VOL. LVII.
INDIANAPOLIS, IND., MARCH 8, 1902.
NO. 10
From Kansas to Ohio.
Editors Indiana  Farmer:
As the editor requested me to give a
few notes of our trip back to the old home
in Ohio and intermediate points. We started from Wellington, in southern Kansas,
Not. 20. The weather was warm and
clear.     The greater part of the land from
have visited that town in 18 years. It
has made great improvement in appearance during that time. They pride themselves on having the neatest town in Indiana. Boone county used to be covered
with a heavy growth of timber. I thought
when I got there 1 would see some of the
l-iir trees, hut was sadly disappointed, an
that we cultivated at that time is now
built up solid, aud large factories are on
it. Iu the country the same destruction
of forests and neglect of orchards is in
progress. Where there used to be dense
luicsts now we can see 10 miles. Where
Ihe forests have been destroyed and caused
injurious .fleets on the climate.     Twenty
tance. We visited the Lima oil fields.
This nil field is about 20 miles in diameter.
The oil is pumped and run in the high
circular tanks made of boiler iron: they
hold about 35,000 barrels. They are set
in open fields, several rods apart, and
ditches and levees surround each tank, so
that in ease of a fire or leak that it will
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SCENE ON THE MISSOURI PACIFIC RAILROAD.
there to Kansas City was sowed in wheat,
which at that time was green. Live
stock was grazing on almost every field of
growing wheat. As we neared the eastern
part of the State we saw a field of 20
acres or more of cotton ready for the
picker. It was a strange sight to one
who has been raised in Ohio and Indiana.
At Cherry Vale we came into the natural
gas belt. At Cherry Vale there are
large zinc smelting works. The ore is
shipped in from the zinc mines in southeastern Missouri. At these points they
also make large quantities of brick, which
they ship for hundreds of miles.
We made our first stop in  Indiana at
Thorntown.      It   was   the   first   time   we
they were all gone, and most of the small
ones. It used to be said 50 years ago that
Ihe average man considered a forest tree
an enemy, and it appears as if the present
generation had not changed in that respect, as most of the thick woods are cut
off, arrd many of the tops are rottoig on
the ground. Near Richmond we saw a
piece of 20 or 30 acres that the original
growth had been cut off, then fenced up
and a second growth is coming on. There
was a thick growth of ash and poplar
about six inches in diameter and 40 feet
high, and as straight as fish poles. We
reached Troy, O., our native place, by
Christmas. This town has doubled in
population in the last 20 years.    Ground
years ago the thermometer never reached
j00 degrees, now it is not uncommon.
They have had but little rain for months
The roads are dusty, a thing I never saw
there before in January. Many wells are
are dry. The Great Miami river, which
used to be a rapid stream in the winter
is now so low that one can walk across
it on the pebbles on the bottom. Many
of the farms we visited have telephones.
They cost about $30 the first year aud ?10
a year after that. They are put up by
companies. We rode over a road ou the
electric ears several times.      It was eight
miles round trip for 25 eenta.    We have
often ridden over the same road in a buggy
when toll  was 25 cents  for the same  dis-
not injure all. There are 5,000 oil wells
and 500 tanks in the vicinity of Lima.
The first well that was dug is being pumped yet.
On our return we left St. Louis in the
morning and crossed the entire State of
Missouri by daylight. The greater part
of the country was flint hills covered with
dwarf oaks. The valleys were narrow,
but few school houses in the eastern part
"f the State. The river bottom was low
and in most places looked as if a few feet
rise would inundate all the country.
Rome, Kas. D. M. A.
No child gets into a New  York public
school unless vaccinated.