Arkansas: statistics and information showing its agricultural and mineral resources ..

Missouri Pacific railway company, () [from old catalog] · 1900 · Historical

p. cm

Public-domain full text preserved in the Mountain Man Mining Library. Original source: archive.org.

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Twenty-Third Edition.

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Presented By

Arkansas

Statistics and information showing its

Agricultural and Mineral

Resources.

The Opportunities for Successful Stock and

Fruit Raising, Manufacturing,

Mining and Lumbering.

The Advantages of Soil and Climate, and Notes on

Scenery, Game, Fish, and Health and

Pleasure Resorts of this

Great State. ,,.m

With Compliments Of The

Passenger Department

Of The

Iron Mountain Route

Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1896, by

H. C. Townsend, General Passenger Agent Missouri Pacific Railway,

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.

Author.

Twenty-Third Edition. December 1st, 1900.

TrO those who desire a good, cheap home, with a fertile soil and genial climate, where water and timber are abundant, and all kinds of grain, fruits and vegetables grow in profusion, with all the advantages of churches, schools and society :

To those who have tilled the rock-ribbed hillsides of New England in a vain attempt to pay the farm mortgage and obtain a home of their own, and have seen the profits of the short summers eaten up to maintain the stock through the long cold winters ; where the smallest savings are made only by the severest toil and closest economy :

To those who are struggling to make both ends meet by renting the worn-out farms of the middle Northern States, and who yearly see their scanty harvests go to pay rents, with scarcely enough left to clothe the farmer's family:

To those who are tired of the blizzard-swept regions of the Northwest, and desire a milder and more congenial climate where the soil is as productive, where the winters are short and mild, where the problem of obtaining fuel and timber is not encountered :

To the capitalist who desires to invest his money in safe, sure and profitable enterprises, where mines of all kinds are awaiting development, where superior advantages are offered to

all lines of manufacturing, unsurpassed water power, cheap coal and timber, and the control of the Southwestern market :

To all who are honest and willing to work and who desire to get along in the world — to the man with capital, to the man with muscle, to the farmer, to the merchant, to the stock raiser, to the fruit grower, to the miller, to the mechanic, to the lumberman, to the school teacher, to the clerk, to the laboring man, to the health and pleasure seeker and the sportsman — to all who wish to obtain a good home, wealth, happiness and comfort: —

This Pamphlet on the Resources of Arkansas -is dedicated.

Arkansas.

THIS State is not as some people imagine it, a great way off from the centers of business of the country. No long expensive trip has to be made, no hardships endured to reach it. Eleven hours' travel on a splendidly equipped railroad brings the homeseeker from St. Louis to the center of this favored commonwealth. To take supper in St. Louis, then to ride in the superb cars of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway, and breakfast next morning in Little Rock, the capital city of Arkansas, is certainly no hardship.

Fruit Farm, Crawford County.

Arkansas is located in the milder portion of the Mississippi Valley and has an area of 53,045 square miles. Owing to the difference in the elevation of the various portions of the State and its southern location, a greater variety of products is raised than in any other of the States. In the southern section, semi-tropical fruits and plants are grown, and the products of the northern States are successfully raised in all sections. The surface of the State is comparatively level in the east, gradually becoming more elevated toward the west, the greatest elevation being reached in the Ozark Mountains. The

6 Arkansas

surface of the State presents a pleasing variety of hill, plain, prairie, woodland, valley and stream.

Perhaps no State in the country is better adapted by nature to all the industries and varieties of living from the land than Arkansas. The rich valleys are capable of producing cotton, corn, wheat, oats, and all varieties of grain. The genial warmth of the climate and rich soil make fruit-raising one of the most successful and agreeable occupations. The magnificent apples grown in the State have taken the prizes at all the National pomological exhibits of recent years, including the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, in 1893. As a peach growing State, Arkansas is equal to Delaware. Its peach products have already made St. Louis the earliest and cheapest peach market in the country. The small fruits, strawberries and others, are grown with surprising ease and success. Stock-raising, for obvious reasons, is most successful, and can be made one of the great industries of the State. The uplands and hill country furnish most excellent grazing, and water, the important feature of stock-raising, is abundant everywhere. This, in addition to the short winters, during which very little feeding is necessary, the proximity to markets, shipping facilities, and cheap lands, makes stock-raising one of the most desirable industries that can be engaged in. Unlimited opportunities for the investment of capital in mines of iron, manganese, antimony, zinc, copper, lead, nickel, gypsum, coal, granite, mineral paints and ochres, marls, aluminum, kaolin, potters' and fire clays, fertilizing marls, soapstone, fine marbles, mineral oils, natural gas, and probably other valuable metals and minerals, are offered. The water power of Arkansas is unsurpassed. The streams can be dotted with saw mills and flouring mills, and why should they not be with cotton mills? Here is an opportunity for live capitalists.

Since the war, old prejudices against this State have given way before the light of investigation and truth, and the increase in the population is a strong evidence of the advantages found here, and of the State's growing popularity. The census returns of the State have been as follows :

Year. Population. Year. Population. Year. Population.

1820 14,255 1850 209,897 1880 802,525

1830 30,388 1860 435,450 1890 1,128,179

1840 97,574 1870 484,471 1900 1,311,564

Arkansas.

Arkansas Commercially Considered.

N point of commercial advantages, Arkansas is second to no State in the Union for internal trade. Three trunk lines of railroad traverse the State from north to south, all centering in St. Louis, thus putting all sections of the State in direct communication with the great commercial metropolis of the Mississippi Valley. The Iron Mountain Boute, with its branches, traverses the State diagonally through the center, and also drains, by means of the Little Rock, Mississippi River & Texas, and the Little Rock & Fort Smith divisions, the Arkansas Eiver Valley from the Indian Territory to the Mississippi River. The Cotton Belt Route carries the commerce of the eastern section of the State, and the St. Louis & San Francisco furnishes an outlet for the western part. These roads penetrate, with their connections, the States of Texas and Louisiana to the Gulf, and furnish outlets to the south or north for the surplus productions of the State. Numerous smaller lines and branches intersect the State in all directions, placing the larger cities in communication with each other, and acting as feeders for the commerce of the main lines.

Very few of the States are provided with a system of navigable rivers as a factor in internal trade. In contrast, Arkansas has over 3,000 miles of water available for commercial purposes, forming almost a complete system of river communication. The Mississippi River washes the eastern boundary about 500 miles in length ; the Arkansas River, flowing by Little Rock, the capital, is navigable for 500 miles ; the Red River, in the south, 300 miles ; the St. Francis, the White and Black Rivers, and several others, aggregating 3,250 miles of water available for steamboats, and about 500 additional miles for barges and rafts. New lines of railroad have been projected and surveyed. The tide of emigration, as evinced by inquiries, is clearly turning toward Arkansas.*" Railroads are anticipating the movement to make extensions wherever available.

Arkansas. 9

That it is a beautiful country none can deny. Everything unites to make it so, and the result of all the combined influences of climate, soil and location render it one of the most marvelously healthy regions known. Then, too, its every hillside gives birth to some sparkling spring of clear, pure water, while others are surcharged with mineral properties, and restore to health those who come here ailing or suffering. Indeed the entire Slate has long been famous for its wonderful curative springs.

A comprehensive view of the whole — what a scene it presents to the observer. Could it but be held for a moment before the gaze of the toiling thousands, who are wearing away their lives in sterile fields, or breathing away their existence in the crowded haunts of the far East, what a change would come over their thoughts. With this happy land before their eyes, could they be expected to rest contented? No, indeed ! And before many months had passed over their toil-bowed shoulders, they would be seen on the march for this Eldorado, which awaits them in the West— awaits with a warm welcome all worthy humanity which may come and knock for admittance. Even the poor man need not hesitate to come to this favored land, if he comes armed with a determination to be a man and work like a man. Labor may be easily obtained, and the laborer never fails to get every cent he earns.

What An Arkansas Farmer Can Do.

He can raise from two hundred to three hundred bushels of sweet potatoes or from 100 to 400 bushels of Irish potatoes to the acre, and for fifty dollars he can build a house that will keep them the year round.

He can plant one acre of artichokes and fatten fifty hogs on it ; the hogs can do their own digging and waste nothing.

He can raise all kinds of stock 100 per cent cheaper than it can be done further north.

He will not have to fertilize his land to make it yield a good harvest, although here, as elsewhere, judicious fertilization generally pays.

He can make a living easier than in any other State in the South, and at the same time enjoy a more equable climate.

He can run his farm without a mortgage on it.

Arkansas.

He can raise finer fruit, a greater variety, and more of it than in anyother country in the world.

He can have vegetables on his table the year round.

He can plant one acre in cane and make 200 gallons of beautiful clear syrup, with no sorghum twang to it.

Bees require no attention further than taking what honey you wish.

You can raise four tons of clover hay per acre, and the ground does not have to be seeded but once in five years.

Five tons of German millet is not a large yield for one year.

"Wet land, sown in red top, forms an everlasting meadow of the finest hay in the world.

One bale of cotton is the average yield, though one and one-half bales per acre is not an uncommon crop.

There has never been a total failure of crops since the war, and but few partial ones.

One hundred peach trees can be planted to the acre, and three to five bushels of choice fruit per tree can be counted upon after the third year.

Some Arkansas Productions

Arkansas. 11

Climate And Health.

first question asked in considering a change of residence to a if distant State is, "What is the climate, and how will my health be affected by the change?" etc., etc. This is of first importance, as while one can modify the soil and productions by fertilization, good farming, irrigation, etc., the climate he has to take just as nature gives it.

The climate of Arkansas, in comparison with northern climates, is decidedly mild, and yet presents a greater diversity of temperature at any given time than any equal area of country. This is owing to the difference of elevation and the many sheltered valleys. The season in the southeast is three weeks in advance of that of the northern part of the State. The rainfall is abundant, but days of sunshine largely predominate. The extreme heat of the South and the intense cold of the North are never known. The mountain range on the west shelters the State from the blizzards that sweep the Northern country, the cold waves of the Northwest, called here northers. The seasons of seedtime and harvest are long and the period of winter is short and mild. Out-door work can go on during the whole year. Stock live, for the most part, on the ranges during the winter months.

The following statistics, taken from 'the United States Weather Bureau Reports, give a general idea of the climate:

"I have selected Little Rock as the one point which will give the most correct idea of our climate. First, on account of its being situated in almost the exact center of the State, and second, because the records cover a longer period than those of any other station in the State.

"All data computed for 21 years.

Arkansas.

Month.

Mean Temperature.

Average Precipitation

January

February

March

April ,

May

June ,

July

August

September

October

November

December

Winter. Spring.. Summer Autumn Year

Month

Average Number of Day:

Minimum

Temperature

Below 32.

Maximum

Temperature

Above 90.

Highest Temperature.

Lowest Tempera-

January ... February ..

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November December.

twice in 7 years

once in 21 years twice in 3 years

twice in 7 years

Extremes — 12° on Feb. 12, 1899.

105° on August 1, 1896.

Earliest date of first killing frost, October 22. Latest date of first filling frost, December 4. Average date of first killing frost, November 8.

14 Arkansas.

Earliest date of last killing frost, February 23 ; latest date of last killing frost, April 14. Average date of last killing frost, March 22.

E. B. Richards, Section Director,

U. S. Weather Bureau.

Thus it will be seen that neither extremes of heat or cold are reached in Arkansas, and that drought, which frequently injures the crops of the West and South, can never seriously affect those of Arkansas. At Little Rock the mean temperature for the months of June, July and August is several degrees lower than that of Saratoga, N. Y. Wisconsin, during the same months, was subjected to greater extremes of heat than Arkansas. United States statistics disclose the fact that the mortality rate at Little Rock is less than at any other military post in the Union. On the uplands and in the hilly and mountainous districts Arkansas is exceptionally healthy, and people afflicted with rheumatism, catarrh, bronchial and pulmonary troubles, are always relieved and frequently permanently cured by a residence in Arkansas. Pneumonia prevails but very little and fatal cases are rare. While it is true that malaria is prevalent in the districts lying in the river bottoms where the timber is heavy and all vegetation rank, yet it is no more true of Arkansas than of any other portions of the country with similar regions of dense vegetation and uncultivated soil. When the land is cleared up and brought under cultivation for a few years these influences disappear and the low lands of Arkansas become as healthy as the high lands, which are entirely free from malaria and challenge comparison for health with those of any part of the globe.

The long, warm, genial season is of great advantage to the farmers. In the North, the season being so short, as soon as the deep frost is out of the ground every energy must be bent, and the greatest possible amount of labor brought into requisition, in order that the crops may be planted in time to mature before the short season is passed. Thereby a great deal of extra expense is incurred which the farmer of Arkansas is not subject to. The plow in Arkansas may be kept going every month in the year. There need be no rush at seed time. The soil may be prepared easily, thoroughly and without haste for the planting, which takes place in February for the earlier crops, and the others in March, while late potatoes, millet, fodder-corn, cow peas, etc., are often planted in June and July, and make fine crops.

Arkansas.

An aggregate of 15 year's observation in Arkansas gives an average of 75 rainy days in the year.

A report of an investigation of 600 tornadoes in the United States and Territories gives only 8 as occurring in Arkansas.

For twelve months in the year there is not a land the sun shines on favored with a climate that can compare with Arkansas. While other countries have their delightful seasons, like winter in California, summer in Minnesota, and so on, for all the year round Arkansas is by far the most delightful. Look on the map of the world and you will at once see that this State is in the most favored belt of the temperate zone.

While nights are hot in midsummer at the North, here we are fanned at the close of each day by the delightfully cool breezes from the Gulf of Mexico, or the higher lands to the West. A sweltering night here is a thing unknown. The writer says this deliberately after 25 years residence in this State, preceded by 16 years in Central Illinois and ten years in Western New York.

Walnut Logs, for Shipment to Germar

le, Ark.

Arkansas.

Physical Features And Soil.

ANY mistaken ideas have gone abroad in regard to the topography rl of Arkansas. It is popularly supposed by those ignorant of the State, to be a low-lying, swampy country, crossed by sluggish rivers, and breathing forth malarial poisons. This impression has been spread by persons who have seen that part of the State lying along the Mississippi river, or from some of the first railroads built through the State. These latter, to avoid the expense of heavy grading and deep cuts, were con-

structed through the creek and river bottoms and the lower lands of the State.

Depending on his observation from such a standpoint, the traveler would be apt to obtain a very erroneous impression of the State, t

Only about one-fourth of the lands of the whole State are comparatively level, and of these large portions are prairie, and others bottom lands, fertile but not swampy ; the other three-fourths are rolling, hilly or mountainous. The altitude of the State varies from 200 to 1,500 feet, and some of the highest mountains reach an elevation of 2,500 feet. It gradually rises towards the west, in rolling country, becoming more

Arkansas.

hilly and elevated until the greatest height is reached in the Ozark Mountains in the west. The low lands are found mostly in the eastern portion of the State, along the Mississippi Eiver.

The rivers of the State flow in a general southeasterly direction into the Mississippi. These, with their tributaries, give a large area of rich bottom lands, unsurpassed in productiveness, but unlike some of the low lands of the Mississippi, they are mostly elevated and dry, and capable of yielding the richest harvests as soon as cleared and brought under the plow.

The engravings in this book are from recent photographs, and give a correct idea of the interior portions of this favored State.

A Cabin Home in the Ozark Mountains.

In the higher sections the scenery is beautiful, frequently approaching the grand, and always interesting. The State, in respect to its water courses, is divided into the Mississippi Valley, or lands on the east, the wide valley of the Arkansas running through the center of the State, the Ouachita in the southeast, and the Red River Valley in the south. The alluvial lands are found in the valleys of the numerous rivers of the State, and these bottoms are often miles in width and are the most productive in the world. In some instances they have been cultivated for forty years with the same crops, and are still yielding remunerative returns without the aid of fertilizers. Near

Is

Arkansas.

the streams the soil is usually a gray sandy loam, becoming a red or black stiff land as it recedes from the streams, and light gray in color as the hills are approached. This land has great durability and

productiveness, and is covered with a heavy growth of timber, composed of gums, burr oak, white oak, Spanish and post oak, boxelder, ash, yellow pine, hickory, red and white elm, etc. The rolling and hilly lands comprise about one-half the whole area of the State. These are to be found all over the State, but lie principally south and east of the mountain ranges. The soil is loose, loamy, easily cultivated and very productive. Apples, peaches, pears, grapes, plums, strawberries, potatoes, both sweet and Irish, garden vegetables, wheat, rye, oats, cotton and corn are produced on this soil in abundance.

Farming Scene, Arkansas.

Arkansas.

The geographical position of the State is greatly enhanced by the physical conformation of the country. Within the space of about 240 miles from north to south, in the limits of the State, are to be found all the climatic and other characteristics of ten degrees of latitude, so that in Arkansas the great Southern staples are produced in luxuriance ; and also the leading staples and products of the Northern States, with better profits than in the North.

The uplands of Arkansas remind one of the lands of Central New York and Pennsylvania, with a dash of Ohio and Indiana thrown in. Here is the same or a similar wealth of timber, which once covered those States ; here grasses thrive, and cattle fatten easily ; here the apple, peach, plum, pear, grape, strawberry and other small fruits, bear and ripen to perfection beside each cottage and farm house door, as they do in the most favored localities of the States named, only here they have a sweetness and flavor surpassing those grown farther north or on the flatter lands nearer the Gulf of Mexico. Here bees thrive and sing in drowsy contentment all day long of their honied treasures. Here, on our upland plateaus, a hardy, honest, peaceful, white yeomanry till the soil; a black face is seldom seen, and the negro question cuts no more figure than it does at the North.

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Arkansas. 21

Agriculture.

Its Present Condition And Future Outlook.

MJO State has better farming lands than Arkansas. No State, with J61 all the advantages of schools, churches, society, railroads, and close connection with the centers of commerce and population, can offer such a high order of farming lands so cheaply and on such reasonable terms.

The State of Arkansas has more navigable streams than any in the Union. The rich alluvial soil of her valleys rivals any lands on the continent for the production of cotton. Prior to the war slave labor was found better adapted to its culture than to other agricultural pursuits. The extreme poverty of the people, caused by the ravages of war, and the unsettled condition of public affairs for years afterwards, prevented the development of new resources. Consequently, until the past few years> the public attention was devoted wholly to the production of cotton. The numerous waterways served for transportation, and naturally the development of the country was confined to the valleys of the rivers. Other portions of the State, embracing the uplands, hills and plateaus, remained practically undeveloped. Prior to 1872 there was but one short line of railroad in operation in the State. General development is of recent date, but has been very rapid. Pure air, pure water, and variety of soil, coupled with an equable, salubrious climate, make the State one of great agricultural possibilities, capable of sustaining a dense population. The agricultural productions of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Kansas are produced equally well in Arkansas. In addition to these, more cotton is grown per acre and per hand, on an average, than in any other Southern State. Arkansas has earned, besides, a reputation not excelled as a fruit-growing country, having taken the premium over all competitors at -the Expositions of New Orleans, Boston, California, New York, St. Louis, Chicago, and wherever her matchless fruit has

22 Arkansas.

been shown . Its annual rainfall is much greater than that of many of the Northern States; consequently crops are less liable to be injured by drouth. Its equable climate and agricultural resources make it a good stock -growing country.

The following statistics were compiled for the report and use of the Arkansas State Board of Emigration, and are useful in showing the present status of agriculture in Arkansas, and the cheering prospects for the future:

No. acres in the State 33,500,000

No. acres of timber land 19,000,000

No. acres under cultivation 5,000,000

No. acres adapted to fruit growing 10,000,000

No. acres Government land 5,000,000

No. acres State land 2,000,000

No. acres coal land 2,500,000

No. acres iron ore land 1,500,000

No. acres prairie land 1,800,000

By the above it will be seen that only 5,000,000 of the 33,500,000 acres of land in the State are under cultivation ; that there are still in the State subject to homestead entry, 5,000,000 acres.

Apropos of the above the following table reveals some interesting and surprising facts. It shows the comparative values of the farms and their products in some of the leading agricultural States :

States.

California .. Arkansas ..

Nebraska...

Iowa

Kansas

Minnesota..

Mississippi

Value Of Farms.

$262,051,282 74,249,655

105,932,541 507,430,227 235,178,631 193,724,260 275,633,307

Live Stock.

$ 35,500,417 20,472,425

33 440,265 124,715,103 60,907,149 31,904,821 95,785,282

Products.

$ 59,721,215 43,796,261

31,708,914 36,103,073 52,240,561 49.468,967 95,912,660

It will be seen by these figures that the value of the farms of Arkansas is the least of any of the States enumerated, varying from 50 to 700 per cent less ; that the total value of farm products is about the average of the seven States, some of them being the richest agricultural States in the country ; that the percentage of products to value of farms of Arkansas is from 50 to 800 per cent greater than that of the other seven States. When it is taken into consideration that only acres of Arkansas' total of 33,000,000 acres are under cultivation, the total prod-

Arkansas.

uct of nearly $44,000,000 reveals an interesting and startling fact, and it would be well for those who are searching for a location where a home may be obtained quickly and cheaply, and where toil receives its greatest remuneration, to bear this fact in mind when comparing the advantages offered by different localities.

It might be in place right here to give some of the reasons why the farmer receives greater returns for his labor in Arkansas than in some of the less favored States. In the first place, the superior quality of her products is an important factor. Arkansas has repeatedly taken the highest prizes for cotton and fruit over all competitors at the national exhibits of those products. In the region about Pine Bluff a quality of

cotton, superior to any in the world in strength of fiber is grown. An agent of Clark Bros., the famous cotton thread manufacturers of London, annually buys up the total product of this region and ships it to London to be manufactured into the famous O. N. T. thread. In addition to always carrying off the prize, Arkansas produces more cotton to the acre and hand than any other State. The principal cause, however, of the great returns from agricultural pursuits is the fertility of her soils, the early season, and the adaptability of the State to the growth of all kinds of fruits and vegetables. It is the only State in the West, south of Mason and Dixon's Line, where these are grown in great quantities for shipment. Arkansas commands the Western market with its early products. Its fruits and vegetables are before all others in the markets of St. Louis and Chicago, and always at the highest market prices. Ready markets are found for all that can be raised.

Arkansas Fruit

Arkansas.

The following figures show the average cash value per acre of all crops taken together in the various States :

Alabama $13.49

Arkansas 20.40

California 17.18

Connecticut 16.82

Delaware 17.68

Florida 8.52

Georgia 10.35

Iowa 8.88

Illinois 12.47

Indiana 14.66

Kentucky 13.58

Louisiana 22.40

Massachusetts 26.71

Maine 13.51

Maryland 17.82

Michigan 18 96

Minnesota 110.29

Mississippi 14.76

Missouri 10.78

New Jersey 18.05

New York 14.15

New Hampshire. .v 13.56

North Carolina 10.79

Ohio 15.58

Oregon 17.11

Pennsylvania 17.68

Rhode Island 29.32

South Carolina 10.09

Tennessee.. 12.39

Vermont 11.60

Virginia ... 10.91

West Virginia 12.74

The above figures may open the eyes of some of our readers, especially those of the North and East; but it is to be remembered that this State is in the South, and, were the same attention given to preparing Ihe soil and cultivating the crops as in the New England States, the results would be still more astonishing. It should be remembered that only a little more than one-seventh of the entire State is under cultivation, that large areas of the best fruit and farming lands are still unoccupied, that the latest and most improved methods of farming and fruit-raising are in use only in a few exceptional instances. With all these disadvantages against her, yet standing, in the general average, better than the best; with the tide of intelligent emigration setting strongly in this direction; with change and improvement taking place in all branches of industry, the outlook for the future prosperity and rapid growth of Arkansas is bright indeed.

Arkansas.

Products

Cotton.

HE southern and southeastern portions of the State have eminently the soil and climatic conditions for producing the great staple of the South, cotton, and it is now a conceded fact, emphasized by first premiums awarded her at every exposition where she has competed for the past 20 years, notedly at St. Louis, Atlanta, Louisville, New Orleans, and Chicago in 1893, that Arkansas is the queen of the South in the production of this staple. To show the true position of this State, agriculturally, as compared with other States, the following table from United States Official Report is in evidence :

Average Value Per Acre For The Past Ten Years.

States.

Corn.

Wheat.

Oats.

Potatoes.

Cotton.

Hay.

Virginia

North Carolina South Carolina

Georgia

Florida

Alabama

Mississippi

Louisiana

Texas

Arkansas ...

Tennessee

Illinois

Iowa

Missouri

Kansas

Nebraska

1!)

$ 8 05

$4 73

$34 20

47 U

$13 96

$13 60

Corn.

It will be seen from the above that Arkansas takes a high position as a corn producing State. It is a maxim among our old pioneer farmers that one is always sure of a crop if he plants in March. With the

Arkansas. 2?

employment of fertilizers, so freely used in other States, our average yield could easily be doubled. Along our water courses are over 6,000,000 acres of the finest corn land in the world, while our "second bench" and uplands yield equally with the ordinary prairies of the most highly favored corn belt. With our corn production and mild, brief winters, the problem of cheap meat is already half solved.

t

. f ft...

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,.xr** vffiKo

Cotton Field in Arkansas.

The corn crop of Arkansas, as given by the last census was 33,982,318 bushels, or about 5,000,000 bushels more than that of Michigan, over 9,000,000 bushels greater than that of Minnesota, and four times as great as the combined crop of all the New England States, with that of Colorado and California thrown in for full measure. Since the census year (1889), the acreage and yield of corn in Arkansas have been largely increased. A further point to be noted in this connection is that our early springs and late falls give a long growing season, furnishing opportunity to raise two or even three crops of excellent fodder-plants or vegetables on the same ground per annum, as, for instance: corn.

28 Arkansas.

millet and turnips ; or early Irish potatoes, cow peas and turnips or

winter rye.

Wheat And Other Products.

The northern half of the State has heretofore taken the lead in the

raising of wheat, but enough has been produced in almost every one of

the seventy-five counties to prove that it can be successfully grown all

over the State. The only reason why the farmers have not done so to

a greater extent is from the mistaken idea that there was more profit

in cotton than in any other crop, and that with cotton they could more

profitably buy bread, meat and forage than to raise them. These ideas

are rapidly passing away, and our farmers are becoming expansionists.

They may not be so politically ; this is not a political publication, and

has nothing to say on political questions, but it is nevertheless true

that the farmers of Arkansas are expansionists ; they are entering and

possessing themselves of new domains of agriculture ; have captured

the early Irish potato patch, the apple orchard and the strawberry

farm, and now they are annexing thousands of wheat fields, the low

price of cotton stimulating the production of this grain.

The clay uplands of Arkansas, along the line of the Iron Mountain Route, like those of New York and Pennsylvania, are admirably suited to the production of this grand cereal, and when farmed as those lands are farmed, are found to be equally productive, yielding from fifteen to thirty-five bushels per acre, and when it is remembered that these lands can be bought of the land department of the Iron Mountain Route, at from $3.50 to $5 per acre, the splendid opportunities held out to farmers is apparent, and it is no wonder there are many expansionists in this direction.

Chinch-bugs and midge are comparatively unknown in our State, and wheat is singularly exempt from diseases.

We have not time or space here to take up each of our agricultural products separately, but can only in a general way state the fact that in addition to corn and wheat, oats, barley, millet, sorghum, cowpeas, buckwheat, rye, etc., all do excellently well here, while as above noted the length of our seasons gives many opportunities to good farmers to double crop the same season.

©si

Shannon Apple — 4 Years Oid.

30 Arkansas.

Fruit.

It is but about fifteen years since the first of Arkansas fruits began to be shipped to and shown at the North. Now, she is known almost the world over, having added to her former trophies those gained in Chicago at the Columbian Exhibition for her superb display of apples. Previous to this she had taken first awards wherever she had displayed her magnificent fruit.

At the Cotton Centennial World's Fair, held in New Orleans 1884-85, where 22,000 plates were exhibited, Arkansas not only received the highest award for the best individual apple, the Shannon, but for the largest and best collection she was awarded the gold medal and $200. Indeed this exhibit was, without doubt, the finest and most extensive ever made.

The Bural New Yorker in speaking of it said: "The Shannon apple from Arkansas, a seedling of that State, received $25 in three premiums — one of $10 for the finest and best apple, $10 for the best new apple, and $5 for the best plate of apples."

The Farm and Garden, of Philadelphia, in speaking of the Shannon, said " it was not only the best apple in the world, but Arkansas is the best fruit State in the Union."

At a meeting of the American Pomological Society, held in Boston, September 15, 1887, Arkansas exhibited sixty-eight new varieties of apples, and was awarded the Wilder Medal, the highest honor in the gift of the Society. She was also awarded the medal for the largest and best collection of apples.

The Boston Herald, of that date, thus comments on the Arkansas exhibit: ' 'It comprises one of the finest displays of fruit ever seen in this part of the country. It is a revelation to New England horticulturists, and is receiving the attention it so justly merits. The collection is entirely the product of Arkansas, and consists chiefly of apples and pears. The display comprises sixty-six varieties of native seedlings, by far the largest number ever shown in the United States. All of this fruit is sound and of delicious flavor. The specimens are marvellously large, and it seems almost incredible that such rich results are obtained without employment of artificial aid. There are shown seventy varieties of cultivated fruit, which, for size and appearance, distance anything in the same line ever seen in this or any other Northern city. No State in the Union, it would seem, can compete with her in this line, a fact

Arkansas. 31

that is becoming known through the enterprise of those who wish to see the State's vast fields settled up and under the hand of cultivation."

Close on the heels of the Boston exhibit, Arkansas appeared before the American Horticultural Society, at Riverside, California, February 7, 1888, and carried off first honors on apples. Her exhibit was the admiration of all visitors, and consisted of sixty-eight varieties, twenty of which were seedlings exhibited at Boston. When we remember the thousands of miles traveled, the changes in temperature, the long time in which both color and flavor were preserved, we doubt if any apple grown elsewhere would have passed through such a severe ordeal successfully. The Riverside Press said: "It was the grandest display of apples ever made on the Pacific Coast. The whole collection was a surprise, not only to our California people, but to many prominent fruit men from the Northeast, who had not, heretofore, recognized Arkansas as an apple-growing State."

At the American Institute, New York City, October, 1890, Arkansas carried away every prize she entered for. Mr. Gerald Howatt, staff correspondent of the Country Gentleman, Albany, N. Y., furnished his journal with a full account, declaring that he never saw such a fine display of apples, in appearance, size and quality, as those shown from Arkansas. This means a good deal, coming, as it does, from Mr. Howatt, who has been judge of fruits at the American Institute Exposition for many years, and who has also been judge of fruits at Sacramento and San Francisco, Cal.

But the questions will be asked, "Do apple trees in Arkansas come into bearing early, or must one wait a half a lifetime for the first crop?" Then again, "Do they continue long in bearing, or only bear a few crops and die?"

After personal interviews with scores of apple growers in this State, the writer can say that their testimony is that apple trees here begin to bear at from five to six years from the nursery, and continue in bearing from thirty to sixty years.

James Cline, of Ozone, has an orchard which has been in bearing thirty years, and is now producing an annual yield of twenty-five bushels to the tree. This is only one of thousands of like cases.

The fact is, the apple business of Arkansas has passed beyond the experimental stage, and is an assured success ; hundreds of car loads of

Arkansas.

this magnificent fruit being shipped out each year from each of the main shipping towns in the apple belt.

Peaches, Pears, Plums, Etc — Arkansas is also pre-eminently a peach country. Professor John C. Branner, now of Leland Stanford University, California, in his recently published geological report upon Southwestern Arkansas, pronounces it equivalent in soil, climate, etc., with the celebrated peach growing regions of New Jersey.

The natural habitat of the peach is Persia and Asiatic Turkey, lying between the parallels of 30 and 40 degrees of latitude. Arkansas being

Sorting Fruit for Market.

the very center of this belt, accounts for the perfection and profusion which this fruit attains in the State. For years a budded peach tree was unknown in Arkansas. Only seedlings were raised, but these were so superior in quality that the need of the improved varieties was not felt. Had these trees been grown at the North, hundreds of them would have been given popular names and put on the market, becoming at once famous and bringing fortunes to their owners. The seedlings flourished for years without fame and name. The family wants were supplied, and the remainder went in a vain attempt to fatten the old style of Arkansas hog. This regime is wholly changed in some sections,

34 Arkansas.

and the disintegration of the old ideas is going on throughout the whole Stale rapidly. The cultivation of this fruit is receiving the same attention as in the North and East. All the improved varieties have been introduced, and the superiority of Arkansas peaches is appreciated in all the Western and Southern markets. Along the line of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway, the greater part of the peach crop is raised and shipped. The trees commence to bear three years from the seed, and such is their vigor that they are rarely injured by borers, and the curl and yellow leaf are not known to have affected Arkansas orchards.

Some of the best varieties ripen in May. This gives growers full command of the earliest Northern markets when fruit is in greatest demand, and prices are highest.

Pears and plums, with the same care and attention given them in other States, yield excellent returns in all parts of Arkansas, the latter having been shipped in car load lots from some points. But a great field is still open to those who will cultivate the above named fruits, especially plums of the Japanese varieties, which are of delicious flavor, bear abundantly, are almost if not entirely free from the depredations of the curculio, and sell for an excellent price in Northern markets.

Strawberries and Grapes.— The culture of strawberries for shipment is another business that has grown up within the past few years from zero to large proportions, and, like the apple and peach business, is making those rich who are engaged in it. Several of our towns have shipped each over 60,000 crates, 24 boxes to a crate, the past season. The Arkansas strawberries have a high reputation in Northern markets, and command the best prices.

Our hillsides and valleys are the native home of the grape. Here are found, growing wild, large, luscious, translucent grapes, that fifty years ago attracted the attention of Nicholas Longworth, the great fruit connoisseur of Cincinnati, and to-day our commercial vineyards supply the larger cities of our State with magnificent Ives, Concords, Moore's Early, Niagaras, Delawares, Wyoming Red, etc. The production is not heavy enough as yet to leave much surplus to ship to Northern markets.

Arkansas. 35

Vegetables.

uShall I have to do without Irish potatoes, onions, cabbages, beans peas, and the other vegetables I have been used to in my native State, if I come to Arkansas?"

No, my dear sir, you can raise all these and all other vegetables of the North and East in profusion, and of fine size and most excellent quality. We know the idea has obtained that Irish potatoes could only be grown here as a very early crop, but of late years the experience of our farmers has proved that not only can a very early crop be grown successfully, but that late planted potatoes, in fact a second crop with seed from the first crop on the same ground, yield superbly and keep in fine condition the year round, furnishing better seed for the next season's planting than imported Northern potatoes.

The following article, taken from the columns of one of our State papers, will give some idea of what is being done in a large way upon one of our hill farms and what can be done by any man having energy and "gumption."

''Most of our readers are somewhat familiar with the history of the Poole fruit and potato farm at Ozark, Franklin county, Arkansas, and know that Mr. Poole does nothing by halves. When he goes after premiums at our county, district or State fairs, he carries home blue ribbon enough to decorate one side of his "living room." It is the way he is built. He can't help it. So when he raises potatoes, there is no half way work about it, and for his sweet potato crop this year he has in bed and growing nicely 500 bushels for sets, or slips. This is one side of his potato patch. On the other side will be 400 to 500 bushels of Irish potatoes planted. And between the two nether ends of this patch he expects to grow thirty, fifty, seventy— yes, and with good luck, 80,000 bushels of potatoes. Mr. Poole is no uncertain farmer. His land always has its seedtime, that is his; and its certain harvest, that is God's. Like Paul, Poole plants and God gives gloriously. For nine successive years, without fertilizing or changing his seed, Mr. Poole has grown immensely large crops of potatoes — two crops each year. He plants in February for early spring shipments, and for seed and his main crop in July."

In an adjoining county a Mr. George Payne planted in July 1893, on plateau land, "up on the mountain," he called it, 7 acres of Irish potatoes,

Arkansas. 37

of the Peerless variety, himself and his young son doing all the work of plowing, planting and cultivation. In the fall he harvested from this patch 810 bushels of sound, fine merchantable potatoes, and sold them at an average price of 50 cents per bushel.

Mr. Treimer, an old German farmer, on chocolate, sandy land, near Clarksville, got from one acre by planting two crops on the same land, 400 bushels, two hundred and twenty-five bushels the first crop, and one hundred and seventy-five bushels the second. Both these crops and that of Mr. Payne had no manuring or other fertilization whatever, and both were on land that had been in cultivation for many years.

Quoting from the correspondence of one of our daily papers, we give the following, in regard to cabbages.

"Eleven miles north of Ozark, lives Mr. George Warnock, who last year set out about three-fourths of an acre of cabbages. He sold B. L. Jones an Ozark merchant at one time $156 worth of cabbage from his little patch besides which Mr. Jones told the writer that he bought several other dragon loads of him from the same ground." — Arkansas Daily Press, May 18, 1894.

Onions grow large, fine, sweet and sound, both from sets or seed, on our Arkansas soils ; beans, peas, beets, tomatoes, cucumbers, squashes, sweet potatoes and all other vegetables, are grown here in bountiful profusion.

Grasses, Pasturage And Live Stock.

The South is eminently a grass country, having hundreds of varieties of native grasses, and while it is found that the cultivated grasses of the North do remarkably well, other excellent varieties tbat cannot be grown at the North also thrive here and are exceedingly profitable.

Every farmer in Arkansas can have his permanent pastures and meadows. The raising of abundant crops of hay and grass at the South is no longer an experiment, and it is proven that bountiful supplies of nutritious fodder can be produced here with infinitely less labor and expense than by the old corn fodder pulling system.

Bermuda, The Blue Grass Op The South.

Not content with the annexation of orchards, truck farms and wher.t fields, Arkansas farmers upon the uplands along the line of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern, and Little Rock & Fort

$

Arkansas. 39

Smith Railways, are now expanding in the direction of Bermuda grass pastures. Having discovered the great value of this grass, they are annexing it to their crop possessions. It costs almost nothing to establish a Bermuda grass pasture, as small pieces of sod are the only seed required, and when once set it is permanent, never dying out or needing resetting or further cultivation. A third item is that stock of all kinds are excessively fond of it, and it is very sweet, nutritious and fattening. It furnishes, during eight months of the year, the finest feed for young stock, beef cattle or milch cows, and is cheaper and better for this latitude than any other known forage. The hottest and driest weather does not kill it, neither does close feeding or trampling, and it will thrive on almost any kind of land, poor or rich, clay or sand. The possession of this grass gives grand possibilities for cattle raising and dairy farming in Central Arkansas upon the splendid uplands along the line of the Iron Mountain Route.

Alfalfa succeeds admirably in Arkansas without irrigation, and, like Bermuda grass, when once established it is perennial, and costs nothing to maintain it. Fall or winter-sown clovers also do remarkably well here, as do also most all varieties of cultivated grasses, affording abundant hay and pasturage.

The availability of these food supplies, and of the cheap, fattening foods found in cotton seed, cotton seed meal and cotton seed hulls, together with abundant fine stock water, and almost no winter at all, make this State pre-eminent as a cattle raising country, while hogs do excellently well on the great timber ranges, getting their own living from the plentiful mast, a few bushels of corn at last putting them in fine condition for market.

Dairy Products.

The farmers of Arkansas have long been in the habit of producing a limited supply of butter for their own use, and perhaps a few pounds for sale, but it is only within the past fifteen or twenty years, since improved breeds of cattle, such as tl.e Jersey, Holstein, etc., have

40 Arkansas.

been introduced, the finer tame grasses have been found to succeed here, and Northern immigration has begun to pour in, that much has been done in a commercial way in the manufacture of butter and cheese. Now, in some four or five localities, there are well established creameries, turning out their, thousands of pounds of sweet yellow butter that holds its own in our cities in competition with the products of Northern dairies.

A splendid quality of cheese is also made at one cheese factory here, and what is being done in butter and cheese in these few localities ought to be duplicated in every county of the State that has a railroad running through it.

Minerals.

To the mineralogist, Arkansas is an interesting region. In variety of useful minerals she is not outranked by any other State.

The coal fields of Arkansas are very extensive, covering an estimated area of 12,000 square miles, and in the valley of Arkansas, where coal mining is most largely prosecuted, the beds average a thickness of four feet. The most valuable deposits of this mineral are found in the counties of Sebastian, Scott, Logan, Franklin, Johnson, Pope and Yell. But a small portion of this vast coal deposit is being developed.

The lignite coal commences a few miles south of Little Rock and extends into Texas, comprising. a larger area than any other coal field in the United States. This variety of coal has of late been extensively mined in Germany. Last year over 15,000,000 tons were used in varioi manufactures.

Iron. — In the hilly regions, including the counties of Pulaski, Crawford, Dallas, Saline, Grant, Hot Spring, Independence, Izard, Lawrence, Logan, Madison, Pike, Polk, Sevier, Sharp, Searcy, Van Buren, Howard, Cleburne, White, Montgomery and Scott, magnetic, hematite, limonite, carbonate, and specular iron ores are found in large quantities. The hematite iron beds in some places crop out upon the surface acres in extent. In many places this iron is situate in close proximity to the coal and limestone. The iron interest of the State has not been in anywise developed.

Manganese. — In the county of Independence large deposits of an excellent quality of manganese are found, and near the town of Batesville, on the White River, mines of this ore have been opened within

Arkansas. 41

the past twelve years, and many car loads are now shipped every week to the steel works of the North and East. The St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway has a branch road running to these mines.

In Central and Southwestern Arkansas, in the counties of Pulaski, Hot Spring, Montgomery and Polk, is found another zone of this metal, but as there are no good shipping facilities at present near these deposits, but very little development work has been done. It is a valuable mineral, and the ores of Arkansas are of superior grade and bear a good price.

Zinc. — Zinc ore, in great abundance, is found in Marion, Searcy, Boone, Lawrence, and adjacent counties. It is attracting large attention from miners and capitalists, a number of paying mines have been opened, the ore from some of them assaying as high as 67 per cent metal. This promises to afford one of the best paying industries of North Arkansas. The ores are both carbonate and blende, and the deposits crop out in many places, and are found from the grass roots down, both in placer (horizontal) deposits and in true fissure veins.

The great need of this district is better shipping facilities, though even now ore worth $20 to $40 per ton is being shipped to St. Louis at a cost of from $3 to $5 per ton. With the coming of railroads, now under survey and contract, a new impulse will be given to this industry, and millions of tons will be shipped from these vast fields.

Arkansas took first award at the Chicago Columbian Exhibition upon her zinc ores, among her exhibits there was one piece of ore weighing over 12,000 pounds.

Lead. — Arkansas promises to afford considerable lead ore. This mineral is found in most of the mountainous sections of the State ; that found in the counties of Pulaski, Sevier, Polk, Montgomery and Howard is rich in silver.

Copper in the form of carbonate and sulphuret has been found in various parts of the State. The largest deposit was found a few years ago in Marion county. There can be no question but that this is a rich and valuable deposit.

Other Minerals. — Rich deposits of antimony have been found in Sevier county, kaolin, or porcelain clay, of the best quality is found in many counties of the State. The best deposits are in the counties of Hot Spring, Saline, Howard, Ouachita and Pulaski. In the latter

42 Arkansas.

county it can be mined at small expense by stripping the light soil which covers it. This clay is used in the manufacture of the finer porcelains.

Extensive beds of gypsum, often crystalized into selenite, are found in the counties of Pike, Bradley and Howard, and these gypsums are valuable both for the manufacture of plaster of paris and land plaster for fertilization. In the southwest portion of the State are also found deposits which are declared by eminent authority to be most valuable, namely :

Marls, Chalks and Greensands. — These are found in the counties of Clark, Pike, Howard, Sevier, Little River and Hempstead. Professor Branner, who now fills the chair of geological science at Leland Stanford University, California, in his lately published report of his geological survey of Arkansas, declares that these deposits used as fertilizers are "more valuable than all the gold of California."

The superficial extent of these beds, examined by Professor Branner, is a triangle some 100 miles in length, and the depth were exposed or the banks of rivers, about 80 feet thick. The different strata he describes as "finely comminuted, blue, arenaceous gypsiferous sands and clay marl, with fossils. Pure, massive saccharoidal gypsum; fossiliferous bands oi fissile, arenaceous limestone ; fine grained sands and marl, with irregular deposits of lignite and bones of saurians, etc."

In the immediate neighborhood of these vast beds of natural fertilizers, are the Rocky Comfort chalks, of which there is a surface exposure of about 20 square miles, and another outcrop at White Cliffs on Little River. The professor shows by tables of analysis, that these chalks, and the clays found near by, are identical with those used at Medway, England, where the best Portland cement is manufactured. Of Portland and other kindred European cements we imported into the United States in the year 1892 over 1,000,000 casks. Surely here is a great opening for capitalists : Materials in endless amount, of the best quality, upon the very top of the ground, and the United States and South American countries for a market!

Bauxite. — We have in Pulaski and Saline counties valuable and large deposits of this rare mineral, from which aluminum and alum are manufactured. It should receive more attention than has yet been given it.

Marble.— The deposits of marble in this State are greater than that of anv other State in the Union. The larger portion of the marble of the

Arkansas. 43

State is similar in color to that of the Tennessee marble, we have also pink, gray and white, and in the counties of Independence and Searcy a black marble is found ; all are capable of receiving a high polish. A very valuable quality of lithographic stone has been discovered in Izard and Independence counties, which compares favorably in firmness of texture and freedom from flaws with the best imported stone. Nitre and paint earths are found in great quantities, the latter yielding many shades of color and being free from grit.

Roofing slate is found in the counties of Pulaski, Saline, Polk, Pike and Sevier. This slate, in point of durability, evenness of cleavage and beauty of color is equal to the celebrated slates of Vermont. Quarries are being opened in Pulaski and Saline counties. Granite of superior quality is found within a few miles of Little Rock. The celebrated Hot Springs hone-stone is found in Garland county in inexhaustible quantities, as is also the Ouachita whetstone. Serpentine is also found in Pulaski and Saline counties, while building stone — both lime-stone and sand-stone of superior quality — is found in two-thirds of the counties of the State. These rich mineral resources of the State are but little developed and present a grand opportunity for profitable investment. Petroleum and natural gas have been found in Logan and Sebastian counties, but as yet there has not been sufficient prospecting done to determine the amount or extent of the field, but as the work progresses, the indications are most promising. Then we have fine beds of soapstone or steatite, said to be the only deposit of this mineral now known in the Mississippi Valley.

Last, but not least, we have a great wealth of valuable clays suitable for stoneware, brick, fire brick, and in connection with our shales, for the manufacture of vitrified paving brick.

Timber.

It is a greater drawback to farming to be wholly without timber than to have too much of it to start with. A part of the land of Arkansas is prairie, but a large portion of it is heavily timbered. The timber of our country is rapidly becomiDg exhausted, and in Arkansas are to be found the only large bodies of timber still untouched. They are of the greatest variety and the most useful and valuable to be found in the world. The timber of Michigan and the North is being rapidly

Arkansas.

exhausted; lumbermen are turning their attention toward Arkansas, and in a few years it will be difficult to obtain such land, and prices will be ten times what they now are.

North of the Arkansas River the forests are mostly composed of the deciduous trees of the Mississippi basin, through which isolated belts occur, often of considerable extent, in which the short-leaf pine, the only species found in northern Arkansas, is mixed with the hardwoods. The western part of the State, south of the Arkansas River and west of the broad level plain of the Mississippi River, is

Stave Factory, Jackson County.

covered outside of the river bottom lands with an almost continuous forest of pine. Great bodies of cypress cover the low lands that stretch along the eastern border of the State, or line the bottoms of the White, Arkansas, Ouachita and Red Rivers. The hardwood forests of the State are unsurpassed in variety and richness, and contain inestimable varieties of the finest oak, walnut, hickory and ash timber. It has only been within the last twenty years that pine lumber has been manufactured, except to supply a limited local demand. The forests of Arkansas have received comparatively little damage from fire.

The amount of short-leaf pine standing in Arkansas in 1892 is estimated at 40,000,000,000 feet board measure. The above estimate does not include trees below 15 inches in diameter, and ignores the fact

Arkansas.

that in Arkansas, pine largely replaces pine, which would insure a continued supply. During the year 1892, $20,000,000 worth of lumber was shipped out of the State, requiring 100,000 cars for its transportation.

When the attention of manufacturers is turned to the immense timber supply of this State, and to the fact that the Southwest is no longer the sparsely settled country it formerly was, that it is rapidly filling up with intelligent, enterprising people, that it is rapidly becoming an excellent

market for furniture, wagons, agricultural implements, -stoves, paper, chairs, railway cars, and other manufactured articles, the wealth of Arkansas will be greatly increased by reason of the transfer of old, and the putting up of new manufacturing plants here.

For the benefit of readers who are not familiar with the products of this State, we will state that more than sixty kinds of wood are found in sufficient quantity for commercial purposes, consisting in part of pine, oaks in variety, black walnut, cherry, holly, ash, hickory of every kind found on the American continent, cypress, poplar, gum, beech, pecan, sycamore, elm, cotton wood, cedar, and many others; enabling Arkansas to supply her less favored neighbors with cheap building material and cabinet woods.

A few years more and the opportunity to secure this timber at reasonable figures will be among the things of the past. The operators of saw mills, machinery, barrel works, wagon and agricultural shops and furniture establishments, are now attracted to these new lands and the forests. Formerly the timber was prepared roughly, to be finished

Arkansas.

in other places. For fine work there was scarcely a turning lathe in the country, yet the same materials are repassed by the railway, polished up for sale to the people, and to find markets even in Texas and Mexico.

The White River in the Ozarks.

48 Arkansas.

Springs And Resorts.

/

7(®| RKANSAS is the land of springs, furnishing pure, cold, life- JjL giving waters, and here are also to be found many springs whose waters hold in solution various mineral properties healing certain classes of diseases which afflict the human race. Nature provides her own remedies, and has been very profuse in scattering them throughout Arkansas. The many smaller springs to be found in the mountain districts are overshadowed by the fame of Hot Springs, Eureka, Heber, Searcy and Ravenden. There is scarcely a county in the hilly or mountainous part of the State that does not number from one to many of these mineral springs within its borders. The only ones known, however, outside of the State are those mentioned above, and the following brief description is as much as a work of this kind, which is devoted more particularly to the industrial resources of Arkansas, will allow.

Hot Springs.

History gives us reasonable assurance that DeSoto discovered the Hot Springs, and spent one winter in camp at that point. They were known to the Indians long before the white man's foot had wakened the forest echoes west of the Mississippi. The sick from all the surrounding tribes were brought there to be cured of diseases that baffled their medicine men. Their fame spread among all the southern tribes, and it was from these reports that Ponce De Leon conceived the idea of the Fountain of Youth, for which he searched in vain for many weary years. The early French settlers were the first to discover the true value of these thermal springs for healing diseases. During the early part of the present century French settlers, trappers and voyagers, made temporary use of these springs for the treatment of sick members of their families. Several log cabins were built in the valley, and they were refitted and used by any who chanced to come.

The Hot Springs are situated on one of the lower spurs of the Ozark Mountains, about sixty miles southwest of Little Rock. The surface of the surrounding country is mountainous and broken enough to rob it of all monotony, and add a large item of interest to a sojourn in the health valley of Hot Springs.

Arkansas. 49

These springs are reached from the North and East by way of St. Louis and the Iron Mountain route. Three trains every day run from St. Louis in connection with trains from all through trunk lines to that point, and are equipped with Pullman Buffet Sleeping Cars and Reclining Chair Cars, the seats in which are free. Travelers from the South arrive at Texarkana and take the Iron Mountain route from that point. The Iron Mountain route may be taken from the East at Memphis, and passengers are carried from that city via Little Rock to Malvern, where the change is made to the Hot Springs Railroad to Hot Springs, a distance of twenty-five miles.

These Springs are one of the great natural curiosities of the world. Seventy-two streams of hot mineral waters issue from the mountain side, from 50 to 75 feet above the valley, and from 650 to 700 feet above sea level, and pour their liquid streams of health forth for the afflicted of all the earth. These waters have proven efficacious in many diseases where medical skill has been baffled. They are, therefore, at the same time the Mecca toward which the ill and afflicted turn for relief, an object of curiosity for the sight-seer, and a favorite resort for the pleasure seeker and tourist. They are annually visited by thousands. Society is of the best, and many permanent and beautiful homes have been built.

The following diseases are successfully treated, the failure to cure being the exception; where a perfect cure is not effected, a benefit is experienced by all where the waters are properly used: Rheumatism, Gout, Scrofula, Paralysis, Neuralgia, Ozena, Catarrh, Sore Throat, Syphilis — acquired or hereditary, in all its different forms — Asthma, Gravel, Diseases of the Kidneys and Bladder, Eczema, Psoriasis, Urticaria, Impetigo, Prurigo, Rupia, Chronic Ulcers, Glandular Enlargements, Ring Worm, Migraine, or Sick Headache, Enlarged Tonsils, Menstruation Troubles and Sterility. This a long list, yet the truth is not half told. Not a week passes but some remarkable cures are effected where all hope of recovery had been abandoned before a visit to these springs had been concluded upon.

An important item to visitors, and especially to the invalid, is a good hotel. Several of the hotels of Hot Springs are first-class, they are large and well-built houses, and in cuisine and appointments unsurpassed.

The Eastman Hotel, one of the grandest resort hotels in the United States, containing 480 rooms, was opened for the first time for the season of 1889. Another equally as magnificent, although

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Arkansas. 51

not so large, is the Park. The Arlington and Avenue Hotels can accommodate over 300 guests each; the Sumpter, Plateau and Waverly Hotels have room for about 100 each. With all the improvements now being made at the different hotels and boarding-houses, and the new ones that are being added to the list, there are accommodations for 6,000 visitors at one time, and allowing thirty days as an average time for visitors to remain here, there could be entertained at our hotels and boarding-houses 50,000 or 60,000 visitors in one year.

There are ten or twelve houses that justly may be called hotels ; the others are only boarding-houses, though some of them give as good fare and accommodations as are to be had at some of the hotels. Private boarding-houses are numerous, and there is quite a difference between the cheapest of these and the high-priced hotels — $4 to $25 being the range of prices, per week.

Ravenden Springs.

These perfectly pure waters come gushing from the base of an almost perpendicular cliff, clear as crystal and very cold. Alongside runs a small mountain stream, except in spots, where, with the work of ages, it has made for its waters beautiful pools, some of them twelve and fifteen feet deep.

The country is picturesque and romantic ; its elevation assuring pure air and pleasant, comfortable nights, even during the summer months. Plenty of game abounds throughout the surrounding hills and valleys; and within a few miles fish fit to tempt the palate of an epicure can be easily taken from Spring river, which is as clear, sparkling and beautiful as its name would indicate.

Although these springs have been known but a few years, yet they have a record of many remarkable cures of diseases. They are especially noted for curing dyspepsia, diseased eyes and affections of the kidneys. Their discovery arose from the cure of a case of dyspepsia of years' standing, the victim of that dread disease being a citizen of that locality and accidentally led to the use of the water. They are situated in the northwest corner of Randolph county, some thirty miles west of the Iron Mountain road. This long ride by stage has deterred many from going, but now that the opening of the Kansas City, Springfield & Memphis road brings the traveler within four miles of Rayenden, many will seek these waters who could not dare to venture heretofore.

52 Arkansas.

Heber Springs,

At the town of Heber in Cleburne county, about 25 miles northwest from Bald Knob, which is on the main line of the St. Louis Iron Mountain and Southern Railway, are a cluster of wonderful healing springs, known as Heber or Sugar Loaf Springs.

These springs are six in number, and are known as the Arsenic Spring, Black Sulphur, Chalybeate, Eye, Red Sulphur and White Sulphur Springs. They break out almost close together, several being within from 10 to 15 feet of others, but are quite varied in their chemical and medicinal properties, all are located on a plat of ten acres of ground only.

They are attracting more and more attention each year, from the wonderful cures wrought by their healing waters. The only drawback to their more extended use has been want of railway communication, but this we learn will soon be remedied by the construction of a branch road from Bald Knob to Heber.

These remarkable springs are on the foot-hills of the Boston Mountains, and near them is the picturesque defile known as the Harman Gap; there are many beautiful drives, and near by runs the Little Red River with ro antic turns and rocky walls, and this stream, together with its sister stream, the Owl Fork of White River, about fifteen miles further north, are fairly alive with excellent game fish ; deer and wild fowl invite the sportsman to the dells and cool shady nooks along the margins of the streams, or up the verdant hill sides or through mountain passes.

These springs can now be reached by stage or private conveyance from Searcy, to which a branch railroad runs from Kensett, on the main line of the St. Louis Iron Mountain and Southern Railway, or from Bald Knob.

In addition to these there are medicinal springs in different parts of the State, such as Eureka, Pinnacle, Excelsior, Mountain Valley, Hempstead County Lithia and hundreds of others of local or growing reputation for their varied curative properties.

Arkansas.

Searcy Springs.

The White Sulphur Springs are located at Searcy, in White County, Ark., on the line of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway. They are possessed of great healing properties, and are growing in popularity every year. Hotel accommodations are good, and Searcy is one of the most enterprising and progressive towns in the State.

Little Red River, Arkan$as.

54 Arkansas.

Education.

tRKANSAS has a well organized public school system, with a State Superintendent, and in each county an Examiner. Provision is made in the Constitution of the State for the support of public schools, requiring an annual tax of 20 cents upon each $100 of taxable property, to be levied and collected for that purpose, in addition to a per capita tax of $1 upon each adult male inhabitant. The territory of each county has been laid off by the respective county courts into convenient school districts, which are managed by three directors, elected by the people of the district. In addition to the amount raised by State tax, each school district, by vote, can levy a tax not in excess of 50 cents upon the $100 for the support of its public schools. A large portion of the districts vote the full amount allowed by law, making in the aggregate for school purposes, 70 cents on the $100 of taxable property, together with a poll tax of $1. In towns and densely populated neighborhoods this enables the schools to be kept open for nine months in each year. In the sparsely settled sections the schools are kept open for so long as the amount of money available will justify. All are kept open at least three months in each year. Graded schools have been established in all of the cities and in the larger towns of the State. The Arkansas Industrial University, a State Institution, is located at the town of Fayetteville, m the county of Washington. For beauty and healthfulness its location is unsurpassed. The medical department of this University is established at Little Eock, with a full corps of Professors, composed of men eminent in the medical profession. The course of study embraces three years, and is very thorough. A fine branch department for colored pupils is in successful operation at Pine Bluff, with a competent corps of teachers, and a full course of study.

Free Schools.

The growth of her free schools within the last eight years has been unexampled. Free schools are taught in every neighborhood, village, town and city in the State, and thousands of children are receiving education and being prepared at these schools for intelligent, useful

56 Arkansas.

citizenship. The school statistics of 1892 show that there were then about 3,000 public school houses in the State, about 5,641 teachers, and about 300,000 pupils. For the year ending June the 30th, 1892, over $1,000,000 were expended for educational purposes in the common schools. Besides the public schools, there are in the State about twentyfive colleges and private schools, including the Arkansas Industrial University, the Institution for the Deaf Mutes, and the Arkansas School for the Blind. It is no doubt a matter of astonishment to those who have been wont to underrate our great State, that in proportion to her taxable values, Arkansas does more free school education than any State in the Union, the great State of Massachusetts not excepted. The old log school house has passed away. In the towns this has been displaced by more commodious and far more comfortable structures. In these, architectural skill has been displayed, and a proper regard for ventilation is evinced. Heat and the proper adaptation of light is more clearly marked than in the older houses.

Every sixteenth section of land in each township of the State is reserved by law for school purposes, and the permanent and sixteenth section funds of the State now amount to about $500,000.

The report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction shows a gratifying condition of the growth of the public schools of the State.

The number of pupils enrolled

1868 67,412

1880 98,744

1885 175,935

1890 242,117

1891 251,452

Teachers employed

1869 1,355

1888 4,664

1892 5,641

The total amount of monies received for school purposes is as follows in the years given :

1868 $ 300,669

1888 370,942

1892 1,087,276

Arkansas.

Hunting And Fishing In Arkansas.

pjj 0 W many fishermen and hunters have sought patiently the realizaftl tion of their dream of a sportsman's paradise, and yet found it not — a charmed spot, where game and fish are ever present targets for shot and ball, and eager for the gaudy fly and shining minnow. To unhappy anglers who have suffered through long marches and gone unrewarded, or have traveled far for little sport, the lakes and rivers of Arkansas may be commended with a clear conscience.

Farm Scene, North Fork, Ark. — Matney's Knob in Distance.

Arkansas is truly the paradise of the sportsman. The tide of industrial progress rolling westward drove the game before it. The northwest, the favorite hunting grounds for years, is becoming rapidly depopulated of bird and beast. In Arkansas only of the Mississippi Valley States is to be found nearly all the original varieties of wild animals, birds and fishes. It is true the larger game is disappearing before the rapid settlement of the State. Bear are still found in some of the more sparsely populated mountain districts, while deer are plentiful, and can be frequently seen from the windows of moving trains quietly feeding or drinking.

Arkansas.

Crossing the northern boundary of Arkansas at Moark, the first station of any importance is Corning, a favorite resort for fishermen from St. Louis and other Northern points. Black river, three miles to the eastward, has an enviable reputation as a fishing stream, here, as elsewhere in its course, and thoroughly deserves the good opinion of the anglers

sne — Arkansas.

who frequent its banks ; while almost within sight of the station Corning lake spreads its placid surface in invitation to the dancing lure and toothsome minnow. The fame of Corning lake surpasses that of other Arkansas waters, because it is oftener fished by parties living outside the State. It is a good place to go for a few days' sport because of its convenience to the

Arkansas.

railroad and the fact that boats are handy and can be had at any time for a nominal sum, but there are hundreds of lakes as good, so far as the mere matter of fish is concerned, scattered here and there throughout the eastern portion of the "Bear State." Small houses for the convenience of visiting sportsmen have been built at different points on Black river, and as they rent for a trifle, are in many ways preferable to the impromptu camps generally erected as a temporary makeshift without regard to the occupant's comfort. The forests in the vicinity are well stocked with game, large and small, deer being particularly abundant in the tract of country known as "Deer Range," lying east of Black river.

Knobel, six miles farther down the road and beyond the crossing of Black river, is the junction point of the main line of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern and its Helena branch, and aside from its

natural advantages of location in the heart of a first-class hunting and fishing country, is also particularly desirable as a stopping place for sportsmen, since it is provided with good hotel accommodations and is in easy reaching distance by rail of choice fishing

!% fl BL and shooting on the St. Francis

t and L'Anguille rivers. Guides are

obtainable here, as well as conveyances for transferring tents and camp outfits to the hunting grounds. Deer, turkeys and squirrels are easily found within six or eight miles of town, and splendid fishing for bass, pickerel and crappie in Mill, Maiden and Allen lakes, from two to four miles out. Cache river, at this point not more than six miles from the railroad, is famous for its game and fish; and after the fall rains have flushed its logimpeded channel a canoe or skiff voyage down its current to its confluence with White river, at Clarrmdon, two hundred miles below, would be an experience that any sportsman would heartily enjoy.

Following a course parallel to that of the St. Francis river to Helena, its terminal point, the branch road from Knobel offers to

Arkansas.

sportsmen a score of stopping places, any of which may be selected with confidence in the results. The famous Sunken Lands of the St. Francis have been so often described in glowing terms that it is quite unnecessary to grant them any of our limited space. Farther down, where the river, confined between narrower banks begins to develop a current and the impassable marshes give place to firmer soil, game is found in undiminished quantity and its pursuit can be followed under more favorable conditions. The name of the "Sunken Lands" is attractive, and it would be difficult to find a section of country better supplied with all that adds to the happiness of those who love the wild life of the forest, but all of this — not even excepting the wonderful wild-

m

mL

., If

Hunters' Camp, near Hot Springs, Arkansas.

fowl shooting in season — can be enjoyed on the lower river beyond the limits of this woodland lake.

Gainesville, the first town of any size on the branch after Knobel has been left behind, has St. Francis lake in its vicinity which will furnish sufficient employment for the men of rod and reel, while, as elsewhere in this favored region, the gunners will never be at loss for targets upon which to display their skill. Brookland in Craighead and Hatchie Coon in Poinsett counties, stations of minor importance in some respects, are, nevertheless, worthy of remembrance by sportsmen who may contemplate a visit to this portion of Arkansas,, for at

ARKANSAS. 6l

such points the trails leading to the woods are usually short and often indented throughout their length by the sharp hoofs of wandering deer hungry for a meal of the farmer's peas or sweet potato vines. Vanndale and Wynne, in Cross county, are both noted points for deer bunting, while the different lakes in the St. Francis and L'Anguille bottoms, as well as both the rivers just named, afford an inexhaustible supply of bass, jack-salmon, crappie, and the other fishes common to this region.

Marianna, twenty-six miles north of Helena, is not far from the confluence of the L'Anguille with the St. Francis, and between these two streams, for some distance above their juncture, is a large scope of unsettled country, at present the chosen haunt of the deer and bear. Here, the gray wolf still pursues his quarry as in the days before railroads had placed this wilderness within twelve hours of the Southwestern metropolis, and the panther's scream occasionally frightens the deer hunter from his stand or silences the sturdy challenge of the wild gobbler. Before the non-exportation laws went into effect, a great deal of game was shipped from this point, and enormous consignments of buffalo and catfish, taken from the adjacent rivers, still go to Northern dealers. Happily the shipment out of the State of other varieties is rigidly prohibited, but the local angler can supply his table, throughout the greater portion of the year, with the choicest of game fish, secured with even the most primitive of tackle from the pool or stream most convenient to his dwelling.

Probably 90 per cent of the sportsmen, who may chance to drift down the main line of the Iron Mountain Route beyond Knobel, will drop off at De La Plaine or O'Kean, feeling convinced from past experience, that the deer they are looking for can be easily found in the white oak flats contiguous to the Cache; if not in the river bottoms proper. The oak forests in the districts between the Black and Cache rivers have been sadly depleted by the axes of lumbermen and tiemakers, but the game still lingers in the old "chop-outs," though the undergrowth, in localities, is rendering its pursuit difficult. Fishing is good at both the points mentioned, but to enumerate the different lakes and small streams within reach would be unnecessary.

From Walnut Ridge to Newport, at the crossing of White river, the railroad passes through a belt of country similar in nature to that

Arkansas.

just described, with Black and Cache rivers about equal distance on either hand. Though settlements are scattered everywhere they are not so thick as to interfere with hunting to any marked degree. The hunter never goes away empty handed and when accompanied by hounds often kills deer within sight of the different towns, and turkeys forage the farmers' corn fields daily, while of smaller game therB is an unlimited abundance. Walnut Ridge claims for one of its citizens a record of five deer and twenty-five turkeys in one day, a score that will

Fishing Camp, on White River, Arkansas.

hardly be duplicated soon, but which speaks volumes for that localitv as a hunting resort. Wolves, wild cats and small game add zest and variety to the forest sports, and wherever fields of any size are encountered, good quail shooting with or without a dog, is easily obtainable. Newport, is perhaps one of the best fishing points in the State, as it is located on White river not far from the mouth of Black and within easy reach of Cache. Bass, salmon, crappie, pike and all kinds of perch are plentiful in these streams, as well as in Burgon lake, only three miles from the city, Gambol's lake about four and Waldo

Arkansas. 63

lake not more than five. On the large farms and cotton plantations in Big Bottom, some twenty miles up the White river branch, and Oil Trough Bottom, directly across the river from the locality just named, the lover of wing shooting can find quail to his heart's content. Here the birds are rarely disturbed by the local gunners who consider such small game unworthy of notice, and they are very numerous and easy of approach. Batesville is the terminus of the White river branch, and is located in the edge of the mountainous region that extends over the entire Western half of the State. During the winter months, small steamboats ascend the White river from Batesville to a point near the Missouri line, nearly two hundred miles as the river runs, and most of this distance is traversed amid scenery surpassing that along any other navigable stream east of the Rocky Mountains. Of Arkansas' mountain scenery, very little is known outside the State, but a rich harvest awaits the literary wight who shall first catch with his camera and describe with facile pencil the many points of beauty and interest lying along the cliff-shadowed White, between its source and the point where it leaves the hills to wander through forest and brake to the distant Mississippi. Large game in the neighborhood of Batesville is less abundant than at points lower down the river, but small game of all description can be taken in quantities.

Bradfoed, on the main line below Newport, is in a good locality for both hunting and fishing, being handy to White river and possessed of all the advantages that such proximity supplies, while there is also a first-class deer range in the hills some nine or ten miles to the westward. Big lake, one mile east, and Little lake, about the same distance south, are both famous for the quantity of fish they contain, as well as on account of their unusual clearness, the bottom of either being visible at a depth of twenty feet. Other lakes abound, furnishing splendid fishing and good duck shooting in season.

Memphis is now the eastern terminus of the Memphis Extension of the Iron Mountain route, and the completion of that branch made accessible, both from the east and west, a large tract of country unsettled and wild, and hitherto inaccessible, but which had long been known to abound in all kinds of game and fish. No point can be said to surpass another for hunting and fishing on this whole line, but at any point the sportsman chooses to embark he will find plenty of food for his ammu-

fi4

Aekansab.

nition, and fish eager to snap his bait. The first train from Memphis took a party of hunters from that place, and almost immediately on its opening the Bald Knob Rod and Gun Club was organized with headquarters at Earle, where they have erected a club house. The following are the varieties of fish found : black bass, speckled perch, brim, and pickerel. In game: he will find ample enjoyment in bringing down deer, turkeys, geese, ducks, quail, rabbits, squirrels, etc. Bald Knob Junction, the western terminus of this branch, was, until the non-export interfered, the favorite hunting ground for a number of market shooters, the flat woods, east of this point, fairly swarming with deer in the winter when the overflow had driven them from the low bottoms of White and Little Red rivers. In the winter of 1888-1889, over two hundred deer were killed within six miles of Bald Knob, and other seasons have seen this score exceeded. A great many bears still roam through the cane brakes skirting the rivers, faring sumptuously upon fresh pork whenever the fancy takes, and occasionally furnishing a feast for the farmer whose smoke-house stands empty by reason of their foraging. A description of the fishing in the neighborhood of Bald Knob would be merely a repetition of an old story. Streams and

lakes are of precisely the same character as those mentioned in connection with other points, the variety of fish is identically the same, and the most persistent angler will always secure the fullest creel or heaviest string, for the amount of his catch is decided only by his ability to bait hooks and fight his fish.

From Bald Knob to Little Rock the main line passes through a comparatively thickly settled district, gradually drawing away from the course of the larger streams. In this stretch of fifty-seven miles large game is scarce though by no means altogether lacking. Quail, squirrels and rabbits afford abundant sport for those who prefer the shotgun to

Arkansas. 65

the rifle, and turkeys frequent the field farthest from the farm houses, and find ample cover for the protection of their young broods in the belts of timber that still remain. As the Arkansas river is neared wild goose and duck shooting is good in the proper season, and many follow it as a profitable business, making five and six dollars a day. This is particularly the case at McAlmont, on the main line, six miles north of Little Rock, and here, too, fishing can be had fully equal to any in the State. Hill's lake, five miles east, is much frequented by fishermen from the surrounding country, while Frammel lake, one mile, Peelar lake, two miles, and Ink bayou, scarcely one-half mile east of town, all abound in bass, trout, pike and the different varieties of perch. Deer and turkeys are frequently killed in this locality and all sorts of small game is abundant.

And the Bend of his graceful bow is seen, A glittering arch of silver sheen,

Spanning the wave of burnished blue,

And dripping with gems of river dew.

At Teaskwood, the first station north of Malvern, the angler will receive intelligence of excellent fishing on every side, but will be somewhat surprised to find that the favorite method oi obtaining a supply of the silvery-sided beauties is by spearing — or "rigging" as it is here termed. In the Saline river and its numerous feeders, the water is perfectly transparent, and, however deep the pools may be, the fish are readily discovered, and as readily secured, by an expert hand with the heavy, long-handled spear. At Donaldson, on the Ouachita, the same method of fishing is generally pursued, though a great many fish are shot with the rifle, in the use of which many of the residents of this vicinity gain a remarkable proficiency. It requires a peculiar training to enable any one to shoot fish in water of even moderate depth with any certainty, but an expert shot rarely misses his aim and it is no unfrequent feat to shoot a thirty or forty pound buffalo. In all the earns and lakes of this region the water is so clear that a pin can be ee'n lying at the bottom at a depth of ten feet, and so great is the variety and number of fish that fishing with a hook is rarely undertaken. At Donaldson deer are abundant and occasionally a bear is found in the breaks of the hills bordering the Ouachita bottoms. Where large game is easily found, it goes without saying, that there is

66 Arkansas.

no scarcity of the smaller beasts and birds, and at all points south of th Arkansas river quail and squirrel shooting can be expected without the possibility of a disappointment.

In this connection Arkadelphia can be mentioned as one of the best localities in the State for quail shooting, second only to portions of Calhoun and Union counties southeast of Camden. Clark county, in which Arkadelphia is located, has been long noted for the richness of its soil and the uniform success of its cultivators ; a goodly share of the county is in cultivation, and in Arkansas wherever there are open fields quail can be found by the hundreds and thousands. A good many oldtime deer hunters reside at Arkadelphia and still own and train their packs of hounds, though deer in the immediate neighborhood of the town are growing scarce and hard to "jump." The Ouachita furnishes the best of fishing, and in the winter months the Arkadelphian finds abundant use for his shotgun in attempting to halt the flight of the ducks and geese that are following the river's course.

Camden, mentioned above, is the terminus of the Camden branch and is thirty-four miles from the main line. This is one of the oldest towns of the State, and was the supply point for a large scope of territory, in the days before the advent oi railroads, when the freight and passenger traffic of the entire country was handled by steamboats. Situated on the bank of the Ouachita, and with Woodard, Johnson, Pine, Mormon, Blue and Fisher's lakes all to be reached over good wagon roads in from thirty minutes to one hour, the angler who may chance to visit this town will hardly suffer for lack of opportunity to wet a line in waters fairly aswarm with bass, trout and perch. The hotel accommodations at Camden are excellent, guides easily obtainable, and choice hunting grounds for large and small game close at hand.

Boughton, on the main line a few miles below Gurdon, is in a good range for all-around hunting and fishing, the little Missouri and Antoine rivers and Cypress bayou, with other smaller streams and lakes supplying the wants of the most exacting of anglers, while all varieties of game common to the States abound. At Hope, a short branch line leads to Nashville, a prime point for all who love the. best of sport. Red and Little Saline rivers, Little river and me Little Missouri are all convenient and easy to reach, and the hunter who penetrates their thickly grown bottoms should keep on the alert for a

Arkansas. 67

shot at the largest of Arkansan game. Deer and wild turkeys are too common to deserve special notice, and bears and panthers are sometimes encountered. Washington, the first town reached on the branch, is but little further from the big game range and has excellent quail shooting in its vicinity. Fulton is another good stopping place for sportsmen, its location on Red river making it a particularly desirable point for those who wish to get good fishing within rifle shot of a hotel, with an almost endless range for hunting on either hand. Little river which enters Red a short distance above Fulton can hardly be improved upon as a fishing stream and its name is connected with; half the bear-hunting yarns told' by the Nimrods of Southern Arkansas. Deer can be found both in the river bottoms and among the pine and oak forests of the flat lands and ridges, but still— hunting is rarely resorted to — the majority of the resident hunters preferring hounding. Turkeys are about the only other game generally hunted, though the woods are full of squirrels and rabbits, and the call of the Bob White echoes through every clearing.

Conway, Mokrillton and Russellville are points on the Little Rock & Fort Smith division, and all of them report good fishing in the Arkansas river, as well as in the numerous small courses, that have their source in the Boston mountains, flowing into the Arkansas from the north. Small game is plentiful, and deer and turkeys can be found in the hills a few miles back from the river though not in any great numbers. Piney, further west, is a more desirable point for hunting than any of those just mentioned, and for fishing is, perhaps, as good. Quail, squirrels and rabbits abound, as at all other points in the State, and deer are frequently killed on Big and Little Piney creeks at no great distance from the railroad. Wild geese and ducks are plentiful on the sandbars of the river in the winter seasons.

Spadra is the first station on the Little Rock & Fort Smith division west of Clarksville. Spadra creek is fed by mountain springs. Its waters are as clear as crystal, and abound in mountain trout and a fine

58 Arkansas.

variety of perch. The scenery along this stream has long been noted for its beauty and picturesqueness, its rocky banks resembling an Adirondack stream. The Arkansas river is near, where all the larger varieties of fish are found. In hunting, deer is the largest game. Turkeys, ducks and squirrels furnish ample sport for the hunter in their season. Higher up on the mountains great sport is afforded in hunting the gray fox, which is very plentiful and valuable for its fur.

Fort Smith is the western terminus of the Little Rock & Fort Smith division, and the region around about, especially to the north, south and west, is one vast hunting and fishing paradise. The streams near the city, in which black bass, pike, crappie and catfish abound, are Lees creek, Vache Grasse and Frog bayou in the State, and the Poteau and Illinois rivers and Vian and Salisaw creeks in the Territory. The fishing is excellent, but for genuine sport the hunter, with his gun and dog, has the call here. This sport is not confined to any particular locality, but parties are organized and excursions are made a hundred miles to the north, south and west, all of which territory is a vast hunting ground abounding in all kinds of game. The hunter will go prepared to shoot deer, foxes, turkeys, quail, ducks and chickens. Local sportsmen are to be found who are always ready to join and assist in expeditions of this kind.

There now remains to be described the different points of interest to sportsmen along the Houston, Central Arkansas & Northern. line, a branch of the Iron Mountain Route, at present extending from Little Rock to Alexandria, La., a distance of 305 miles. This line, through a goodly portion of its length, is of comparatively recent construction and renders accessible a vast stretch of unbroken forest but little known to hunters from the outer world — a hunting ground of more than ordinary merit, where the larger game can roam as far as their fancy dictates without finding their way barred by the settler's fence or encroaching upon the cleared fields that tell of civilization's irresistible march. The road follows, for the first part of its distance, a course parallel to that of the Arkansas river, though running from one to fifteen miles to the southward of that stream. Then, turning abruptly to the right, it bears away directly through the heart of Louisiana, passing through some old, long-settled farming districts, and, finally, plunging into the depths of the largest unbroken body of pine forest

Arkansas. 69

that the United States now contains, to emerge at last on the banks of the Red river at Alexandria. Every station in the entire distance deserves some share of our notice, for each has its surroundings of forest and stream ; each its enthusiastic sportsmen, proud of their own hunting grounds and loth to concede that there are better farther on. But want of space will forbid mention of many points that might well rank with the best.

Wkightsville is twelve miles south of Little Rock, on the Arkansas City division, and, as a center for hunting and fishing, is unsurpassed. It is three miles from the Arkansas river, two and one-half miles from Horseshoe lake, and one mile from Pennington lake, which is fed by Fish creek. Pike, bass, cat, white perch, trout and sun fish are on the constant lookout for the fisherman's hook. Commencing at Pennington lake and extending westward to the Saline river is an expanse of uninhabited region known as the Pennington Forest. This is composed of pine and cypress timber, with large tracts of jungle and cypress brakes. Deer and turkeys have their favorite haunts here and small game abounds in unlimited quantities.

Redfield is on the Arkansas City section south of Wrightsville. Deer, turkeys, squirrels, rabbits and quail abound in large quantities in that vicinity, and the hunter will not have to go beyond a radius of ten miles from town to satisfy his desire to kill something. In the way of fishing, Harris and Lipscomb lakes, the Arkansas river, Bitter, Camp and Harrison creeks, are all within three and a half miles of Redfield and are well stocked with black bass, trout, jack perch, catfish and buffalo.

Jefferson Springs is between Little Rock and Pine Bluff, on the Arkansas City section, and has for fishing waters the Arkansas river and its bayous, in which are found catfish, perch, black bass and several other varieties in abundance. The woods in this vicinity have plenty of deer, foxes, rabbits, opossums, squirrels, and, in their season, turkeys, geese, ducks, and quail. Pigeons are also to be found in great numbers.

Pine Bluff is the most important city on the Arkansas City division, and is the center of excellent hunting and fishing territory. The Saline river, Atkins lake and Clear lake abound in mountain trout, speckled perch, black bass, catfish, etc., and splendid camping facilities

Arkansas.

are to be found around these lakes. The shooting is also fine, and deer, turkeys, squirrels, rabbits, grouse, quail and ducks are easily bagged. Occasionally a bear may be met, but they are becoming scarce. Foxes are so common that fox-hunting has ceased to be sport for the old hunters. The winter is very dry and pleasant, and after the first of October this is a veritable hunter's paradise.

Noble Lake, on the Arkansas City section, has in its vicinity the Arkansas river, Atkins lake and Noble lake, which are well-stocked

with trout, catfish, buffalo, speckled perch, white perch and sunfish. The whole country about this place is a vast hunting ground in which are found large quantities of deer, turkeys, squirrels, rabbits, foxes, geese , ducks and quail.

Leaving Noble lake behind, an ideal deer country is found near Varner, the third station beyond. The timber growth, which between Little Rock and Pine Bluff was principally pine, has changed again, and the broad flats lying along the headwaters of Bayou Bartholomew are wooded with the different varieties of oak, gum, elm and hickory. The undergrowth is rather close here for rifle shooting, but a shotgun answers as well at close quarters, and around Varner it is unnecessary to risk long range shots. Turkeys are quite plentiful, as they usually are in a region where pin-oak acorns cover the ground in autumn and winter, and the wild blackberry ripens

Arkansas. 71

its fruit in early summer. Squirrels are everywhere. On the Arkansas river, north of the town, and across the river at the mouth of Bayou Meto, a good many bears can yet be found, but they are hunted persistently by market gunners, who ship their meat to Pine Bluff and Little Rock, and their numbers are rapidly decreasing.

Dumas is a station of small importance in some respects, but the residents of the little town are sportsmen, and they live in a locality where they can gratify their fancy for deer driving to the utmost. The stranger in their midst, if possessed of a taste for such sport, would be heartily invited to join in their wild rides after the fleet-footed and evasive buck, and it is nothing uncommon for a hunting party to kill twelve or fifteen in a single day.

Walnut Lake, the next station to Dumas, has an enviable reputation as a fishing and duck shooting resort. The lake is deep and clear, and its beauty, quite as much as the fine fishing it affords, attracts numerous parties from as far away as Little Rock. A shooting club from the State's capital has a club house on the bank of Walnut Lake, and it is occupied pretty regularly during the hunting season.

Winchester, a few miles farther on, claims the reputation of shipping more deer during the open season than any other station in Arkansas. In 1890, two men, hunting principally at night with headlights, killed 145 and 87 deer respectively. That this wholesale slaughter did not ''utterly extinguish the breed," is evidenced by the fact that twenty-six deer were shipped from Winchester on one train in the fall of '92, and hardly a day passed that shipments of less consequence were not made. The hunting grounds extend pretty generally in every direction for a number of miles, but the best is to be found between the railroad and Arkansas river some fifteen miles away. Bears and wolves are often killed by the deer hunters, and turkeys and small game are to be had "in quantities to suit" — if such a phrase is applicable here.

Dermott is situated in the midst of a scope of wild country lying between Bayou Bartholomew and the Mississippi river, and possessing an inexhaustible supply of game of all descriptions. There are many so-called good hunting grounds where the citizen with non-observant habits, or the stay-at-home farmer, will tell you that game is "powT'e'fu3 sca'ce," but the good people of Dermott are all willing to confess that the woods around them are swarming with wild life. The fact is so

72 Arkansas.

patent that they cannot help observing it. Even a blind man, if served with three meals of venison p°r day for a series of months, would, in the end, be forced to admit that there must be more or less deer in the vicinity, and there are ways in which the mentally blind may be made to see. Fishing in the neighborhood of Dermott is good, bass, trout and perch being the principal varieties that interest anglers ; but buffalo and cat, of the largest size, abound, while small fry, such as crappie, perch, etc., snap greedily at the baited hook as soon as it touches the water. Mason's, Barth's and Big bayous, and many lakes, large and small, are close at hand, and it is not far to Bartholomew and the Mississippi.

Morell and Portland, the latter near the Louisiana line, are both good points for parties to visit in search of choice shooting and angling, Dobson's Ferry, on Bceuff river, twelve miles southeast of Portland, being a notable place for game and fish even in this "land of plenty" where deer skins are tacked against the side of every cabin, and fish are so plentiful that hooks and lines are unnecessary for their capture. The "deep water" in Bceuff river ranges from ten to forty feet for a stretch of eighteen miles, and it runs through a belt of forest nine miles wide without settlements.

In Arkansas, while judicious game-protective measures have been adopted and are generally respected and enforced, the open seasons are long, and the privileges allowed can be thoroughly enjoyed. Here the severity of winter storms or the impediment of snow drifts twenty feet in depth never intervene to hinder the hunter in pursuit of his game. Taking the season through not a single day need be lost from sport by reason of icy winds or penetrating cold, and, better than all the rest, the sportsman who wanders in this direction in search of recreation, when returning home is never compelled to stop en route and search the city markets for woodland trophies that he has failed to obtain in a more legitimate manner.

Arkansas. 73

Population Of Arkansas By Counties.

Arkansas was organized as a Territory March 2, 1819, and admitted as a State June 15, 1836. In 1810 Arkansas County, then in the Territory of Louisiana, but subsequently included in the Territory of Arkansas, had a population of 1,062. Table 1 shows the population of Arkansas at each census from 1820 to 1900, inclusive, together with the increase by number and per cent during each decade.

Table 1.— Population Of Arkansas. 1820 To 1900.

Census Years — Population. Number. Per Cent.

1900 1,311,564 183,385 16.25

1890 1,128,179 325,654 40.58

1880 802,525 318,054 65.65

1870 484,471 49,021 11.26

I860 435,450 225,553 107.46

1850 209,897 112,323 115.12

1840 97,574 67,186 221.09

1830 30,388 16,133 113.17

1820 14,255

The population of the State in 1900 is 1,311,564, as against 1,128,179 in 1890, representing an increase since 1890 of 183,385, or

16.25 per cent. This rate of increase is only about two-fifths of that for the decade from 1880 to 1890 when it was 40.58 per cent, and less than one-fourth of that for the decade from 1870 to 1880, when it was 65.65 per cent. From 1860 to 1870 there was an increase of only

11.26 per cent, but prior to 1860 the population more than doubled itself during each decade, and for the decade from 1830 to 1840 showed an increase of 221.09 per cent.

The population of Arkansas in 1900 is more than ninety times as large as the population given for 1820, the first census taken after its organization as a Territory in 1819.

The total land surface of Arkansas is, approximately, 53,045 square miles, the average number of persons to the square mile at the censuses of 1890 and 1900 being as follows: 1890, 21.27: 1900,

Table 2 shows the population of Arkansas by counties at each census from 1820 to 1900, inclusive, and shows, for each county, the increase (or decrease) by number and per cent during the ten years from 1890 to 1900.

74 Arkansas.

TABLE 2— POPULATION OP ARKANSAS BY COUNTIES in 1900, AND INCREASE 1890 TO 1900.

Counties— 1900.

The State 1,311,564

Arkansas- 12,973

Ashley 19,734

Baxter '. 9,298

Benton 31,611

Boone 16,396

Bradley 9,651

Calhoun 8,539

Carroll 18,848

Chicot 14,528

Clark 21,289

Clay 15,886

Cleburne" 9,628

Cleveland4 11,620

Columbia 22,077

Conway 19,772

Craighead 19.505

Crawford 21,270

Crittenden 14,529

Cross 11,051

Dallas 11,518

Desha5 . 11,511

Drew 19,451

Faulkner 20,780

Franklin" 17,395

Fulton 12,917

Garland 18,773

Grant 7,671

Greene 16,979

Hempstead 24,101

Hot Spring 12,748

Howard 14,076

Independence3 22,557

Izard 13,506

Jackson 18,383

Jefferson7 40.972

Johnson 17,448

Lafayette 10,594

Lawrence 16,491

Lee 19,409

Lincoln 13,389

Little River 13,731

Logan 20,563

Lonoke8 22.544

Madison" 19.864

Marion 11,377

Miller 17,558

Mississippi 16,384

Monroe8 16,816

,— Increase

Number.

Per Cent.

183,385

1,541

6,439

3,895

1,679

1,272

1,560

3,109

3,686

1,744

2,184

7,480

a2.04

3,358

2,222

1,187

2,099

2,438

13,29

J2,539

a12.74

3,445

a115

J1.48

4,071

1,305

1,145

3,204

2,894

3,507

3,134

4,828

J211

3,281

2,462

2,844

4,749

1,480

Arkansas.

f Incr6S,SC

Counties— 1900. Number. Per Cent.

Montgomery 9,444 1,521 19.20

Nevada 16,609 1,777 11.98

Newton 12,538 2,588 26.01

Ouachita 20,892 3,859 22.66

Perry 7,294 1,756 31.71

Phillips 26,561 1,220 4.81

Pike 10,301 1,764 20.66

Poinsett 7,025 2,753 64.44

Polk 18,352 9,069 97.69

Pope 21,715 2,257 11.60

Prairie8 11,875 501 4.40

Pulaski 63,179 15,850 33.49

Randolph 17,156 2,671 18.44

St. Francis 17,157 3,614 26.69

Saline 13,122 1,811 16.01

Scott 13,183 548 4.34

Searcy 11,988 2,324 24.05

Sebastian 36,935 3,735 11.25

Sevier 16,339 6,267 62.22

Sharp 12,199 1,781 17.10

Stone 8,100 1,057 15.01

Union 22,495 7,518 50.20

Van Buren3 11,220 2,653 30.97

Washington 34,256 2,232 6.97

White3 24,864 1,918 8.36

Woodruff 16,304 2,295 16.38

Yell 22,750 4,735 26.28

decrease.

2Part of Desha annexed and part given to Jefferson since 1880.

Cleburne organized from parts of Independence, Van Buren and White in 1883.

4Name changed from Dorsey in 1885,

BPart given to Arkansas County since 1880.

BPart of Madison annexed to Franklin in 1885.

7Part of Arkansas County since 18S0.

"Parts of Prairie annexed to Lonoke and Monroe since 1880.

There have been no territorial changes in the counties of Arkansas since 1890.

Of the 75 counties in the State all but 4 have increased in population during the decade, the counties showing more than 50 per cent cf increase being Polk, 97.69 per cent: Poinsett, 64.44 per cent: Sevier, 62.22 per cent: Craighead, 62.20 per cent: Little River, 54.23 per cent, and Union, 50.20 per cent. Pulaski County shows the largest numerical increase (15,850), but fully three-fourths of this increase is due to the increase in the population of the city of Little Rock.

The four counties showing a decrease in population are Crawford, Franklin, Grant and Logan.

76 Arkansas.

UNITED STATES LANDS Subject, to Homestead Entry in Arkansas.

fHERE are in Arkansas at present 5,000,000 acres of government lands subject to the homestead laws of the United States. Every citizen of the United States who is the head of a family, or over 21 years of age, is entitled to one entry under the homestead act. But one homestead entry is allowed to each citizen. An entry on one 40-acre tract exhausts a right as much as on a whole quarter section. Homestead entry requires residence on and cultivation of the land.

Homestead entries can be made for not more than 160 acres in a contiguous form; tracts "cornering" are not contiguous.

The Land Office fees and commissions, payable when application is

made, are as follows :

160 Acres Fee $10.00, Commissions $4.00, Total $14.00

120 " " 10.00 " 3 00 " 13.00

80 " " 5.00 " 2.00 " 7.00

40 " " 5.00 " 1.00 " 6.00

A person desiring to enter a tract of land upon which he has not established a residence nor made improvements, must appear personally at the district land office and make his application before the Registei and Receiver, after having seen the land.

He must then establish actual, bona fide residence (in a house) upon the land within six months from date of entry, and must reside upon it continuously for five years.

In case of the death of a homestead settler, before making proof, the widow succeeds to the homestead right; but she must continue to cultivate the landuntil final proof is made and accepted.

In case of the death of both father and mother, the right and fee inure to the minor children, if any.

A homestead right can not be devised away from the widow and minor children.

A Union (or Federal) soldier or sailor of the late war is entitled to a deduction from the five years of the length of time (not exceeding four years) of his military or naval service. But the soldier (or his widow) must actually reside on the land at least one year before final proof can be made. Certified copy of discharge papers should be submitted with the proof.

Arkansas. 77

Railroad Lands.

N 1853 Congress passed an act, and subsequently confirmed it in ] 866, whereby a certain number of sections of land were granted for every mile of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway constructed. This was a liberal grant, and extended for twenty miles on either side of the track. Out of the original amount a total of 639,- 884 acres still remain unsold, and subject to purchase by those desiring a home. By recent purchase of lands on the line of the Little Rock, Mississippi River & Texas Division, nearly 200,000 acres were added to the above amount, making a grand total of nearly 839,584 acres of good farming lands for sale at reasonable rates.

In addition to the above, the railway company offers for sale at correspondingly low prices and on like favorable terms the lands granted to the Little Rock & Fort Smith Railway, aggregating now 502,600 acres. The price of this land varies according to quality and location. The uplands range in price mostly from $2.50 to $5.00 per acre; the creek bottoms from $4.00 to $10. As must necessarily be the case, these lands are near the railroads, and there are, consequently, always ready and good markets for produce within easy access.

Railway lands are offered on the following easy terms:

Terms Of Sale.

Credit Plan. — Under this plan the purchaser is required to pay onefourth of the purchase price at date of sale— the remaining three fourths is divided into three equal annual payments, drawing interest at six per cent per annum.

See the following example for full explanation :

Forty acres sold March 1st, 1894, at $3.00 per acre, one-fourth cash being paid down, balance to be paid in three equal annual payments with six per cent annual interest.

Payments. When Due Principal. Interest. Total.

1st, or Cash March 1, 1894, $30 00 $30 00

2d, Deferred " 1, 1895, 30 00 $1 80 31 80

3d, " " 1, 1896, 30 00 3 60 33 60

4th " " 1, 1897, 30 00 5 40 35 40

Cash Plan. — We offer a discount of ten per cent from the price per acre to those who will pay in full for the land at the time of purchase. Thus land at $3.00 per acre on credit term3, can be bought for $2.70 per acre. All cash down.

78 Arkansas.

A great work has been done by the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway by opening to settlement Central and Northeast Arkansas, and more recently the southern and southwestern portion of the State. This gives an opportunity for investment in all kinds of enterprises and industries, any of which will eventually lead to success, if the settler has the requisite energy and perseverance. The lands could not be better for general farming purposes. The season for cultivation is a very long one, lasting from February until November, and therefore highly favorable to many crops that require not only warm springs, but the moderate temperature of a long autumn. A climate and soil which thus secure the agriculturist against the fear of droughts, and also of early frosts, will be recognized at once as being as rare as it is propitious, and as offering unusual inducements to immigrants.

The land grant of the Little Rock & Fort Smith Railway, 502,600 acres still unsold, extends the length of the Arkansas River Valley from Little Rock to Fort Smith. It lies on either side of the track, in alternate sections, and has the Arkansas river running through its entire length. A land grant, with a navigable river and a first-class railway running through it from end to end, is not found in every State. The soil of this tract is not only rich, but versatile to a high degree in the variety of crops of which it is capable. It lies between the lines of latitude that stand as a barrier to the vigorous winds of winter and the intense heat of the semi-tropical summer. Here are but three short months of an open winter, with nine months of a long, balmy, golden season, when all crops come to perfection, and are harvested in their full maturity. It was not intended that such a wealth of natural resources should always remain unknown. But public notice was diverted for a time to less favored regions through the medium of the public press and highly colored advertising. This country could be overlooked only for a short time. Such advantages were bound to speak and demand an impartial hearing. The products of this valley have been placed before the gaze of the public at various expositions throughout the country. They have told their own story. The tide is turning, and the stream of homeseekers is now coming to this modern Eden, from which there is no danger of expulsion. You are welcome and bidden to enter. Study the array of natural advantages, and you will accept the invitation.

Arkansas.

Let everybody come— the farmer with his plow to turn the soil and reap the bountiful harvests; the woodsman with his axe to clear the primeval forest of its giant trees ; the miner with his pick ; the artist with his brush ; the hunter with his dog and gun ; the fisherman with his rod ; the mechanic with his saw and hammer ; the mason with his trowel ; and the man of money with his capital. Come to Arkansas, you are all wanted. One can get along only by the aid of the others.

Write to G. A. A. Deane, Land Commissioner, Little Rock, Ark., for prices, terms of sale, location, etc., of railroad lands.

Happy Little Arkansas Coon.

Get A Home

In

Arkansas - - -

m THE LAND OF FRUITS,

Good Health And Plenty.

TWO MILLION ACRES tm

Fine Farming,

Grazing,

Timbered,

Mineral Lands,

In Tracts To Suit Purchasers.

Jlild Climate. ) r, f

Low Prices. Easy Terms.

riild Climate. ) r-> f Varied Products.

Low Interest.

Write To-

G. A. A. Deane,

Land Commissioner, LITTLE ROCK, ARK. ST. LOUIS, IRON riOUNTAIN & SOUTHERN

And

Little Rock & Fort Smith Railways.

ysntorjvijjc

T-

J E ii

Tn

b$rr

v5~

'"fe&t

VAlkl

r o

Sr.r.

Valuable- Assistance.

,

The following Traveling and Passenger Agents of the MISSOURI PACIFIC RAIL- WAY and IRON MOUNTAIN ROUTE ase constantly looking after the interests* of the Line, and will call upon parties contemplating a trip and cheerfully furnish them lowest Rates of Fare, Land Pamphlets, Maps, Guides, Time Tables, etc. Or they may be addressed as follows :

ATCHISON, KAN.— C. E. Styles Passenger and Ticket Agent.

AUSTIN, TEX.— J. C. Lewis Traveling Passenger Agent.

BOSTON, MASS.— Louis W. Ewald ..New England Pass'r Agent, 192'Washington St.

CAIRO, ILL.— C. G. Miller City Ticket Agent, 309 Ohio Levee.

I. P. Spinner Ticket Agent, Union Depot

CHATTANOOGA, TENN.— I. E. Rehlander Traveling Pass'r Agent, 16 East 8th St.

CHICAGO, ILL.— Bissell Wilson District Passenger Agent, 111 Adams St.

CINCINNATI, OHIO— A. A. Gallagher, District Pass'r Agt., 408 Vine St, bet. Fourth. and Fifth Sts. T. A. Wilkinson, Trav. Pass'r and Land Agt., 408 Vine St., bet. Fourth and Fifth Streets. DENVER, COLO.— C. A. TRiPP..Gen'l Western Frt. and Pass'r Agt., cor. 17th & Stout Sts.

E. E. Hoffman Traveling Passenger Agent.

DETROIT, MICH.— H. D. Armstrong Traveling Pass'r Agt., 32 Campus Martius.

FT. SCOTT, KAN.— I. R. Sherwin Passenger and Ticket Agent.

HOT SPRINGS, ARK.— J. S. Reamey : Ticket Agent.

INDIANAPOLIS, IND.— G. A. A. Deane, Jr Traveling Pass'r Agent, Room 16 Clay-

poole Building, cor. Washington and Illinois Sts.

KANSAS CITY, MO.— E. S. Jewett Passenger and Ticket Agent, 901 Main St.

J.H. Lyon Western Passenger Agent, 901 Main St.

J. F. Etter Passenger and Assistant Ticket Atrt., 901 Main St.

P. C. Lyon Traveling Passenger Agent.

Tom Hughes City Passenger Agent, Union Depot.

LEAVENWORTH, KAN.— J. N. Joerger Passenger and Ticket Agent.

LINCOLN, NEB.— F. D. Cornell Passenger and Ticket Agent, 1039 O St. and Depot.

LITTLE ROCK, ARK.— J. A. Hollinger Passenger and Ticket Agent.

LOUISVILLE, KY.— R. T. G. Matthews Traveling Passenger Agent, 304 West Main .

MEMPHIS, TENN.— H. D. Wilson Pass'r and Ticket Agt., 314 Main St., (cor. Monroe.

Ellis Farnsworth, Trav. Pass'r Agent, 314 Main St., (cor. Monroe).

MEXICO CITY, MEX.— H. C. Dinkins , General Agent, Hotel Coliseo.

NEW YORK CITY— W. E. Hoyt General Eastern Passenger Agent, 391 Broadway.

J. P. McCann Traveling Passenger Agent, 391 Broadway.

OMAHA, NEB— Thos. F. GoDFREY-.Pass'r and Tkt. Agt., S. E. cor. 14th and Douglas Sts.

W. C. Barnes Trav. Pass'r Agent, S. E. cor. 14th and Douglas Sts.

J. K. Chambers Ticket Agent, Union Passenger Station.

PITTSBURG, PA.— John R. James Central Pass'r Agt., Room 905 Park Building,

Fifth Ave. and Smithfield Street.

PUEBLO, COLO.— Wm. Hogg Passenger and Ticket Agent.

ST. JOSEPH, MO.— Benton Quick... Passenger and Ticket Agent, S. E. cor.6th&Edmond.

ST. LOUIS, MO — B. H. Payne Assistant General Passenger and Ticket Agent.

H. F. BERKLEY...Pass'r&Tkt. Agent, N.W. cor. Broadway and Olive St. M. Griffin ...City Passenger Agent, N.W. cor. Broadway and Olive St.

W. H. Morton..." Passenger Agent, Room 402, Union Station.

A. V. Brigham Traveling Passenger Agent for Arkansas.

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH— H. B. Kooser Com. Freight & Passenger Agt. ,

Nos. 105 and 107 West Second St. (South).

SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.— L. M. Fletcher Pacific Coast Agent, 212 California St.

E. J. Waugh Trav. Pass'r Agent, 212 California St.

SEDALIA, MO.— J. W. McClain Passenger and Ticket Agent.

TEXARKANA, ARK.— P. E. Baer Ticket Agent.

WICHITA, KAN.— E. E. Bleckley Passenger and Ticket Agent, 114 N. Main St.

C.G.Warner, Russell Harding,

2d Vice-President, 3d Vice-Pres't and Gen'l Manager.

H. C. Townsend,

General Passenger and Ticket Agent,

St. Louis, Mo.

Iron

Mountain

Route,

Hs Great Southwest System.

Connecting The Commercial Centres And Rich Farms Of

Missouri,

The Broad Corn And Wheat Fields And Thriving Towns Op

The Fertile River Valleys And Trade Centres Of

THE GRAND, PICTURESQUE AND ENCHANTING SCENERY. AND THE FAMOUS MINING DISTRICTS OF

Colorado,

THE AGRICULTURAL, FRUIT, MINERAL AND TIMBER LANDS. AND FAMOUS HOT SPRINGS OF

The Beautiful Rolling Prairies And Woodlands Of The

Indihn Territory,

The Sugar, Cotton And Timber Plantations Of

Louisihnk,

The Cotton And Grain Fields, The Cattle Ranges And Winter Resorts Of

Texhs,

Historical And Scenic

ni n irNn NEM MEXICO,

Nnections The Popular Route To

Ndchlifornih.