74 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[February, 
value exceeds the wheat crop of any previous year. 
Corn crop was very fine. Many instances occur 
where the farmer has received from his corn crop 
alone, during last season, enough to pay for his 
farm. Buffalo aud Dawson Counties, while adapted 
to general farming, oiler special facilities to live¬ 
stock raising, and the production of wool and beef. 
The number of sheep and graded cattle has been 
largely increased during the past year, and many 
thousands more might be fed in these counties with 
great profit to their owners. 
The number of cattle fed upon the grazing lands 
has also largely increased during the past year or 
two. Large shipments of fat cattle were made last 
year by the Kansas Pacific Railroad, the Chicago, 
Burlington, and Quincy Railroad, which extends 
through Southern Nebraska into Colorado, and the 
Sioux City and Pacific Railroad, which now reaches 
the cattle region of Northern Nebraska. The 
Union Pacific alone has moved 170,000 head of fat 
cattle to Eastern markets, and the prospects are 
that this number will be greatly augmented during 
1882. Mr. Leavitt Burnham, Land Commissioner, 
or Mr. Howard Kennedy, Assistant Land Commis¬ 
sioner, who has accompanied the representative of 
the American Agriculturist on several trips to these 
lands, will furnish any further information if it 
may be required. Their headquarters are at Omaha. 
Kansas Pacific Railroad Lands. 
The Union Pacific Railway Company owns and 
offers for sale in tracts of 80 acres and upwards, 
5,500,000 acres in Central and 
Northern Kansas and Colorado, lo¬ 
cated along its Kansas & Pacific, di¬ 
vision. These are under the manage¬ 
ment of S. J. Gilmore, Land Com¬ 
missioner. What has been said 
above regarding the other lands of 
the Union Pacific Railway Com¬ 
pany, will apply generally as re¬ 
gards price, character of soil, and 
so forth, to these lands along the 
Kansas division of this railway 
system. Excellent crops are raised 
in the Eastern portion of the Grant, 
while the lands in Western Kansas 
and Colorado, are better adapt¬ 
ed for stock grazing. We spent 
some time visiting them—for ex¬ 
ample, the sheep ranches on the 
Kiowa, and present an engraving 
of one of them, drawn by the artist 
who accompanied us. These sheep 
ranches and their out-door life ap¬ 
pear very attractive to young men 
of energy and education in the East, who, in past 
years, have come out here in considerable numbers. 
The winters are much milder in Kansas than in 
the States further to the north. The climate is gen¬ 
erally dry in winter. Those who would like to visit 
this portion of the country with a view to settling, 
should address Mr. Gilmore, at Kansas City, Mo. 
Lands of the B. <& M. R. R. in Ne¬ 
braska. 
The original amount of the Land Grant was, in 
round numbers, 2,375,000 acres. There were sold 
to the close of 1881, a grand total of 1,810,000 
acres. The sales for 1881 were 130,000 acres. There 
remain unsold 535,000 acres. Commissioner Mc¬ 
Farland does not consider that any locality along 
the line of the road, in the eastern half of the State 
where the lands are situated, has any greater ad¬ 
vantages, in an agricultural point of view, than 
others. The bulk of the lands south of the Platte 
River are in the counties of Lancaster, Seward, 
Saline, Webster, and Franklin, Neb. Those north 
of the Platte River are in the counties of Madison, 
Antelope, Boone, Greeley, Howard, Sherman, and 
Valley, Neb. A reference to a map will show that 
these lands all lie within the eastern half of the 
State, and within 200 miles of the Missouri River, 
bringing them well within the “rain belt,” and 
settlers can find good lands in good locations in 
any of the counties. Prices range from $2.50 to 
$10 per acre on ten years’ credit terms, with a dis¬ 
count for cash of ten per cent. The average price on 
ten years’ credit would be about $1 per acre. 
Nebraska is developing rapidly, and being settled 
up with an excellent class of people, principally 
Americans, with a considerable number of Ger¬ 
mans and Scandinavians, and very few of any 
other foreign nationalities. Railroads are being 
built rapidly in all parts of the State, and there are 
but three counties in which the company has land 
(viz. Sherman, Greeley, and Valley), that have not 
one or more railroads now in operation, and these 
three already have lines projected through them. 
Farmers are devoting their attention more to stock, 
and the latter are increasing very rapidly—past ex¬ 
perience having shown the State to be admirably 
adapted for the successful raising of all classes of 
animals, and that greater profits are derived from 
converting the grain into beef, mutton, and pork. 
For further information address J. D. McFarland, 
Land Commissioner, Lincoln, Nebraska. 
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Lands. 
The original Grant of lands by Congress to the 
Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe R. R. Co., was 
three million acres, all located within twenty miles 
on each side of its line in the State of Kansas. 
These lands were first placed upon the market in 
March, 1872. Up to the present time there have 
been sold 1,232,389 9 /ioo acres to 8,717 purchasers, at 
an average price of $5.11 per acre, being an avarage 
of 110 acres to each purchaser. The range of 
prices for the laud is from $2 to $12 per acre. 
The average price per acre of unsold lands of all 
SOLOMON KIVEB, KANSAS. 
kinds is about $5. Choice farm lands can be bought 
from $5 to $8 per acre. The terms of sale are as 
follows: No. 1.—Eleven years’ time, seven per cent 
interest, full appraised price. No. 2.—Six years’ 
time, seven per cent interest, twenty per cent dis¬ 
count from appraised price. No. 3.—Two years’ 
time, thirty per cent discount from appraised price. 
No. 4.—Cash, thirty-three and one-third per cent 
discount from appraised price. 
To settlers desiring to find a location adapted to 
general farming—for farming and stock-raising 
combined—Col. Johnson, the Land Commissioner, 
recommends any of the counties in South-Central 
Kausas, but to those desiring to make a specialty 
of sheep-raising, or sorghum, broom-corn, or win¬ 
ter wheat in connection with sheep-raising, we 
would recommend South-western Kansas. 
From 1874 to 1878, the mania of the farmers aloQg 
the Arkansas Valley was for raising wheat, that 
crop proving a very successful one during those 
years ; but, since that time, wheat has not been a 
paying crop; and farmers are now turning their 
attention more particularly to cattle and sheep, and 
to the production of forage crops. The wheat 
acreage is on the decline. The corn acreage shows 
a very rapid increase from year to year ; while the 
increase in cattle will average one hundred per cent 
per annum during the past two years ; and the in¬ 
crease in the quantity of sheep from Newton on 
the A. T. & S. Fe R. R. to the west line of the State 
has averaged more than two hundred per cent per 
annum for the same length of time. 
Nearly every herd of cattle is now being crossed 
with thorough-bred Durham or Hereford stock; 
and many stock farms, devoted exclusively to the 
breeding of thorough-bred cattle, are now to be 
found. The same is true of the sheep interest. 
Car-load after car-load of thorough-bred Merino 
bucks from New York, Vermont, Ohio, and Michi¬ 
gan, having been shipped into South-west Kausas 
during the past two seasons, to improve the native 
stock of the plains. 
The success obtained by cattle and sheepmen ia 
this portion of Kansas is attracting the attention of 
the best stock-raisers of the East, who are now in¬ 
vesting largely; and the influence of this suc¬ 
cess upon the farmers could not be otherwise 
than favorable. Broom-corn proved the most 
remunerative crop grown during 1881, yielding 
largely, and commanding a high price. Sorghum 
is getting to be an important crop. Four large 
mills have been erected this year to convert it into 
syrup and sugar; while cattle and sheepmen are 
growiug it exclusively for winter feed, finding it 
the cheapest and most satisfactory fodder for win¬ 
tering cattle and sheep. The larger 6heepmen 
sow it broadcast in the spring, let it grow through 
the summer without cultivation, and don’t cut it 
in the fall, but turn their sheep in for a few hours 
every day through the winter. The sheep eat it 
with avidity, consuming every portion of it, from 
the top to the root. Mutton of fair quality was 
marketed in Denver last February; the wethers, 
from which it was produced, having had no other 
food than that obtained from these 
sorghum fields and the Buffalo- 
grass of the prairies adjoining. It. 
is estimated that there are now 
over 500,000 head of sheep in the 
Arkansas Valley, where there were 
less than 100,000 two years ago. 
Col. A. S. Johnson, the Land Com¬ 
missioner, who is located at Tope¬ 
ka, Kansas, will furnish any further 
information to those who apply to 
him personally or by letter. We 
have found him in our trips to 
that region always ready to fully 
communicate the facts we were 
searching for. 
St. Louis and San Fran¬ 
cisco R. R. Lands. 
In the year 1849 the Pacific R. R. 
was incorporated to construct a 
road to the western boundary of 
the State of Missouri. In 1853 the 
Pacific R. R. was authorized by an 
Act of the General Assembly of Missouri to ac¬ 
cept a Grant of land from the United States 
Government, to aid in the construction of its road, 
also to build a branch running south-westerly 
through the State. In 1865, the Pacific R. R., to¬ 
gether with the S. W. I^-anch, were sold by the 
State under a foreclosure, and the latter was pur¬ 
chased by John C. Fremont and others, and organ¬ 
ized as the South West Pacific R. R. In 1866 the 
road was again sold, and reorganized as the South 
Pacific R. R. by eastern capitalists, many of whom 
are the present owners of the property. In 1871 
the South Pacific R. R. Co. was authorized to merge 
in and consolidate with the Atlantic and Pacific R. 
R. Co., a corporation having a Grant of ten alter¬ 
nate sections of land to the mile, on each side of 
its line, and twenty alternate sections, on each side, 
in the Territories through which it may pass to the 
Pacific. In 1870 this road was completed to Venita 
in the Indian Territory, a distance of 365 miles. 
The total number of acres granted within Missouri, 
was 1,666,184.04 acres, and there are about 900,000 
acres accruing to the Company between Seneca and 
Venita—which will be placed upon the market 
whenever the Indian title is extinguished. This is 
one of the finest sections in the Mississippi Valley, 
now only the hunting ground of the Indian, which, 
if opened to settlement, would soon be in culti¬ 
vation. 
In 1876, owing to financial troubles, that portion 
of the A. & P. R. R. lying in Missouri was sold, 
and again organized under its present name. Since 
