1871. 



2^W ENGLAND FARMER. 



73 



For the New England Farmer, 

 KANSAS. 



A late writer says: "I woinler if the Al- 

 mighty ever ma^le a more beautiful country 

 than Kansas ! These broad prairies, starred 

 and gemmed with innumerable flowers, thread- 

 ed by dark belts cf timber, which mark the 

 winding streams, and clothed in softest green, 

 are a joy forever." And surely nothing can 

 surpass the transcendent beauty of the natural 

 scenery of Kans-as. It is difficult for the 

 stranger to believe that cultivation and art 

 have not, lavished their utmost skill in shaping 

 and adorning much of its natural scenery. 

 Terrace rising above terrace, with such regu- 

 larity and beauty, carries the mind baek to the 

 cultivated and ornamented grounds about fine 

 old residences in the East, while many of the 

 bluffs look like forts in the distance. Then 

 the air is £0 perfectly clear as to bring within 

 the circle of vision vast extents of these roll- 

 ing prairies, dotted here and there with culti- 

 vated patches about the cottages of the settlers, 

 and numerous herds of cattle fattening upon 

 these rich, luxuriant grasses. Until within 

 the past year, not less than forty million acres 

 of these nutritious grasses, in Kansas alone, 

 have gone to waste, or have served only for 

 the vast herds ot buffaloes and other wild an- 

 imals, which have roamed at pleasure over 

 these broad acres. 



RcLkoning these grasses at the value of only 

 two dollars per acre, here is a waste of eighty 

 million dollars annually of a food-producing 

 element. 



But this, in the near future, is all to be 

 changed. It is said that not less than a thou- 

 sand immigrants a day have been finding 

 homes in Kansas during the fall of 1870, and 

 this flowing tide still continues even into the 

 winter. These immigrants are from England, 

 Scotland, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Canada 

 and the Eastern, Middle and Western States 

 of our own country ; a majority of them com- 

 ing from the Western States. Kansas is the 

 last State of rich lands, within favorable lati- 

 tudes to fill up; and the tide of immigration 

 is so great, that she is filling up with amazing 

 rapidity. 



Ai present the State has a tax duplicate of 

 less than one hundred million dollars. In fif- 

 teen years with the rapid development of Kan- 

 sas, under her railroad system and general 

 enterprise, she will have a tax dupli(;ate of one 

 thousand million dollars. Who will make this 

 vast amount of money, destined to be in the 

 St ite within the next fifteen years ? Of courjie, 

 those who own, occupy and improve the prop- 

 erty that makes value for tax duplicates. 

 Need any be surprised that t^o many are 

 hastening to secure their share of Ihis tremen- 

 dous prize ? 



And what has produced and is producing 

 this great immigration, whii-h no other*State 

 has ever had ? It is the fame of her surpris- 



ingly healthful climate, and her wonderfully 

 productive toil. The choice lands of the State 

 are being taken by these settlers under the 

 Pre-emption Act of 1841, and under the Home- 

 stead Act of 1862. 



The Homestead Act gives to every loral cit- 

 izen of the United States, who has arrived at 

 the age of 21 years, or is the head of a fam- 

 ily, whethermale or female, IGO acres of land, 

 to be located on the public domain, wherever 

 the settler chooses, at the nominal coit of $18, 

 which is for the survey and necessary papers. 

 Foreigners who have declared their iritentiona 

 of becoming citizens, and soldiers under age, 

 are entitled to the benefits of the Homestead 

 Act. 



Population, capital and production make 

 States, and they are making Kansas ; and the 

 now presents to the world a field as broad, a 

 chance as great, a pro.^pect as promising as 

 the world ever opened up for the energy and 

 enterprise of men. 



Stock raising and herding are most remuner- 

 ative, averaging not less than one hundred per 

 cent, per annum, on capital invested. And 

 Kansas will soon become the greatest beef- 

 producing State in the Union. Her boundless 

 ranges of natural pasturage, are capable of 

 supporting millions of cattle, which do well 

 and fatten during the entire year on the open 

 range. And her richest cf soils, varying 

 from three to thirty, and, in places, over fifcy 

 feet in depth, will compensate the husband- 

 man for his labor, in yielding the most boun- 

 tiful crops of all the cereals, vegetables and 

 fruits of the temperate htitude. 



At the National Pomological Congress, held 

 in Horticultural Hall. Philadelphia, Sept. 15, 

 1809, Kansas bore off the first premium, over 

 all the other States in the Union, for her collec- 

 tion of 'Fruits, unequalled for size, beauty 

 and^/aror." 



The writer having just returned from a sec- 

 ond tour through this young and buoyant State 

 of the West, is more fully impressed wiih the 

 superior advantages that Kansas offers over 

 any other State, especia'ly to capitalists and 

 to young men who wish to make themselves a 

 delightful home in an air the purest, a soil the 

 richest, and a land the fairest that the sun 

 •shines upon. 



Kansas, occupying as she does the geo- 

 graphical centre of the American Union, is 

 destined to become the centre also of a count-, 

 less population, and of vast interests. In her 

 school system and educational advantages she 

 boldly steps out in advance of all other States in 

 makingyVee all her higher institutions of learn- 

 ing, throwing wide open the doors of her sem- 

 inaries, colleges and universities, and this not 

 to one sex only, but to b('ih, and to-day, even 

 in heryVee State Agricultural College, there 

 are more girls than boys, receiving the same 

 course of in.itruction, and graduating with the 

 same honors. 



The eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, 



