The RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
(283 
Notes from the Ox-tcam- Exnress 
August: 13, 1!I22. we pnsspfl I tip gpo- 
I graphical center of til? United Stales. 
Fort. Riley. The next town. Junction 
City, a city of 7.500. was a nice clean 
city, well laid out. with paved streets and 
free tourists’ camp, just opened. These 
towns are all providing these camps, and 
while most of those display signs. “Free 
Tourist Camp Grounds/' they also have 
signs, “No live stock permitted.” They 
make exceptions in our case. The mar¬ 
shal or park commissioners hunt us up 
and invites us in. tells us to stay as long 
as we please. This, of course, is very 
nice and flattering, hut somehow we do 
not quite enjoy these privileges on ac¬ 
count of their signs. There are quite a 
number of tourists (or shall I say trav¬ 
elers?! who use horses and mules as mo¬ 
tive power. It is quite fashionable for 
renters of farms to move from place to 
]>1 iip<\, taking with them their entire be¬ 
longings. .Sometimes when traveling 
across a State or two, these people leave 
behind their furniture and just rake their 
live stock, consisting of several horses, 
colts and mules. The families, man, 
woman and half dozen youngsters, gO sev¬ 
eral hundred miles to make their homes 
in other States. These are the people 
who. I persutne, are barred out from the 
auto gypsy camps. It is for these peo¬ 
ple I feel sorry, and as a rule, when I 
find these camps so labeled we do not ac¬ 
cept of theil* invitations. We much pre¬ 
fer to camp by the wayside, or ask a 
farmer to allow us to camp in one of his 
fields. There are people who possess 
earthly goods who do not yet realize that 
there are people who travel the highways 
who are just as good ns those wlm live 
along those same highways, although 
they do not own limousines. 
The camp grounds which we used re¬ 
cently were Onngn, Manhattan, Ogden 
and Junction City. We are now on the 
western half of the trip, where the soil 
does not appear so rich as further East. 
This is a sandy soil, and what the natives 
call the melon district. As I sit here in 
the Abilene picnic grounds writing this 
story, there are truck loads with trailers 
taking loads of melons to the stations for 
shipment. They look good us they go 
by. nice big green-skinned melons. This 
morning where \\e camped last night, the 
proprietor of the Tourists' Inn, gave us a 
treat of a piece of "real watermelon,” 
surely the finest we ever ale. 
To the west of Abilene, on the Golden 
Belt Highway, is a tourists’ inn which is 
a popular rendezvous for travelers this 
Summer. There is a small rustic build¬ 
ing where the tourists are served fried 
chicken dinners during the day, and also 
may order delicious Sand Springs melons. 
During a visit to the inn one encounters 
tourists front all quarters of the United 
States—east, west, north anil smith. Such 
a spot as this is much welcomed by the 
motorist, as is shown by the patronage he 
gives it. This spring, where the city of 
Abilene gets its fine drinking water, the 
water comes from beneath a large rock 
300 ft. below the surface. This spring, 
besides supplying the water needs of a 
town of 5,000, has an overflow of 5.000,- 
000 gallops daily. Here in tin* sixties 
this was n, rendezvous for Indians, cow¬ 
boys, and aU sorts of Western wild do¬ 
ings, and when this spring was dug and 
cleaned out they found hubs of wagons, 
saddles and other relies of by-gone days, 
all petrified into stone. 
five are now passing the great wheat 
section of Kansas, the real plains; no 
hills in sight, und no trees; just sun¬ 
flowers, prairie grass and buffalo grass. 
This latter Is a good pasture feed; it is 
a peculiar gross. It seems to stand the 
drought well, although just now, with no 
rain for two months and the mercury 
running up to 111 in the shade, and the 
hot winds blowing from the South, it, too. 
seems to succumb. Even the sunflowers 
have given up the ghost. Still, the cattle 
go for the buffalo grass. We camped one 
night in u wbeatneld where there were 
several spots of this grass, and 1 could 
not keep our cattle away from these 
spots: there must be something to tickle 
their sweet tooth. The natives tell me 
in the days before the laud was cut tip 
for wheat, the cowboys, when driving the 
cattle to market, would finish the fatten¬ 
ing process on this grass. It does not 
grow* tall; it makes a mat about 6 in., 
and when one steps on it it feels as 
though one was walking on a bed spring. 
It creeps and throws out runners similar 
to a strawberry plant, and at each joint, 
about 5 in. apart, n knot forms, and 
where this touches the earth roots will 
form. It looks to me as though it would 
make a nice green sward on a terrace 
where the wash would not be too strong, 
if it once got properly anchored to tin- 
soil. It should make a delightful lawn ; 
I do not know if it would acclimate itself 
to the Eastern soil. 
We are now almost at the western line 
of the State here. 1 now see Kansas as 
I always supposed it was; a vast stretch 
of prairie as fiat as a flounder. No hills, 
no trees; simply land, sky, a few wind¬ 
mills and grain elevators as skyscrapers, 
and overv kind of vegetation burned crisp 
by drought. Some natives say this is the 
hottest and driest Summer they ever had 
here. Some others say it is always so. I 
am rather Inclined r<» believe the latter. 
Anyway, no one could ever talk fast 
enough, loud enough or long enough to 
induce me to buy land here, even if *the 
laud contained a cyclone cellar. I'd balk. 
They say this is the land of flowers. Yes; 
sunflowers. Mexican cactus and Russian 
thistles. J. C. BERRANG. 
HAMILTON 
This Hamilton Watch is a 17-jewel, 
i6-3izel.pictu re is actual size) watch. 
The movement costs only £25.00; 
it can be bought from your 
jeweler and fitted by him in any 
style case to suit your needs. It 
is carefully adjusted. I f your 
jeweler hasn’t exactly this move¬ 
ment. he can get it from us in a 
few days. 
How Railroad Men Buy Watches 
A method that farmers also find satisfactory 
The average railroad man knows con¬ 
siderable about watches. It’s his busi¬ 
ness to have accurate time always. 
Most railroad men prefer Hamilton 
Watches. The Hamilton is carried by a 
great number of railroad men and is 
highly regarded in railroad circles be¬ 
cause of its sturdy accuracy and years 
and years of dependable service. 
The railroad man first picks out the 
kind of “movement” or “works’’ that 
he wants. He knows that the case of 
any good watch is just a protection for 
the movement. 
\\ hen he has decided on the size and 
price of watch he wants to buy, he lets 
the jeweler put on the case for him. 
Some buy gold cases, some buy silver 
cases, some are satisfied with plain nickel 
cases, That is a matter of taste or econ¬ 
omy. It’s the movement that keeps the 
time, and that is where the purchase 
money counts most. 
For farmers we have prepared a book¬ 
let about Hamilton Watches showing two 
movements that retail for 325.00 and 
upward, and these two watches, like all 
Hamiltons, are thoroughly reliable time¬ 
keepers. Y ou will enjoy looking over this 
booklet and choosing the watch which 
suits you. The pictures are actual size 
and the descriptions are complete. The 
prices mentioned are those your jeweler 
will charge. 
This catalog is free and will be sent 
on request. Please use the coupon. 
Cut off and paste on postal card 
HAMILTON WATCH COMPANY 
Lancaster , Pa. 
HAMILTON' WATCH COMPANY Dept. A 
Lancaster, Pa. 
Dear Sirs; Please semi me vour free booklet showing 
the styles and kinds of watches best adapted for prac¬ 
tical timekeeping on farms. 
O he | 
Qjjatch j 
<ST I 
Railroad | 
Cdccuracu ! 
Name 
Address 
Town 
Countv 
a me 
Town 
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THE BEST BIRTHDAY PRESENT 
For any reader of THE RURAL NEW-YORKER is an 
AUTOGRAPHED COPY 
Hope Farm Notes 
'T’HE RURAL NEW-YORKER has nearly a 
* million readers. Every day in the year is birth¬ 
day for hundreds of them. They are all interested 
in Hope Farm and the book given on their birthday 
would be a permanent gift—always remembered. 
The Hove Farm Man will write his name 
Ski nner Hydraulic 
Barrel Heading Press 
An improved, prac- 
Ui deal press that does 
unusually good 
work. Run by indi- 
vidual motor drive, 
or belt drive. Valves 
| are rotary type, 
practically wear- 
I j proof. Pump con¬ 
sumes no power ex¬ 
cept when pressing 
_J I head into barrel. 
"y ‘ Other good points 
I a PP ea ^ lo busy 
'ft men ’ Write us for 
fuller description. 
Skinner Machinery Company 
Eighth Street. Dunedin. Floridt 
in all such gift books if desired. Order a few days 
in advance and the book will be promptly mailed 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 333 West 30th St. New York 
GENTLEMEN—Enclosed find remittance for $1.50, for which send me, postpaid 
copy of “ Hope Farm Notes." 
Name 
Town 
SUM A i>o 1 . 1 . s it tst nor it. seu m kmiets 
a patent patch (or Instantly mending teaks 
Snail utensils. Sample p a c k a g c fro,-. 
E SIF6. CO„ llept. tos, Vninterduiii, N.Y. 
R. F. O. or Street No 
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