rising in the Rocky Mountains, in the western part of Colorado, It passes a long distance in it? various windings through the southwestern fart of Kansas, thence through the ndian Territory into the sippiBaxter is an important new city in the Neosho valley, at the southeast corner of the State, near the line of the Indian Territory and the States of Missouri and Arkansas. Although the whole northern and northeastern parts of Kansas have received a large share of immigration within four years past, yet within the last two years the mighty influx of settlers has located in the vallies of the Osage, Neosho and Verdigris. In this short time not less than one hundred and fifty thousand to two hundred .thousand people have taken hoities in this portion of the State. The M alnut, Cotton and Labette, are the other remaining rivers. As branches of the great leading arteries I should not omit to name the following large streams though not called rivers: Allen, Blue, Clark, Coal, Deep, Diamond, Elm, Grasshopper, Humboldt, Hickory, Independence, Indian, Mill, McDonald, Solomon, JstrangeF and Turkey. —There are hundreds of others of lesser note, too numerous to mention, which furnish such a net-work of drainage that the labor of artificial ditching is wholly superceded and unnecessary. Indeed so perfectly complete is this system of natural drainage, that there is not an acre of marsh or morass in all the State. Along the bottoms and bluffs of all these streams, forests of many kinds of oak, hickory, black and white walnut, cottonwood, hackberry, locust, maple, ash, elm, pecan, mulberry, sycamore, cedar, and a great variety of other kinds of timber, shrubs and vines grow to great sine and luxuriance. But with all these streams, draining every acre of soil, producing large forests and supplying a great amount of lumber; giving shelter to man and to both wild and domesticated beasts, it must not be forgotten that Kansas is essentially a prairie State, and the vast growth of native grasses, rich and nutri-. live; the mild, dry and open winter, allowing grass to grow regularly nine months in the year and frequently longer; and the ease with which it is obtained; presents advantages for raising cattle, horses, mules, sheep, goats and swine, unequalled on this continent —unsurpassed in the world. Many do not feed their cattle, sheep, colts, mules or goats at all during winter. It is better, however, to put up stacks of hay, to save straw and cornfodder, and to provide some shelter, so that during cold, wet spells or occasional snow, they may not be compelled to buffet the storm to obtain food. Hay can be put up by using machinery for $2 .to $2.50 a ton. The prices of stock vary in different parts of the State, being cheaper along the Indian border, south, and dearer at the shipping points north. Cows are worth sls to SSO, oxen S2O to S6O per head; horses $25 to $l5O. Some fancy, thoroughbred horses I have seen are valued at S6OO to $1,200. The prices of other stock vary as much in proportion to their kinds. The great immigration has served to make stock comparatively scarce in some sections, although the actual number in the State has increased.

I will in this connection say a few words about dairying. A few cheese factories have been establisliull W ftll imuirJW; bllttllilS Taf the settlers have been poor and not Sljle to enter largely into business requiring much capital to begin.— Many of them were soldiers in the army, recently married, or young men of talent, education and en-terpriser-sons of farmers and mechanics, crowded from the north and east by the competition there for lands and employment, bringing young families with them—to w'hom bread and meat and shelter are the first motives, and when cabins of logs or shanties of sods with hay roofs are constructed and they are relieved from the confinement of covered wagons or tents, they resort to wheat and corn, poultry and pigs, as the quickest and readiest means of subsistance and supply. No time at first for fences, except in the timber sections, and cattle would require watching against straying or depredation upon crops, unless they had only one or two cow’s which were tethered. Something of this is already surmounted and dairies have accumulated in which cheeses weighing from fifty to olbe hundred and twenty-five pounds are made. Butter is plenty in the older settlements at 25 to 30

cents the year round. . The easy access to pure cold water, the numberless springs and the facility everywhere for cool cellars, the cheapness with which cattle may be raised, the long growing season, and the ready markets open to the dairy products, offer inducements to this branch of labor in this State of certain and steady profits not surpassed elsewhere. The first year here is a year of outlay and expense. Building, breaking sod, running over the country to find markets in which to procure the necessary supplies for nousefiold and family wants. The second year produces sufficient food, hedges and small orchards.— The third year begins to make things plentier and labor easier.— The fourth year fenced will turn stock and protect crops; peaches, cherries and some other fruits will begin to bear, and from that tim§ forward an industrious man is independent in Kansas. -• In my next I will speak of natural productions, drawbacks, obligations. R. B. James.