IN BARBER COUNTY, KANSAS. 



A^LETTER FROM A WOMAN WHO HAS MADE) A SUC- 

 CESS OF FARMING.* 



I DO not know if you care for information 

 from this district for your Homeseek- 

 ers_Association, but^ I haye_ followedjthe 

 movement with great interest and much 

 sympathy and if I can give any help shall 

 be glad to do so. I have seen people come 

 out into new countries, who have suffered 

 from the loneliness and misery of being 

 amongst strangers in a strange land. Who 

 have wasted substance and courage through 

 want of friends, or knowledge of how to 

 turn and find work and a home, and yet 

 these strangers are needed and would have 

 been happy, if they had only had a helping 

 hand and the right place; and I do not 

 know of any movement calculated to do 

 good as widely as the one you are secretary 

 of and any information I can give will be 

 gladly sent if you think it of use. 



The section of country here has suffered 

 through bad seasons and wide-spread de- 

 pression of business, but the natural ad- 

 vantages are very great and the people 

 who have stayed on and worked are now 

 reaping the benefits and there is a verve 

 and glow of renewed hope through the 

 whole district that is as rousing as one of 

 our own breezes. While we have not done 

 much irrigating in our county, the little 

 now in operation has been most successful 

 and there are hundreds of acres on the 

 banks of creeks and streams that can be 

 irrigated at a smaller expense than I have 

 seen possible elsewhere. For instance 

 many people here have taken water 

 by small ditches from the creeks to 



*Miss Mary Best of Medicine Lodge, Kansas is 

 widely known as a successful farmer. She was 

 the first person in her county to adopt irrigation 

 methods and traveled hundreds of miles to gath- 

 er information regarding the use of water. The 

 last few seasons she has devoted particular at- 

 tention to the growing of sorghum and has been 

 successful. Ed. 



water, say from one-fourth of an acre 

 and up to ten and twenty acres. Then 

 others do not care for this and put 

 up a windmill, cost of same running 

 from $50 to $150 and the wells are 

 very seldom deeper than forty feet and on 

 the lowlands not more than from four to 

 twelve feet to water, and an abundance of 

 water is given from these. Being essen- 

 tially a cattle country, most of the people 

 have large holdings of land and do not 

 trouble to raise even their own vegetables, 

 and so for those who do there is an excel- 

 lent home market, all kinds of vegetables, 

 carrots, potatoes, cabbage, beets, etc. , are 

 largely brought into the place and sold at a 

 decent price. Tomatoes, small fruits of 

 all kinds, such as currants, strawberries, 

 blackberries and grapes are also imported 

 and those who have them to sell invariably 

 obtain a good profit. I have mentioned es- 

 pecially the ordinary necessaries in way of 

 vegetables and small fruits and such as 

 grow here to perfection. Peaches, plums, 

 pears and apples are very fine here. Mel- 

 ons are exceptionally good, sweet and of a 

 rich flavor. 



Some element in the red soil of this dis- 

 trict suits all plants we have tried that give 

 a large per cent of sugar. The sorghum 

 and sugar beets grown here have shown by 

 long working tests that this is so. The 

 climate, though too dry on the whole for a 

 sure crop every year, is as far as health 

 goes, for man and beast" almost perfect. 

 We have so much sunshine that a gray day 

 puts us all into a dismal mood. Our win- 

 ters are so mild that we often fail to pre- 

 pare for them and when a cold snap does 

 come, we pity those further north and won- 

 der they don't come here where we can de- 



