148 



THE LANCASTER FARMfiK. 



[October, 



grove is grown with fine walnut and elm trees 

 principallv, some of tliem being very large 

 ones. The other two-thirds is prairie land. 

 On Tuesday, the 21st, early in the mornnig, 

 the people came in from every direction, on 

 the railroad and on wagons, by hundreds and 

 thousands. At lOi o'clock our excursion 

 party and the officers of the fair association, 

 escorted by the military companies and the 

 bands,made a tour of the grounds and entered 

 the tabernacle. President Keeny delivered an 

 address of welcome to all assembled, which 

 time and .space will not permit me to give in 

 detail. But among other things he said that 

 Kansas will compare favorably with any State, 

 territory or province in the world. He said 

 that the population in Kansas in 1870 was 

 only 107,0110, while in 1880 it counts 996,000. 

 It contains over 3,000 miles of railroad, worth 

 over S-20,000,000. It has good State buildings, 

 asylums, normal schools, universities, agri- 

 cultural colleges, and 18,000 farm buildings. 

 Three cities in the State contain a population 

 of over 15,000 each. The value of the corn 

 crop of 1879 was over $18,000,000. Total 

 crops of grain in 1880 over ^60,000,000, and 

 it has over l.'j,000,000 head of stock. The 

 State is over 400 miles long and 200 miles 

 wide, and contains an area of 508,000,000 

 acres under practical cultivation, and he is of 

 opinion that no State in the Union holds out 

 better inducements to settlers. President 

 Keeny then introduced Judge Usher, mayor 

 of Lawrence, who spoke of the spacious 

 grounds and splendid display ; also of the 

 many railroads centering at Lawrence, and 

 the permanency of the fair ground. Hon. J. 

 S. Emery then spoke in behalf of the chamber 

 of commerce, and alluded at considerable 

 length to the early history of the State and 

 its unparalleled development. A. P. Brown, 

 Esq., of Philadelphia, was introduced and 

 made a response in behalf of the excursionists. 

 Rev. R. Nevin, of Rome, Italy, also made 

 some remarks. • 



The Fair. 



I cannot describe this exhibition in detail 

 as it ought to be described in order to give 

 the reader a truthful conception of its material 

 and its magnitude, and must refer him to the 

 cohuuns of the Lawrence Home Journal. 

 Although there are 1,500 of the finest stock 

 pens ever seen on any fair ground in the 

 countiy, yet at noon yesterday there were 

 fifty head of stock unhoused, and fifty more 

 unprovided the next morning, because there 

 was not room for them in the 1,500. 



To give a descrii)tion of the different dis- 

 plays brought together at this exhibition 

 would be too voluminous in detail to be prac- 

 ticable, even if it were possible, and hence I 

 shall only give a few general items as they 

 casually attracted my attention. The stock 

 of cattle, horses, swine and sheep were among 

 the best it has ever been my privilege to see — 

 as a whole; several fine-looking stallions, 

 and many "extra good" cattle, although 

 there were not many Alderneys. A fine 

 specimen of swine represented to weigh 1,,300 

 pounds was on exhibition. The industrial 

 and mechanical exhibition was particularly 

 good. I observed over half dozen different 

 self-binding reapers. Ten portable engines, 

 three of which were "self-drivers." The 

 State building measures about 10,000 square 

 feet, and is two stories high. The county 

 building is about 600 feet long and twenty- 

 five feet wide, all of its space packed full of 

 corn, wheat, apples, pears, potatoes, beets, 

 squashes, hemp, cotton, &c., &c. As I indi- 

 cated above, that I was not equal to a de- 

 tailed description, allow me to add that this 

 fair exceeded anything of the kind I have 

 ever seen, not even the Centennial included, 

 both in the q\iantity and quality of its farm 

 products. A new, and to nie, very novel 

 feature was the chariot races. These are low 

 two-wheeled vehicles, open behind, to which 

 four horses abreast arc hitched, and in one of 

 the races one of the chariot teams was driven 

 by a lady, and she made her mile in two 

 minutes. On one occasion as the lady entered 

 the track her team became unmanageable and 



ran around before she and her attendant 

 could get them stopped, the crowd getting 

 the benefit of the run. The horse races, as 

 usual, was prominently a feature of the ex- 

 hibition—indeed, more so than I had ever yet 

 seen. Without committing myself pro or con 

 on the suliject of "trials of speed" or horse- 

 racing at fairs, it really appears that some- 

 thing' of this kind is essential to financial 

 success. AVe visited several exhibitions, and 

 at all of them the races were the most promi- 

 nent and attractive features, and if it were 

 not that the use is so very apt to degenerate 

 into abuse, I should be tempted to say that no 

 out-door exhibition should be attempted with- 

 out including the races. The masses of all 

 communities are composed of the middle-aged 

 and the young, and these are attracted by 

 the showy and the sensational. During the 

 late fair in Lancaster the northern portion of 

 the county visited the fair at Reading, and 

 entirely ignored the exhibition in our own 

 county, and there is reason to believe that the 

 races at the latter were the superinducing 

 cause. The result was the former was a 

 failure, financially, while the latter was a 

 success. However this may reflect upon our 

 morals, our local pride, or our want of enter- 

 prise, it is still the naked fact, and involves 

 the question — "What are we going to do 

 about it ?" 



We left Lawrence depot on the night of 

 August 22d, for Denver, where we arrived on 

 the morning of the 24th, a distance of 600 

 miles. About 300 miles from the Missouri 

 river the country is the best, and pretty level, 

 but from there westward, all the way to Color- 

 ado, there is nothing but prairie and sand ; much 

 of it desert-like ; no timber whatever, and 

 very dry— so dry, indeed, that the wind blows 

 the sand about like drifting snow, and no rain 

 has fallen for nine months. Creeks, and even 

 rivers, are dry, so dry that you can walk 

 across them without wetting the soles of your 

 shoes. Even Platte river, at Denver, is dry. 

 Denver is, however, a very handsome place, 

 one of the finest locations imaginable, inclining 

 west toward the Rocky mountains, the moun- 

 tains being visible all the year round, with 

 many parts covered with snow during the 

 whole summer season. Four years ago' the 

 population of Denver was only 4,700, whilst 

 at the present time it is computed at 40,000. 

 I had the pleasure of meeting our townsman, 

 T. F. Ilerr, who took us round through the 

 city and showed us the great improvements 

 going on. The improvements of the present 

 year emljrace about 1,500 new dwelling 

 houses, and additional other buildings. The 

 city is only fifteen miles from the Rocky 

 mountains, and is supplied with water from 

 those mountains. There is water running 

 through nearly every street. There are some 

 of the largest smelting furnaces in the Union 

 located here, and the people principally make 

 their living by working the mines. There are 

 a large number of mining companies of vari- 

 ous kinds located around the city digging for 

 gold, silver and lead. 



We left Denver on the evening of the 24th 

 for Leadville, which is in the same State, 

 (Colorado,) and from thence south to Puebla, 

 where we met Charles Gast, Esq., formerly 

 of Lancaster, Pa. , who is practicing law here. 

 We stopped on our way at a place called 

 Maitua Springs, at the foot of Pike's Peak, 

 which is a summer "watering place," and a 

 locality of great interest. Three or four large 

 buildings have been erected for the main- 

 tenance of traveling guests. Many interest- 

 ing natural objects exist here, such as "sul- 

 phur springs," the "Garden of the Gods," 

 &e. Stones are standing here from 500 to 

 2,000 feet in height, like pillars and pyramids. 

 Puebla is a town containing about .5,000 in- 

 habitants, and IS situated on the Arkan.sas 

 river, on a kind of sandy plain. From Puebla 

 we followed the river through the Rocky 

 mountains, agreed by all parties to be the 

 greatest natural curiosity in the Union, and 

 arrived at Leadville about 10 o'clock on Satur- 

 day evening, where we encountered snow and 

 rain. On Sunday morning we called on our 



friends from Lancaster county, J. F. Freauff, 

 Esq., and Mr. H. Eshbach, of Lititz, whom 

 we were glad to meet and they to meet us. 



Fourteen of us hired a team to canvass the 

 city and county, accompanied by Mr. Freauff 

 and .ludge Green, of Easton, Pa., whom we 

 met here. Leadville is about 135 miles west 

 of Denver, and about 7.50 from the Missouri 

 river, and is situated right in the Rocky 

 Mountains, and surrounded by them. Snow 

 is visible all around the city all the year 

 round, and the town is 14,000 feet above the 

 sea level. It is only three years since the first 

 house was built in l,eadville, and now it con- 

 tains a population of over 17,000. The people 

 live chiefiy by digging gold, silver and lead, 

 the same as at Denver. There are thirteen 

 smelting furnaces at Leadville, and like at 

 Denver, there is always a great throng of 

 people on the streets, in that respect resem- 

 bling our great eastern cities, only on a more 

 limited scale. There is an opera house in the 

 town, several churches and a number of 

 banks, Mr. Freauff informed us that the 

 sales of minei'al amounted to SI, 500,000 a 

 mouth. I was surprised to see the immense 

 piles of empty fruit, vegetable and meat cans 

 and jars that are hauled away as rubbish, 

 showing that the subsistence of the town is 

 mainly brought there from the east. 



We left Leadville on the morning of the 

 27th and returned to Denver, where we ar- 

 rived the following morning (Tuesday,) and 

 spent some time with Mr. T. F. Herr. At 

 11 o'clock A. M. on Tuesday, the 28th of 

 September, we embarked in our Pullman 

 sleeping car Celtic, for Pennsylvania and 

 home. As we could not run our broad-gage 

 car on the narrow-gage road from Denver 

 westward, we were furnished free transporta- 

 tion on the narrow-gage west fi'om Denver. 

 After a pleasant passage from Denver east- 

 ward we arrived in Lancaster Friday, Octo- 

 ber 1st, in the evening, with many thanks to 

 all of my fellow-tourists, and those who con- 

 tributed to our comfort during the journey, 

 and especially to Mr. Reitzel, Mr. Taggart, 

 Mr. Cline and Mr. Keeny. Thus ends my 

 feeble eilort to record a few incidents of a 

 memorable journey to the Rocky Mountains, 

 although to do the subject justice many addi- 

 tional pages could be written. Still, I feel 

 that I have done my duty as things appeared 

 from my particular standpoint. The remark 

 was frequently made at the fair of Bismark 

 Grove, as we viewed the exhibition from the 

 observatory of the University at Lawrence, 

 and traveling over the mountains and through 

 the canons, that the half could not be told, 

 and that it would be impossible to tell all. 

 The real truth can only be realized by a per- 

 sonal view, and when seen human language 

 and descriptive power would totally fail in 

 attempting to make a record of the country^ 

 its scenery, its productions, and its beauties.— 

 Peter S. Beist, Lititz, October 7, 1880. 



Selections. 



NEW EARLY PEACHES. 



This subject continues to be new, as there 

 are varieties added each year, most of which 

 are to be earlier than any previously intro- 

 duced. I have this season fruited fifteen 

 varieties earlier than Hale's, viz : Cumber- 

 land, Saunders, Downing, BriggsMay, Honey- 

 well, Climax, all glandless varieties ; also, 

 Amsden, Alexander, Wilder, Musser, Bower's 

 Early, and Gettysburg Seedling ; all with 

 leaves having globose glands ; and Beatrice, 

 Ijouise and "Rivers, having reniform glands, 

 all in the same orchard, now in its fifth year. 



The result of another season has strength- 

 ened my conviction that on our grounds 

 Cumberland is the earliest peach yet fruited, 

 closely followed by Saunders and Downing, 

 with Alexander, Amsden and Musser very 

 little behind. Wilder, although ripening some 

 fruit nearly as early as any, continued to 

 ripen inuch longer, so as to close with Rivers 

 and Louise, which came In fully two weeks 



